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one can state that CRM Systems, like CRM, are useful to companies that have customers with
large variability both in their needs and their value to the company's business.
A CRM System like SAP CRM can provide this comprehensiveness and flexibility because at
the heart of the system resides a CASE-like repository that stores all details of these predeveloped
applications. These details include every single data objects, business objects, and user-interface
(UI) programs that are used by the complete system. It also has additional support subsystems
that help it to manage, secure, and maintain the operations of this package on a day-to-day basis.
Off-the-shelf packages, and especially enterprise-wide solutions such as CRM systems, are
considered as the best approach for confronting the software crisis of the 1980s (see the following
note on customized vs. packaged solutions). This was because
1. CRM Systems ensure better validation of user requirements directly by the user.
2. CRM Systems ensure consistent quality of delivered functionality.
3. CRM Systems provide a cohesive and integrated information system architecture.
4. CRM Systems ensure a fair degree of standardization.
5. CRM Systems provide a consistent and accurate documentation of the system.
6. CRM Systems provide outstanding quality and productivity in the development and main-
tenance of the system.
Half a decade later, as companies are reporting their experiences in implementing a CRM System,
a base of experience seems to support the fact that companies that plan and manage the use of
CRM System are usually successful. Today, the recognized management decision is not whether
to use CRM System, but rather when to use CRM System and which CRM System to use. As we
go through this topic, it will become evident that SAP CRM is the best-of-breed product in this
genre.
The success of CRM Systems is based on the principle of reusability. The origin of reusability
goes back almost to the beginning of the computer era, when it was recognized that far too much
program code was being written and rewritten repeatedly and uneconomically. Very soon, most of
the programming languages provided for routines or packets of logic that could be reused multiple
times within individual programs or even by a group of programs. Databases enabled the reuse of
data, resulting in a tremendous surge in programmer productivity. Similarly, networks permitted
reuse of the same programs on different terminals or workstations at different locations.
CRM Systems, like ERPs, extended the concept of reusability to the functionality provided by a
system. For instance, SAP CRM was based on the essential commonality observed in the function-
ing of companies within an industry. SAP built a reusable library of normally required processes in
a particular industry, and all that implementing SAP CRM customers had to do was to select from
this library all those processes that were required by their company. From the project effort and cost
that were essential for the development and implementation using the traditional software develop-
ment life cycle (SDLC), CRM reduced the project effort and cost to that associated only with the
implementation phase of the SDLC. Even though the cost of implementing a CRM System like
SAP CRM might seem higher than that of traditional system, the CRM system gets implemented
sooner and therefore starts delivering all of its benefits much earlier than the traditional systems.
Although there have not been any published results as yet, it has become an accepted fact that
enterprises that implemented CRM systems for only a part of their organizations, or for only a
few select functions within their organizations, did not benefit greatly. CRM Systems, like ERPs
earlier, recognize the fact that business processes of an organization were much more fundamental
than data characterizing various aspects of the organization. Most importantly, CRM systems
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