What Is Case Manegement ?Recommended Tools More Useful Than Excel and Introduction Benefits Explained

Case management is indispensable in sales activities. It is essential for understanding the progress status and order probability of cases, taking necessary actions at appropriate timing, and achieving sales targets. 

However, many people may be wondering how to conduct case management effectively. 

This article explains the basic knowledge of case management, its necessity, case management tools, and how to select them. 

What is Case Management 

In sales activities, expanding sales is a daily goal for business owners, sales department managers, and sales representatives. 

Case management in corporate sales activities refers to the detailed recording and management of client information and case progress status. This simultaneously becomes essential work for visualizing sales member activities and improving order accuracy. 

Additionally, by deepening customer understanding, it leads to improved sales capabilities such as accurately capturing needs and not missing business negotiation timing. 

The Necessity of Case Management 

Among the various benefits of case management in sales activities, let's look at the three main necessities. 

Increasing Order Probability 

Interactions with clients and progress management can visualize the needs that clients have. While sales representatives can sometimes handle cases individually, differences in sales experience levels are a reality. However, if an environment is established where teams and organizations can provide advice for each case, it leads to problem resolution and increases order probability for the company. 

Avoiding Personalization 

If all case management is left to individual sales representatives, it becomes difficult to hand over when representatives suddenly leave due to personnel changes or resignation. Personalization becomes a risk that affects organizational sales performance. By implementing case management, employees other than sales representatives can share case information and understand business negotiation progress, thus avoiding personalization. 

Analyzing Cases and Running PDCA Cycles 

Once case information is accumulated, data can be analyzed to further improve sales activities. For example, by analyzing the causes of lost orders and identifying bottlenecks, it becomes possible to improve sales activity efficiency in a pinpoint manner. By analyzing and running PDCA cycles, order accuracy can be improved. 

Necessary Conditions and Items for Case Management 

When conducting case management, it's necessary to know the minimum required conditions and items. Consider what information should be managed to visualize case situations and enable easy analysis when deciding on conditions and items to handle. 

Examples of such items include: 

• Client name 

• Case name 

• Case representative 

• Progress status 

• Order probability 

• Expected order date 

• Expected sales amount 

• Business negotiation details 

• Business negotiation date 

• Business negotiation content And more. 

What are Case Management Tools 

These are tools that visualize overall sales, individual performance, progress status of each case, and support sales activities. By using case management tools, the administrative burden on sales members can be reduced, allowing them to focus on sales activities. Cloud-based tools can be used during telework and when out of office, enabling information sharing anywhere with the latest data. 

Additionally, tools are expected to activate communication between members and strengthen overall sales capabilities. Tools that can link customer management functions and sales activity management functions are also increasing. 

Types of Case Management Tools 

Representative business tools that can handle case management include CRM and SFA. 

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tools are tools that centrally manage customer basic information, business negotiation history, transaction records, and other management items. Case progress status and business negotiation content can be recorded for each customer on the web. Based on accumulated data, it's also possible to analyze customer attributes and purchase history from a marketing perspective. 

SFA (Sales Force Automation) tools are tools that support sales activity planning, execution, and analysis. They can manage business negotiation schedules, quotation creation, lead acquisition, lead nurturing, and the flow to business negotiations. Of course, since management can be done for each customer case, it's possible to visualize sales activity results for each case in graphs and utilize accumulated knowledge for sales activity improvement. 

There are also methods using other project management tools. By managing detailed case progress using project management tools or task management tools, case information sharing and task management can be done by teams or departments, which is useful for case management. If these are cloud-based services, they can be used by paying monthly or annual fees according to the number of users without the hassle of server setup and management. 

Examples of dedicated case management tools include "e Sales Manager Remix Cloud," "Salesforce Sales Cloud," "Zoho CRM," "GENIEE SFA/CRM," and "Oracle Sales Cloud." 

Please check and inquire about initial costs, usage pricing plans, and customer support on official websites. 

