Bitrix24 Solutions

Students are not always seen as the typical customer and educational organisations are not always seen as the typical company. However more and more educational organisations are focussing on providing higher quality and more cost-effective services, adopting a more customer-centric approach and are learning to become more agile and efficient.

The substantial workload and degree of complexity that educators face can no longer be managed using outdated resources and methods, and many educational organisations are turning to information technology for solutions.

More and more organisations are turning to CRM systems to manage the relationship with students and the account holders, right from the time of the first inquiry through to graduation. The typical CRM approach of managing of leads and deals through a pipeline can easily be used to manage the engagement with prospective students (as leads) and to process student applications through the registration process (as deals).

The use of task & project management tools is also finding a home inside educational organisations. These tools are useful to manage:
• faculty, departmental or course projects,
• annual events like registrations & enrolments or graduation ceremonies, or
• individual and team tasks.

Like any organisation, it is essential for educational organisations to have communication and collaboration platforms for all employees, and ensure there are open channels of communication to maintain student contact. Many organisations choose to have one platform for communication and collaboration tools which includes direct messaging, audio & video calling, video conferencing, document sharing & storage, and event & meeting planning.

To improve efficiency, educational organisations will also need process automation tools. Process automation tools can:
• increase the speed of processing student applications and registrations,
• reduce errors by eliminating manual data capture at each step in the process, and
• free up administrative staff from repetitive tasks to handling queries and exceptions.

Some educational organisations are turning to Bitrix24 as the one platform to satisfy their needs. Bitrix24 offers a CRM, CRM Marketing, Task & Project Management and Business Process Automation, as well as communication and collaboration tools like Webmail, Calendars, Drive Storage, Document Sharing, Audio and Video Calls, HD Video Conferencing and Open Channels for incoming communications via messaging, websites and social media platforms.

A very common way to collect client information today is electronically, especially via websites and social media platforms. This is often done when clients, or prospective clients, provide information in the following instances:

• Survey participation
• Response to promotional offers
• Completing application/on-boarding forms
• Product/service offering inquiries
• Submitting support requests
• Scheduling calls or meetings

Unfortunately for many businesses today, the methods used to collect and process the client information are not always effective or efficient. Also in many cases the value of the collected information is not fully realised because:

• information is not consolidated from across the various channels , and;
• processing and using the information is not automated.

Bitrix24 CRM Forms provide an ideal way to collect client information. It is also easy to configure automation rules in Bitrix24 to process the collected information. Information collected using Bitrix24 CRM Forms is consolidated into the CRM and stored as:

• details relating to individual people;
• information associated with organisations;
• potential leads, and;
• confirmed deals

Once Bitrix24’s business process automation is configured, the incoming information can be processed according to the business’s sales & marketing processes and therefore eliminate manual admin work by staff. Bitrix24 CRM Forms can be used in the following ways to collect client information:

• by including clickable links in emails, which direct the client to the online form;
• by embedding the form into an existing web pages;
• by connecting the form to a website ‘widget’, so when a client clicks on the widget icon in a browser, the form pops up for completion, and;
• by integrating the form into Facebook Ad Campaigns, which will then feed the generated Facebook leads to Bitrix24.

Finally there are also various features which can customise the form’s ‘look-and-feel’ and ‘behaviour’, including field display rules, customer recognition, form formatting & styling, form submission messages/redirects and privacy policy acceptance.

Unless your business is a ‘one-man-band’, your business will have to manage employees. A key part of managing employees is providing open channels of communication from the employees to the business, as well as from the business to the employees. Regular team meetings, company newsletters, one-on-one engagements and employee surveys are invaluable tools to keep communication flowing. Additionally, it is essential that formal processes are available to receive requests from employees, as well as to request information from employees for company records.

Providing a system whereby employees can submit specific requests, such as leave requests, expense claims, business travel bookings, purchase order requests or personnel record updates, in an accurate and efficient way is critical. Employees should be able to submit these requests whenever needed and with minimal effort, with the assurance that the request will be routed correctly for approval and processing.

Likewise the company needs systems in place which provide an efficient way to send out individualised requests to all employees, and whereby the employees’ replies can be collected and aggregated without too much or any manual intervention by HR staff. Employee surveys and polls can provide key insights for management and HR departments, especially if the data is collated quickly and meaningful results are available on which to take action.

