A recent Applied Business survey found 73% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that do not use workflow management software face errors in manual processes.

The survey discovered 67% of businesses do not use a form of customer relationship management system (CRM), with 26% of participants revealing they never upgrade their ERP, CRM, or project management software.

Over 50% of respondents admitted to never carrying out daily backups of IT systems, and 28% of businesses said manual operational errors frequently affect their CRM, which could result to data, files and customer information being lost.

‘CRM delivers a competitive edge’

Only 55% of businesses said they updated their CRM, ERP or project management in the last two years, whilst 26% admitted to never upgrading theirs.

According to the survey, streamlined CRM is crucial to delivering a competitive edge by retaining existing clients through outstanding service.

41% of all respondents also said not knowing where to start was the “biggest hurdle”.

The survey concludes that planning updates, upgrades or changes every two years reduces employee resistance.

Written by Leah Alger