Your customers are important to your business. In fact, no matter what your industry is, no matter what your focus, no matter what kind of products or services you offer, your customers are the single most valuable asset of your organization; Customers give your company a sense of purpose and direction. They provide invaluable feedback, and serve as a springboard for new concepts and ideas. And let’s not forget about the revenue they bring in. When all is said and done, customer satisfaction should be the number-one focus of any business. This means more than simply appreciating your customers; it means understanding them.

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Successful companies do more than just find new customers, they maximize every interaction with the customers they already have at the same time, too. Doing that requires more than just keeping track of names and basic contact information, though. It means some record-keeping effort on the part of your customer-facing employees, and it also requires a database-driven system that records everything your sales people need to know to keep customers happy, and most importantly, keep them buying. That’s where a customer relationship management system (CRMS) comes in.

Customer Relationship Management Software (CRMS)

A CRM system (Customer relationship management software) essentially provides a central place where businesses can store customer and prospect data, track customer interactions, and share this information with colleagues. It allows businesses to manage relationships with customers, helping the business to grow rapidly. A CRM system needs to be more than just an afterthought for your sales team. These tools nurture customer sentiment, record and analyse interactions, and, most important, find and leverage new opportunities.

The Benefits of a CRM system

Improved ability to cross-sell
CRMS helps record your customers’ contact information and remembers the details of your relationship and every interaction—whether by phone or email, and nowadays across other channels such as social media or even your customer helpdesk. This information is a gold mine of opportunity, letting you identify prospects for up-sell or cross-sell, convert existing customers to new products or services, target new marketing, or even track invoices. Choosing the right CRM software for your business can dramatically improve your team’s collaboration and productivity, increase sales, and heighten customer satisfaction.

Improved efficiency in serving clients
CRMS allows you to have a more targeted and cost-efficient marketing program. By understanding your customer needs and behaviour, you will be able to identify the correct time to promote your product. A CRM will also help you segment your customers and give you better insight into identifying which are the more profitable customer groups to look out for. By pinpointing important information such as revenue generated, leads, as well as results of your marketing campaigns, you’ll be able to easily generate reports. Better reporting data means you will be able to make effective business decisions and improve revenue in the long run.

Customer Satisfaction
CRMS helps you improve customer satisfaction. By using this strategy, all dealings involving servicing, marketing, and selling your products and services to your customers can be conducted in an organized and systematic way. You can also provide better service to customers through improved understanding of their issues with CRM. You will be able to improve your customer retention rates – which often translates into increased revenue for your organization.

Conclusion
Your customers are the most important part of your business, and keeping them happy should be your top priority. Don’t put your business at risk; Invest in a quality CRM system, and prove to your clients that you care about their satisfaction. The CRM process shouldn’t be about having to work harder but about working smarter, so that your customers get what they want, and you do too.

Deskera ERP is now a pre-approved digital solution under the Productivity Solutions Grants (PSG). Deskera ERP has been listed under the ‘account management, customer relationship management, inventory management, and sales management system’ category and the grant amount for this productivity solution is up to 50%.

SMEs today are aware of their requirement and ambitions. They want to increase their business productivity and become globally competitive. The Singapore Government is determined to resolve the evolving needs of businesses by simplifying the overall grant landscape and pushing them towards automation and digitization.

FedEx-Small-Business-Grant

The PSG streamlines the existing grant schemes with pre-scoped solutions into one, so businesses that wish to undertake productivity solutions will only need to apply for support under one grant scheme. Aligned with the ITMs, these solutions will help enterprises improve their operational efficiency. PSG aims to provide better support to companies in the next phase of transformation, which may require more substantial investments and long-term commitments.

Is my business eligible for PSG?

The grant is open to all Singaporeans/Permanent Residents who are first-time entrepreneurs. In addition, the applicant would need to adhere to the following conditions at the time of application:

1.  Applicant(s) must hold or propose to hold at least 30% equity in the underlying company;
2.  The company must have at least 51% of local shareholding and not be incorporated for more than six (6) months at the point of application to Enterprise Singapore;
3.  The applicants must not have registered or incorporated any business entity;
4.  The applicants must not have received any funding for the proposed business idea from another government  organisation.

Approved applicants must dedicate a reasonable amount of their time on the business and must be a key decision maker in the company. The applicants must also commit full-time to the company and not be in any other employment from the time they accept the terms and conditions of the Letter of Offer.

Please note that a key criterion for assessment is on how different or novel the idea/product/service/business model/process is compared to what is available in the market.

