Goran KabićCRM CONSULTANT
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INDEPENDENT CRM CONSULTANT

Make your CRM
make sense.

Clearer processes. Useful data. Software people actually want to open.Let’s get your CRM there.

Find a way forwardA few thoughts on CRM
15+ years working with CRM, and the humans around it.

THE WORK I CARE ABOUT

Understanding the businessDesigning a useful solutionHelping people use it

01 / HOW I HELP

A fresh pair of eyes.
A practical way forward.

We start by understanding what’s actually happening.

Understand the business

We look at how your business works: the people, the processes, the data and the decisions your CRM needs to support.

  • Discovery workshops and business analysis
  • Process mapping and data requirements
  • Business goals, priorities and responsibilities

Shape the solution

I help you turn those needs into a practical CRM design: how data connects, how the system supports your processes and what people need to see and do.

  • CRM solution and data model design
  • Functional specifications and platform selection
  • User experience, workflows and reporting

Make it work in practice

I help you bring the design into everyday work: leading the implementation, coordinating configuration and customisation, testing with users and helping your team get comfortable using the system.

  • Implementation, configuration and customisation
  • Testing, rollout and user training
  • CRM governance and ongoing development

A FEW WAYS TO WORK TOGETHER

What could we work on?

Pick the project you have in mind.

THE PROJECT

Make your current CRM work better.

Review what’s working and what gets in the way. Look at processes, data and everyday use, then agree on a practical improvement plan.

Talk it through with me

Independent advice and project leadership, whichever CRM platform or implementation partner you choose.

02 / THE APPROACH

Your team.
A fresh perspective.

I work directly with you and your team. I bring proposals, we test them against how your business works, and together we decide what to do next.

03 / SELECTED EXPERIENCE

A few familiar names.

A selection of organizations I’ve worked with, through Matik and as an independent consultant.

A closer look at the work.

HOBAS

CRM for international, project-based sales

Through Matik, we implemented and tailored SuiteCRM for HOBAS’s international sales teams, connecting project opportunities, quotations, sales planning and reporting with SAP R/3.

SuiteCRMSAP integrationProject leadership

My role
I helped shape the requirements through workshops with the HOBAS team, developed the integration concept and led the project through delivery. My work also included user training.

What the project involved
  • Project-based sales: tailored sales stages, technical project data and customer, contractor and partner roles.
  • Quotations: products, pricing, discounts, currencies and multilingual PDF templates, alongside quotations received from SAP.
  • SAP integration: exchange of customer, opportunity and quotation data, with order and sales figures feeding back into CRM.
  • Budgets and forecasts: monthly planning, review and approval, reminders and locking of submitted figures.
  • Sales reporting: pipeline, budgets, forecasts, actual sales, win rates and lost business across regions, markets and sales groups.

MERIT MEDIA

From a CRM idea to choosing an implementation partner

Merit Media wanted a CRM but needed to define what it should do and who could deliver it. Through workshops, I developed a detailed functional and technical specification that they used to request proposals from potential implementation partners.

Requirements discoverySpecificationPartner selection

My role
I led the requirements workshops, wrote the specification and guided the partner selection process through to a final recommendation.

What the project involved
  • Discovery: workshops to clarify business processes and CRM needs.
  • Specification: a detailed functional and technical brief for potential implementation partners.
  • Partner search: identifying potential providers for the selection process.
  • Assessment: analysing proposals and interviewing potential partners.
  • Recommendation: bringing the findings together to recommend an implementation partner.

AMADRIA PARK

CRM for MICE sales, developed over time

A SuiteCRM system supporting Amadria Park’s MICE sales — meetings, incentives, conferences and events — with company and contact records, sales opportunities and a history of sales activities.

SuiteCRMMICE salesLong-term support

My role
I helped shape the solution, led project work and trained users. I continue to support the system and implement changes as business needs evolve.

What the project involved
  • Customer relationships: company and contact records supporting corporate and event sales.
  • Sales opportunities: keeping potential business and related activities in the CRM.
  • Iterative development: adapting the system through successive business requests.
  • Everyday support: user access, data exports, troubleshooting and targeted improvements.
  • System assessment: reviewing existing processes, data and technical performance to identify the next steps.
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ŠKOLSKA KNJIGA

CRM built around schools, teachers and learning materials

Through Matik, we implemented and developed SuiteCRM for Školska knjiga, connecting schools, teachers, curricula and learning materials in a system tailored to educational publishing.

System designProject leadershipUser training

My role
I designed the system through workshops with the Školska knjiga team, proposing solutions that we reviewed and refined together. I led the project through delivery, setting priorities and tracking progress across each part of the system, and trained advanced users.

