CRM Introduction

CRM, or Customer relationship management, is a number of strategies and technologies that are used to build stronger relationships between companies and their customers. A company will store information that is related to their customers, and they will spend time analyzing it so that it can be used for this purpose. Some of the methods connected with CRM are automated, and the purpose of this is to create marketing strategies which are targeted towards specific customers. The strategies used will be dependent on the information that is contained within the system. Customer relationship management is commonly used by corporations, and they will focus on maintaining a strong relationship with their clients. There are a number of reasons why CRM has become so important in the last 10 years. The competition in the global market has become highly competitive, and it has become easier for customers to switch companies if they are not happy with the service they receive. One of the primary goals of CRM is to maintain clients. When it is used effectively, a company will be able to build a relationship with their customers that can last a lifetime. Customer relationship management tools will generally come in the form of software. Each software program may vary in the way it approaches CRM. It is important to realize that CRM is more than just a technology. Customer relationship management could be better defined as being a methodology, an approach that a company will use to achieve their goals. It should be directly connected to the philosophy of the company. It must guide all of its policies, and it must be an important part of customer service and marketing. If this is not done, the CRM system will become a failure. There are a number of things the ideal CRM system should have. It should allow the company to find the factors that interest their customers the most. A company must realize that it is impossible for them to succeed if they do not cater to the desires and needs of their customers. Customer relationship management is a powerful system that will allow them to do this.

INTRODUCTION
It is also important for the CRM system to foster a philosophy that is oriented towards the customers. While this may sound like common sense, there are a sizeable number of

companies that have failed to do it, and their businesses suffered as a result. With CRM, the customer is always right, and they are the most important factor in the success of the company. It is also important for the company to use measures that are dependent on their customers. This will greatly tip the odds of success in their favor. While CRM should not be viewed as a technology, it is important to realize that there are end to end processes that must be created so that customers can be properly served. In many cases, these processes will use computers and software. Customer support is directly connected to CRM. If a company fails to provide quality customer support, they have also failed with their CRM system. When a customer makes complaints, they must be handled quickly and efficiently. The company should also seek to make sure those mistakes are not repeated. When sales are made, they should be tracked so that the company can analyze them from various aspects. It is also important to understand the architecture of Customer relationship management. The architecture of CRM can be broken down into three categories, and these are collaborative, operational, and analytical. The collaborative aspect of CRM deals with communication Customer relationship management (CRM) is a widely-implemented strategy for managing a companys interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processesprincipally sales activities, but also those for marketing, customer service, and technical support. The overall goals are to find, attract, and win new clients, nurture and retain those the company already has, entice former clients back into the fold, and reduce the costs of marketing and client service. Customer relationship management describes a company-wide business strategy including customer-interface departments as well as other departments and between companies and their client CRM get the most value out of customers by tightly integrating your sales, marketing and support efforts. Companies need a system that manages the entire customer life cycle: acquisition, service and maintenance. Commerce-enabled CRM applications allow organizations to interact with customers through all media or channels: telephone, Web, e-mail, face-to-face. CRM products and services manage every point of contact with the customer to ensure that each

customer gets the appropriate level of service and that each customer gets the appropriate level of service and that no sales opportunities are lost. Customer Relationship Management is a customer-focused business strategy designed to optimize revenue, profitability, and customer loyalty. By implementing a CRM strategy, an organization can improve the business processes and technology solutions around selling, marketing and servicing functions across all customer touch-points (for example: Web, email, phone, fax, in-person). A primary objective of CRM is to provide the entire organization with a complete, 360degree view of the customer, no matter where the information resides or where the customer touch-point occurred. Today, many businesses manage different aspects of customer relationships with multiple information systems, which weaken customer service and ultimate reduce total sales potential. To realize the benefits of CRM, it is important to have an integrated solution across all customer information systems, tying together the front and back offices for a complete view of customers in order to service them better. Philip Kotler, the Marketing guru now replaces 4 P's of Marketing by the A, B, C, D, Es as follows

Anyplace. Because anytime-anywhere shopping replaces 'place'. Companies must design integrated strategies for the marketspace, the marketplace and marketface. Customers want convenience.