If you own or manage a small business, you know that employees often juggle multiple roles — from sales to operations to management.  But when it comes to human resources, multitasking can pose several challenges.

Without a dedicated HR pro, you may be losing the best talent to larger companies with full-time recruiters.  In addition, having an untrained employee handle HR tasks can take valuable time away from more productive activities. Plus, any mistakes in payroll or compliance could lead to potential lawsuits.

Hiring a human resources employee, however, may be outside of your budget. In fact, 70% of Small businesses don’t have any HR staff, according to an ADP study. It just isn’t worth the cost for many companies. So what’s a better way to effectively manage your employees?

HR software is a more affordable solution for small businesses. Not only can it save time and energy by streamlining human resources, but it can also give your business a competitive advantage in finding and keeping the best talent.

To help you understand the benefits of this technology, we’ve researched the four common types of HR software and popular vendors. Here’s a list of the best HR software for small businesses.

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Employ. Train. Retain. With Deskera HRMS Software

Streamline end-to-end employee management processes – recruitment, on boarding, payroll, performance management, leave and claims management.

Deskera HRMS gives organizations the much-needed tools to manage their most important asset – the people. A powerful and extensive features-list makes HRIS easier, accurate, and more efficient. Deskera HRMS stands approved by the Singapore CPF and IRAS board.

• Pay Day Is a Great Day for Everyone. We’ll make it Even Better
• Drive Your Business with the Right Talent
• Keep Your Best People Working for You
• Spend Your Time Working, Not Tracking

Payroll Management

Reward your employees with fast, accurate and efficient payroll processing through the industry’s most preferred payroll software

• Configure Payroll Components
• Create Payroll Templates
• Assign Payroll components or templates
• View Payroll Reports

Recruitment Management

Hire top-quality talent with streamlined recruiting and on boarding experiences for recruiters, candidates, and hiring managers.

• Create Job Postings
• Applicant Self Service
• Resume Management
• Search Candidate Pool
• Assign Interviewer
• Interview Management
• Applicant Status
• Manage Recruitment Agencies

Performance Appraisal

Don’t miss out on any chance to motivate your people. Automate performance appraisals to align your workforce with organizational goals.

• Configure Appraisal Cycle
• Goal Management
• Competency Management
• Initiate Appraisal
• Fill Appraisal Form
• Assign Performance Rating
• Review Appraisals
• Appraisal Reports

Timesheet Management

Automate timekeeping and scheduling tasks with detailed timesheets in less time, for less cost, with less risk using Deskera’s Timesheet Management software.

Employee Self Service

Empower your people to be a part of the HR process by allowing them to personalize their profile, as well as maintain efficiency by reducing tiresome paperwork.

Personnel Administration

Achieve effective personnel management and employee tracking through a comprehensive line of employee administration features.

• User Administration
• Master Configuration
• Set Appraisal Cycle
• Audit Trail

Employee turnover can be frustrating for any company. It doesn’t just cause a loss of time, energy and morale. It can also cost a company anywhere between 90% to 200% of the employee’s annual salary, according to the Society of Human Resource Management. These costs include severance, recruitment, training and lost productivity.

No wonder 78% of business leaders rank employee retention as important or urgent, and 46% of HR Leaders say it’s their greatest concern.

Human Resource Management Systems (HRMS) are often used to automate administrative tasks and improve return on investment (ROI). But these systems can also retain a company’s number one resource — employees.

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Here are three ways that HRMS solutions can help businesses reduce employee turnover:

1. Improve Employee Engagement

The first step in reducing employee turnover is to improve engagement because engaged employees are 87% less likely engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave their organization.

Companies should begin by streamlining the on-boarding process, as new employees who go through a structured on-boarding program are 58% more likely to stay with an organization after three years.

With HRMS software, on boarding can start even before the new employee reaches the office. Employees can sign administrative documents electronically, catch up on company news and business goals through self-service user portals, and join virtual social networks of colleagues. On their first day, employees will have more time to tour the facility, set up their equipment and hit the ground running.

HRMS solutions can also boost retention through continuing education. Millennial employees ranked training and development as the most important benefit of working for a company, higher than cash bonuses, free health care and a pension, according to a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers. In fact, offering career training and development would keep 86% of millennia’s from leaving their current position.

For small businesses, hiring speakers or holding physical classes may not be economically feasible. HRMS software offers a cost-effective alternative. Learning management systems and e-learning modules allow employees to improve individual skills and performance at their own pace. This type of professional development not only promotes employee engagement, but also prepares future leaders within a company who might otherwise leave.

