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AO 02006 BRO CRM 11-03-2002 12:55 Pagina 2
Customer Relationship
Management
Executive summary cute that strategy effectively. These processes
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is need to be underpinned by a CRM architecture
a business philosophy which provides a vision which connects interaction channels with CRM
for the way your company wants to deal with applications and customer data repositories.
your customers. To deliver that vision, you Furthermore, your investment in CRM must
need a CRM strategy which gives shape to encompass tools from all three solution
your sales, marketing, customer service and domains - collaborative, operational and
data analysis activities. For most companies, analytical CRM - if it is to support all four
the aim of a CRM strategy is to maximise stages of the CRM lifecycle.
profitable relationships with customers by
increasing the value of the relationship for Our experience over many projects has
both the vendor and the customer. allowed us to develop a CRM methodology
and skillset which is enabling our diverse
Software solutions and new technologies may client base to succeed with CRM. We can
facilitate the new ways of working required by help you with short-term execution of specific
Customer Relationship a CRM strategy but simply implementing a projects and provide longer-term support as
Management (CRM) is CRM product will not, in itself, deliver increased you devise and then roll out your complete
a business philosophy customer satisfaction. Instead, companies CRM programme. Above all, we can help
which provides a vision need to introduce new cross-departmental you really leverage your customer information
for the way your com- processes which allow them to complete the so that you can deliver increased value to
pany wants to deal four steps in the CRM cycle: plan, interact, customers and continue to reap the benefits
with your customers process, leverage – and then plan anew. of your CRM strategy over the long term.
Many CRM applications tackle only one or What is Customer Relationship Management?
two elements of the CRM cycle. As a result, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is
a high proportion of CRM projects - which a business philosophy which provides a vision
are based around implementing a particular for the way your company wants to deal with
package or suite of applications - fail to your customers. To deliver that vision, you
increase customer satisfaction, improve need a CRM strategy which gives shape to
customer loyalty or deliver a return on invest- your sales, marketing, customer service and
ment for the supplier in the form of increased data analysis activities. For most companies,
revenues or profits. the aim of a CRM strategy is to maximise
profitable relationships with customers by
Any CRM initiative should therefore start with increasing the value of the relationship for
a vision and strategy which lays out the com- both the vendor and the customer.
pany’s aims and objectives. You must then
adjust your processes and organisational From the vendor’s perspective, it is clear
structures so that they will allow you to exe- that not all customers are created equal.
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An example for retail companies shows that Moreover, customers’ expectations are
just 15 per cent of customers will account for increasing. Greater transparancy means
45 per cent of revenues and generate 70 per people rapidly find out about all the good
cent of a company’s profits. A CRM-based ideas of other suppliers - including the ways
approach to business allows companies to in which technology can be used to facilitate
identify these high value customers and then interactions between companies and their
service them in a way which keeps them loyal. customers. People expect suppliers to be
From the customer’s perspective, the value able to deliver more quickly and in ways that
Customers are looking of the relationship is a function not only of the are convenient for the customer rather than
for suppliers who classic marketing "four Ps" - price, product, the supplier. As a result, customers are
understand their needs place and promotion - but also of the quality looking for services which are - to a greater
and who can respond of customers’ interactions with a supplier or lesser extent, depending on the sector -
to those needs with over time. Customers are looking for sup- personalised and "aware" of previous inter-
relevant offers, using pliers who understand their needs and who actions between supplier and customer.
the communication can respond to those needs with relevant
channels the customer offers, using the communication channels Meeting these customer demands and mana-
prefers the customer prefers. ging the customer relationship is becoming
ever more complex as the number of channels
This shift in emphasis is the result of some through which interactions can take place
far-reaching structural changes which are has grown to encompass the telephone, the
taking place in many marketplaces and World Wide Web, e-mail and interactive digital
sectors. Firstly, markets have become more TV as well as traditional high street outlets
transparent as customers have found it and direct mail. Companies will only succeed
easier to gain access to information about if they adopt a management approach that
alternative suppliers using new technologies puts the customer at the core of the com-
such as the World Wide Web. Because pany’s processes and practices. Moreover,
customers are now able to compare suppliers companies need to view CRM as a cyclical
and their offerings more easily and efficiently, process which doesn’t treat customer contacts
the "cost" to customers of switching between as one-off events but as interactions in a
suppliers has fallen - and customer churn long-term relationship which develops and
has increased dramatically. deepens over time.
