Customer Relationship Management Essay -- Software Technology CRM Essa

Customer Relationship ManagementA relative of mine works for a integrated firm on CRM (CustomerRelationship Management) software. He told me that their company isdoing well with their CRM initiative while most of the othercompanies, using various software, are not achieving their goal of customer satisfaction. That gave me a big click of interest towards myresearch topic and I came up with a research questions as How toavoid CRM failure? and how to choose a best CRM software vendor?Customer Relationship Management is an interactive process forachieving the optimum balance amidst corporate investments and thesatisfaction of customer needs to generate the maximum profit. CRMrefers to management of all interactions with customers in which theenterprise indulges. Its main focus is on managing and optimizingentire customer lifecycle. The customer lifecycle revolves aroundmarketing, sales and customer service.According to Jill Dyche (2002), CRM promises to help companies get toknow the ir customers well enough to understand which ones to keep andwhich ones they should be willing to doze off and why -and how not tooverspend in the meantime. CRM also means automating many of thebusiness processes and accompanying analysis and saving precious timein the bargain. immediatelys companies are interacting with consumers at unprecedentedlevels and across different channels, such as E-mail, text chat, andmulti-functional call centers. Marketing, sales and customer serviceare tired for CRM, so it is essential to acquire new customersand retain those who have high value, since customers have real valueto the companys success. And companies are pouring millions ofdollars into customer relationship management, but most initiativesfail to deliver customer needs, so it is essential to have a properanalysis of CRM before choosing a limited vendor. The objective ofgood CRM is to increase the customer base by acquiring new customersand effectively serving the needs of existing cu stomers.The U.S. business-to-consumer e-commerce market is forecast to amazefrom $41.7 billion this year to $163 billion in 2004, and companiesare realizing that customer relationship management will be a keydriver of this growth, says Robert DeSisto, a VP with corporateconsultant 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 SupplierReseller 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 supplement the Economy of Trust. Retrieved November 11, 2002 from http//www.crmguru.com/crminsight/2001c/0927.htm2. 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