B-web relations drive revenues. A brand reflects relationship capital. Think of customers as a part of your B-web, and prospects as candidates for relationships, not as markets for your products. B-web is synonym for Businees web or ERPWEB or e-business.

Communication works, not 'promotion'. A man in communication is a man in business. One-way media like broadcasting can be part of the marketing mix, but the customer decides whether - and with whom - to engage in a one-, two-, or multi-way communication.

Discovery of price replaces fixed 'price'. The days when firms controlled prices are nearly over. Supply Chain Management which manages suppliers & make-to-stock manufacturing will be replaced by Demand Chain Management which manages

customers & make-to-order manufacturing. Every make-to-order product will have different price, so it is discovered.

Experience replaces 'product'. Customers pay for experience, not products. Products must be bundled with enhanced, customized services. The automobile experience replaces the product, as the car becomes a platform for transportation, interactive entertainment, safety, doing business, and having fun.

CRM applications address the following business functions:

e-commerce web store fronts website - are converging into a customer-centric solution, which allows organizations to interact with, sell to, and service customers through all channels. Consumers are major users of this business functions. Channel Management/Partner Relationship Management Extends CRM capabilities to the needs of extended selling channels such as distributors and value-added resellers. PRM applications enable companies to distribute leads and manage promotions outside the enterprise sales team. Business Partners are major users of this business functions. Sales Automation Provides sales professionals with access to critical customer information and tools that enhance their ability to effectively sell as well as manage their time. For example: contact management, calendaring functions, forecasting tools, configuration models. The sales department uses this business function. Marketing Automation Provides marketing departments with campaign management, lead generation, and data mining tools. Closed-loop lead management is one of the most important functions of marketing automation and relies on integration with the CRM data repository and related applications. The marketing department uses this function for crosspromotion, advertising and direct marketing. Customer Service and Support or Internal Helpdesk or Web self service Enables the enterprise to effectively and efficiently address customer questions, problems or issues. While customer satisfaction is the primary goal, many organizations are seeking to increase revenues while providing customer service through "cross-selling". Supporting field service person through applications covering network management and support, call logging and resolution, and internal customer support. The customer service department uses this business function to provide quality service to customers.

Value of CRM to Business: A Customer Relationship Management strategy is designed to increase revenue and profitability by attracting new customers, growing customer business, increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty, enabling more efficient business processes, and utilizing lower cost technologies. The primary goal of CRM is higher revenues, not cutting costs. CRM solutions improve sales and marketing efforts and enables organizations to provide superior service to customers. New customers are gained, and existing customers are retained and buy more in greater quantity. End-customers benefit by receiving superior customer service and getting the products and services they want, when they want them. An enterprise that does not have a CRM strategy or use CRM applications is at a competitive disadvantage. Before engaging on a mission to implement a CRM strategy, it is critical to determine what the specific objectives are and how to measure the return on investment. There are sobering statistics that over one-half of CRM implementations "fail", primarily due to lack of consensus on agreed-uponand more importantly, measurablegoals. While objectives can address specific points of poor performance for example low sales performance or low customer satisfaction scoresit is important that they also address supporting the entire customer life cycl CRM Basics Customer relationship management is a business strategy that companies will use to enhance both their customer service and profits. By increasing the satisfaction of their customers by building a stronger relationship with them, the company can gain new customers, and it can also become highly competitive in the market. While many people use the term CRM to refer to software programs, it is more correctly applied to a broad business strategy.
The software is merely a tool that is used to achieve the goals of the company. To understand the basics of CRM, you must first learn a bit about how this system works. The process of Customer relationship management begins when a company collections information that is related to their customers. This information could come in the form of surveys, or it could be data gained from tracking the purchasing habits of the customers. Once this information is collected, it will be analyzed. The company will look for patterns and areas where they can improve. Depending on the size of the

