It may seem ridiculous but we found out that many small and medium-sized companies do not know enough about their clients and do not collect sufficient information about them that could be used to better target its services or marketing campaigns.

Much of the information is simply lost or employees leave the company taking some vital information with them.

Everyone in the company uses a directory differently – directory in MS Outlook (or another e-mail client) we use to send mail, the secretary has a directory of people to which she sends business cards, a trader has a directory of people which he sends information to about news, a buyer has a directory of potential suppliers and so on.

The basis for any system to work effectively is to start with these elementary datas. The data on business partners (previous or prospective), suppliers, competitors, applicants etc. there is a need to keep track of all this information, and the best to do this is to have all the information in a centre focal point (the hub) or by interconnected directories.

The accounting system as the primary monitoring system is not appropriate for tracking basic identifiers – there are proper systems especially CRM systems to do this (Customer Relationship Management).

It is also advisable to have address cards appropriately marked to be visible at first glance to show which category the contact belongs to. It can be a supplier, VIP customer, foreign company, etc. This address key will be thought of as the label on the component of the firm. In our example we monitored from where the customer came to us – reference, the web site, the reaction to a newsletter or particular campaign etc. To which I can monitor the effectiveness of different sales channels and continue to improve on them. If a phone number has changed you update the number just once. If a trader determines the birthday of the client’s children, this information will not disappear even after the trader’s stop associating with the business.

If information about your businesses partners’ are not in your company consolidated, synchronized and delivered where they are needed to be, think about this small step. After all small steps of gradual improvement (kaizen in Japanese), these led Japanese companies to where they are now – the subject of admiration for entrepreneurs around the world.