APPLICATION OF ERP IN CRM:

Introduction:
CRM is a business strategy that aims to understand, anticipate and manage the needs of an organisations current and potential customers. It is a comprehensive approach which provides seamless integration of every area of business that touches the customer- namely marketing, sales, customer services and field support through the integration of people, process and technology. CRM is a shift from traditional marketing as it focuses on the retention of customers in addition to the acquisition of new customers . The expression Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is becoming standard terminology, replacing what is widely perceived to be a misleadingly narrow term, relationship marketing (RM)

Definition:
CRM is concerned with the creation, development and enhancement of individualised customer relationships with carefully targeted customers and customer groups resulting in maximizing their total customer life-time value.

Why is CRM important?

Todays businesses compete with multi-product offerings created and delivered by networks, alliances and partnerships of many kinds. Both retaining customers and building relationships with other value-adding allies is critical to corporate performance. The adoption of C.R.M. is being fuelled by a recognition that long-term relationships with customers are one of the most important assets of an organisation. Customer Relationship management is the strongest and the most efficient approach in maintaining and creating relationships with customers. Customer relationship management is not only pure business but also ideate strong personal bonding within people. Development of this type of bonding drives the business to new levels of success. Once this personal and emotional linkage is built, it is very easy for any organization to identify the actual needs of customer and help them to serve them in a better way. It is a belief that more the sophisticated strategies involved in implementing the customer relationship

management, the more strong and fruitful is the business. Most of the organizations have dedicated world class tools for maintaining CRM systems into their workplace. Some of the efficient tools used in most of the renowned organization are BatchBook, Salesforce, Buzzstream, Sugar CRM etc.

Looking at some broader perspectives we can easily determine why a CRM System is always important for an organization: 1. A CRM system consists of a historical view and analysis of all the acquired or to be acquired customers. This helps in reduced searching and correlating customers and to foresee customer needs effectively and increase business. 2. CRM contains each and every bit of details of a customer, hence it is very easy for track a customer accordingly and can be used to determine which customer can be profitable and which not. 3. In CRM system, customers are grouped according to different aspects according to the type of business they do or according to physical location and are allocated to different customer managers often called as account managers. This helps in focusing and concentrating on each and every customer separately. 4. A CRM system is not only used to deal with the existing customers but is also useful in acquiring new customers. The process first starts with identifying a customer and maintaining all the corresponding details into the CRM system which is also called an Opportunity of Business. The Sales and Field representatives then try getting business out of these customers by sophistically following up with them and converting them into a winning deal. All this is very easily and efficiently done by an integrated CRM system. 5. The strongest aspect of Customer Relationship Management is that it is very costeffective. The advantage of decently implemented CRM system is that there is very less need of paper and manual work which requires lesser staff to manage and lesser resources to deal with. The technologies used in implementing a CRM system are also very cheap and smooth as compared to the traditional way of business. 6. All the details in CRM system is kept centralized which is available anytime on fingertips. This reduces the process time and increases productivity. 7. Efficiently dealing with all the customers and providing them what they actually need increases the customer satisfaction. This increases the chance of getting more business which ultimately enhances turnover and profit. 8. If the customer is satisfied they will always be loyal to you and will remain in business forever resulting in increasing customer base and ultimately enhancing net growth of business.

Benefits of Customer Relationship Management A Customer Relationship Management system may be chosen because it is thought to provide the following advantages:

Quality and efficiency Decrease in overall costs Decision support Enterprise ability Customer Attentions Increase profitability

Types/variations Sales force automation Sales force automation (SFA) involves using software to streamline all phases of the sales process, minimizing the time that sales representatives need to spend on each phase. This allows a business to use fewer sales representatives to manage their clients. At the core of SFA is a contact management system for tracking and recording every stage in the sales process for each prospective client, from initial contact to final disposition. Many SFA applications also include insights into opportunities, territories, sales forecasts and workflow automation, quote generation Sales Force Automation Tools

Sales Force Automation Tools Sales Process/Activity Management Sales and Territory Management Contact Management Lead Management Configuration Support

Alarm Reminders

Sales Process/Activity Management Include a sequence of sales activities Guide sales reps through each discrete step in the sales process

Offer calendars to assist in the planning of key customer events Proposal presentations Product demonstrations

Alarm Reminders Signal important tasks Generate documents as they are needed Make decisions based on the users input Generate a mailing suggestions

Sales and Territory Management Tools that enable sales managers and executives on-demand access to sales activities Before, during and after the order

Enables managers to set up sales teams and link individual accounts, regions and industries. Allows tracing of territory assignments and monitor pipelines and leads for individual territories. Allows optimization of individual teams

Contact Management Deals with organizing and managing data across and within a companys client and prospect organizations.

