Trade and Investment KZN (TIKZN) adopts new business systems to drive investment

TIKZN chose the ePages CMS system for their site so that they could update the web site information themselves on a regular basis. "TIKZN has a lot of information to share with potential investors in the form of case studies, latest news and statutory information." comments David Meyrick of ePages.net. "The content management system allows them to have that information on the site within hours." he said. TIKZN aims to become an online resource for anyone with a business interest in KZN. "If someone uses Google to look for information on investing in KZN, we want them to find us," said Ananias Makhado of TIKZN. "We needed an internet partner who not only understood our technology requirements but could also provide a Search Engine Optimisation strategy to allow us to reach our target markets." he said.

TIKZN needed a way to manage the process of matching a potential investor to business opportunities as well as track the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. This is where Microsoft CRM comes into its own.

In one of the largest Microsoft CRM implementations in KZN, TIKZN will be able to manage marketing campaigns and track effectiveness as well as manage all customer communications. Microsoft CRM is built to look like and integrate with traditional MS programs such as Outlook and MS Word. This means that training times are shortened and adoption is easier. One of the downfalls of other CRM packages is the duplication of effort when information needs to be captured twice, not the case with MS CRM which logs business communication automatically.

It is anticipated that the CRM package will improve customer response times by providing detailed reports on customer communication, allowing managers to monitor staff performance. Notifications and reminders will allow TIKZN staff to manage the frequency of contact with investors thus enriching the customer relationship.