Maximizing Efficiency: CRM, ERP, EAI, and SMIS for Axle Construction

Axle Construction can improve its profitability by adopting modern information technology systems such as CRM, ERP, EAI, and SMIS. These technologies can enhance business process management, customer relationships, and workforce productivity. The integration of CRM into ERP will enable the organization to deliver more value-added services, giving it a competitive edge. Additionally, leveraging social media can help improve sales and marketing activities.

[Type the document title]
[Type the document subtitle]
Windows User
[Pick the date]
1 | P a g e

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Sl. No. Description Page no.
1. Executive Summary 03
2. Abstract 03
3. Introduction 04
4. Recommendations 06
5. Conclusion 07
6. References 07
2 | P a g e

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In the current era of IT boom, it is inevitable for any business enterprise to leverage
modern and state of the art Information technology and management system to
remain competitive and keep its various business processes running smoothly. The
current state of Axle construction warrants action to upgrade its IT infrastructure to
boost its growth trajectory which is otherwise facing slowdown. Based on the current
state of business in Axle construction, various options have been explored and
specific recommendations like incorporating and integrating CRM, ERP and EAI in
the current IT and business information system have been suggested to make Axle
top management an informed decision about future directions for the company’s IT
needs and meet the challenge of satisfying all stake holders.
ABSTRACT
It is widely understood that both Information Technology (IT) and Business
Information Systems (BIS), provide great benefits in improving the visibility of supply
and value chains within and across organisational boundaries. Those enterprises
which can realise the benefits of extending their core business processes outwards
to stakeholders like clients and trading partners, will be able to create unique
products/services and solutions. One method to achieve this, has been to integrate
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems with web-based and other BIS
systems, using Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) technologies. This report
seeks to investigate those factors which can contributed to Axle construction
competitiveness in the market and maintain healthy growth rate.
3 | P a g e

INTRODUCTION
In today’s world of cut throat competition in business environment, business firms
are often required to make their processes more efficient for which they use
Business process management (BPM). A business process is an activity or set
of activities that accomplishes specific organizational goals. Business
process management is a systematic approach to improving those processes.
Examples of business processes can include completing a customer order, shipping
items or opening a new customer account.
One of the main objectives of BPM is to enhance business performance and agility
through the use of tools, techniques and best practices. Businesses can deal with
various inefficiencies which can lead to problems like unnecessary costs, poor
quality and low customer satisfaction. Under such conditions, incorporating and
integrating high end technology tools in Information Technology (IT) and Business
Information System (BIS) can come to rescue.
In the present case of a small firm named Axle construction (AC), their current in-
house Information Technology (IT) infrastructure and Business Information Systems
(BIS) are not able to cope with increasing demands for efficient information and state
of art technology from users, e.g., employees, customers, and suppliers. Due to
which the firm has registered a slow growth over the past few years. Therefore, AC
requires revisiting and understanding its business processes and running its business
activities on the escalator of latest technology to keep abreast with the changing times.
However, one major issue for sceptical SME like Axle construction is to sort through
a myriad of options concerning which information technologies and BIS to embrace
and what applications and methods of delivery would be best. It may be that the
“best of breed” is not the best for these organizations. Factors such as cost,
capacity, user requirements, or limited space for upgrades (or protection against
obsolescence) come into play. Among the plethora of available services, practical
concerns prevail. An enterprise must know if these investments will be profitable or
add value to the organization. It must also know if security measures are sufficient,
or the possibilities of data breach, denial-of-service attacks, and the resulting need to
be protected are too great for whatever service or infrastructure it elects to use.
Since several ways of protecting computer systems and data, as well as maintaining
security, are available, therefore, evaluation is not only necessary, it is essential.
Project planning and implementation information technology for SMEs is one thing,
but maintaining it is a whole other story. IT maintenance and administration services
in many small and medium enterprises are often understaffed. Moreover, employees
often are not trained to handle their duties effectively. How exactly and with what
resources does the SME enterprise IT “department” maintain and operate its
systems? This question can be answered by looking at the company’s technology
4 | P a g e