Lead Management Also known as opportunity management and pipeline management Track customer account history Monitor leads Generate next steps and Refine selling efforts online Allows sales management to automatically distribute client leads to a field or telemarketing rep based on the reds product knowledge or territory.

Configuration Support Automatically factors in complex customer attributes and requirements to build a solution from scratch Among the companies who may use such tools Computer technology vendors Appliance manufacturers Telephone companies

Field Force Automation (FFA) Part customer service and part sales force automation Also known as field service management Field technicians receive dispatch orders via their PDAs, pagers, and cell phones Making use of these same devices during the actual repair.

Marketing CRM systems for marketing help the enterprise identify and target potential clients and generate leads for the sales team. A key marketing capability is tracking and measuring multichannel campaigns, including email, search, social media, telephone and direct mail. Metrics monitored include clicks, responses, leads, deals, and revenue. Alternatively, Prospect Relationship Management (PRM) solutions offer to track customer behaviour and nurture them from first contact to sale, often cutting out the active sales process altogether. In a web-focused marketing CRM solution, organizations create and track specific web activities that help develop the client relationship. These activities may include such activities as free downloads, online video content, and online web presentations. Customer service and support CRM software provides a business with the ability to create, assign and manage requests made by customers. An example would be Call Center software which helps to direct a customer to the agent who can best help them with their current problem. Recognizing that this type of service is an important factor in attracting and retaining customers, organizations are increasingly turning to technology to help them improve their clients experience while aiming to increase efficiency and minimize costs. CRM software can also be used to identify and reward loyal customers which in turn will help customer retention. Even so, a 2009 study revealed that only 39% of corporate executives believe their employees have the right tools and authority to solve client problems.

Appointment Creating and scheduling appointments with customers is a central activity of most customer oriented businesses. Sales, customer support, and service personnel regularly spend a portion of their time getting in touch with customers and prospects through a variety of means to agree on a time and place for meeting for a sales conversation or to deliver customer service. Appointment CRM is a relatively new CRM platform category in which an automated system is used to offer a suite of suitable appointment times to a customer via e-mail or through a web site. An automated process is used to schedule and confirm the appointment, and place it on the appropriate person's calendar. Appointment CRM systems can be an origination point for a sales lead and are generally integrated with sales and marketing CRM systems to capture and store the interaction. Analytics Relevant analytics capabilities are often interwoven into applications for sales, marketing, and service. These features can be complemented and augmented with links to separate, purposebuilt applications for analytics and business intelligence. Sales analytics let companies monitor and understand client actions and preferences, through sales forecasting and data quality. Marketing applications generally come with predictive analytics to improve segmentation and targeting, and features for measuring the effectiveness of online, offline, and search marketing campaigns. Web analytics have evolved significantly from their starting point of merely tracking mouse clicks on Web sites. By evaluating buy signals, marketers can see which prospects are most likely to transact and also identify those who are bogged down in a sales process and need assistance. Marketing and finance personnel also use analytics to assess the value of multi-faceted programs as a whole. These types of analytics are increasing in popularity as companies demand greater visibility into the performance of call centers and other service and support channels, in order to correct problems before they affect satisfaction levels. Support-focused applications typically include dashboards similar to those for sales, plus capabilities to measure and analyze response times, service quality, agent performance, and the frequency of various issues. Integrated/collaborative Departments within enterprises especially large enterprises tend to function with little collaboration. More recently, the development and adoption of these tools and services have fostered greater fluidity and cooperation among sales, service, and marketing. This finds expression in the concept of collaborative systems that use technology to build bridges between departments. For example, feedback from a technical support center can enlighten marketers about specific services and product features clients are asking for. Reps, in their turn, want to be able to pursue these opportunities without the burden of re-entering records and contact data into a separate SFA system.