Limitations of Case Management with Excel 

Some companies conduct case management and sales reports using Excel. Since it's a familiar tool, the advantage is that it can be used without learning costs. It can be said to be a user-friendly tool for managing a small number of cases with few people. 

However, when handling a certain number of cases or when the number of people sharing increases, Excel management should be reconsidered. 

Disadvantages of Excel Usage 

Using Excel for case management has the following three disadvantages: 

Difficulty in Real-time Information Sharing 

Excel, which makes it difficult to share additionally input information in real-time, is not suitable for multiple people to use case management. Information updates take time and create time lags, which may cause missing approach timing for some cases. 

Risk of Personalization 

When using Excel for case management, there may be cases where personnel who can manage and maintain Excel files are limited, leading to personalization. For example, when management sheets are modified to create user-friendly screen configurations, or when functions for automatic date input and automatic calculation of expected sales amounts are created using macros and formulas. Without personnel familiar with Excel handling, there's a risk of creating case management tools that cannot be maintained or repaired. 

Increasing Management Files 

With Excel case management, if information management for orders and purchases is also conducted, management files increase. As management workload increases proportionally to file increase, there may be cases where workload is consumed solely by case management. 

How to Select Case Management Tools 

How should case management tools be selected? Here are key points for tool selection. 

Does it Meet Implementation Objectives? 

When selecting case management tools, clarify your company's implementation objectives. Whether you can enjoy the benefits your company seeks through implementation becomes the selection criterion. For example, if you have the objective of conducting business card management, you cannot achieve your goal by implementing tools that don't have business card management functions. Since tools provided by many vendors have different built-in functions, make implementation decisions by thoroughly evaluating using free trials and other methods. 

UI Simplicity and Usability 

Simple, intuitive, and user-friendly UI can be a major motivation for tool implementation. Even if it's a feature-rich and famous tool, if your company employees evaluate it as "difficult to use," the implemented tool will not be used, failing to achieve case management objectives. By checking tool operability and screen visibility and selecting tools that "employees want to continue using," it leads to establishing case management tool usage within the company. 

Business Apps as an Option 

Case management tools are provided by various vendors. However, there may be cases where it's unclear which one your company should choose. In such cases, we also recommend the option of in-house development by creating business apps internally. If you can use solutions that allow specialized apps developed for efficiency in various business operations within companies to be linked and used on groupware, you can conduct case management suited to your company. 

Business Apps are Recommended for Case Management 

In addition to using dedicated tools like CRM and SFA, we also recommend using original business apps that match your company's sales activities. 

Here, let's look at business apps and their implementation benefits. 

What are Business Apps? 

 Business apps are applications designed to improve and streamline personnel operations. 

Sales representative work covers a wide range of content, including customer information management, business negotiation schedule coordination, and quotation creation. 

Business apps can manage the same level of information as dedicated tools like CRM and SFA, including customer information, business negotiation history, automatic quotation creation functions, and understanding business negotiation progress status, with the purpose of improving and streamlining these operations. Furthermore, they can be useful for company-wide and team activities through automation of aggregation, linking with multiple applications, and information sharing through easy-to-view dashboards. 

Sales figures, customer information input, their aggregation, and sharing aggregated data with stakeholders can all be conducted smoothly. 

Creating Business Apps with No Programming? 

Recent business apps increasingly can be created without programming. Such methods are also called no-code development. 

The characteristic is that apps can be developed through simple operations like moving and placing objects with a mouse, even without system development experience or programming experience. For apps with certain functionality, there's no need to outsource development at cost. 

Benefits of Implementing Business App Creation Tools 

Using no-code business app creation tools makes it possible to internalize application development for case management suited to your company. The main benefits include the following three: 

Creating Input Screens with Simple Steps 

App development can be performed with simple steps. For example, when creating input screens, simply select input item objects with a mouse and place them anywhere on the screen. Other functions can also be created using the same basic operations of freely placing them on screens using a mouse. 