strategy and its strategic goals. The answer is also furthered by understanding how
the types of services offered by the firm impact the firm’s customers.
Further, among myriads of options available it is suggested to adopt a few like CRM,
ERP, EAI and SMIS which are in vogue and provide cutting edge support to
business process management.
CRM stands for customer relationship management, and it’s used by sales,
marketing and business development departments to manage interactions
throughout the customer life cycle. It helps Axle construction to improve its
profitability by cultivating richer, deeper ties with its customers. CRM enables to
focus on organisation’s relationships with individual people – whether those are
customers, service users, colleagues or suppliers. Some of the biggest gains in
productivity can come from moving beyond CRM as a sales and marketing tool and
embedding it in Axle construction’s business.
ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning can be defined as a system that helps
organizations manage their financials, supply chain, manufacturing, operations,
reporting, and human resources. Most ERP systems can be deployed on-premises
or in the cloud, to improve and automate the core parts of your business.
With the right enterprise resource planning software, Axle construction’s business
processes can come together for easy collaboration and rapid decision-making to
enhance its workforce overall productivity.
By incorporating the CRM, the standard functions of ERP software can be enhanced
to another level. This will allow Axle construction to improve upon the components
that it is comprised of, such as supply chain, finance, management projects and
human resource etc. These components ensure the functionality of the organization
and improving them is likely to have a positive impact on other fractions of the
organization.
Most importantly, it will give a more clear cut picture about the customers who can
now be served in a more efficient manner. This is likely to lead to an increase in the
rate of customer retention as more lasting relationships can be built. Moreover, it will
enable the organization to maximize on any existing or upcoming opportunities.
Therefore, the integration of the CRM into ERP will commission the organization to
deliver more value-added services, giving them an advantage over their competitors.
EAI, which stands for Enterprise Application Integration, is basically another word for
"automation." The idea is that any computerized equipment and appliance should be
able to deliver information to any other computer in the network. Since Axle
construction uses Information technology for its various business processes
integrating EAI in its IT to collect data from its appliances, lab equipment, and to
interchange data from different ERP systems and sub-systems deployed at customer
or vendor sites can help improve its business. So the benefit is the traditional one: it
saves money for data interchange through automation and at the same time the
5 | P a g e

quality of the data transfer is enhanced, since the automated data transport is far
more reliable than a manual read via paper slips.
RECOMMENDATION
In the present era where social media is revolutionising the world of communication,
it can be effectively leveraged to improve sales and marketing activities of Axle
Construction. It is a known fact that social media present great sales and marketing
opportunities for businesses of all sizes and in case of Axle construction it can be
utilized to:
 promote the name of brand and business of Axle construction
 tell customers about your goods and services that it offers
 find out what customers think of Axle construction’s business
 attract new customers
 build stronger relationships with existing customers.
Here are examples of some companies that are doing social media right, examples
of their campaigns that can act as guiding light for other companies to follow their
suit.
Cisco
When you think of companies that market on social media, chances are Cisco
Systems isn’t the type of business you’d think of first. Business-to-consumer
companies tend to take the lead in the social media marketing arena. But Cisco’s
social media campaign has been a pleasant surprise. In a world filled with
uncertainty around the election, this campaign is focused on generating a more
positive outlook for the future. Cisco did this by inviting their customers to join in the
conversation about how to make the world a better place.
The stories Cisco highlighted made their technology more tangible. It made large IT
infrastructure more relevant to the everyday lives of their target market. This type of
campaign worked well on social media because it was compelling and fit in nicely
with the context of what their audience wanted to see in their news feeds.
JetBlue
When you think of marketing, you probably think of pushy sales messages,
right? JetBlue aimed to turn that idea on its head by changing the way they use
social media. Instead of focusing on fare discounts or pushing promotional offers on
Twitter, the airline uses their handle to focus on customer service. Take a look at
their Twitter feed, and you’ll notice that most of the posts include @ replies. This has
6 | P a g e

helped the brand build a stronger reputation among its consumers, making them
more appealing.
CONCLUSION
In the present framework of assessing Axle construction business in the context of
leveraging modern and state of art information technology systems, it can be
concluded that the company needs to focus on its existing IT infrastructure and
incorporate modern technologies like implementing CRM, ERP, EAI and SMIS in
order to cope up with increasing demands for efficient information and state of art
technology from stakeholders. These are proven and cost effective technologies with
long term benefits which can help Axle construction to position itself aggressively
against its competitors.
REFERENCES
 Passerini, K., Patten, K., Tarabishy, A. E. (2012) Information Technology for
Small Business Managing the Digital Enterprise, New York, NY : Springer
 Dallas, I., Wynn, MT. (2014) Business Process Management in Small
Business: A Case Study In Devos, Jan, van Landeghem, Hendrik, &
Deschoolmeester Dirk (Eds.) Information Systems for Small and Medium-
sized Enterprises. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 25-46.
 Al-Mudimigh, A. S. (2007). The role and impact of business process
management in enterprise systems implementation. Business Process
Management Journal, 13(6), 866–874.
 Bazhenova, E., Taratukhin, V., & Becker, J. (2012). Towards on business
process management on small-to medium enterprises in the emerging
economies. 7th International Forum on Strategic Strategic Technology
(IFOST), pp 1–5.
 David M. K., Randall J. B. (2016) Using MIS, Weber State University 6TH
edition
7 | P a g e