Small business For small business, basic client service can be accomplished by a contact manager system: an integrated solution that lets organizations and individuals efficiently track and record interactions, including emails, documents, jobs, faxes, scheduling, and more. These tools usually focus on accounts rather than on individual contacts. They also generally include opportunity insight for tracking sales pipelines plus added functionality for marketing and service. As with larger enterprises, small businesses are finding value in online solutions, especially for mobile and telecommuting workers. Social media Social media sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google Plus are amplifying the voice of people in the marketplace and are having profound and far-reaching effects on the ways in which people buy. Customers can now research companies online and then ask for recommendations through social media channels, making their buying media to share opinions and experiences on companies, products and services. As social media is not as widely moderated or censored as mainstream media, individuals can say anything they want about a company or brand, positive or negative. Increasingly, companies are looking to gain access to these conversations and take part in the dialogue. More than a few systems are now integrating to social networking sites. Social media promoters cite a number of business advantages, such as using online communities as a source of high-quality leads and a vehicle for crowd sourcing solutions to client-support problems. Companies can also leverage client stated habits and preferences to "Hypertargeting" their sales and marketing communications. Some analysts take the view that business-to-business marketers should proceed cautiously when weaving social media into their business processes. These observers recommend careful market research to determine if and where the phenomenon can provide measurable benefits for client interactions, sales and support. It is stated that people feel their interactions are peer-to-peer between them and their contacts, and resent company involvement, sometimes responding with negatives about that company.

Non-profit and membership-based Systems for non-profit and membership-based organizations help track constituents and their involvement in the organization. Capabilities typically include tracking the following: fundraising, demographics, membership levels, membership directories, volunteering and communications with individuals.

Horizontal Vs. Vertical Horizontal CRM manufacturers offer the same non-specialized base product across all industries. They tend to be cheaper, least common denominator solutions. For example, a bakery would get the same product as a bank. Vertical CRM manufacturers offer specialized, specific industry or pain-point CRM solutions. In general, horizontal CRM solutions are less costly up front, and more costly in the future, due to the fact that companies must tailor them for their particular industry and business model. On the other hand, Vertical CRM solutions tend to be more costly up front and less costly down the road because they already incorporate best practices that are specific to an industry and business model. Major CRM vendors offer horizontal CRM solutions. In order to tailor a horizontal CRM solution, companies may use industry templates to overlay some generic best practices by industry on top of the horizontal CRM solution. Horizontal CRM vendors may also rely on value added reseller networks of systems integrators to build vertical solutions and sell them as 3rd party add-ons or to come in and customize the solution to fit into a particular scenario. Vertical CRM vendors focus on a particular industry. As a general rule of thumb in CRM, it is ten times as costly to build a vertical solution from a horizontal software program than it is to find a particular vertical solution that is already tailored to your business model and industry

Five views of CRM

Marketing Automation Designed to get the right mix of the companys products and services in front of each customer at the right time.

Sales Automation Collaborative tools that enable all parties to the transaction to interact with one another

Service and Service Fulfillment Serving existing customer base through problem resolution systems, workflow automation and field service dispatch systems

Customer Self-Service e-CRM. Capabilities that can be directly invoked by the customer on the internet via PC and wireless devices.

E-Commerce capabilities such as shopping, marketplace, transaction and payment processing, and e-commerce security

The way it works:

Sales Force Automation Must provide a linking to other relevent IT/Enterprise systems

Sales Management Must graphically provide management with an overview of all sales info in real time E.g., historical data, back office, sales force performance

Marketing Management Must organize, execute, track and analyze all campaigns

Document Management Requires Common storage and linking area templates for quick document generation Tracking and logging of changes Sending and Tracking of all customer communication

Data Management Must quickly mine effective data out of system into hands of decision makers.

Improves time to reaction Project Management Must be linked to marketing module for cost and resource tracking

Knowledge Management Must collect, organize, and analyze knowledge about customers Action management Questionnaires

Telemarketing Management Must have complete tech support

Customer Self-Service Capabilities Must have account insight, detailed inventory information, service details/status, contact information...at the least.

What do customers want? Most obviously, and this is the extent of many suppliers' perceptions, customers want costeffective products or services that deliver required benefits to them. (Benefits are what the products or services do for the customers.) Note that any single product or service can deliver different benefits to different customers. It's important to look at things from the customer's perspective even at this level. More significantly however, customers want to have their needs satisfied. Customers' needs are distinctly different to and far broader than a product or service, and the features and benefits encompassed. Customers' needs generally extend to issues far beyond the suppliers' proposition, and will often include the buying-selling process (prior to providing anything), the way that communications are handled, and the nature of the customer-supplier relationship. Modern CRM theory refers to the idea of 'integrating the customer'. This new way of looking at the business involves integrating the customer (more precisely the customer's relevant people and processes) into all aspects of the supplier's business, and vice versa. This implies a relationship that is deeper and wider than the traditional 'arms-length' supplier-customer relationship. The traditional approach to customer relationships was based on a simple transaction or trade, and little more. Perhaps there would be only a single point of contact between one person on each side. All communication and dealings would be between these two people, even if the customers' organization contained many staff, departments, and functional requirements (distribution, sales, quality, finance, etc). The modern approach to customer relationship management is based on satisfying all of the needs - people, systems, processes, etc - across the customer's organization, such as might be affected and benefited by the particular supply. Customers' expectations If an organization cannot at least meet its customers' expectations it will struggle. Ideally a business organization should exceed its customers' expectations, thereby maximizing the satisfaction of its customers, and also the credibility of its goods and services in the eyes of its customers. Customers normally become delighted when a supplier under-promises and over-delivers. To over-promise and under-deliver is a recipe for customers to become very dissatisfied. Rule No 1 - You cannot assume that you know what a customer's expectations are ... You must ask.