2. Track Employee Goals, Performance and Recognition

Employee turnover isn’t always a bad thing and can be necessary if employees are underperforming. However, measuring an employee’s performance can be a difficult task.

HRMS solutions allow companies to determine skill sets, assign goals and track accomplishments. The performance data is beneficial to both employees and managers.

Employees are empowered to:

  • Monitor their progress
  • Seek help and make improvements between scheduled reviews
  • Determine their future goals

Managers can:

  • Assess employees in quantifiable ways
  • Provide more relevant feedback
  • Determine appropriate assignments
  • Recognize employee achievements
  • Develop succession plans to promote exceptional employees

When employees feel that business objectives are aligned with their skill sets, projects are challenging and accomplishments are properly rewarded, they’ll be more likely to stay with a company.

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3. Understand Why Employees Leave

When an employee leaves a company, HR departments conduct exit interviews or use paper questionnaires to understand why. However, this information may not be accurate. The interviewer may have a bias, the employee may not feel comfortable being honest in person or there may be no exit interview at all.

HRMS solutions can communicate with employees even after they leave. Because they’ve had time to understand their reasoning and now have the space to be direct, their insight can be valuable. This information can be combined with other metrics collected by the software — demographics, performance, promotion wait time and compensation ratio — to create a more holistic analysis of employee turnover.

Fully examining why an employee leaves is important because it helps to develop a strategy for reducing employee turnover in the future. Without proper data, HR departments are left to wonder if their assessments are accurate. An HRMS not only records necessary information, but also offers predictive analytics that can give HR departments more certainty in their workforce decisions and a clearer path for future recruitment and retention strategies.

Have you had trouble tracking employees’ leave records, through all that piles and piles of paperwork?

This tend to cause distress among employers or HR Administrators, as they have to manually keep track and maintain huge stacks of leave application forms. This particular way results in poor management and can cause potential problems for businesses. For example, not being able to keep track of when employees are on annual leave can cause HR Administrators to poorly form schedules, possibly causing lack of manpower on certain periods.

Tired of dealing with chunks and chunks of paperwork like this? Fret not, introducing E-leave, an electronic leave management system that allows your employees to apply for leave and manage their leave balances online. Once configured, everything will be managed and executed through the system, without manual assistance.

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Here are the 6 reasons why you should totally take getting eLeave system into consideration for your business:

1) Reduce Company Overheads

E-leave is paperless, speeds up payroll processing, contributing to lower overheads for companies.

  • Workers will be able to submit leave requests online
  • No hardcopy forms to fill, nothing to print nor sign
  • Use standard web browser to access E-leave
  • Leave applications are automatically routed to superiors for approval
  • Superiors are to approve or reject applications with a click of a mouse
  • Every single leave applications are backed up and tracked

2) Improve Transparency

With E-leave, leave processing becomes a transparent workflow and it enhances employee-management relations.

  • Non-working days are automatically accounted for
  • Valid leaves are automatically accrued and carried forward
  • Unconsumed leave may be converted into salary depending on HR policies
  • Eliminates mistakes arising from complicated leave processes

3) Convenient For Employees

E-leave can be accessed securely online from any computer.

  • Employees can submit urgent leave requests wherever in the world they may be
  • Employees can view their application status, leave history, leave balance&etc
  • No longer a need to contact Human Resource Department over leave matters

4) Avoid Leave Conflicts

A multi-tier leave approval structure assigns 2 or more supervisors to approve the leave request of a single worker.

  • Supervisors can access leave calendars and refer to the schedule before approving new leave requests.
  • Prevents clash of leave by co-workers
  • As leave conflicts are reduced, supervisors can efficiently manage their manpower situation

5) Increases Productivity

E-leave makes manual tracking obsolete as it automatically tracks the leave history of every employee.

  • Companies can redeploy HR Administrators for more productive job scopes

6) Improves Communication

E-leave sends out extremely useful alerts and notifications functions. Workers submit leave requests and supervisors get alerted before notifying the workers of their status of leave request

  • Avert miscommunication between workers and managers
  • No more misplaced leave forms causing unnecessary delays

In conclusion, E-leave is actually a quite highly efficient system aimed at improving productivity and convenience among every single employee’ of an organisation! This system would allow employees to work more productively and contribute more to the business especially because the environment and atmosphere of the business would have already been effectively improved with the implementation of E-leave.

