Applied Business Issues: CRM Report - Research and Analysis

This report delves into the complexities of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) implementation as an applied business technique. It identifies key issues such as the high costs of implementation, including software, training, and IT resources, and the impact on business culture due to resistance to change and lack of leadership. The report also explores the ethical considerations surrounding CRM, focusing on data collection practices, data accuracy, data security, and client rights regarding data access and control. It highlights the ethical implications of collecting data without consent, inaccurate data, and the potential misuse of data for marketing purposes, along with the lack of client control over data withdrawal. The report concludes with recommendations to address these issues, emphasizing structured data storage and client control over their data. The report is a comprehensive analysis for students, offering a detailed examination of CRM's benefits and challenges.

Running head: APPLIED BUSIUNESS ISSUES
APPLIED BUSIUNESS ISSUES
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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APPLIED BUSINESS ISSUES
Table of Contents
Background......................................................................................................................................2
Literature Review............................................................................................................................2
References........................................................................................................................................4

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Executive Summary
This report identifies an applied business issue. The issue that have been identified is usage of
CRM. This report states the research questions. Proper analysis of literature is also performed. In
this case as well. This report also states the ethical constraints of using CRM.

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Introduction
Implementation of CRM in business have been one of the major inclusion that a modern
day business have been experiencing. Several benefits are received sue to the implementation of
CRM in the business process. However there are certain issues of this applied business
mechanism. There have been ethical constraints present in the system as well. The report
provides a proper discussion section. Ethical issues are properly demonstrated in the process as
well. Recommendation for eliminating the issue is also stated.
Body
Research question
Research Question 1: What are the major issues of using CRM as an applied business technique
in an organization?
Research Question 2: What are the ethical considerations that are to be focused on in case of
CRM implementation in business?
Literature Review
According to Souri, Asghari and Rezaei (2017)Issues of implementing CRM in business
have been acting rewarding at a whole. Despite the benefits that are considered in the processing,
there are several issues that are to be considered. One of the major issue that have been
considered in the process is the cost that is incurred in the process. This section ensures that there
are certain range of fees that are incurred in the operational process of CRM implementation.
Software subscription as well as purchase fees are considered in the section. After this the major
cost that is incurred in the process includes premium upgrades. Cost that is incurred in
customization have also been another major aspect that will be incurred in the process. Cost

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regarding IT resource need have also been high. Meeting the hardware and software
requirements have been high as well. Another major aspect that is considered in the process is
the cost that is incurred in the training of the employees for handling the CRM system. Despite
these excess costs that are incurred in the process, there is no active participation in the revenue
earning process.
According to Kumar & Reinartz (2018), another major issue that is present in the section
is that the business culture gets affected in a major manner. This affecting of the issue includes
the fact that there is a lack of resistance to the cultural change. This might ensure the fact that
there might be loss in the revenue due to improper assessment of the CRM implementation.
Lack of leadership in the process have been effectual as well. It can be stated that CRM is
a new technology and hence wise it gets affected in the operational areas. There is a lacking of
leaders who are more than capable of leading the operation of CRM.
Ethical issues
According to Lobato, Pinheiro, Jacob, Reinhold and Santana (2016), there are several
ethical constraints that are present in the operational process of CRM implementation. The very
first ethical issue that is considered in the section is the collection of customer data. In this
process, usage of secured data collection is the aspect that is to be considered. It is seen that the
data that are collected in the process is done with the techniques that are not very robust in
nature. Another issue that is considered in the process is that the data that are provided by the
clients and the customers are not always accurate in nature (Rafiki, Hidayat & Razzaq 2019).
That is the time when the entire operational process gets affected. This have been ensuring the
fact that wrong data will be leading to improper analysis and hence cans be treated as an ethical
issue.

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Another ethical issue that is faced due to be implementation of the CRM process is that
the data sets that are present are stored in a secured manner, however there are certain criteria
that are to be considered. There are 4 major criterions that are to be followed. The very first
criteria to collect the data with proper approval of the data. However, it have been seen that in
most of the instances the data that are collected are without the consent of the client. This have
been affecting the ethical consideration of CRM implementation.
As per Francis (2018), another aspect that is considered is that the clients must be having
the authority to have access to the data or change the data. This is another ethical consideration
that is present in the operational process of CRM. Seldom have it been seen that the clients are
allowed to withdraw data or gain access to the data and alter the same (Agapitou, Bersimis &
Georgakellos 2017). Once the data is stored the data remains stored. Another ethical aspect that
is to be considered in the process is to perform proper assessment of the business management as
the data that are collected can be withdrawn by the clients. Again it have been observed that in
case of the CRM implementation no option is provided to the clients regarding withdrawing of
the data and hence wise it acts as an ethical issue.
Again it have been seen that the data that are stored in the CRM system must not be used
by the organization for any other purpose, namely marketing and advertising of other products.
However, it has been seen that the data that are collected and stored in the CRM system are
getting used for marketing purpose. The data stored in the CRM ensures that the data get used up
by the marketing team and hence this falls under the ethical constrains. This is one of the most
vita ethical issue that have been considered.

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Disposing of CRM data have been another activity that might fall under the ethical
constraints. It is seen that the data that are not required have been seen that data breaching often
occurs due to improper disposition process.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, the issues that are present in the operational process of
applied business technology CRM is properly described. With proper understanding of the issues
that are present in the section, proper steps are to be taken in order to eliminate the issues.
Recommendation
 Data that are stored in the process needs to be stored in a structured manner
 Clients need to have control over data that have been collected from them.

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References
Souri, A., Asghari, P., & Rezaei, R. (2017). Software as a service based CRM providers in the
cloud computing: challenges and technical issues. Journal of Service Science Research, 9(2),
219-237.
Kumar, V., & Reinartz, W. (2018). CRM Issues in the Business-To-Business Context.
In Customer Relationship Management (pp. 265-283). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Lobato, F., Pinheiro, M., Jacob, A., Reinhold, O., & Santana, Á. (2016, July). Social CRM:
Biggest challenges to make it work in the real world. In International Conference on Business
Information Systems (pp. 221-232). Springer, Cham.
Rafiki, A., Hidayat, S. E., & Razzaq, D. A. A. (2019). CRM and organizational
performance. International Journal of Organizational Analysis.
Agapitou, C., Bersimis, S., & Georgakellos, D. (2017). Appraisal of CRM implementation as
business strategy option in times of recession: The role of perceived value and
benefits. International Journal of Business Science & Applied Management (IJBSAM), 12(2), 18-
31.
Francis, A. K. K. (2018). Customized CRM Solution for Improving Product Sales and Customer
Support.