Information Systems & CRM (Research Paper Sample)

Use of Information Systems in Customer Relationship Management
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Use of Information Systems in Customer Relationship Management
Today, all of the businesses are based on information systems because it is the only means by which businesses can work in a better and organized way to stay ahead of competitors. Information systems help the organizations in making effective decisions within no time, aid in collecting and disseminating information to all the departments of the firm, help in communicating better with a firm’s external and internal stakeholders, smoothes business operations, aids in record keeping etc. On the basis of numerous benefits of information systems, the topic has been chosen so that its effects on customer relationship management could be understood thoroughly.
In order to double the profits, companies are now focusing more on customer relationship management along with business processes and productivity. Having satisfied customers is becoming the sole reason for the companies to thrive four times more than their rivals. Customer relationship management also assists in knowing the customers’ buying habits and opinions that result in grouping the customers and the specific markets into explicit profiles in order to deal with them more effectively and increase sales. Customer relationship management helps in changing the way a business operates so that improvements in customer service and marketing are observed. Moreover, the existence of information systems within a company to enhance customer relationship management gives companies a benefit to working in an efficient manner. It has become a business’s need to have a CRM system so that it can cope with increasing or changing customer preferences. Therefore, this research focuses on the importance of information systems and technology on today’s customer relationship management. The topic has been elaborated comprehensively so that all the key concepts of information systems and its impact on a company’s customer relationship management are examined in detail.
Discussion
It would not be wrong to say that the better a business knows how to deal with its customer, the more chances are of its being successful. Customer relationship management helps in understanding the behavior of customers and modifying business operations to guarantee the customers are treated in the best possible way. But there have been many examples in the past where CRM implementations have failed; the reason can be attributed to lack of understanding of information system and know-how of its execution. For example, in 1996, Hershey Corporation tried to implement CRM, ERP and supply chain management system but failed badly because the company noticed that the business processes involved highly complex transformations (Jonathan, 2011). In addition to that, the size and intricacy of its undertaking was huge that led the firm to pursue an aggressive implementation plan. A continuous loss in sales was observed due to problems and delays in the implementation.
There are some useful tips that the companies can benefit from if they want to get most out of the CRM along with information systems. The companies must focus more on customer’s touch points rather than totally relying on technology (Beasty, 2005). Furthermore, the companies must avoid hiding from customers (Lager, 2007) because if the firms hid, they would not be genuine, and the customers would not believe them; therefore, there is likelihood that the customer relationship management would become difficult for the companies despite having the most advanced technology.
With the growing needs of the businesses and with the help of observations of those that have made success in the industry, it has been learned that marinating strong relations with the customers is mandatory for the acquisition of new customers, retaining the existing ones and maximizing their lifetime value. It is obligatory to sustain a strong coordination between the marketing and information technology departments because, in this way, firms can know their customer closely and in a better way. The firm that knows its customers better can serve in a better way. Although past evidences and various researches have proved that the implementation of CRM is intricate, but information system scan simplify everything. A similar study was conducted in Kenyan banking industry that showed the banks have customized their services provided to the customers and for that, information systems have smoothed their business processes (Muro, Magutu, & Getembe, 2013).
Another study in the field of healthcare showed that personalized customer service helps in strengthening customer relationship management concepts and also assists the companies to meet diverse customer demands. Information systems have improved disease prevention and health promotion criteria for the hospitals (Choi, et al., 2013) because the hospitals are now closer to their customers and extensive researches have been conducted in the field of health on the basis of data collected from the customers. This has not only given rewards to the health industry but the customers as well. The results showed that although organizational performance and the organizational systems are linked together, and even the outcomes are dependent on these factors, the performance of CRM systems in hospitals have proved useful and has increased the satisfaction of the customers. Besides, the team work efficiency and individual performance are improved so that competitiveness in healthcare is maximized.
There are many ways in which technology or information system can be used for the effective use and results of CRM in the companies. They are called CRM ecosystems, and they are divided into three categories: Operational CRM, Analytical CRM, and Collaborative CRM (Viljoen, Bennett, Berndt, & Van Zyl, 2005). Operational CRM entails applications that are customer oriented such as sales force automation, enterprise marketing automation, and customer service and support. All types of interactions with the customers are recorded so that reference for future is saved. Analytical CRM helps in analyzing data that is collected by operational CRM. It includes operations like capturing, storage, extraction, processing, etc. This enables the companies to formulate promotional strategies and marketing efforts based on the results through analytical CRM. Additionally, collaborative CRM encourages customers to interact with the companies through latest and conventional communication technologies. This type of CRM can extend its usefulness to supply chain members and even the internal stakeholders, such as employees, so that all of them come in contact with the company; consequently, the company would make efforts to make improvements for all the customers and stakeholders.
Information systems cannot exclude the importance of internet that is the most efficient and effective tool for collecting information or any kind of data related to a company’s customers, even if they are located anywhere in the world. The emerging type of CRM with the help of information systems and technology, based on the internet, is called e-CRM. There are evidences that B2B companies collect more data for CRM purposes through internet than B2C companies; the data collected includes customer demographics, online and offline sales, call center and email data, etc. (Barko, Moosa, & Nemati, 2011). It could be inferred that there are complexities involved in gaining data through e-CRM, because data amounts are large and there can be a number of sources from which the data is collected but the fact cannot be ignored that information systems involved in such CRM are beneficial because it helps the companies to come close to their customer and support in providing better cust...