Database Reference
In-Depth Information
customer-centric goals as well as their own contribution to the same on a daily basis. This
engenders a sense of involvement and transparency that was not been achievable earlier.
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Culture
: CRM truly makes it possible to operate a collaborative, value-add driven, and
customer-centric organization in a real-time mode. CRM permits learning happening in
any part of the enterprise to be incorporated into the system, even on a daily basis.
◾
Structure
: CRM system provides visibility to the responsibility-oriented organization struc-
ture rather than the designation-oriented structure of earlier times. It provides instant com-
munication and interaction with all customer-facing members irrespective of their reporting
department or designation.
◾
Systems
: CRM provides for adequate control without encumbering the work that directly
contributes in the value-add delivered to the external or internal customers.
◾
Processes
: CRM enables the process-oriented enterprise that might not always be feasible to
realize physically, for instance, by locating all concerned members of a team in one place.
It makes it possible for members to participate in multiple customer interactions efficiently
and effectively.
2.4.2 Extended Collaborative Enterprise
The future of CRM is closely related with the efforts to reengineer such interenterprise interfaces
and foster closer collaborations across multiple enterprises, that is, the extended collaborative enter-
prise (ECE). This is in quite contrast to the traditional adversarial relationships that have been
known to exist among the suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers. The true economies
of production can only be gained by the economies of cooperation. The virtual organization that
we referred to in Chapter 1 spans all such members of the traditional supply and demand chain.
In the 1990s, the enterprise resource planning systems or ERPs focused attention on enhanc-
ing performance within the enterprise, yet more than 50% of the variable costs that affect the
performance of an organization are mainly driven by decisions outside the boundaries of the orga-
nization. After benefiting from streamlining and re-engineering the internal processes, enterprises
will address the potential for major gains obtainable from these cross company processes. But
why is this extended value chain considered important for the next quantum leap in organization
performances? Enormous opportunities for enhanced efficiencies exist at the interfaces between
contributing value chain partners, as also the potential for a greater level of customer satisfaction.
Like the non-value-adding hand-offs within an organization, many of the interfaces and
hand-offs between partners are non-value-adding, efficiency depleting, and time consuming. The
customer ends up paying for all these inefficiencies, regardless of how far removed or hidden he or
she may be from the source. Similar to the inefficiencies associated with typical internal processes
(before the implementation of enterprise-wide solutions like SAP CRM), value chain inefficiencies
can easily account up to 25% of the company's operating costs.
Thus, an ECE differs from a traditional supply chain in the extent to which a company can
integrate with its partners.
2.4.3 Extended Relationship Management (ERM)
ERM provides a unique global view that consolidates all information about stakeholders, their
interactions, and activities into a centralized repository for both real-time and analytical use.
The objective of Extended Relationship Management (ERM) is to build and maintain profitable