company, this could be a tremendous amount of information. It is tedious for most Fortune 500 companies to process data in a manual way, so they must use software tools that can help them collect, store, and analyze the data. When a customer makes a purchase with a company card, the items that the customer purchased are stored in a database. Once the company has spent enough time analyzing this information, they can use it to make strategic marketing decisions that are tailored to customers on an individual level. The CRM software is tools that will allow the company to do this effectively. A lot of companies fail to realize that simply purchasing CRM tools will not be enough for them to reach succcess. Before the purchase the software, they must take the time to create goals and strategies that the software can help them achieve. As you can see, CRM is a system that is used to build powerful relationships with customers. In most cases, large companies have a "gap" that exists between them and their customers. Many customers view large corporations as being entities that are view them as simply being numbers. The goal of CRM is to destroy this perception. Customers that don't feel valued are very likely to take their business to another company. Customer relationship management is directly connected to customer service. A company can use a CRM system to automate some of their processes, and this can be connected to things such as customer complaints or compliments. A number of call centers are comprised of automated CRM systems. The goal of using these systems is to make the company much more efficient. It is expected that this efficiency will lead to a higher level of customer satisfaction. There are a number of rewards to be gained from using a CRM system. The most obvious goal is to improve customer service. More than ever before, customers are quick to switch companies if they are not getting the service they deserve. Many companies are now competing on a global scale. This means that is has become more important to place a high emphasis on the serving the needs of the customer. While the ultimate goal of the company is to make money, this should not be placed in front of customer service. The vast majority of companies that have failed to follow this rule have eventually suffered tremendous financial losses, and some have even been forced out of business.

The History of CRM

Customer relationship management is a concept that became very popular during the 1990s. It offered long term changes and benefits to businesses that chose to use it. The reason for this is because it allowed companies to interact with their customers on a whole new level. While CRM is excellent in the long term, those who are looking for short term results may not see much progress.
One of the reasons for this is because it was difficult to effectively track customers and their purchases. It is also important to realize that large companies were responsible for processing tremendous amounts of data. This data needed to be updated on a consistent basis.

In the last few years, a number of changes have been made to Customer relationship management that has allowed it to advance. These capabilities have allowed CRM to become the system that was once envisioned by those who created it. However, the biggest problem with these newer systems is the price. A number of personalized Internet tools have been introduced to the market, and this have driven down the cost of competition. While this may be a bane for vendors who are selling expensive systems, it is a bonanza for small companies that would otherwise not be able to afford CRM programs. The foundation for CRM was laid during the 1980s. During this time, it was referred to as being database marketing. The term "database marketing" was used to refer to the procedure of creating customer focus groups that could be used to speak to some of the customers of the company. The clients who were extremely valued were pivotal in communicating with the firm, but the process became quite repetitive, and the information that was collected via surveys did not give the company a great of information. Even though the company could collect data through surveys, they did not have efficient methods of processing and analyzing the information. As time went on, companies begin to realize that all they really needed was basic information. They needed to know what their customer purchased, how much they spent, and what did with the products they purchased. The 1990s saw the introduction of a number of advances in this system. It was during this time that term Customer relationship management was introduced. Unlike previous customer relationship systems, CRM was a dual system. Instead of merely gathering information for the purpose of using for their own benefit, companies started giving back to the customers they served. Many companies would begin giving their customers gifts in the form of discounts, perks, or even money. The companies believed that doing this would allow them to build a sense of loyalty in those who brought their products. Customer relationship management is the system that is responsible for introducing things such as frequent flyer gifts and credit card points. Before CRM, this was rarely done. Customers would simply by from the company, and little was done to maintain their relationship. Before the introduction of CRM, many companies, especially those that were in the Fortune 500 category, didn't feel the need to cater to the company. In the minds of the executives, they have tremendous resources and could replaces customers whenever it became necessary. While this may have worked prior to the 1980s, the introduction of the Information Age allowed people to make better decisions about which companies they would buy from, and global competition made it easier for them to switch if they were not happy with the service they were getting.

