Database Reference
In-Depth Information
do this learning. The amount of information in an organization is colossal. A single individual,
however intelligent and motivated, cannot learn and apply all the knowledge required for operat-
ing a company. Moreover, even this colossal amount of information does not remain constant, but
keeps changing and growing.
The only effective solution is collaborative learning, that is, sharing this learning experience
among a team of people. This not only caters to differences in the aptitudes and backgrounds
of people, they all can also do this learning simultaneously, thus drastically shortening the
turnaround time on the learning process itself. If organizational learning is seen in terms of the
creation and management of knowledge, it is very easy for us to see the essential need to share
the learning experience among the various member teams at the enterprise level and, within
each team, among the members of the teams. Thus, we see another reason for collaboration
among and within teams for contributing effectively in the learning process of the organization
as a whole.
What distinguishes learning from mere training is the transformation that results
from the former. This, again, can be implemented successfully only by collaborations
between various teams as it becomes apparent when such collaborations are embod-
ied in the form of a CRM package, such as SAP CRM.
1.3.7 The Virtual Enterprise
Along with the general economic growth and globalization of markets, personal disposable
incomes have increased, so the demand for product variety and customization has increased
appreciably. Additionally, technological progress driven by the search for superior performance is
already increasing the complexity of both the products and especially customer-facing processes.
Because volume, complexity, and variety are mutually exclusive, this has invariably led to collab-
orative endeavors for achieving this with greater flexibility in terms of enhancing of capabilities,
minimization of risks, lower costs of investments, shortened product life cycles, and so on.
These collaborative endeavors, which have been known variously as partnering, value-added
partnering, partnership sourcing, outsourcing, alliances, virtual corporations, and so on (see
Chapter 2, Section 2.4.1 “Collaborative Enterprise”), recognize the fact that optimization of the
system as a whole is not achievable by maximization of the output at the constituting subsystem
levels alone. Only CRMs with mature partner relationship management (PRM) packages such
as SAP CRM can provide a backbone for holding together the virtual value chain across all
these collaborative relationships. In Chapter 14, Section 14.7 “Applications Outsourcing (AO),”
we look at such issues that are beyond the borders of the conventional enterprise.
Outsourcing will become a dominant trend in the millennium enterprise, whereby the enter-
prise concentrates only on being competitive in its core business activities and outsources the
responsibility of competitiveness in noncore products and functions to third parties for mutual
benefit. The development and maintenance of its core competencies are critical to the success of
its main business; an enterprise cannot outsource these because it is these core functions that
give it an identity. On the other hand, competitiveness in noncore functions, which is also essen-
tial for overall efficiencies, is outsourced to enterprises that are themselves in business of provid-
ing these very products or services; the outsourced products and services offerings are
their
core
competencies.
