The History of Crm

1-THE HISTORY OF CRM

Before 1993, CRM included two major markets:

1. Sales Force Automation (SFA) and

2. Customer Services (CS).

Sales Force Automation was initially designed to support salespersons in managing their touch points and to provide them with event calendars about their customers. SFA’s meaning expanded to include opportunity management that is supporting sales methodologies and interconnection with other functions of the company such as production. The box below indicates the range to sales force automation capabilities currently available.

1.1 Sales Force Automation Capabilities

• Contact Management: Maintain customer information and contact histories for

existing customers. May include point in the sales cycle and in the customer’s

replenishment cycle.

• Activity Management: Provide calendar and scheduling for individual sales

people

• Communication Management: Communicate via E-mail and fax

• Forecasting: Assist with future sales goals, targets, and projections

• Opportunity Management: Manage leads and potential leads for new customers

• Order Management: Obtain online quotes and transform inquiries into orders

• Document Management: Develop and retrieve standard and customizable

management reports and presentation documents

• Sales Analysis: Analyze sales data

• Product Configuration: Assemble alternate product specifications and pricing

Marketing Encyclopedia: Provide updated information about products, prices,

promotions, as well as soft information about individuals (e.g., influence on

buying decisions) and information about competitors.

Compared to SFA, Customer Service (CS) is an after sales activity to satisfy customers. The goal of Customer Service is to resolve internal and external customer problems quickly and effectively. By providing fast and accurate answers to customers, a company can save cost and increase customer loyalty and revenue. As shown in the box below, customer services include call center management, field service management, and help desk management.

1.2 Customer Services Capabilities

• Call Center Management

o Provide automated, end-to-end call routing and tracking

o Capture customer feedback information for performance

measurement, quality control, and product development

• Field Service Management

o Allocate, schedule, and dispatch the right people, with the

right parts, at the right time

o Log materials, expenses, and time associated with service

orders

o View customer history

o Search for proven solutions

• Help Desk Management

o Solve the problem by searching the existing knowledge base

o Initiate, modify, and track problem reports

o Provide updates, patches, and new versions

Today, CRM includes all customer-facing applications, including:

• Sales Force Automation (SFA),

• Customer Service (CS),

• Sales and Marketing Management (SMM), and

• Contact & Activity Management [Emerging Market Technologies, 2000].

1.3 Major Vendors

The major vendors changed over time. In 1993, the leaders of SFA were Brock Control, Sales Technologies, and Aurum. Since then, Brock Control changed its name to Firstwa Technologies, Inc. In 1998, Sales Technologies merged with Walsh International and now is consolidated into SYNAVANT Inc. to provide pharmaceutical and healthcare industry relationship