Sphere CRM / ERP V1 an integrated customisable client and business management solution

INTRODUCTION
Sphere CRM/ERP is a customisable computer application designed to assist in the running of businesses and institutions. The application is designed to organise data and information related to the institution into easily comprehensible groups and units.

Sphere CRM/ERP has so far been successfully tested, customized for, and implemented in SACCOs, Farming/housing Cooperatives, microfinance institutions, investment groups, Chamas, Cooperative Unions, Credit and Lending organizations.

Other industries with partial testing are retail and service businesses.

The software is web based and is offered as a service for consumption by web capable devices such desktop computers, laptop computers, smartphones and tablets. It can also be intalled in private institution servers for control over the functionality and in cases of concerns with privacy. Additionally, the system can be configured to utilize mutliple servers for higher availability and can also be configured to work offline and synchronize data periodically.

It has an web portal where institutions’ staff and clients can access accounts and other information with up to date records.

Sphere CRM/ERP is designed to work in highly latent network conditions by utilizing caching technologies for data hence is efficient, reliable and fast even in places with poor internet coverage.

It intergrates user management, client relationship management, accounting, business intelligence, human resource and payroll components into a comprehensive software giving a full view of the entire establishment in a single consistent and intuititve interface.

FEATURES

1. Client information management:
Basic client information.
Information on next of kins.
Arbitrary information such as nicknames etc.
Identification/passport photographs.
Signature specimens.
Financial portfolio.
Arbitrary notes for effective management of clients.

2. Group management

Clients/customers can be categorised into groups as deemed logical by the implementation e.g: Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs) may organize clients by their registered investment groups while microfinance and lending institutions may group clients by their credit/relationship officers.

Basic group information.
Group members’ management.
Signature specimens of authorized group signatories.
Group financial portfolios

3. Accounting functionality

Tracking of cash inflows and outflows.
Tracking of assets.
Balancing and reconciling of accounts and financial records.
Preparation of transaction reports (trial balances)
Preparation of balance sheets.

4. Analysis and business intelligence

Monitoring activity and transactions in the organization with useful summations on customisable dashboards.

5. Human Resource Management / Staff management

Basic staff information.
Information on next of kins.
Arbitrary information such as nicknames etc.
Identification/passport photographs.
Signature specimen.
Management of salary advances and payments (Integrated with accounting components).
Arbitrary additional notes.
Payroll reports, payslips and staff payroll processing

6. Short Message Service (SMS)

Sphere CRM/ERP has integrates messaging component for sending messages to clients and staff by reading phone numbers directly from lists of clients and staff.

7. Security and data integrity

Sphere CRM/ERP is designed with the goal of data security and as such, effort has been put into the application and user interface layer to prevent deletion of data that has already been entered into the system while still maintaining comprensibility of the data therein.
The system has an extensive centralized management of permissions for all staff and users granting various usage and access rights to the components.
Tracking all user input and activity in the system.
Real time automated offsite data backups protect against hardware failures (Available in the full enterprise cloud implementation)
Effort has been put to ensure that transmission data through the internet and cloud channels is secured to prevent tampering irrecoverable loss.

8. Accessibility and ease of use

Sphere CRM/ERP is designed for ease of use and simplicity hence can be operated by any average computer user with minimal assistance. No cumbersome processes are required.  It runs on computers and any web capable devices such as mobile phones and tablets.  The system can be accessed at any time with an unlimited number of system users.

9. Collaboration
Sphere CRM/ERP is designed to encourage collaboration and real time exchange of client and transactional information among staff, departments and branches.

The system also facilitates sharing of information between different organizations for such purposes as assessment of credit-worthiness, external audits, institutional status, financial assessment etc.

10. Operations
Sphere CRM/ERP reduces the operational costs of the institution by eliminating the need for stationery such as ledger books. All records are conveniently and securely stored in centralized locations for retrieval when required and future audits.
This speeds up decision making processes as necessary information can be accessed in much less time.

11. User friendly interface
Sphere CRM/ERP prides itself in a simple and intutive user interface that is easy to comprehend and use with developments ported from our other projects notably SACCO Drive System.

12. Target insitutions
Sphere CRM/ERP is targeted at small and medium enterprises in developing countries and economies, it is recommended for enterprises located in East, Central and Western African countries.

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