Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 9.7
Customer Relationship
Management System
Customer
Problem,
idea,
request for
information
Request
for
proposal
Other
contacts
Sale
Customer
relationship
management
system
Market
research
Product
development
Sales
Quality
control
Marketing
The key features of a CRM system include the following:
•
Contact management:
The ability to track data on individual customers and sales leads
and access that data from any part of the organization
•
Sales management:
The ability to organize data about customers and sales leads and then
to prioritize the potential sales opportunities and identify appropriate next steps
•
Customer support:
The ability to support customer service reps so that they can quickly,
thoroughly, and appropriately address customer requests and resolve customers' issues
while at the same time collecting and storing data about those interactions
•
Marketing automation:
The ability to capture and analyze all customer interactions,
generate appropriate responses, and gather data to create and build effective and efficient
marketing campaigns
•
Analysis:
The ability to analyze customer data to identify ways to increase revenue and
decrease costs, identify the source of the firm's “best customers,” and determine how to
retain them and find even more of them
CRM software vendors are racing to add new features and capabilities, as outlined in the
following examples:
•
Siebel CRM On Demand from Oracle provides social networking features to assist
salespeople in reaching their sales goals. One feature identifies sales opportunities by
combining sales data from internal systems with external information. Another feature
assists salespeople in creating and joining groups like Facebook where they can make
contacts with potential customers.
21
•
Sugar CRM has a version of its Web-based customer relationship management software
that can be accessed by either the BlackBerry or Apple iPhone devices. Not to be outdone,
SAP and Research in Motion have been working on a joint development that will enable
customers to access SAP applications from BlackBerry mobile devices.
22
