Implementing CRM systems

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Business economics - Marketing, Corporate Communication, CRM, Market Research, Social Media, grade: 1,7, University of applied sciences, Munich, course: Customer Relationship Management, 7 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Investing in information technology without ...

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: 1,7, University of applied sciences, Munich, course: Customer Relationship Management, language: English, abstract: Investing in information technology without relevant questions or a plan for application can lead to the development of a very expensive toy that offers no return on investment. While the planning and implementation of the CRM projects are examined in this work, potential organisational problems and barriers in the attitude of involved employees are analyzed for each implementation phase. The foundation of an accurate CRM implementation is the adoption of a firm’s strategy that should be designed to optimize both profitability and customer satisfaction. Many organisations today have discovered it is a mistake to think about CustomerRelationship Management (CRM) systems exclusively in technological terms. Acustomer focus without accurate information is similar to attempting to circumnavigatethe planet without a map.1 Investing in information technology without relevantquestions or a plan for application can lead to the development of a very expensive toythat offers no return on investment. While the planning and implementation of the CRMprojects are examined in this work, potential organisational problems and barriers in theattitude of involved employees are analyzed for each implementation phase. Thefoundation of an accurate CRM implementation is the adoption of a firm’s strategy thatshould be designed to optimize both profitability and customer satisfaction.To realize CRM, organisations must foster behaviours and implement processes andtechnologies which support coordinated customer interactions throughout all customerchannels. In order to achieve this, organisations must develop the strategic andfunctional components of the CRM projects. The implementation of a CRM strategy isa series of small projects. These projects are all identified when the strategy is definedand they normally fall into the categories: developing a strategy, implementingoperational and analytical projects. If this is not done accurately and/or there is lack ofmanagement understanding and commitment, the organisation can be exposed toproblems such as retention of employees or data quality problems. The organisation isthus not in a position to initiate the desired customer relationship and to increaserevenues while at the same time reducing costs.