06-05-2011, 09:49 AM
Datapro Summary
Progressive change is an accurate way to describe the advancement of information technology
throughout the 1990s. As IT continues to evolve, the ways in which companies do business are
also changing. The emergence of the Internet as a business venue, the growing percentage of
consumers accessing the Web, and the increasing number of households equipped with a PC or
other Web-access device are speeding IT's rate of change. In the last decade, ERP vendors helped
their clients respond to the promise of the Web with products offering Web-enabled technology,
virtual storefronts, and self-service applications. Enterprises are now using base ERP systems in
concert with data warehouses and marts to justify business decisions or analyze and respond to
market shifts and trends more effectively. In addition, every business wanting to compete
vigorously in 2000 and beyond was told it needed a Web site. Now, a typical enterprise has some,
if not all, of these elements: an ERP system, a data warehouse or other business intelligence
solution, and a Web site with potential customers visiting everyday. These types of progressive
changes are triggering an interest in customer intelligence. Enterprises want to learn more about
each and every individual customer and use that knowledge to effectively nurture and manage
individual customer relationships, yielding increased customer satisfaction and profit--a business
strategy known as Customer Relationship Management (CRM). This overview will provide a
basic analysis of CRM-enabling technologies, the market itself, key vendors, business impacts,
and risks and rewards.
Technology Basics
History
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a business strategy designed to help an enterprise
understand and anticipate the needs of its potential and current customers. Customer data is
captured in several different areas of the enterprise, stored in a central database, analyzed, and
distributed to key points (called touch points). Touch points can include a mobile sales force,
inbound and outbound call centers, Web sites, point-of-sale, direct marketing channels, and any
other parts of an enterprise that interact with the customer. The distributed data is intended to help
foster effective, individual experiences between the company and the customer.
In a sense, CRM is a natural and predictable extension of the evolution of marketing and
sales. The first CRM-enabling technologies included basic contact management software linked
to individual PCs. This primitive form of Sales Force Automation (SFA) soon grew to include--in
Brought to you by:
addition to contact management--account management, opportunity management, mail merge,
and forecasting. Client, product, marketing, and competitive information were eventually added
to the mix. Other front-office applications, such as sales configuration engines, were added, as
well as tight links to back-end ERP. Initially, CRM projects focused on unifying the spheres of
sales and customer service, but in the last few years, a marketing function was added, as
enterprises recognized both a need to tie marketing campaigns to sales and the significant impact
service interactions have on sales lead generation. Now, CRM projects strive to provide data to
every enterprise department that touches the customer.
Download full report
http://lamarhellertechnology/crm/whitepapers/crmdataperspective.pdf
Progressive change is an accurate way to describe the advancement of information technology
throughout the 1990s. As IT continues to evolve, the ways in which companies do business are
also changing. The emergence of the Internet as a business venue, the growing percentage of
consumers accessing the Web, and the increasing number of households equipped with a PC or
other Web-access device are speeding IT's rate of change. In the last decade, ERP vendors helped
their clients respond to the promise of the Web with products offering Web-enabled technology,
virtual storefronts, and self-service applications. Enterprises are now using base ERP systems in
concert with data warehouses and marts to justify business decisions or analyze and respond to
market shifts and trends more effectively. In addition, every business wanting to compete
vigorously in 2000 and beyond was told it needed a Web site. Now, a typical enterprise has some,
if not all, of these elements: an ERP system, a data warehouse or other business intelligence
solution, and a Web site with potential customers visiting everyday. These types of progressive
changes are triggering an interest in customer intelligence. Enterprises want to learn more about
each and every individual customer and use that knowledge to effectively nurture and manage
individual customer relationships, yielding increased customer satisfaction and profit--a business
strategy known as Customer Relationship Management (CRM). This overview will provide a
basic analysis of CRM-enabling technologies, the market itself, key vendors, business impacts,
and risks and rewards.
Technology Basics
History
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a business strategy designed to help an enterprise
understand and anticipate the needs of its potential and current customers. Customer data is
captured in several different areas of the enterprise, stored in a central database, analyzed, and
distributed to key points (called touch points). Touch points can include a mobile sales force,
inbound and outbound call centers, Web sites, point-of-sale, direct marketing channels, and any
other parts of an enterprise that interact with the customer. The distributed data is intended to help
foster effective, individual experiences between the company and the customer.
In a sense, CRM is a natural and predictable extension of the evolution of marketing and
sales. The first CRM-enabling technologies included basic contact management software linked
to individual PCs. This primitive form of Sales Force Automation (SFA) soon grew to include--in
Brought to you by:
addition to contact management--account management, opportunity management, mail merge,
and forecasting. Client, product, marketing, and competitive information were eventually added
to the mix. Other front-office applications, such as sales configuration engines, were added, as
well as tight links to back-end ERP. Initially, CRM projects focused on unifying the spheres of
sales and customer service, but in the last few years, a marketing function was added, as
enterprises recognized both a need to tie marketing campaigns to sales and the significant impact
service interactions have on sales lead generation. Now, CRM projects strive to provide data to
every enterprise department that touches the customer.
Download full report
http://lamarhellertechnology/crm/whitepapers/crmdataperspective.pdf
