Signpost: Taking the glamour out of future-proofing

Some of the most difficult problems for businesses to tackle rarely involve shiny new tech. They are often rooted in the unglamorous basics, like getting their data into the right place at the right time.

That is especially thew case for companies looking to upgrade their customer relationship management (CRM). Many executives might assume that modernising a CRM system is mostly about choosing new software. They soon discover that what lies beneath is often more arcane.

“Companies are compelled to modernise their CRM applications if they are to take advantage of advanced technology and integrate with services that track their customers’ journey,” says Rob Lith, chief operating officer of cloud communications provider Telviva.

 “Those with legacy CRM applications, or those who have built custom systems, find it most challenging and time-consuming to get a 360º view across all the channels they need,” he told Gadget last week.

That is partly because South Africa’s existing technology landscape is a mix of ageing infrastructure and homegrown solutions stitched together over years of ad-hoc fixes. A business that has painstakingly built a bespoke CRM might discover that moving to the cloud and integrating with new tools requires a wholesale rebuild.”

Legacy is a stubborn thing.

Even companies that have adopted mainstream CRMs often face the same struggle: they invested at a time when most interactions happened by phone and email. Today, they need to make sense of WhatsApp chats, social posts, and instant messaging alongside traditional channels.

Lith, who has seen these trends up close over several decades, says CEOs and CIOs need to ask a different set of questions before signing on the dotted line for any new platform.

“Is the CRM open and able to integrate with modern API protocols? Does it record every customer interaction across every channel? Can it automate the boring stuff so people focus on value-add work? And can AI help discover useful information and make workflows smarter?”

This is where software-as-a-service (SaaS), or software accessed online, usually via subscription, makes a difference. Companies that opt for SaaS CRM platforms sidestep some of the pain of running and upgrading the software themselves.

“A cloud solution is continuously developed and enhanced,” said Lith. “You pay a subscription, but you also benefit as new features and fixes come onstream.” It is not a matter of outsourcing innovation so much as tapping into ongoing updates that most companies would struggle to achieve on their own.

“It helps teams collaborate better, and allows businesses to focus on service rather than systems.”

That shift is inevitable – yet often resisted – when customer expectations set the pace. A shopper who can’t reach a business on their preferred channel may never come back.

“You have to assume customers will want to engage on their phone, chat apps, social media, even their smartwatch.”

That kind of seamlessness requires both clever engineering and careful policy. Systems need to give customers control over their data, log consents properly, and show auditors they follow the rules. South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act, like Europe’s GDPR, expects companies to bake security and governance into their processes.

Lith stressed flexibility in subscriptions to avoid customers paying extra for what should be standard features.

“It is very important companies choose a CRM that is open. And they must ensure they can always extract their information.”

That all points to the need for careful preparation. Lith recommended that companies do a proper needs analysis to establish what they wanted their CRM to do.

“That sets a baseline,” he said. “It’s the starting point for measuring future improvements across marketing, sales, support, and teamwork.”

A good baseline also acts as a reality check for expectations. But none of this is glamorous.

It is often painstaking work that happens long before customers ever see a better experience on their screen or in their inbox. However, that is the nature of sound technology strategy: the less friction a system presents on the front end, the more sweat goes into its plumbing. M0400any South African companies will discover that modernising their CRMs is less about buying a box and more about rethinking what happens inside it. Doing that well will matter long after the installation team has gone home.

Said Lith: “That is what future-proofing really looks like.”

* Arthur Goldstuck is CEO of World Wide Worx, editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za, and author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to AI.