Ask Kristen Finkbeiner about her department and she’ll tell you straight up: It’s a group of amazing humans.

Even so, they (and we, for that matter) are still human.

Much of the work that the Little Rock Administrative team does in preparing and processing sales orders are at this time manual…creating room for human error. From sales reps printing off the builds they create so her team can then manually type them into eAutomate? This is just one of the multiple processes that should be streamlined when our organization embarks on a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software platform in 2023.

It’s an exciting initiative for the coming year for many departments at Datamax (not just Kristen's), full of productivity-enhancing potential. But it’s also a unique challenge for our organization, and certainly for Kristen and her fellow administrative professionals as they share the organizational initiative of learning it completely.

“This is just going to overall change how we process orders. While some of that is still yet to be determined, the question is determining what burdens sales reps. Vs. admin will take on, and how do we continue to be the support team for them in the best way possible, so they can efficiently do what they need to do and get back out in the field?” Kristen said.

What is the new CRM?

Essentially, it is a Salesforce-based vertical solution fueled by Agent Dealer. The new cloud-based CRM will foster team collaboration, better contact management, mobile access, and workflow/approval advantages that will help streamline the way our sales and admin teams build and process orders.

There are many spearheading this initiative on a global level, like Roy Faries, Rachel Rhodes, Barbara Madden, Allie DeHart, and others. But how does Kristen prepare her team for the changes (and the challenges) that will come their way?

What’s it gonna take for Kristen and her Team, specifically?

It takes training.

This goes without saying. And Kristen, along with other managers, project managers, and executives will be lining out the appropriate training for the new CRM. Those who will be interacting with this new CRM should be ready and stay tuned.

It takes communication.

“It started basically in meetings last week,” Kristen said back in mid-December 2022. “It’s leaving the door open to sit and talk about how this affects not just one department, but every department who interacts with it,” Kristen said.

It takes managing expectations.

On one hand, it’s exciting to have this powerful software at your fingertips to expedite processes. But Kristen says tempering expectations that this is all a process. At the same time, Kristen went through the eAutomate switch back in 2012, and knows, too, the process can and will be at times, frustrating. This, too, must be managed.

“This is something I’m consciously talking to my team about already. That’s when it comes to talking about end goals, and reminding everyone about how this will make so many things better in the end,” Kristen said. “With this new software, we’ll be able to focus more on sales processing tasks that are truly productive.”

More than anything, Kristen is excited. The end game is a much more streamlined sales/administrative process and a more productive team.

In the meantime? Never Give Up. Never, Ever Give Up.