Firstly what is a CRM (Customer Relationship management) system? 

According to Wikipedia a “Customer relationship management (CRM) is a model for managing a company’s interactions with current and future customers. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize sales, marketing, customer service, and technical support.”

 Why would a company need this?

Very simply put, it aids in bridging the gap of communication between different departments within a company.  Lack of communication can be a company’s silent killer.  It also shows signs of incompetence within a company; How is a customer to trust a company to streamline its processes, if the company is unable to do this themselves.

A CRM system not only bridges the gap, but it successfully fills and restores the gap by grouping all fundamental details of a deal, sales or future prospects together.  Conversations, documents and invoice tracking can all be updated and listed within the system, allowing a newbie on a project to get up to date on all past happenings in one easy step.

CRMs’ also allow you to link ownership to a certain customer, project or prospect, allowing managers to find a point of contact within the company quickly and effectively.  Not only that, but reports can be printed and set up to allow for instant output on any relevant queries that need to be addressed at month end meetings.  For example prospect to sales, deals that have been closed vs. deals still open, even down to which invoices have being paid or are still outstanding.

As you can see a CRM system is the very basic functionality of a business – it is the communication of information, past conversations and documentation all pertaining to your customers and therefore your business.

It all sounds too easy though, doesn’t it?  Why isn’t very company scoring 100% in effective communication if they have a CRM in place?  Why? Because it is still run, updated and maintained by man and lets be honest the constant methodical updating of a system is not high on anyones’ list.   Even as I write this, I sit here knowing that I have for the 2nd week managed to dodge the exercise that is updating my portion of our company’s CRM system.

However when looking at pros vs. cons, the con of laziness doesn’t seem to have much footing when placed among the pros.  I have even heard of a company that has updating of the CRM system so high on a job spec that if not done you stand to loose your job - no questions asked!  So could this be the answer to making sure you maintain the very backbone of your business, possibly.  

I do know however that in the past the CRM system has come to my rescue on more than one occasion.  So I end this article with the surety that without the system, I like many others would be frustrated if there was no one single point of project based information, in which I could call upon any time of day.

With that said, I am signing off now to update my portion of our company’s CRM system.

Editors note: If you or your company are interested in a CRM system please feel free to contact Bluntt with any development needs you may have.

(Source: 99u.com)

1. Volume of Text - This will impact your design enormously!  So when doing your mock ups always try work with the correct amount of dummy text, and consider the use of white space.
2. Type Selection - this is so huge, that books get written about this subject everyday.  You need to ask yourself ‘what is the correct typographic voice for this piece’
3. Grid System - Which structure is going to suit your layout? This question will be effected by the amount of text and images required
4. Image preparation - Images might need to be resized
5. Micro and Macro Typography - It’s important to pay attention to all aspects of typography.  this includes headings, body, captions, page numbers, quotations etc.
6. Typographic Hierarchy  - you should ask yourself ‘how are you going to express the importance of information within your spread?’
7. Overall Composition - Lastly you need to consider which elements you want to dominate the spread and work to find the balance that makes the layout as a whole work together.

Happy Designing

To all our customers, if you would like us to check your websites for any possible hackers injection points or scripting vulnerabilities, get in touch and let us help you!

At Bluntt we recently read an article { http://goo.gl/Q32QG } about single design vs multiple design deliverables, and we could relate to this dilemma all to well.

When we started out designing, we designed layout after layout, logo after logo.  Some of them only differing by a colour or by having a single element removed,  and when we were done, the client got them all! Whether this was down to the passion for new ideas or slight  lack of confidence in choosing a final piece to put forward.  One thing, that was for certain, was it complicated the entire process.

We used to put 6 different logo designs forward and 4 different layout designs. Then, when we moved on to web-design layouts, this process turned into a time consuming nightmare.

It’s like having a magic box, each time you produce one design, 3 more appear and if you take on this work ethnic the client adapts it too.  Which in turn leaves you re-designing in circles and wasting your time designing mock-ups that you know won’t work. All because the client see’s your indecisiveness and raises you one.

It’s like been face to face with a gorilla, show him fear and you loose an eye, wave around like a lunatic showing off your mad arm-flapping-chest-beating skills and ‘poof’ one respectful gorilla. {I’m told this works, not quite sure if it’s Bear Grylls endorsed though.}

The fact of the matter is, you have to be confident in the work you produce, and if you’re not, blag it .  We’ll tell you now, that 99% of designers will at some stage, more than once, have to sell a design that they are not 100% sure about.  That doesn’t mean the client needs to know that, most of the time they love it. And that’s because we all have different taste.  Just be confident that you put your best into your work, so at the end, if it’s not quite what you would go for, it’s still something you can be proud of doing.

The key to submitting single design deliverables is knowing all you can about your client, remember there are no silly questions when it comes to fulfilling the design brief as best you can. Whatever your process is, or how your brain transfers and relays information, stick to your process and obtain the information you need. It’s only in knowing this information that you’ll be able to design and end goal solution that fits your clients requirements.  The 3 million redesigns and draft’s are for your eyes only, once you’re done, put your concept forward with confidence and let the client know this is what he wants, because it’s awesome!! 

Happy Designing.

While writing this, specifically the web design reference to multiple layout, we remembered the day we found a style guide that changed Bluntt’s life and helped us adapt to a new single design deliverable process. It’s definitely worth the share so here it is: http://goo.gl/iE4nH