CRM Architecture
The Customer relationship management architecture can be broken down into three categories, and these are operational, collaborative, and analytical. Each plays an

important role in Customer relationship management, and a company that wants to success must understand the importance of using these three components successfully.

Operational CRM deals with the automation of certain business processes.

Examples of business processes that are connected to operational CRM are marketing and sales. When a connection is made to a customer, the information related to this interaction will be automatically stored in a database, and the company can pull up specific information on that customer when it is needed. Operational CRM can further be broken down into three components. These components are Enterprise marketing automation, Customer service automation, and Sale force automation. The Enterprise marketing automation will give the company information about the business climate, and it will also provide them with crucial data on their competitors, as will as trends within the industry and other important variables. As the name implies, Enterprise marketing automation deals with strategies a company can use to strengthen their marketing tactics. Customer service and support will automate specific processes that are connected to service. An example of this could be item returns or customer complaints. Sales force automation will be responsible for automating some of the company's sales tasks. An example of tasks that SFA would automate are demographics, customer needs, and accounting management. A number of corporations will use call centers to store data on their customers. Once the customer makes a call, the customer service representative can provide them with relevant information. Many companies will also automate processes such as allowing customers to access their accounts. The next important part of CRM architecture is Analytical CRM. As the name suggests, Analytical CRM deals with analyzing data that is collected by the company. This data will be analyzed so that the company can enhance its customer service capabilities. By enhancing its customer service capability, a company will build a stronger relationship with its customers. There are a number of common ways that

Analytical CRM is used to achieve this. A number of companies will use the
data they've collected and analyzed to cross-sell products to their customers, as well as retaining customers that may normally switch to another company. Analytical CRM can also be used to provide important information to customers within a short

period of time. In addition to building stronger relationships with customers, Analytical CRM can be an important tool for fraud prevention and detection. It can analyze the patterns of sales, inventory, and profits in order to find any patterns that are not consistent. Analytical CRM is also important when it comes to both product development and risk management. It is important to realize that Analytical CRM is an ongoing process. The company may need to alter its strategies or methods based on the information that is analyzed through this process. The third important aspect of CRM architecture is Collaborative CRM. Collaborative CRM is important because it places an emphasis on the interactions that a company will make with its customers. These interactions could be personal, or they could come through mediums such as the telephone or the Internet. Collaborative CRM will give companies a powerful form of communication that will utilize multiple technologies. It will also be responsible for providing services over the Internet so that the costs of the service can be reduced. When interactions are made with customers, Collaborative CRM will allow the company to provide them with useful information. At the highest level, CRM should be an important part of all interactions that a company makes with its customers.

IMPORTANCE OF CRM
Customer Relationship management is the strongest and the most efficient approach in maintaining and creating relationships with customers. Customer relationship management is not only pure business but also ideate strong personal bonding within people. Development of this type of bonding drives the business to new levels of success. Once this personal and emotional linkage is built, it is very easy for any organization to identify the actual needs of customer and help them to serve them in a better way. It is a belief that more the sophisticated strategies involved in implementing the customer relationship management, the more strong and fruitful is the business. Most of the organizations have dedicated world class tools for maintaining CRM systems

into their workplace. Some of the efficient tools used in most of the renowned organization are BatchBook, Salesforce, Buzzstream, Sugar CRM etc.

