Customer Relationship Management Software: A Detailed Report

This report provides a comprehensive overview of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, examining its significance in contemporary business organizations. It delves into the various types of CRM software, including operational, analytical, and collaborative CRM, highlighting their respective functionalities and applications. The report explores the CRM market in China, identifying key vendors such as Oracle, Salesforce, and SAP, and discusses the sources of data used by companies. Furthermore, it analyzes the use of CRM for both operational and analytical decision-making, emphasizing the importance of ethical considerations in data collection, storage, and usage. The report also offers recommendations for small business organizations on effectively implementing CRM software, such as outsourcing implementation and providing employee training. Overall, the report underscores the value of CRM in enhancing organizational effectiveness and adapting to the competitive business landscape.

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Customer relationship management
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Abstract
This report discusses about the concept of customer relationship management software
for the contemporary business organizations. Moreover, various elements such as types
and use of customer relationship management software are also being discussed in this
report. This report will help to have the fair and precise idea about the initiation and
implementation of the customer relationship software for the small business
organizations.

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Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 3
Companies using CRM software......................................................................................3
Key vendors offering CRM software.................................................................................4
Source of data for the companies....................................................................................5
CRM for Operational and Analytical Decision Making......................................................5
Types of CRM Software Used..........................................................................................6
CRM and Ethical Consideration.......................................................................................7
Recommendations...........................................................................................................8
Conclusion....................................................................................................................... 8
Reference.......................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The current business scenario for the contemporary business organizations is
much more competitive and thus it is important for the business organizations to adopt
newer technologies. One of the key technologies being initiated by the contemporary
business organizations is the CRM or customer relationship management software
(Lee, Tang & Sugumaran, 2014). Initiation of the customer relationship management
software helps the business organizations to accumulate and analyze different and
diverse data in order to promote singular organizational approach. Thus, in order to
enhance the organizational effectiveness, more business organizations are promoting
the use of customer relationship management.
However, in the current business scenario, Customer relationship management
software is not only being used for the data mining purpose but also in different
alternate organizational activities. With the increase in the use of the customer
relationship management software in different business organizations, various
companies are being set up to cater to this market (Masanet et al., 2013). Thus, the
competition in this market is increasing and further with the entry of the global players,
the competition further intensified.
This report will discuss about the current market scenario of the customer
relationship software in China along with identifying the key players in this market.
Moreover, the alternate use of the customer relationship management software will also
be discussed in this report. Various types of customer relationship management
software will be determined in this report along with providing some recommendations
for the small business organizations in order to effectively use the customer relationship
management software.
Companies using CRM software
In the current global business scenario, China is one of the key destinations of
the leading business houses from all over the world. This is due to the reason that,
China is having the largest population in the world and they are one of the leading
countries in the world in terms effective infrastructure for latest technologies (Jansen,

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2013). One of the leading companies operating in China is Apple Inc. They are using
customer relationship management software mainly in order to determine the need and
requirement of the customers. Apple follows a distinctive approach in using the
customer relationship software by designing software for the end customers. This helps
them to engage their customers along with gathering data effectively.
Another leading organization in China using customer relationship management
software is Lenovo. It is also one of the leading software organizations in the world.
Lenovo is using their customer relationship management software in order to identify
the new business opportunities and to analyze the change in the market trend and
requirement. Initiation of the customer relationship software helps them to accumulate
diverse customer data and conclude effectively.
Key vendors offering CRM software
It is being reported that, CRM market in China is being projected to grow at the
rate of 17 percent up to 2020. Thus, huge growth is being expected, which will further
attract more global and domestic competitors in the market. Top vendors operating in
this market include Oracle, salesforce, Infor, IBM, SAP and Aplicor.
Figure: 1

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Market share of the CRM vendors
Source: (Pang, 2017)
Source of data for the companies
One of the key sources of data for the customer relationship management is the
point of sales. Point of sales is the connecting point of the buyers and sellers and thus,
the sales executives can identify the requirement and expectation of the buyers. This
source is one of the authentic sources of customer data (Wilcox et al., 2012). Another
source of market data is buying from the third party companies. There are various third
party vendors are being available, which sells customers leads. Another effective
source of data is the Google Adwords. This helps the organizations to identify the
potential customers who are interested in their products. Google adwords also helps to
determine the trend in the market for the business organizations. Inbound marketing
also helps in gathering customer data by attracting more customers through content.
This strategy involves initiation of designing the website with photos, videos and other
information in order to attract more number of customers.
CRM for Operational and Analytical Decision Making
Both the operational and analytical CRM are closely related to each other,
however, widely varies. Both of them address different aspects of CRM program. The
operational CRM tools are considered and required for implementing a CRM system.
The Analytical CRM on the other hand analyze the collected data of the customers ad
identifies the behavioral pattern among them (Milovic, 2012).
The operational CRM is used in various front office business processes that help
the company to take care of their customers. It prioritizes customers’ perceived value
and identifies the needs of particular customer segment. Operational decision-making
involves marketing, sales and service (Khodakarami & Chan, 2014). The data of the
customers is used for determining, evaluating and developing communication
necessary mode of marketing with the target customer segment. The sales automation
on the other hand involves the utilization of the data in identifying the potential

