Database Reference
In-Depth Information
The basic idea of collaboration has been gaining tremendous ground with the increasing
importance of business processes and dynamically constituted teams in the operations of com-
panies. The traditional bureaucratic structures, which are highly formalized, centralized, and
functionally specialized, have proven too slow, too expensive, and too unresponsive to be com-
petitive. These structures are based on the basic assumption that all the individual activities and
task elements in a job are independent and separable. Organizations were structured hierarchi-
cally in a command - and - control structure, and it was taken as an accepted fact that the output of
the organization as a whole could be maximized by maximizing the output of each constituent
organizational unit.
On the other hand, by their very nature, teams are flexible, adaptable, dynamic, and collabora-
tive. They encourage flexibility, innovation, entrepreneurship, and responsiveness. For the last few
decades, even in traditionally bureaucratic-oriented manufacturing companies, teams have mani-
fested themselves and flourished successfully in various forms such as superteams, self-directed
work teams (SDWT), and quality circles. The dynamic changes in the market and global competi-
tion being confronted by companies necessarily lead to flatter and more flexible organizations with
a dominance of more dynamic structures like teams.
People in teams, representing different functional units, are motivated to work within con-
straints of time and resources to achieve a defined goal. The goals might range from incremental
improvements in responsiveness, efficiency, quality, and productivity to quantum leaps in new
product development. Even in traditional businesses, the number and variety of teams instituted
for various functions, projects, tasks, and activities has been on the increase.
Increasingly, companies are populated with worker teams that have special skills, operate semi-
autonomously, and are answerable directly to peers and to the end customers. Members not only
must have higher level of skills than before but must also be more flexible and capable of doing
more jobs. The empowered workforce with considerably enhanced managerial responsibilities
(pertaining to information, resources, authority, and accountability) has resulted in an increase in
worker commitment and flexibility. Whereas workers have witnessed gains in the quality of their
work life, corporations have obtained returns in terms of increased interactivity, responsiveness,
quality, productivity, and cost improvements.
Consequently, in the past few years, a new type of nonhierarchical network organization with
distributed intelligence and decentralized decision-making powers has been evolving. This entails
a demand for constant and frequent communication and feedback among the various teams or
functional groups. A CRM package such as SAP CRM essentially provides such an enabling envi-
ronment through modules like WebFlow, SAP Business Intelligence, and SAP Product Lifecycle
Management (PLM).
The significance of Management by Collaboration (MBC) becomes clear when we
consider latest extensions to the traditional CRM like Social CRM (see Chapter 14,
Section 14.11 “Social CRM via Social Networks”).
1.3.1 The Relationship-Based Enterprise (RBE)
A Relationship-Based Enterprise (RBE) builds customer relationships to sustain business growth
and to increase the profitability of the business. A relationship is a series of dialog each consisting
of numerous instantaneous interactions with the customer. The Relationship-Based Enterprise
 
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