June 2015
Keep it Safe: 3 Reasons to Put CRM Security First
Employing a CRM means placing a lot of trust in a piece of software that will be housing and analysing your business’ data, as well as sensitive client information. With that in mind, it’s essential that businesses understand the necessity for tight security on their CRMs. We’ve pulled together a handful of reasons you should put your CRM’s security first – and included some advice about tackling the issue head on.
1. Client Trust
It goes without saying that there’s a level of trust involved when customers/clients hand over personal information for safekeeping. The leaking of any of this sensitive information can immediately damage your business’ brand – even if the problem is resolved and extra security is installed, contacting a client to inform them of stolen or lost information will damage the relationship you’ve worked hard to create. Making sure your CRM is secure before anything like this can happen, however, will see that relationship kept intact.
2. Data Protection
It’s not just customer’s sensitive information that is up for grabs, however – your business’ own activity, performance and data analysis could be targeted. Even if you pride yourselves on complete transparency, there are still likely to be some trends or strategies you don’t want in the hands of your competitors. A loss of data such as this triggers a desperate scramble to evolve to new circumstances and strategies.
3. It’s the Heart of Your Business
A good CRM will be a valuable tool to your team, but a great CRM will be at the heart of the business, assisting in strategic decisions, evaluating performance and connecting team members across different locations. If your CRM is compromised in any way, your work is going to immediately suffer, with team members unable to interact with customers to the best of their ability, and remote workers finding themselves divided from the rest of the business. Keeping your CRM safe means keeping your business’ heart healthy and pumping away non-stop.
How Can You Protect a CRM?
This may all sound like doom and gloom, but there are options available – some of which are common sense – to help to protect your CRM against most kinds of threat. Firstly, ensure all team members have top level anti-virus security software on their devices – whether they’re company owned or personal. This should prevent most threats to the CRM through these individual channels. Next, consider moving your CRM to a Cloud-based solution if you haven’t already done so: damage to a physical machine which holds the CRM (or multiple machines) can spell a death sentence to your data, and slows the process of getting back on your feet. Finally, back-up data regularly to stay one step ahead of any threats.
It’s really a no-brainer that such a sensitive collection of information should be kept safe, but it’s often overlooked by businesses. Follow this advice and employ some common sense, however, and you can be sure that your CRM remains as secure as Fort Knox.
For secure, Cloud-based CRM solutions, look no further than Lunar CRM. Get in touch to find out how we can help your business moon walk to CRM success.