Database Reference
In-Depth Information
◾
Provides a responsive medium for quality improvement and standardization efforts includ-
ing QC, QA, TQM, and QFD.
◾
Is process oriented and therefore is a fertile ground for implementing Activity-Based
Management (ABM) efforts, be they for budgeting, costing, efficiency, or quality.
◾
Provides the best conduit for measuring the benefits accruing to an organization by monitor-
ing the Return on Investment (ROI) of not only money but also manpower, materials, time,
and information. This could be in terms of various parameters like cost, quality, responsive-
ness, and cycle time. Thus, CRM could assist in the implementation of, for instance, the
balanced scorecard within the enterprise.
◾
Enables an enterprise to scale up its level of operations drastically or even enter into different
businesses altogether, without any disruption or performance degradation.
◾
Enables real-time creation of data directly during the actual physical transaction or pro-
cesses by the persons who are actually responsible for it.
◾
Pushes latest data and status to the actual operational-level persons for better and faster
decisions, at least on routine issues; empowers and gives ownership to the customer-facing
operational personnel at the customer touch points (this automatically goes away with prob-
lems associated with the collection of voluminous data, preparation, entry, corrections of
inaccuracies, backups, and so on).
◾
Integrates data of the organization into a single comprehensive database.
◾
Provides online availability of correct, current, consistent, complete, clear, and authentic
operational data across multiple channels and touch points that could be populated into the
enterprise data warehouse for analysis and mining.
◾
Greatly reduces the cost of maintaining systems.
As mentioned in the introduction to this chapter, all these characteristics of CRM implemented
in organizations arise primarily from the fact that what they handle is not merely organizational
data, but relationships that are of strategic importance to the customer-centric enterprise.
In the next section, we turn to this aspect of the relationship-based organizations.
2.3.3 ERP versus CRM
There are two primary chains within an enterprise:
1. The supply chain covers the back-of-office to external suppliers and distributors. This
includes functions and processes associated with finance, accounting, inventory, human
resources, manufacturing, shipping, and logistics.
2. The demand chain covers the front-of-office to external customers and the channel. This
includes functions and processes associated with sales, marketing, service, and support.
The ERP and CRM approaches differ in their focus and tactical objectives. The ERP orientation,
for example, views business as a set of rigid back-office processes, and customers are modeled as
resources
that fall under the control of internally focused, command-and-control systems. Because
domain expertise in ERP and other back-office applications focuses on algorithmic optimization
of structured and deterministic processes, the ERP perspective does not accommodate the ran-
dom, unstructured, and highly dynamic nature of customer behavior.
Table 2.1 compares the traditional back-office automation technology like ERPs with that of
the Relationship Building Technology like CRM.
