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Top > Knowledge Creation Laboratory by CRM(xRM) > [Series: EMOROCO CRM Lite ver2.0] Part 1 — From "A CRM to Use" to "A CRM to Nurture": An Overview of Functional Enhancements and a Deepening of Design Philosophy

[Series: EMOROCO CRM Lite ver2.0] Part 1 — From "A CRM to Use" to "A CRM to Nurture": An Overview of Functional Enhancements and a Deepening of Design Philosophy

Hello, this is Matsubara, CRM Evangelist.

"We implemented CRM, but we can't adapt it to changes in our operations."

"Each time you add a field, you have to contact the vendor and incur costs."

"We want to create a user-friendly interface for the field staff, but customization takes time."

The answers to these questions are contained within EMOROCO CRM Lite ver2.0.

Version 2.0 is not simply an "addition of features." It represents a deepening of our design philosophy, shifting from a "CRM you use" to a "CRM you nurture."

A CRM isn't a finished product the moment it's implemented. As business grows, teams change, and customer relationships deepen, the CRM must also continuously evolve. Version 2.0 aims to enable these changes to occur without programming, at low cost, and based on on-the-ground decisions.

This series will provide a detailed explanation of the feature enhancements in EMOROCO CRM Lite ver2.0 over four installments. Part 1 is "The Overall Picture and Design Philosophy of the Feature Enhancements."

What's changed in ver2.0? — Eight pillars of feature enhancements

The enhancements in version 2.0 can be summarized into the following eight pillars:

[Eight Pillars of Enhanced Functionality in EMOROCO CRM Lite ver2.0]

① GIS Map and Route Sales (Enhanced Functionality):
It visualizes customers and visited locations on a map, enabling route optimization and visit history management.
→ Directly related to outside sales, medical and nursing care visits, and equipment inspections.

② Business Process Flow (BPF) (Enhanced Functionality):
Manage the process of handling cases, applications, and responses in stages.
→ Elimination of missed responses and standardization of sales processes

③ Customer portal function (optional add-on):
Creating an external entry point to CRM
→ Inquiries, applications, and document requests are directly integrated into the CRM.

④ Addition of external connectors (new feature):
Data integration platform for accounting, sales management, and notification services
→ Make CRM the hub of the entire business system

⑤LINE notifications (new feature):
Automatic notification to LINE when workflow is executed
→ Send an alert to the LINE app that the person in charge always has open.

⑥ Clarification of metadata-driven design:
Formal clarification of the design for automatically generating screens from entity, field, and form definition information.
→ Prompt response to changes in business operations

⑦ Enhanced security role and form permission management:
Designed to display different screens depending on the role.
→ Optimal screen for each sales representative/administrator/agency

⑧ Enhanced multi-tenant support:
Achieving independent environmental management across multiple business units and group companies.

What these feature additions have in common is the direction of "evolving CRM from an internal management tool to a business platform that connects external parties, field operations, and the entire system."

The philosophy of "nurturing CRM"—the essence of metadata-driven design

The concept clearly established in version 2.0 is "metadata-driven CRM."

In typical business systems, adding items or changing screens requires development work. On the other hand, EMOROCO generates screens based on "definition information (metadata)" of entities, fields, and forms, allowing for quick adjustments to match business changes.

[Differences in design between a standard system and EMOROCO CRM Lite]

Normal system:
Business process change → Requirements definition → Development → Testing → Release
(Several days to several weeks; costs will be incurred)

EMOROCO CRM Lite (Metadata-driven):
Business process change → Configure fields/forms in the administration screen.
→ Immediately reflected in the business screen
(Several minutes to several hours; no additional cost)

→ This difference is the dividing line between whether or not you can cultivate your CRM.
In typical systems, "even if business processes change, the CRM cannot be changed."
→ Data is accumulated but not utilized, resulting in a "dead CRM."

In EMOROCO's metadata-driven approach...
"CRM can keep up with changes in business operations."
→ It becomes a "living CRM" that improves in accuracy the more you use it.

This design philosophy perfectly aligns with the "self-evolving CRM" concept of CRM 4.0. Metadata-driven design enables "self-evolution" not only in the technical aspect of AI autonomously learning and evolving, but also in the operational aspect of enabling organizations to continuously improve their CRM themselves.

"Why is this feature needed now?" — The true nature of the challenges facing small and medium-sized enterprises.

To understand the enhancements in version 2.0, it's necessary to understand the structure of CRM challenges faced by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

[Six Challenges Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Face with CRM]

Problem ①: "Customer information, sales activities, and inquiry handling are scattered across different areas."
Information is scattered across Excel, email, notes from assigned personnel, and Slack.
→ This leads to differences in service quality and sales opportunities.

Issue ②: "Individualized sales activities"
The progress of sales negotiations is managed differently for each person in charge.
→ The handover costs are high when the person in charge changes.

Issue ③: "Lack of visibility into outside sales activities"
It is not possible to track who visited which area, when, and which customer.
→ Route sales cannot be made more efficient.

