Database Reference
In-Depth Information
customer requirements and commitments made to the customer, thus ensuring
on-time delivery
(OTD). The tight integration with the fulfillment processes enables coordination, monitoring,
and managing of goods across the ECE; it also provides instant notifications and alerts on excep-
tions and problem that may delay the on-time delivery of the order.
Furthermore, this integration also helps in matching the growing trend of customers post-
poning the buying decision closer to the purchasing decision with the corresponding ability of
the enterprise to postpone the point of product differentiation as close as possible to the point of
demand by the customer. Every action of the customer needs to be met by a highly automated and
tightly integrated response across the supply chain to fulfill the need. More succinctly, one can say
that
sell one, make one
has become the manufacturing watchword and corresponds closely to the
current marketing watchword of
the market of one
.
2.1.6 CRM Enables the Intelligent Enterprise
The ability to access, collect, and analyze information in real term is an essential prerequisite of a
customer-responsive enterprise. For remaining competitive, providing good customer service, and
optimizing e-business operations, enterprises have to enable a
zero latency enterprise
(
ZLE
) that
supports real-term decision processing providing rapid access to information and analyses from
any place at any time for making real-term business decisions. Such decision processing systems
are also required to integrate with the corresponding business processes to attain a closed-loop sys-
tem whereby the output of the decision processing applications is delivered as inputs to influence
favorably the business operations of the enterprise.
A real-term decision processing system typically consists of
◾
An event-driven hub that (via messaging and EAI) captures, transforms, and loads opera-
tional data into a data warehouse
◾
An analysis engine that generates business analyses from any place at any time
◾
A rule-driven decision engine that generates recommendations or e-business action messages
in the real term
Business Intelligence (BI) applications are decision support tools that enable real-time, interactive
access, analysis, and manipulation of mission-critical corporate information to provide users with
valuable insights into key indicators to identify business problems and opportunities. BI enables
users to access and leverage vast amount of information to analyze relationships and trends to
support real-term business decisions. BI systems enable enterprises to become proactive and
infor-
mation agile
(see Chapter 1, Sections 1.3.8 “Agile Enterprise” and 7.1.3 “Enterprise Agility”) by
delivering information to
◾
Empower enterprise users in the assessment, enhancement, and optimization of organiza-
tional operations and performance
◾
Deliver real-term business information to users about customer and partners
2.1.7 CRM Elevates IT Strategy as a Part of the Business Strategy
The coming of CRM heralded an enhanced role for IT systems. They are no longer the support
functions of the earlier years. If someone is under that illusion, he or she will pay a very high price.
Today, the real focus of IS/IT systems is no longer its alignment with the business strategy of the
enterprise, but with that of the customer.
