Difference between CRM and BI

During a recent conference, at one of the organizations Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems and Business Intelligence (BI) systems were discussed. Though BI and CRM are two different terms, it is a common fact that this systems are often confused because they share a number of the similar functionalities when it comes to processing and analyzing important data characteristics that most organizations can utilize to their advantage. However, there are important differences that distinguish the two systems, which can determine the appropriate software for a particular organization.

CRM

CRM is an entire system that manages all aspects of an organization’s experience that includes marketing, sales, support, and many more. Additional modules for use in human resource, contract management, infrastructure management and many more departments can be built. The data or information from various sources is updated into a single repository that is accessible to approved users of multiple departments within an organization.

Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence encompasses methodologies and tools to spot and analyze data trends. Organizations rely on BI data to understand markets, customer needs, meet regulatory reporting, plan spends and many other customized tendencies. BI tools serve major purpose of reporting, projecting future trends, and statistical investigation. The centralizing of different forms of information in a common place, which is an integral part of a CRM system, does not occur in BI systems.

Most organizations rely on BI analysis to provide them with information that helps leaders make better decisions to help business. The major difference between BI and CRM is that CRM integrates information with business decisions. CRM combines data analysis with the deployment of specific business modules. In contrast, most BI environments use data to prove theories and other needed metrics for analysis.

Both CRM and BI system share so much functionality and modules within organizations such as analytics, data repositories, and data mining, as well as the benchmarking of information. BI can only recognize important trends and display various types of important metrics. However, a CRM system can act on this information while directly incorporating it into other departments of an organization.

For instance, both CRM and BI tools can analyze information to identify what element of the data makes up a key market to explore. The CRM can then forward this information to the sales department and come up with ways for exploiting this new information. The success of this information flow will in turn be evaluated and refined for meeting organization goals. This capability is another key distinction between a CRM system and Business Intelligence. A CRM merges information analysis with the implementation of actions based on that information. BI will grant access to that same information but will leave the flow of this information, and analysis of its benefits, to the user’s judgment.

To conclude, BI and CRM systems are moving beyond analyzing what happened in the past to trying to influence organization decisions for future growth by providing information that is instant, more practical, more handy, and more user-friendly.