Employee Polls can be quickly and easily setup in Bitrix24 whenever feedback is needed on a particular topic. Polls allow for multiple questions and multiple responses to each question, can be sent to everyone or a defined group of employees and can be set as anonymous or public polls.

Every Bitrix24 account comes with pre-configured Workflows to process requests from employees, including Leave Approval, Business Trips, General Requests, Purchase Requests and Expense Reports. It is also possible to create customised Bitrix24 Workflows for any other type of employee requests. Workflow requests provide an easy way for employees to submit the request, which are then routed to the approving supervisor and then to whoever will process the request. With the extensive list of actions, Workflows can be configured to send Emails or Notifications, set Meetings or Tasks, and create or edit CRM items.

If you need to improve employee communication, Bitrix24 is the perfect tool.

There are businesses that provide technical or engineering field services to their clients where a technician often provides the service on the client’s site. This often involves using test or maintenance equipment to inspect or maintain the client’s plant or machinery, as well as possibly providing spares or consumables necessary to complete the job. Typically the business invoices the client for the time allocated to the job, for the spares or consumables used during the job and for other expenses.

It is imperative that an accurate and up-to-date spares or consumables list is maintained, which includes all of the items and variants that may be required for the client jobs, and which includes the most recent purchasing and selling prices for the items. This will ensure that the technicians can successfully complete the jobs and that items are correctly charged to the client’s account. It is also critical that a system is in place for the technicians to record the time allocated to the client job. The hours allocated to the job need to be accurately allocated to the job, signed off by the client once the job is completed and then accurately invoiced to the client. The system should also allow for recording other expenses incurred on the client job which are charged to the client’s account.

Bitrix24 provides features for all of these requirements. Bitrix24 Tasks can be used to plan and track the time for the client job. Spares and consumable items can be imported as Bitrix24 Products, which can be linked to the client jobs and the Bitrix24 Invoices that are generated. Every client job can be processed through customisable stages in the sale pipeline (e.g. In-Progress, Sign-Off, Invoicing) as a Bitrix24 Deal. Bitrix24’s Contacts and Companies will not only store all the client contact details, but also link to all jobs and communication associated with that client. The Bitrix24 collaboration and communication tools, such as Chats & Calls (audio/video), Webmail, personal and shared Calendars and file sharing on the Bitrix24.Drive will keep all staff ‘in-sync’ whether they are in the office, working remotely or on the client’s site. For the field staff, the Bitrix24 Mobile Apps ensure they are connected even when away from a computer.

So whether the engineering services business is small or large, Bitrix24 will provide the right tools to deliver the best customer service.

In the information age today, data privacy and security is not only critically important to any business’s success and survival, it is also a legal requirement in many countries that data is protected. To ensure data privacy and security, access to data must be managed and controlled. Systems must be able to limit data access to specific groups of people based on the need to access and use the data. Also, when data is accessed, the system must be able to trace which data was accessed and track the dates and times it was modified.

This is crucial when handling customer information in a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. The system’s access permissions should be configured such that only selected employees can read, create, update and/or delete any customer related records. In the Bitrix24 CRM, access permissions can be configured for any group of users for unique access levels (read, create, update or delete) and which can be applied to customer or company contact information, leads or deals in any sales & marketing pipelines and to CRM documentation such as quotes, orders and invoices.

Access to marketing and advertising campaigns, as well as the targeted market segments, is also information that must be controlled through access permissions. It could be disastrous if marketing campaigns “fell into the wrong hands” and even worse if competitors could pre-empt the market activity because it was leaked through unauthorised means. Access permissions can be configured for Bitrix24’s CRM Marketing Campaigns, Ads, Segments and Templates for any group of users and for any sales & marketing pipeline.

Besides the information directly related to customers and marketing efforts, there is also a lot of other information shared internally in a business that is linked to the customer and marketing information. This information is stored in calendars (e.g. customer meetings; sales & marketing planning meetings), in shared files & folders (e.g. product & market analysis; marketing collaterals), in sent & received emails, and in task lists & project plans. It goes without saying that adequate access permissions must be configured in these areas as well. Bitrix24 not only includes all of these system features which are integrated with its CRM & CRM Marketing, but also provides access permissions for all of these features.

Look no further than Bitrix24 to provide powerful access control and permission management to give you peace of mind.