Rule No 2 - Customer expectations will constantly change so they must be determined on an on-going basis. The expectations of different customers for the same product or service will vary according to:

social and demographic factors economic situation educational standards competitor products experience

Therefore, given all these variable factors, it is no surprise that one size certainly does not fit all. There are a wide variety of relationship drivers. For example:

quality price product location customer service

When you ask you might discover some factors that you'd perhaps never even considered, for example:

health and safety support systems compatibility contract structure distribution flexibility technical support troubleshooting and problem-solving

Generating a customer focused CRM solution: A new way of thinking:

change in paradigm change in the messages sent and received change in the overall culture

And a new way of doing things:

processes that are capable and effective structures and systems that support a business centred on its customers connectivity (end-to-end processes) both internally and externally (eg., with suppliers)

CRM and communications Communication is central to any successful relationship. In terms of Customer Relationship Management, communication needs to be consistent and high quality; as determined by:

on time focused relevant reliable coherent

Importantly also, for effective communications it's the message and meaning that is received that counts, irrespective of what the communicator thinks they've said, or written. Communications must be judged most vitally by the reaction of the receiver. If the reaction is not good then the communication is poor. The information contained in a CRM system allows communication to be directed at the correct audience, in the correct way. The communication system must also encourage and facilitate honest and actionable feedback. Feedback from customers - especially complaints - are essential for good organizational performance and ongoing development. Complaints are free guidance for improving your quality, and free opportunities to increase customer loyalty.

Focus on building relationships The essential CRM focus of any organization should be on developing core competencies, and an overall strategy of building customer relationships. In this way, all efforts in the organization can be aligned to:

customers and the culture of exceeding of customer expectation understanding and managing the people impact on the culture of the organization customers being recognised and treated as partners the value of relationship-building being valued service being seen as a value-adding activity reward and recognition being based on customer focus ie., 'going the extra mile' evidence of corporate support for service activity

e- CRM:
Customer contacts

CRM Contact with customer made through the retail store, phone, and fax. eCRM All of the traditional methods are used in addition to Internet, email, wireless, and PDA technologies.

System interface

CRM Implements the use of ERP systems, emphasis is on the back-end. eCRM Geared more toward front end, which interacts with the back-end through use of ERP systems, data warehouses, and data marts.

System overhead (client computers)

CRM The client must download various applications to view the web-enabled applications. They would have to be rewritten for different platform. eCRM Does not have these requirements because the client uses the browser.

Customization and personalization of information

CRM Views differ based on the audience, and personalized views are not available. Individual personalization requires program changes. eCRM Personalized individual views based on purchase history and preferences. Individual has ability to customize view.

System focus

CRM System (created for internal use) designed based on job function and products. Web applications designed for a single department or business unit. eCRM System (created for external use) designed based on customer needs. Web application designed for enterprise-wide use.

System maintenance and modification

CRM More time involved in implementation and maintenance is more expensive because the system exists at different locations and on various servers. eCRM Reduction in time and cost. Implementation and maintenance can take place at one location and on one server.

As the internet is becoming more and more important in business life, many companies consider it as an opportunity to reduce customer-service costs, tighten customer relationships and most important, further personalize marketing messages and enable mass customizationECRM is being adopted by companies because it increases customer loyalty and customer retention by improving customer satisfaction, one of the objectives of eCRM. E-loyalty results in long-term profits for online retailers because they incur less costs of recruiting new customers, plus they have an increase in customer retentionTogether with the creation of Sales Force Automation (SFA), where electronic methods were used to gather data and analyze customer information, the trend of the upcoming Internet can be seen as the foundation of what we know as eCRM today.As we implement eCRM process, there are three steps life cycle 1. Data Collection: About customers preference information for actively (answer knowledge) and passively (surfing record) ways via website, email, questionnaire. 2. Data Aggregation: Filter and analysis for firms specific needs to fulfill their customers. 3. Customer Interaction: According to customers need, company provide the proper feedback them.

