Ricci Street < Port 80 < Docks < Marketing || search | sitemap | help plaza | theater | bistro

|

Overview of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) other pages The Marketing Concept Marketing News | Marketing Hubs Market Research | The Online Store Challenges to Effective New Media Marketing

Customer Relationship Management is complex software that tries to do for large organizations what the shopkeeper does for his little store on Main Street.

the CRM umbrella

Alphabet Soup

Sales force automations (SFA) software plus marketing automation software plus customer lifecycle management (CLM) software, which often includes customer service and call center support software all come under customer relationship management (CRM).

While SFA applications manage contacts, accounts and sales opportunities, CRM kicks SFA into high gear. CRM does everything SFA does, plus it includes front-office applications that assist in customer interaction, addition of customer and product information, and has the ability to hook to back-end systems, including financials, inventory and ERP (enterprise resource planning).

Ideally, CRM is a Web-based family of enterprise-class applications for

marketing
sales
customer service

that extends support throughout the entire extraprise, seamlessly uniting third-party resellers and service providers, business partners, and customers into a single information system

See a proprietary CRM app in action

Saleslogix's Flash demo: A Day in the Life of a SalesLogix User

See the scary side from the customers' point of view

Pizza Palace - superior customer service? or scary times we live in?

open source

at SourceForge's search page, use CRM as your search term.

Compiere

CRM for the small-medium Enterprise

Streamline your order processing and Point-of-Sales (POS) customer commerce and care, manage your inventory, automate accounting, provide customer service, manage distribution networks and more.

Now there is one smart solution to all your business management needs. Compiere is for small to medium sized businesses designed for the global marketplace.

CRM hubs

CRM Association's Resources

NewsFactor's CRMDaily: Real-time CRM Industry News from Around the World

ITtoolbox's CRM portal

CRM-Forum: The Enterprise Software Community

TechTarget's searchCRM.com

Its promise four years ago:

CRM rises to the top
by Blaise Zerega
Red Herring, July 1999

The Internet is transforming corporate architectures. Businesses that were originally built like skyscrapers -- all hierarchical command and control -- are now recreating themselves as tent villages because of it, seeking to become more efficient and to find new business opportunities. At the same time, business customers and consumers are becoming more powerful.

Who are the industry leaders?

Siebel Systems

E.piphany - Amazon.com is their big client - demos

An integrated suite of software solutions designed to Get, Keep and Grow™ customer relationships. They allow businesses to collect, analyze and act on customer data from existing software systems as well as third-party data providers. By providing a singular view of customer data, organizations can drive personalized interactions and understand how e-commerce is affecting their businesses in terms of online sales, customer preferences, channel cannibalization, profitability and product preferences.

Firstwave -- "Customer-First CRM"

Major players in the CRM professional services market. Check out especially the case studies.

Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting) - CRM

For many Fortune 500 companies, building strong customer relationships in an era of intense competition and diminished consumer loyalty is a colossal challenge. Informed customers have extensive choice in who they buy from, and that's changing the rules of business.

Cambridge Technology Partners

Becoming an e-business requires three steps:

defining a vision for how your business model and value chain need to change

automating and integrating your value chain

building bridges between your organization and your most important customers, partners, and suppliers.

Deloitte Consulting

Today, no single business topic commands more attention, yet generates more confusion, than transforming the way you market, sell and service customers to build a competitive advantage — otherwise known as Customer Relationship Management (CRM). On one hand, some organizations that reengineer their CRM processes are reporting revenue increases of up to 51 percent, margin improvements of 2 percent, decreases in cost of sales of as much as 46 percent, reductions in sell cycle length of 25 percent, increases in customer satisfaction ratings of 20 percent and more. On the other hand, we are still seeing claims that 50, 60 and even 70 percent of all CRM initiatives generate minimal gains or no improvement at all.

Do you know your most profitable customers? Or your least profitable? Do you know their preferences? Or their torch points? Assess key drivers and challenges for improving relationships with your customers, and build a sustainable program that delivers compelling customer experiences and increased shareholder value.

eLoyalty