Customer relationship management
(CRM) is a broad term that covers concepts used by companies to manage their relationships with customers, including the capture, storage and analysis of customer information.
Aspects of CRM
There are three aspects of CRM which can each be implemented in isolation from each other:
- Operational CRM- automation or support of customer processes that include a company’s sales or service representative
- Collaborative CRM- direct communication with customers that does
not include a company’s sales or service representative (“self service”)
- Analytical CRM- analysis of customer data for a broad range of purposes
Operational CRM
Operational CRM provides support to "front office" business processes, including sales, marketing
and service. Each interaction with a customer is generally added to a
customer's contact history, and staff can retrieve information on
customers from the database as necessary.
One of the main benefits of this contact history is that customers
can interact with different people or different contact “channels” in a
company over time without having to repeat the history of their
interaction each time.
Collaborative CRM
Collaborative CRM covers the direct interaction with customers, for
a variety of different purposes, including feedback and
issue-reporting. Interaction can be through a variety of channels, such
as web pages and email.
The objectives of Collaborative CRM can be broad, including cost reduction and service improvements.
Analytical CRM
Analytical CRM analyses customer data for a variety of purposes including
- design and execution of targeted marketing campaigns to optimise marketing effectiveness
- design and execution of specific customer campaigns, including customer acquisition, cross selling,upselling,retension
- analysis of customer behaviour to aid product and service decision making (e.g. pricing, new product development etc.)
- management decisions, e.g. financial forecasting and customer profitability analysis
- prediction of the probability of customer defection (churn).
Enterprise Resource Planning
systems (ERPs) integrate all data and processes of an organization into a unified system. A typical ERP
system will use multiple components of computer software and hardware
to achieve the intergration. A key ingredient of most ERP systems is the use of a unified database to store data for the various system modules
Ideally, ERP delivers a single database that contains all data for the software modules, which would include:
- Manufacturing
- Engineering, Bills of Material, Scheduling, Capacity, Workflow
Management, Quality Control, Cost Management, Manufacturing Process,
Manufacturing Projects, Manufacturing Flow
- Supply chain management
- Inventory, Order Entry, Purchasing, Product Configurator, Supply
Chain Planning, Supplier Scheduling, Inspection of goods, Claim
Processing, Commission Calculation
- Financials
- General Ledger, Cash Management, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Fixed Assets
- Project
- Costing, Billing, Time and Expense, Activity Management
- Human Resource
- Human Resources, Payroll, Training, Time & Attendance, Benefits
Manufacturing Resource Planning(MRP ii) is defined as a method for the effective planning of all resources of a
manufacturing company. Ideally, it addresses operational planning in
units, financial planning in dollars, and has a simulation capability
to answer "what-if" questions and extension of closed-loop
Purpose
MRP integrates many areas of the manufacturing enterprise into a
single entity for planning and control purposes, from board level to
operative and from five-year plan to individual shop-floor operation.
It builds on closed-loop Material Requirements Planning (MRP) by
adopting the feedback principle but extending it to additional areas of
the enterprise, primarily manufacturing-related.
Benefits
Manufacturing Resource Planning is a well-established philosophy and
set of techniques for managing manufacturing enterprises. For both MRP
II and its predecessors there are many case histories of success in
almost every conceivable industrial situation. Naturally individual
enterprises notch up particular successes in specific fields, perhaps
because they originally had serious problems in that area, or perhaps
because they have special expertise, or perhaps because of championship
by an individual.
Benefits can come at many levels, and in many forms. Some characteristic MRP II benefits are:
For Management:
- An accurate, consistent and effective way to run the whole business
- The ability to manage orderly growth
- The ability to cope with difficult economic conditions
For Management Information:
- Quicker, better information on which to base decisions
- Consistent information at all levels, in all departments
- Accurate records for internal and external use
For Sales / Marketing:
- Improved on-time deliveries to customers
- Faster, more accurate delivery promising
- Improved responsiveness to customer needs
For Production:
- Improved productivity and resource utilisation
- Increased throughput
- Better reliability of production plans
For Materials Management:
- Better control of inventories
- Improved scheduling
- Productive relationships with suppliers
For Design / Engineering:
- Improved design control
- Better quality and quality control
For Financial and Costing:
- Reduced working capital for inventory
- Improved cash flow through quicker deliveries
- Accurate inventory records
- Timely and valid cost and profitability information
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