We can define eCRM as activities to manage customer relationships by using the Internet, web browsers or other electronic touch points. The challenge hereby is to offer communication and information on the right topic, in the right amount, and at the right time that fits the customers specific needs.
eCRM strategy components When enterprises integrate their customer information, there are three eCRM strategy components: 1. Operational: Because of sharing information, the processes in business should make customers need as first and seamlessly implement. This avoids multiple times to bother customers and redundant process. 2. Analytical: Analysis helps company maintain a long-term relationship with customers. 3. Collaborative: Due to improved communication technology, different departments in company implement (intra-organizational) or work with business partners (inter-organizational) more efficiently by sharing information.

Several CRM software packages exist that can help companies in deploying CRM activities. Besides choosing one of these packages, companies can also choose to design and build their own solutions. In order to implement CRM in an effective way, one needs to consider the following factors:

Create a customer-focused culture in the organization. Adopt customer-based managers to assess satisfaction. Develop an end-to-end process to serve customers. Recommend questions to be asked to help a customer solve a problem. Track all aspects of selling to customers, as well as prospects

Furthermore, CRM solutions are more effective once they are being implemented in other information systems used by the company. Examples are Transaction Processing System (TPS) to process data real-time, which can then be sent to the sales and finance departments in order to recalculate inventory and financial position quick and accurately. Once this information is transferred back to the CRM software. In defining the scope of eCRM, three different levels can be distinguished:

Foundational services:

This includes the minimum necessary services such as web site effectiveness and responsiveness as well as order fulfillment.

Customer-centered services:

These services include order tracking, product configuration and customization as well as security/trust.

Value-added services:

These are extra services such as online auctions and online training and education. Self-services are becoming increasingly important in CRM activities. The rise of the Internet and eCRM has boosted the options for self-service activities. A critical success factor is the integration of such activities into traditional channels. An example was Fords plan to sell cars directly to customers via its Web Site, which provoked an outcry among its dealers network CRM activities are mainly of two different types. Reactive service is where the customer has a problem and contacts the company. Proactive service is where the manager has decided not to wait for the customer to contact the firm, but to be aggressive and contact the customer himself in order to establish a dialogue and solve problems. Steps to eCRM Success Many factors play a part in ensuring that the implementation any level of eCRM is successful. One obvious way it could be measured is by the ability for the system to add value to the existing business. There are four suggested implementation steps that affect the viability of a project like this: 1. Developing customer-centric strategies 2. Redesigning workflow management systems 3. Re-engineering work processes 4. Supporting with the right technologies

Benefits of CRM include: 1. Sales, service and support staff deal more effectively with customers because they have instant access to a complete view of all customer interactions. 2. Management improves as the CRM system makes it quick and easy to produce accurate key reports. 3. Sales and marketing start winning more business through better lead tracking and management. 4. Business processes become more proficient as data in the CRM system is inherently well organised. 5. More customers return for repeat business because staff deal with their queries quickly and efficiently. 6. Sales bring in more revenue by keeping a solid grasp on potential sales opportunities. 7. Because the modern CRM software is powerful, fast, user-friendly and reliable, staff throughout the company waste far less time. 8. Purchasing improves and costs reduce because of better forecasting and scheduling. 9. Efficiency and cash flow increase as better pipeline management accurately predicts manufacturing and production requirements. 10. Sales teams are developed more effectively through comprehensive analysis of conversion ratios from lead to opportunity to win or lose. 11. Marketing run far more successful and cost-effective marketing campaigns through better targeting. 12. A greater understanding of customers develops through a single, comprehensive view of all customer touch points and information. 13. Marketing campaigns bring in higher quality leads through better prospecting, market intelligence and profiling. 14. A closer team environment develops as staff share information and gain a better understanding of other areas of the company. 15. Management decision making becomes more informed thanks to an in-depth understanding of the way the business functions.

REFERENCES:

http://www.hill.com/resources/whitepapers/enterprise_apps.pdf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-crm http://www.businessballs.com/crmcustomerrelationshipmanagement.htm http://www.focus.com/questions/what-are-benefits-customer-relationship-management/ http://cymatric.com/crm.html www.opentaps.org/