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E-commerce: All about Customer Relationship Management - Page 2

© Nazan Fathy

Change Management: CRM is more than technology; it involves a change in philosophy and attitudes. The new mantra is to do what it takes to delight the customer. Consequently, a process for managing change must be instituted to help a company move from a product centric focus to a customer centric one.

The International Data Corporation (IDC) notes that the customer relationship management market is exploding with activity. Among its key findings is the strong evidence that companies are willing to pay a premium for higher-than-average solution performance, suggesting that vendors who can get the job done will be rewarded.

To keep abreast with new developments on the market, I conducted an Internet-based search for new CRM offerings. The search turned out to be informative and entertaining.

At Oracle, I listened to a webcast of a speech by its chairman Larry Ellison that stresses the ease of implementation of Oracle's solution for CRM and its use by a number of companies, including Amazon.com. At the SAS Institute, editorials and specific information on the SAS CRM solution complement audio clips of distinguished speakers. The SAS solution for CRM brings together several key technologies such as datawarehousing, data mining, online analytical processing, and Web-enabled query and reporting tools. It also leverages through its Partner program, the strengths of companies providing subject matter and industry expertise.

On its part, IBM launched in November 1998 Corepoint, a new software company dedicated to CRM. Based on the published documentation, the impressive Corepoint suite combines sales and marketing products, service and support products, foundation products (e.g., telephony, voice response, web collaboration), and decision support products to better serve clients.

Also, a new CRM consortium that delivers turnkey solutions, Enterprise 360, was announced last February at the DCI Customer Relationship Management Conference in Chicago. Enterprise 360 is a pre-configured, pre-integrated Customer Relationship Management solution forged by KPMG, Pivotal Software, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard, with other innovative software application providers including E.piphany, an up-and-coming company.

The CRM thrust underlines a fundamental truth so well said by Wharton professor of marketing David Schmittlein and reported by SAS. com, that is, "unlike most other organizational assets, customer groups, if managed and maintained cannot be easily copied by the competition. In other words, customers are one of the few sustainable competitive advantages open to a company".

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