I hadan interesting conversation with Gareth Herschel from Gartner about using ActionBase to link different CRM constituencies like a customer service call center and the sales force. They both have CRM systems to help manage their processes – but the systems (even if the are modules of the same vendor) are very different. The problem is that connecting these different constituencies can bring lots of benefit to the organization – but doing in a traditional way can be very expensive (e.g. providing the service center with access to an opportunity management system). For example, a customer calls in about service, but during the conversation a sales opportunity arises – in most case this is entered in the CRM system – but there is no way to get it out other then sophisticated techniques like text analysis and data mining.  McKinsey discussed the same issue a few years back “Most companies also lack a systematic way to pass leads and service requests from one channel or product group to another, leaving it up to dutiful employees to bridge those gaps by making an exceptional effort, such as that of the bank teller who jots down leads on pieces of paper and hands them to the private-banking team.”

That is where ActionBase comes in – enabling lightweight integration between the different groups. The first step is  enabling the service rep to send a quick ActionMail to a sales center email address with a link to the customer information (it could be as easy as sending it to sales@abc,com). The ActionMail would be forwarded to an appropriate sales rep who could follow up on the lead and (hopefully) make the sale. These leads would be managed, tracked and reported through ActionBase’s reporting mechanism and system of records. Voila a simple, cost effective way for your service center to  track the leads and revenue generated by their service reps.

In many ways this exemplifies the ease of using a human process management system to bridge between two structured processes (and to handle exceptions). Over time this could be modeled and made into a structured process – but rather than waiting – you can start iteratively designing your process immediately at very little cost, using tools people are familiar with.