Customer Relationship Management Essay -- Software Technology CRM Essa

Customer Relationship Management A relative of mine works for a corporate firm on CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software. He told me that their company is doing well with their CRM initiative while most of the other companies, using different software, are not achieving their goal of customer satisfaction. That gave me a big click of interest towards my research topic and I came up with a research questions as â€Å"How to avoid CRM failure?† and how to choose a best CRM software vendor? Customer Relationship Management is an interactive process for achieving the optimum balance between corporate investments and the satisfaction of customer needs to generate the maximum profit. CRM refers to management of all interactions with customers in which the enterprise indulges. Its main focus is on managing and optimizing entire customer lifecycle. The customer lifecycle revolves around marketing, sales and customer service. According to Jill Dyche (2002), CRM promises to help companies get to know their customers well enough to understand which ones to keep and which ones they should be willing to lose and why -and how not to overspend in the meantime. CRM also means automating many of the business processes and accompanying analysis and saving precious time in the bargain. Today’s companies are interacting with consumers at unprecedented levels and across different channels, such as E-mail, text chat, and multi-functional call centers. Marketing, sales and customer service are commonplace for CRM, so it is essential to acquire new customers and retain those who have high value, since customers have real value to the company’s success. And companies are pouring millions of dollars into customer relationship management, but most initiatives fail to deliver customer needs, so it is essential to have a proper analysis of CRM before choosing a particular vendor. The objective of good CRM is to increase the customer base by acquiring new customers and effectively serving the needs of existing customers. â€Å"The U.S. business-to-consumer e-commerce market is forecast to grow from $41.7 billion this year to $163 billion in 2004, and companies are realizing that customer relationship management will be a key driver of this growth, says Robert DeSisto, a VP with corporate consultant Gartner Group† (Jusko, 2001, p.12). Gartne... ...World Wide Web http://www.selltis.com/newssalesandmarketing20020103.htm . Sullivan, Tom (2001, February). Software selection process. InfoWorld magazine. . Robert, M., Deanne, M., John, A. W. (2001). Emerging Technologies for Enhancing Supplier–Reseller Partnerships. Retrieved December 11, 2002 from World Wide Web http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=MImg&_imagekey=B6V69-42BTKST- 23&_cdi=5809&_orig=browse&_coverDate=02%2F28 2F2001&_sk=999699997&wchp=dGLbVzblSzBS& _acct=C000043018&_version=1&_userid=776986&md5=dc3b050988e40666b4698d136219cf4f&ie=f. pdf . Siebel systems (2002).Implementation best practices: Ensuring Customer success Retrieved December 11, 2002 from World Wide Web http://www.siebel.com/bestpractices/implementation.shtm# . Perkins, Bob. (2001). The Truth about CRM Software Satisfaction: Leveraging the Economy of Trust. Retrieved November 11, 2002 from http://www.crmguru.com/crminsight/2001c/0927.htm#2 . Hubley, Jen. (2002). Personalization tops privacy as key concern for e-mail marketers Retrieved December 12, 2002 from http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid11_gci790282,00.html