Importance of CRM Group of business people working together in the office.. image by Andrey Kiselev from
Identification 1. Customer Relationship Management, or CRM, is a business strategy that focuses on customer knowledge, satisfaction, and retention. While the goal of any business is profit, CRM strategies start with the customer and work toward the sale, versus a "selling" strategy that starts with the product or service and leads toward the customer. Starting with the customer involves collecting and analyzing information to determine who the customer is, what the customer needs, and how a business can meet, then exceed, those needs. Goals 2. To understand the importance of CRM, you need to look at its ultimate goals. Five important CRM goals include superior customer service, a need-based selling strategy, effective cross-selling, sales staff support, and customer generation and retention policies. Realizing these goals means your business must create a marketing mix that involves product, price, place, and promotion unique to each customer you serve. Adopting the goals of CRM involves a process of studying the customer and the buying process, providing your sales staff with the training and technology required to match products or services with needs, and assisting sales staff efforts to discover ways to add value and profit with cross selling.

Strategies 3. CRM involves developing strategies that focus on customers because consumers can have a significant impact on the bottom line. Essential CRM strategies include customer retention or win-back strategies, new customer generation, personalized selling plans that work to ensure customer loyalty, and continued enhancement of the product/service line to provide the right products in the marketing mix. To carry out these strategies effectively requires commitment and communication, along with the technology and infrastructure required to support it. Implementation 4. CRM can bring a company together. Focusing attention on the needs of the customer and making successful implementation of CRM strategies of the utmost importance creates a common goal for all concerned. Implementing CRM strategies, however, requires an investment of both time and money. Technology in the form of a network infrastructure and CRM software is essential for successful implementation, as is training staff to use the software to its fullest potential. Potential 5. CRM significantly increases a business's potential for profit. It increases internal communication, provides ways for employees to work together toward a common goal, makes the selling process easier and more effective, and most importantly, increases customer satisfaction and loyalty. A business that makes a commitment to CRM also makes a commitment to change and evolve as customers move through their life cycle, change their wants, needs, and buying habits, and as business and economic conditions change.

Why a CRM System is always important for an organization.

1. A CRM system consists of a historical view and analysis of all the acquired or to be acquired customers. This helps in reduced searching and correlating customers and to foresee customer needs effectively and increase business. 2. CRM contains each and every bit of details of a customer, hence it is very easy for track a customer accordingly and can be used to determine which customer can be profitable and which not. 3. In CRM system, customers are grouped according to different aspects according to the type of business they do or according to physical location and are allocated to different customer managers often called as account managers. This helps in focusing and concentrating on each and every customer separately. 4. A CRM system is not only used to deal with the existing customers but is also useful in acquiring new customers. The process first starts with identifying a customer and maintaining all the corresponding details into the CRM system which is also called an Opportunity of Business. The Sales and Field representatives then try getting business out of these customers by sophistically following up with them and converting them into a winning deal. All this is very easily and efficiently done by an integrated CRM system. 5. The strongest aspect of Customer Relationship Management is that it is very costeffective. The advantage of decently implemented CRM system is that there is very less need of paper and manual work which requires lesser staff to manage and lesser resources to deal with. The technologies used in implementing a CRM system are also very cheap and smooth as compared to the traditional way of business. 6. All the details in CRM system is kept centralized which is available anytime on fingertips. This reduces the process time and increases productivity. 7. Efficiently dealing with all the customers and providing them what they actually need increases the customer satisfaction. This increases the chance of getting more business which ultimately enhances turnover and profit. 8. If the customer is satisfied they will always be loyal to you and will remain in business forever resulting in increasing customer base and ultimately enhancing net growth of business.

In todays commercial world, practice of dealing with existing customers and thriving business by getting more customers into loop is predominant and is mere a dilemma. Installing a CRM system can definitely improve the situation and help in challenging the new ways of marketing and business in an efficient manner. Hence in the era of business every organization should be recommended to have a full-fledged CRM system to cope up with all the business need

TYPES OF CRM
Operational CRM
The operational application of CRM enables effective interaction with customers. For this purpose various tools are used. These contact management tools aim to reduce costs by improved process efficiency and use of media based communication channels. These are also aimed to provide customers with a consistent interface across all communication channels. To achieve this relevant customer data is collected and also displayed at all customer touch points. This is the customer master data. Another set of data where employees' contact with customers is also logged. This has information like topics discussed, customer requirements, soft customer data like hobbies, preferences, interests, details about children and other minor stuffs. Banks are an exemplary implementation of CRM as customer contact management. Channel management tools aim to understand how customer interacts with the company. It aims to deliver products and services across multiple channels in effective, efficient, and consistent manner. Content management tools enable the company to manage what is visible to the customers i.e. what the customers are able to see when they interact with the company. The various processes undertaken are: campaign management, sales management, service management, and complaint management.

