Sunday, June 22, 2008

Day 2 Learnings- OnurOzensoy

After a review of Day 1, we elaborated on Customer Relations Management-CRM modules/solutions

CRM is a company wide application that manages relations with customers i order to increase loyalty and decrease costs regarding to this function. An important implication here is that CRM is especially important to keep profitable current customers, which make most of the contribution to the company. There are three mainstream types of CRM applications; Enterprise, Mid-market and On-Demand.

Although we had some communication problems with our friend Kumar, we tried to follow a presentation of market share leader Oracle CRM software. Siebel is the CRM application of Oracle, which is among a few vendors of CRM like PeopleSoft (currently under Oracle), Salesforce.com etc.

Siebel has CRM Enterprise, Professional and On-Demand editions. There are many industries that may use specific applications of Siebel, which include consumer goods, hospitality, finance, energy and many others. There are five types of clients that can utilize Siebel, Web client, Handheld client, mobile client, wireless client and dedicated web client.

During the implementation decision of an ERP system, firms should consider and compare a pre-ERP SWOT analysis to a post-implementation estimated SWOT analysis. A GAP analysis to determine the differences and the time and resources needed, is also necessary. Three obvious benefits of implementation are to be presented to executives. An elevator speech which is a short, informative talk about the benefits and/or necessity will also come in handy. Identifying benefits, benefit category, improvement opportunities and implementation plan is crucial in the decision and preparation of an ERP cost vs. benefit analysis along with key performance indicators, business objectives, projected sales etc.

Not all companies are capable of implementing an ERP. It is not just costly but also requires accurate and proper data input and willingness to use the system. Assessing these organizational readiness aspects is also very essential.

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