What the project involved
  • A tailored data model: schools and their branches, teaching staff, classes, subjects, curricula and learning materials.
  • Marketing segmentation: identifying groups of teachers by what and where they teach, their roles and the sales representatives responsible for their schools.
  • Connected records: consolidated school views and rules that kept related teaching and staff records consistent as information changed.
  • Data and reporting: migration of existing data, product catalogue implementation, business reports and an API supplying material data to an external application.
  • Delivery and adoption: iterative development, testing, interface improvements and user training supported by written and video guides.

GENTIS

From training programmes to fiscalized invoices

Through Matik, we tailored SuiteCRM to connect Gentis’s training programmes, participants, quotations and invoices — including invoice fiscalization.

SuiteCRMTraining & servicesInvoice fiscalization

My role
I shaped the solution around Gentis’s training and service processes, led the project through delivery and trained users.

What the project involved
  • Managing training programmes and services, with dates, consultants, participants and supporting documents.
  • Keeping a history of each participant’s attendance, linked to their company and the programmes they attended.
  • Connecting services to quotations and invoices, with automatic transfer of data and additional charges.
  • Generating PDF quotations and invoices, handling invoice reversals and fiscalizing invoices.
  • Bringing client contacts, activities, purchased services and commercial documents into one view.

UDRUGA ZA PODRŠKU ŽRTVAMA I SVJEDOCIMA

Project delivered through UNDP

CRM for a victim and witness support helpline

We built a SugarCRM solution connecting incoming calls, caller records, case histories and a knowledge base — giving agents and volunteers the information they needed during support conversations.

SugarCRMTelephony integrationKnowledge base & reporting

My role
I shaped the solution around the association’s support workflows, led the project through delivery and trained users.

What the project involved
  • Call handling: telephony integration, distribution of calls to available agents and a CRM screen that opened when a call was answered.
  • Caller and case records: recognition of returning callers, support for unnamed callers and a shared history of calls, cases and follow-up activities.
  • Guidance during calls: direct links from the selected issue or institution to the relevant wiki guidance, helping agents find information and direct callers to appropriate support.
  • Reporting: analysis of call volumes and cases by period, location, case type and caller characteristics, with exportable reports.
  • User adoption: training and practical instructions for working with the CRM, knowledge base and reporting tools.

A later phase introduced a SuiteCRM version of the solution.

RASCO

CRM for after-sales support and field service

Through Matik, we tailored SuiteCRM to manage RASCO’s support requests, connecting customer communication, internal specialists and field service with equipment data from ERP.

SuiteCRMERP integrationService reporting

My role
I shaped the solution around RASCO’s support processes, led the project through delivery and trained users.

What the project involved
  • Ticket intake: automatic creation from emails, workload-based assignment and registration of telephone requests.
  • Ownership and collaboration: one responsible owner, with tasks for specialists and a shared history of correspondence and resolutions.
  • Field service: multiple interventions per ticket, technicians, planned and actual times, repair outcomes and email and SMS notifications.
  • ERP integration: customer and equipment serial-number data transferred from ERP to CRM.
  • Feedback and reporting: linked satisfaction surveys and analysis of resolution times by status, ticket type and the staff involved.

04 / BLOG · NOTES FROM THE FIELD

CRM, in plain language.

Visit CRM Arena on Medium

A place for experience, questions, and the bits of CRM that rarely make it into the sales presentation.

INTRODUCTIONON MEDIUM ↗

CRM in the Real World - An Introduction.

Meet the person behind CRM Arena, and the experience behind the writing.

THE FUNDAMENTALSON MEDIUM ↗

What is CRM?

A starting point for a conversation about customer relationship management.

05 / THE PERSON

Goran and a companion smiling during a bike ride in the mountains.

Goran Kabić

Senior CRM Consultant

Hi, I’m Goran.

I’m an independent CRM consultant based in Zagreb, Croatia, with more than 20 years of professional experience, including 15+ years working with CRM across over 30 projects.

Before focusing on CRM, I worked in engineering, led the local delivery of a €20M+ motorway systems project, and moved into business consulting at CROZ. Those roles gave me hands-on experience with budgets, suppliers, sales and the practical decisions that keep a business moving.

For 12 years, I ran Matik, a software and consulting company, while staying directly involved in our CRM projects. Running a business myself shaped how I work with clients: understanding what matters, making choices within real constraints and taking responsibility for delivery. Today, I bring that experience to my work as an independent consultant.

I enjoy figuring things out with people: understanding the problem, exploring ideas and finding a solution that makes sense. And then seeing it work in practice.

Outside work, I’m an ordinary guy sharing a home with four teenage girls, cooking meals and trying to keep the household reasonably sane. I walk our dog Issa twice a day, love being outdoors, and enjoy good company, a good laugh and time with my wife.

I also enjoy writing and exploring questions about life, consciousness and how we relate to one another, with a particular interest in self-discovery... getting to know ourselves beyond the roles we play, the habits we develop and the stories we tell ourselves about who we are. It’s fun! 😁

And that’s probably enough about me. Now I’d like to hear about you.

Cheers!

15+ years in CRM30+ CRM projectsEnglish & Croatian

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