Problem ④: "Customer interaction is disconnected from CRM"
Inquiries, applications, and requests for materials are managed using a system separate from the CRM.
→ Data is not aggregated in the CRM.

Issue 5: "High-performance CRMs are expensive"
Salesforce and Dynamics 365 are too expensive and burdensome for small and medium-sized businesses.

Issue 6: "No-code tools have weak CRM standards"
While platforms like kintone offer flexibility, you'll need to create clients, activities, projects, and permissions from scratch.

→ Version 2.0 has direct answers to all six of these challenges.

The "Four Features" of ver2.0 - Let's summarize them again.

Let's summarize the four features highlighted in version 2.0.

[Four features of EMOROCO CRM Lite ver2.0]

Feature ① "CRM Management":
Centralized management of clients, activities, projects, contracts, sales, and inquiries.
→ Resolves the most fundamental problem: "information scattering".

Feature ② "No-code development":
Entity, field, form, view, and graph can be freely configured from the administration screen.
→ A "nurturing CRM" that can be adapted to your company's operations.

Feature ③ "On-site Sales Support" (Enhanced in ver2.0):
Streamline your field sales activities with GIS maps, route planning, calendars, and visit history.
→ A direct answer to the problem of being "weak in outside sales."

Feature ④ "Expansion of customer touchpoints" (newly added in ver2.0):
Customer portals, public forms, LINE notifications, and external connectors consolidate all external communication into the CRM.
→ A solution to the problem of "customer touchpoints being disconnected from CRM."

"Start small and scale up gradually" - Designing the implementation steps

One of the key messages of version 2.0 is "Start small and gradually expand to suit your business needs."

[EMOROCO's Step-by-Step Expansion]

STEP 1 (First 30 days): Start with the basics of CRM
Start with three things: customer management, activity management, and project management.
Migrate existing data by importing from Excel.
Visualize sales performance on the dashboard.

STEP 2 (1-3 months): Develop skills to suit your company's operations.
Add your company's unique entity fields.
Design workflow automation to prevent missed responses.
Design role-specific screens using security roles.

STEP 3 (3-6 months): Strengthen field sales
Enable GIS map route sales.
Standardize sales processes with Business Process Flow.
Design real-time alerts using LINE notifications.

STEP 4 (6 months onwards): Expand customer touchpoints
Open a customer portal (optional).
It integrates with accounting and sales management systems via external connectors.
Establish CRM as the "hub of the entire business system."

→ It can be started from 1,500 yen per user per month,
The investment risk from STEP 1 is extremely low.
You can add features as needed.

Summary of Part 1: Version 2.0 Shows the "Future of CRM"

If we were to summarize the message of version 2.0 in one sentence, it would be this:

"The key to competitiveness for small and medium-sized enterprises is not simply implementing CRM, but continuously nurturing and improving it."

Metadata-driven design ensures that the CRM can keep up with changes in business processes, and the addition of GIS maps, BPF, customer portals, and external connectors provides the functionality to make the CRM the central foundation for business operations.

However, its true essence lies not in the sheer number of features. It's in the fact that it provides a "realistic foundation for implementing CRM 4.0" for small and medium-sized enterprises, starting at "1,500 yen per user per month, no coding required, and something that can be nurtured by the users themselves."

Next time preview: This is the second installment, and we will be discussing "GIS Maps, Route Sales, and Business Process Flow—Implementation Design for New Features that Will Transform Field Sales."
EMOROCO CRM Lite Product Page

Next time: [Part 2: GIS Maps, Route Sales, and BPF—Implementation Design for New Features that Will Transform Field Sales]

Related article: [EMOROCO CRM Lite Implementation "First 30 Days" Complete Roadmap - Week-by-Week Design, Implementation, and SoI-PDCA Launch Procedures]

Related article: [What are the "six key factors" of CRM 4.0? — The design philosophy of next-generation CRM realized by EMOROCO CRM Lite]

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Person who wrote this article
Shinsuke Matsubara

Arcus Japan Representative Director / CRM Consultant
Click here for detailed profile
He has worked as a system engineer, architect, and consultant at Accenture and other companies, an evangelist at Infragistics (Microsoft MVP for Dynamics CRM (now Microsoft MVP for Business Solutions)), and a solutions specialist at Microsoft (in charge of Dynamics CRM products).He currently leads a service team specializing in CRM, supporting CRM implementation and business launches for companies of all sizes.At the same time, he works as a CRM evangelist, spreading the idea of "true" CRM through events and article contributions.
Having learned CRM at Accenture, and having advocated and globally popularized CRM 2.0 (platform-based CRM) at Microsoft, he is a legitimate successor to CRM and the longest-serving active CRM expert (CRM consultant/CRM doctor), having received an award at Worldwide.
Since then, as a leading expert in CRM who advocates CRM 3.0 (Personalized CRM) and CRM 4.0 (Creative CRM), he has been interviewed and received numerous awards both domestically and internationally from publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, TIME, WORLDCOM, Mainichi Shimbun (Weekly Economist), and Nippon Cultural Broadcasting. He has also been selected as a representative company of the Kansai business community by "Keizaikai" for four consecutive years.
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