Deskera eClaims is here to make your business better, easier, faster & environment friendly as well. For the longest time, workplaces have been striving towards a paperless office. Yet we still have a long way to go before going completely paperless. In fact, half the battle is making the switch. The other half is running your paperless office efficiently.

One of the business processes where a lot of paperwork is still involved is claim management. For obvious reasons, organizations take extra precaution while processing claims and the lack of an efficient, secure claim management system has prevented any automation.

Deskera eClaims Management

Deskera eClaims management offers automated processes for claim management which reduces effort for claims processing and provides a paperless environment for managing employee claims. It provides fully integrated workflow distribution for efficient claim tracking, processing and document management.

Deskera eClaims management system empowers the organization for effective management of employee claims by recording, monitoring, tracking and evaluating employee claims. Not only does it save time & energy, but it also helps in reducing the carbon footprint. In addition, all the benefits associated with it being a cloud application make it a must have for any organization.

Manager Self Service

Manager Self Service enables managers to access employee trip requests and claims information. The claims request applied for by the employees are automatically routed to their respective managers for approval;

And they can either approve or reject claims by viewing claim details such as claim purpose, expense amount, transaction date, and much more. The manager can also specify the reason for rejecting the employee claim request.

Claims Administration

Claims Administration enables you to customize and manage all claims-associated features for your organization by selecting the claims period, and by selecting eClaims-approving authority in the organization for processing all the claims requests. User administration allows you to manage details of all the employees in your organization, assign them managers and assign accessibility permissions.

In this day and age, claims can be a hassle for both employees and the management team. The old method of submitting hard copy claims can be tedious and it takes a long time to process before being able to pay out the claims to employees of the business which often causes internal problems between management and staff but it is what it is as that reason stands. Well, I’m here to tell you that there is a way to finally be able to move pass the said hassle. Make the switch to e-Claims and be amazed at how quick and streamlined claims processes can be.

E-claims is actually a web-hosted solution that brings the whole process online and it does not require any installation. With an easy-to-use interface, E-Claims Solution makes access simple for both employees and management. After a quick setup, employees and management will be access into the system from their desktops and upload or approve claims.

With E-Claims, your company can effectively enforce and monitor company expenditure policies. It can also help mitigate the potential for fraud as each expenditure claim is now clearly presented chronologically and any inquiries regarding any receipt can be immediately questioned and answered.

In this digital age, it is necessary to invest in solutions that will enable you to reap its rewards. With E-Claims Intuitive Expense Management, you can see a return on your investments within 10-12 months.

Eclaims

The benefits include:

  • Cost efficient. E-Claims do not require additional software installation.
  • Increase productivity. Streamlined claims process ensures that time and resources are not squandered.
  • Make quick announcements. The electronic side dashboard allows administrators to disseminate updates easily and quickly.
  • Easily export claims data into your preferred accounting system for easier bookkeeping.
  • Quicker approval timings. Easily approve or dismiss claims individually.
  • Monitor your claims. History log in the system allows you to track your claims submission.
  • Flexible workflow. Tailor your e-Claims according to your workflow
  • Quicker approval timing
  • Reduced administrative costs
  • Increased productivity
  • Reduction in carbon footprint

Our E-Claims solution is here to help improve your business and help run it with so much more ease!

Enable employees to access leave details, manage leave applications and carried forward, with Deskera’s employee self service feature.

Deskera eLeave enables employees to apply online for leave and time off. They can track the approval status online as well. When an employee applies for time off, the request is automatically routed to their respective managers or the HR manager. At that point the managers can either accept or reject the leave application. The automatic routing of leave applications saves a great deal of processing time. Employees can either apply for a full day, half day, or they can apply for specific hours which will then have to be approved by their managers or the HR manager.

Manager Self Service allows managers to access employee leave requests and information. Leave applied for by employees is automatically routed to their respective managers or HR officer. They may approve, push back or disapprove leave requests with a single click. One can also view current leave balance, reasons for leave requests and pending leave for each employee. The manager may also mention reasons for disapproving or unauthorized employee time off. Leave types enable you to define custom leave categories by title, department, or additional factors. You can also configure leave plans that include eligibility criteria, leave accrual amount, accrual limits and leave balance accumulation periods. Manage your organizational policies by uploading your leave policies.

E-leave

Run many types of reports by such variables as user, month, type, planned/unplanned, authorized/unauthorized, paid/unpaid leave. Management can also track employee attendance with updated attendance reports. Reports on employee information, current leave balances, leaves taken, leave requests made, overtime requests, and manual adjustments all made filterable by employee, locations, departments, job titles and hire types.

