Leveraging eCRM to Build the Next Generation Enterprise
The Evolution Toward eCRM
Over the last few decades, corporations have invested in enterprise automation to take advantage of information technology to cut costs and increase revenues. Initially, companies started automating their back-office operations with accounting and Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERP). These businesses wanted to understand how their resources were being managed and utilized in order to streamline their operations and cut costs. Eventually, these systems broadened to include efforts such as supply chain management.
After starting with back-office automation, companies began to address the next IT challenge: automating the front office through Customer Relationship Management systems (CRM). In order to bolster sales, customer support, and marketing, businesses invested in solutions including call center/customer service, data warehouse applications, sales force automation, and campaign management. These investments were significant in both dollars and implementation resources. The goal was to provide a better customer experience by handling customer interactions more efficiently while cutting costs.
It became quickly apparent that implementing process efficiencies across departmental systems was not enough. Companies needed to understand the larger picture of how customers were interacting with their entire enterprise and their level of satisfaction from the services they were receiving.
Most enterprises that have implemented ERP and CRM systems have done so independently because the systems were driven by isolated parts of the organization and were designed to solve different and unrelated problems. Therefore, they needed a way to leverage their existing investments to provide the ideal customer experience without significant implementation costs. And they also needed the ability to balance these efforts while embracing the largest potential agent of change to their existing business models: the Internet.
The Arrival of eCRM
Hence, the arrival of eCRM solutions that integrate and distribute information and process across the enterprise through global portals that enable customers, suppliers, and partners to interact directly with each other and with the enterprise. eCRM leverages the Internet (including the Web, e-mail, and wireless communications) as well as traditional telephony to provide exceptional levels of service that build long-term, loyal relationships while reducing costs at the same time.
Through eCRM solutions, enterprises can weave together their back-office and front office automation investments and leverage the Internet to extend their enterprise. A unified, global view aggregates and summarizes all information providing insight and immediate action across every touch point.
In addition, by performing an analysis of data from across the business, eCRM solutions can automatically feed intelligence back into applications for smarter, even more personalized interactions each time a transaction occurs. For example, customer data can be used to understand buying patterns, product quality issues, and service efficiencies. Marketing campaigns can then be more targeted and focused based on an intelligent and intimate understanding of every customer.
eCRM empowers all participants in the business process - both within and outside the corporate walls - to provide personalized, efficient interactions that deliver rapid ROI with dramatic improvements in the way they communicate and conduct business. With a global view of each interaction, a company can now make intelligent decisions about resource allocation and investments to maximize profitability.
eCRM is Different
The most important difference of an eCRM solution is the customer-centric approach that focuses on the processes and information needs of the customers themselves, as they demand more direct access over multiple communication channels. eCRM strives to attract customers and increase loyalty with personalized offers through lower cost, highly accessible, Web-based service. With the customer in mind, eCRM solutions are designed with the appropriate levels of security combined with an easy-to-use, browser interface that requires little or no training.
Secondly, eCRM integrates analytic capabilities and applies the technology to customer history and transaction data to generate insights about customers that can be used in future interactions. Companies must be able to identify the value of each customer in order to provide a level of service that maximizes profitability of each relationship. Only through this type of real-time, analytic insight can companies provide consistent, intelligent responses to customers in every channel that keeps them coming back while ensuring each relationship achieves profitability goals
Finally, eCRM solutions are developed using secure, Web-based technologies that can scale and support many thousands or millions of users. This type of solution inherently requires an architecture built on standard Internet technologies such as Java 2 Enterprise Edition, XML, HTTPS and DHTML. eCRM applications require a multi-tier, Internet-architected platform that enables a business to support millions of users, meet the uptime requirements of a 24x7 environment, and keep the cost of installation, upgrade and integration low. And they also require an infrastructure that is modular in design that can easily integrate with existing applications and leverage their current technology investments.
The Next Generation Enterprise
Most businesses will not want to abandon current technology investments that are working for them. They need to leverage their existing ERP, CRM, and other purchased and customized applications to create an integrated solution that meets its enterprise-wide needs. And they require the advantage of handling high-volumes of Web and email communications.
The power of an eCRM solution is it's ability to integrate with existing applications, leverage the Internet, and extend the enterprise's core business process to customers, suppliers and partners. eCRM is a different way of doing business. It's less about managing assets and resources, and more about building and maintaining relationships and processes across the value chain. In this new environment, information is plentiful and shared. The enterprise collaborates with its customers, suppliers, and partners to improve its operations and discover new ways to innovate its products.
The eCRM solution is the foundation for building the new business model. It is the solution that provides a global view of customers, suppliers, and partners while enabling intelligent and efficient interactions across every touch point. eCRM integrates the front and back-office to form a customized, personalized environment that extends across the value chain through the Internet. Companies that will win in the new economy are those that embrace eCRM and evolve themselves into the next generation enterprise.