Analytical CRM
The data collected in operational management is analyzed to segment customers. The valuable information thus obtained is used to satisfy customers. Analytical CRM is composed of:

1. Pattern discovery component 2. Product and customer analysis component 3. Multitude component 4. Sorting and customer fractionation component 5. Customer value evaluation component Analytical solutions provided for most companies are integrated view of customer across all channels and applications, campaign performance analysis, customer profitability analysis, cross-selling and up selling. The analytical solutions help answer questions like: 1. Who are their best customers? 2. Whom they are likely to loose? 3. How to retain them? 4. How to attract new customers? 5. How to improve profitability of customers? Examples are data warehousing, online analytical processing (OLAP), and data mining systems.

Collaborative CRM
The various departments of company like the sales, technical support, and marketing, share the information they collect about customers. The objective is to improve the quality of customer service and increase customer loyalty.

It allows the company to synchronize and manage efficient, productive interaction

with customers, prospects, partners, and internal associates across all communication channels. The customers' viewpoint is taken care of at every transaction level thus enabling better service to the customer. Collaborative CRM also reduces web service costs by enabling web collaborative.

Types/variations Sales force automation Sales force automation (SFA) involves using software to streamline all phases of the sales process, minimizing the time that sales representatives need to spend on each phase. This allows sales representatives to pursue more clients in a shorter amount of time than would otherwise be possible. At the heart of SFA is a contact management system for tracking and recording every stage in the sales process for each prospective client, from initial contact to final disposition. Many SFA applications also include insights into opportunities, territories, sales forecasts and workflow automation, quote generation, and product knowledge. Modules for Web 2.0 e-commerce and pricing are new, emerging interests in SFA.[1] Marketing CRM systems for marketing help the enterprise identify and target potential clients and generate leads for the sales team. A key marketing capability is tracking and measuring multichannel campaigns, including email, search, social media, telephone and direct mail. Metrics monitored include clicks, responses, leads, deals, and revenue. This has been superseded by marketing automation and Prospect Relationship Management (PRM) solutions which track customer behaviour and nurture them from first contact to sale, often cutting out the active sales process altogether. Customer service and support Recognizing that service is an important factor in attracting and retaining customers, organizations are increasingly turning to technology to help them improve their clients experience while aiming to increase efficiency and minimize costs.[6] Even so, a 2009 study revealed that only 39% of corporate executives believe their employees have the right tools and authority to solve client problems..[7] The core for these applications has been and still is comprehensive call center solutions, including such features as intelligent call routing, computer telephone integration (CTI), and escalation capabilities.

Analytics Relevant analytics capabilities are often interwoven into applications for sales, marketing, and service. These features can be complemented and augmented with links to separate, purpose-built applications for analytics and business intelligence. Sales analytics let companies monitor and understand client actions and preferences, through sales forecasting and data quality. Marketing applications generally come with predictive analytics to improve segmentation and targeting, and features for measuring the effectiveness of online, offline, and search marketing campaign. Web analytics have evolved significantly from their starting point of merely tracking mouse clicks on Web sites. By evaluating buy signals, marketers can see which prospects are most likely to transact and also identify those who are bogged down in a sales process and need assistance. Marketing and finance personnel also use analytics to assess the value of multi-faceted programs as a whole.
These types of analytics are increasing in popularity as companies demand greater visibility into the performance of call centers and other service and support channels,
[6]

in order to correct problems before they affect satisfaction levels. Support-focused

applications typically include dashboards similar to those for sales, plus capabilities to measure and analyze response times, service quality, agent performance, and the frequency of various issues.Integrated/Collaborative