Information Integration with Multiple Apps 

Information centralization is possible by linking multiple business apps. For example, when business negotiation records are input into a business negotiation record app, that data is reflected in case management. Furthermore, if quotations are needed, significant operational efficiency can be expected through linking to quotation creation apps and automatically creating quotations. 

Reduced Maintenance Costs 

Normally, when apps are created through external system development, program code modifications are necessary when screen or specification changes are needed. Therefore, time and development costs for modifications are required. However, apps created with no programming (no-code) in-house can be modified as needed, thus reducing maintenance costs. 

Streamlining Sales Activities with Apps that Match the Field 

By creating case management apps with no-code development apps, internalization is possible by sales representatives themselves without specialized knowledge of programming or development. Business apps created in-house can customize apps that match internal rules and business flows.

AppSuite for Business App Creation 

Among tools that enable no-code business app development, we recommend "desknet's NEO" and "AppSuite." 

"AppSuite" is an app creation service optimal for no-code development, enabling app creation with just click operations. No specialized technology or special IT knowledge is required. 

App realization is possible by importing data from existing Excel or CSV files managing ledgers, so existing formats can be maintained while migrating data as is. 

By converting time-consuming operations into apps using "AppSuite" and operating them, significant efficiency can be achieved. Let's eliminate business waste by migrating operations conducted with paper, email, and Excel to business apps created with "AppSuite." 

Please also see this about "AppSuite." 

Creating Apps Perfect for Each Job 

AppSuite has abundant templates prepared. For example, templates suitable for each job can be utilized, including business reports, approval and settlement, sales support, and human resources and labor affairs, and easy customization is possible, enabling creation of apps perfect for field operations. 

Abundant Sample Apps Starting with Case Management 

In addition to case management, abundant samples include the following: 

Case Management App 

The case management app can manage cases for each customer in detail. Main registration information is as follows: 

• Customer basic information 

• Case probability prospects 

• Product information under consideration for introduction 

• Contact history 

Case management app data references customer master maintenance and product master maintenance. 

Business Negotiation Record App 

The business negotiation record app manages detailed situations for each business negotiation with customers. Sorting is possible, such as displaying specific order probabilities, case lists, and lists of orders above specific amounts. Main registration information is as follows: 

• Customer name 

• Business negotiation order probability 

• Company representative 

• Case content and proposed product information 

• Business negotiation progress status 

• Business negotiation history 

• Superior comments 

Business negotiation record app data references customer master maintenance and product master maintenance. 

Quotation App 

This is an app for managing quotations. Main registration information is as follows: 

• Customer name 

• Delivery period information 

• Payment conditions 

• Quotation amount 

• Delivery product information 

• Internal representative 

Quotation app data also references customer master maintenance and product master maintenance. 

Contract Management App 

This is an app for managing contracts. By attaching contract copies as files and saving data, they can be referenced whenever needed. Additionally, to prevent contract procedure oversights, it's possible to extract only data within certain periods when contract end dates are approaching. Main registration information is as follows: 

• Contract number 

• Contract partner name 

• Contract content 

• Contract period 

Contract management app data references customer master maintenance. 

Other Sample Apps Useful for Sales Activities 

In addition to case management, there are many apps effective for sales activities. 

SA Sales Daily Report App 

The SA sales daily report app can streamline sales activity report submission, confirmation, and analysis. Additionally, since customer information can be centrally managed, client and user information can be collected and accumulated, which is also useful for analysis. 

Inquiry Response Record App 

The inquiry response record app manages inquiry content and response situations from customers. For companies, customer inquiries become important information sources. Additionally, managing response situations helps improve customer response quality. 

Summary of Case Management 

Case management is one of the indispensable operations for companies. Each piece of detailed case progress and business negotiation content data becomes important elements of management policy. Therefore, tool selection for case management is important. 

Data related to customer transactions is collected and accumulated, and information analyzed from them is also company assets. Case management tools must be selected to match your company's sales style and business format. Consider trying apps that can be created with no programming (no-code) as one option, rather than existing tools.