Conclusion

E-leave is a highly efficient system aimed at improving productivity and convenience among employees of an organisation. It has plenty of benefits that also includes improving communication in a workplace and prevents leave conflicts.

With an electronic leave management system, the environment and atmosphere of a business will be effectively improved, allowing employees to work more productively and contribute more to the business.

Picking the Right Software for Both Departments – Meeting HR goals & IT Goals

In today’s highly competitive environment the HR department is on the front lines of building a great workforce that is satisfied and highly effective. Companies depend on HR to screen the best applicants and create a modern, diversified and competitive atmosphere.

HR is also tasked with managing employee benefit programs, personnel records and payroll. Companies rely on HR to provide timely reports on across the board statistics regarding the overall recruitment, hiring, management, retention and turnover of a vibrant workplace. This is a huge responsibility with very little room for error. The goal of HR is to handle the complex management of people in a way that pleases management and employees.

Technology moves at an extremely fast pace and the IT department is expected to stay abreast of new systems that can give the company a competitive edge. What typically happens is that management tells IT they want an updated system that performs tasks better than what is currently in place. Although it varies, IT is usually the department that does the research and makes a recommendation. The new system is obtained and IT puts in the hours to make it run smoothly. The IT department’s main function is to ensure the efficiency of existing technology. They fix and replace software when needed.

HR-software

Picking the Right Software for Both Departments – Meeting HR goals & IT Goals

Bringing the HR and IT teams together to brainstorm ideas is the first step in deciding which type of HRMS to pick. The ideal system is going to be flexible enough for both departments to tweak and expand with relative ease.

The two sides must first agree upon the exact tasks the HRMS software system must perform in order to meet the basic standards of the company at same time in the market Deskera Cloud services offering comprehensive and intuitive of full range of HR functions with powerful core database with extensive feature list that can manage employee resource management and IT department fulfill their needs and runs smoothly and can keep the company on the competitive edge. These resources can help HR & IT departments can stay updated and interactive self-service interface

Deskera system functions on multiple platforms and locations and be easy to use. Deskera HRMS addresses the entire spectrum of enterprise payroll requirements thereby ensuring accurate, faster and more efficient payroll processing with relative configuration. Deskera HRMS allows you to align your workforce with organizational goals by tracking relevant milestones or key employee performance indicators throughout the year.

HR software for small-medium enterprises should possess ,

1. Recruitment Management
The small-medium business can rightly identify the vacant positions, create new job positions, rightly place advertisements, effectively conduct the recruitment procedures, coordinate CVs utilizing keywords, and shortlist the candidates and compare the competitors. Utilizing the recruitment management software, the business or HR men can straight away create automatic contracts and letters. Also, create an employee database for carrying further proceedings post recruiting.

2. Timesheet and attendance
Timesheet and attendance management feature of HR software will help the business organization to gauge the employee commitment and production capacity. The feature helps in precisely recording the employees work hours, his level of performance, attendance for the day/month, also the generation of employee payroll based on data derived. Those business organizations that calculate employee payroll based on employee time shall be fruitfully benefitted from this function, as software automates everything. Additional features like biometric integration/thumb integration help in monitoring employee attendance, no matter whether he is working from the office or on-site. The managers can monitor employee presence and performance in real-time.

3. Employee Training
Much like employee recruitment, employee training is also an inevitable element to the business. The training feature integrated into HR software shall help in planning and organizing employee training. Right from the execution of onboarding training to a future set of development training of employees can be programmed under the software. Thus in the meantime, the software shall trigger alerts for conduction of training to the management.

4. Payroll Management
Payroll is an inevitable element as this is what ultimately runs the business organization. Any lapse or calculation errors in payroll shall create great threats to the business organization. With the help of a payroll management software, even the small-medium business can sit relieved from the tensions of manual prone error subjecting to it. The payroll software shall take care of all deductions, loans, employee benefits while calculating the salary, therefore the tensions of integrating all these elements are totally overruled.

5. Appraisal and Feedback
To ensure employee productivity, timely appraisal and collection of feedbacks are adequate. With the help of DESKERA HRMS, the employee appraisal can be rightly triggered and feedbacks can be rightly collected. This helps in re-structuring certain procedures and processes if any, that are nothing, but a wastage of time. The management can monitor and timely address the employee concerns without a moment’s delay. This eventually boosts the confidence of the employee and make him feel worth to the company.