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customers and retaining the existing ones (Li & Mao, 2012). The service automation
tries to utilize the data for satisfying the customers’ needs through direct mail, feedback
portal, call centers and other mediums that enables the customers to connect with the
company.
The analytical CRM on the other hand help the company in identifying the
geographical distribution of the potential customers and their behavior pattern. The
company uses it to identify the beneficial customers in the market and market specific
customers based on the collected data. The company using analytical CRM is a
continuous process as the behavior of the customers’ changes over time
(Ranjan&Bhatnagar, 2011). Hence, company modifies the product and service line
accordingly based on the data collected through analytical CRM for meeting the
customers need.
Types of CRM Software Used
There are three primary types of CRM software used by the organizations; those
are operational CRM, analytical CRM and Collaborative CRM (Alavi, Ahuja &Medury,
2012).
Utility of operational CRM is to streamline the process, which incorporates service
automation, marketing automation and sales automation. This helps in generating
leads, modify them into contacts, confine the required details and provide service
throughout customer lifecycle. The sales automation facilitates in organizing information
and set standards for the business to attract new customers and retain the existing
customers. The marketing automation on the other hand identifies the medium for
communicating the products with the customers. Last component of the operational
CRM is service automation that helps the company to hold the customers’ perceived
value (Mosadegh&Behboudi, 2011).
The analytical CRM software on the other hand help an organization to manage,
market, sale and support for better serving its customers. The roles of this CRM is to
gather and analyze the data of the customers coming from various sources, implement

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business methodologies accordingly and attempt to achieve effectiveness in the
business performance (Ranjan&Bhatnagar, 2011).
The collaborative CRM software helps the company to direct the customer
information to various departments of the organization such as sales, marketing,
technical and support team (Alavi, Ahuja &Medury, 2012).
These different kinds of CRM software are utilized by organizations to attain
specific advantage in the market. This is related to the organizational goals and
objectives and needs to be in proper alignment before implementation.
CRM and Ethical Consideration
McKinley (2012) spoke about the ethical considerations the organizations should
incorporate during collecting, storing and using the personal data collected from the
customers. These personal data of the customers are considered as the valuable
assets for the organizations as it helps in understanding customers demand, followed
by value proposition. However, the organizations should consider the limits of personal
data collected and shared as it might harm the interest of the customers. Henceforth,
protection of the collected data is the primary responsibility of organization. Bull and
Adam (2011) on the other hand took a holistic approach in defining the need of ethical
approach while implementing customer relationship management.
According to the author, the ethics needs to be maintained in both operation and
privacy. The companies should consider CSR ethics for keeping the personal data for
safeguarding the customers’ interest. For example, the companies should secure the
personal data such as the ATM card information and other similar details with high
priority to prevent the data theft. Frow et al (2011) identified dark side of the CRM used
by various organizations over industries. The paper identifies ten form of dark side
behavior of CRM in by various organizations for getting competitive advantage that
violates the ethical boundaries. For example, may of the organizations incorporated
CRM in their business process fails to meet the standard of security required for
safeguarding customers’ details that result into data theft. It ultimately cause harm to the
customers.

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Recommendations
The above discussion regarding the concept of customer relationship
management software is mainly applicable for the large business organizations. This is
due to the reason that, initiation of customer relationship software involves huge
investment cost and infrastructure. Thus, it is important for the small business
organizations to have effective strategies in order to implement CRM software. The
following sections will discuss about recommended steps to be followed by them.
 Initiation of the CRM software should be outsourced in order to reduce the cost of
the implementation. This is due to the reason that, outsourcing of the CRM
software will involve third party vendors, which will help the business
organizations to reduce the price as well as the responsibilities.
 Implementation of the CRM software should be followed by the employee
training. This is due to the reason that, if the employees are not being effectively
trained to operate the new system, then it will be an extra cost for the
organization.
 Small businesses should implement CRM software in a specific organizational
activity rather having holistic implementation. This will help them to try and test
the software in a particular area rather investing big at the very first stage.
Conclusion
Thus, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that, contemporary
business organizations are using customer relationship management software in order
to determine the frequent change in the market trend. Thus, it helps them to have the
fair idea about the market and offering the products accordingly. This report discussed
about the recommended steps to be followed by the small business organizations in
effectively implementing the customer relationship software. It is being expected that,
effective implementation of the discussed recommended steps will help the small
business organizations in China to reduce the cost of the implementation.

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Reference
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