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the required functionality, such as order The Meta Group has warned that failure to
processing, can be delivered by existing allocate CRM investments across all these
enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions domains will severely limit customer and
and other back-office applications. The key supplier value. Atos Origin has experience of
will be to integrate these systems with mar- working with solutions in each of these areas
keting, customer service and support suites and has strong integration skills to bring
from vendors such as Siebel. Workflow auto- together the different technologies to create
mation and business rules engines must then seamless end-to-end CRM processes.
be applied to create end-to-end processes.
Key to the "process" stage is the storage of Effective Implementation
(updated) customer information in an efficient Our experience gained in many projects for
way in order to support data warehousing clients across all sectors has confirmed our
and data mining. belief that simply introducing CRM applica-
tions will not, by itself, allow you to create
Analytical CRM solutions support the lever- better relationships with your customers.
age stage of the CRM Cycle. They encompass CRM is not just an IT project but a business
a range of technologies, including data ware- strategy which touches every area of a com-
housing, data mining, statistical analysis and pany’s operations. Furthermore, CRM is not
predictive modelling and multidimensional simply about making your own operations
reporting. Without customer analytics, com- more efficient but about increasing the value
panies will be unable to effectively leverage customers gain from their interactions with
their operational CRM efforts and make the you. If your customers don’t benefit, you
most of their investment in CRM. won’t either.
Furthermore, as market conditions get toug-
her – as in the current economic downturn - At the heart of any CRM initiative lies the
companies will want to focus even more customer data which will support and drive
heavily on this area in order to rationalize their interactions. From the outset, you need to
data structures and to use insights gained understand what you know and what you
from analysing customer data to optimize the don’t know - and work out how you are
return from their current investments in CRM going to plug any gaps in your knowledge.
processes and technology. Creating a robust information architecture is
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crucial because it will form the foundation for and provide longer-term support as you
the new processes and technologies that devise and then roll out your complete CRM
need to be introduced to allow you to execute programme. You need to choose a partner
your CRM strategy. who can lead change and see it through to
daily practice, who can tightly integrate the
Because CRM is a business philosophy, it many components of CRM and maintain
requires change at every level of the organi- them, and who can help you really leverage
sation. That means you need ongoing your customer information to deliver increased
sponsorship from the chief executive officer value to customers and continue to reap
and other board members. They must create the benefits of your CRM strategy over the
a clear strategy setting out your business long term.
goals and priorities and drive it forward
through a change programme which cuts Helping deliver your CRM vision
across the company, and help you break out We believe Atos Origin is ideally placed to
of the traditional departmental-based silos help you execute your CRM vision. A full
which often prevent organisations from lifecycle IT services provider, Atos Origin’s
satisfying customer needs. proven "Consult, Build, Run" approach will
enable you to turn your hopes for CRM into
While technology is a key enabler of CRM, effective, customer-focused processes. We
customer value will be created through the can offer support at every stage of a CRM
actions of your employees. You need to project, from initial consultancy through to
communicate the philosophy and purpose building solutions and then managing ongoing
behind your CRM vision at all levels of the operations of IT and complete business pro-
organisation and ensure staff are properly cesses such as customer interaction centres.
trained in the new processes and techno-
Because CRM is a logies being introduced. As the programme Our Consulting Services team can work with
business philosophy, is rolled out, it is equally important that you you in our CRM Visioning Workshops and
it requires change at communicate the success your CRM strategy CRM Strategy Development service to deve-
every level of the is creating - to employees and customers. lop the ideal CRM strategy for your company,
organisation based on your current organisational capabi-
Finally, because CRM impacts on every lities and the marketplace you are operating
aspect of your company, it is impossible to in. From there, we can take you through
implement a CRM programme in one process and architecture modelling to create
big-bang project. You need to break the a blueprint for your CRM solution, before
programme down into manageable chunks assisting you with vendor selection and the
which probably last no more than six months, drafting of an implementation plan.
prioritise sub-projects and focus initially on
areas where you can achieve quick wins. We are then able to support you as you exe-
The key is to make sure each of these smaller cute that plan with staff skilled in all aspects
projects fits within an overall architecture: of project delivery, from project management
balance the need for excellence in point solu- through product and technical specialists to
tions with the need to create a sustainable creative designers and marketing specialists.
integrated solution. We are a true systems integrator, able to
ensure your new CRM processes are tightly
You cannot make this difficult and complex integrated with existing operational systems
transition alone. You need a consultancy and to create seamless end-to-end processes
implementation partner who can help you that allow customer needs to be satisfied
with short-term execution of specific projects quickly and effectively. Our long experience
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www.atosorigin.com
March 2002