Departments within enterprises especially large enterprises tend to function with little collaboration.[8] More recently, the development and adoption of these tools and services have fostered greater fluidity and cooperation among sales, service, and marketing. This finds expression in the concept of collaborative systems which uses technology to build bridges between departments. For example, feedback from a technical support center can enlighten marketers about specific services and product features clients are asking for. Reps, in their turn, want to be able to pursue these opportunities without the burden of reentering records and contact data into a separate SFA system. Small business
For

small business, basic client service can be accomplished by a contact manager

system: an integrated solution that lets organizations and individuals efficiently track and record interactions, including emails, documents, jobs, faxes, scheduling, and

more. These tools usually focus on accounts rather than on individual contacts. They also generally include opportunity insight for tracking sales pipelines plus added functionality for marketing and service. As with larger enterprises, small businesses are finding value in online solutions, especially for mobile and workers.

telecommuting

Social media sites like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook are amplifying the voice of people in the marketplace and are having profound and far-reaching effects on the ways in which people buy. Customers can now research companies online and then ask for recommendations through social media channels, making their buying decision without contacting the company.People also use social media to share opinions and experiences on companies, products and services. As social media is not as widely moderated or censored as mainstream media, individuals can say anything they want about a company or brand, positive or negative. Increasingly, companies are looking to gain access to these conversations and take part in the dialogue. More than a few systems are now integrating to social networking sites. Social media promoters cite a number of business advantages, such as using online communities as a source of high-quality leads and a vehicle for crowd sourcing solutions to client-support problems. Companies can also leverage client stated habits and preferences to "hyper-target" their sales and marketing communications.[9]
Some analysts take the view that business-to-business marketers should proceed cautiously when weaving social media into their business processes. These observers recommend careful market research to determine if and where the phenomenon can provide measurable benefits for client interactions, sales and support.[10] It is stated[by whom?] that people feel their interactions are peer-to-peer between them and their contacts, and resent company involvement, sometimes responding with negatives about that company.

Non-profit and membership-based Systems for non-profit and membership-based organizations help track constituents and their involvement in the organization. Capabilities typically include tracking the following: fund-raising, demographics, membership levels, membership directories, volunteering and communications with individuals.

Many include tools for identifying potential donors based on previous donations and participation. In light of the growth of social networking tools, there may be some overlap between social/community driven tools and non-profit/membership tools. Strategy For larger-scale enterprises, a complete and detailed plan is required to obtain the funding, resources, and company-wide support that can make the initiative of choosing and implementing a system successful. Benefits must be defined, risks assessed, and cost quantified in three general areas:

Processes: Though these systems have many technological components, business processes lie at its core. It can be seen as a more client-centric way of doing business, enabled by technology that consolidates and intelligently distributes pertinent information about clients, sales, marketing effectiveness, responsiveness, and market trends. Therefore, a company must analyze its business workflows and processes before choosing a technology platform; some will likely need reengineering to better serve the overall goal of winning and satisfying clients. Moreover, planners need to determine the types of client information that are most relevant, and how best to employ them.[2]

People: For an initiative to be effective, an organization must convince its staff that the new technology and workflows will benefit employees as well as clients. Senior executives need to be strong and visible advocates who can clearly state and support the case for change. Collaboration, teamwork, and two-way communication should be encouraged across hierarchical boundaries, especially with respect to process improvement.[11]

Technology: In evaluating technology, key factors include alignment with the companys business process strategy and goals, including the ability to deliver the right data to the right employees and sufficient ease of adoption and use. Platform selection is best undertaken by a carefully chosen group of executives who understand the business processes to be automated as well as the software issues.

Depending upon the size of the company and the breadth of data, choosing an application can take anywhere from a few weeks to a year or more.[2]