MAR 4860 – Customer Relationship Management MODULE 7

Introduction

CRM technology is an enabler for the business processes associated with the delivery of customer value.
Technology can help a company develop a closer relationship with its customers provided that it can solve real
business problems. The key is putting technology into the right places for the right reasons -- to help build
relationships. This module focuses on the basic structure of CRM technology and its various components.
Although this is not a technology course, it's important to be able to recognize and understand key terminology and
concepts associated with CRM technology.

In order to better understand this module, let's think of a company as a home, not just the structure but the home,
including all of the people that live in it and all of the different functions that they perform. These would be
considered our processes. A home has different rooms and each room has different functions and different people
live in each of those rooms. But together they all make up a family unit. The same thing holds true with a CRM
strategy. A company develops a CRM strategy and they have a building that they work under or an infrastructure.

In this module, we are going to concentrate more on the physical structure of that house. How does it have to be
built? What are the different components of that house? How does it look? What are the different things that we
need in order to make it work? We need certain things to be functioning, like electricity, in order for it to create
value for the people that live in it. Then we will talk about the actual functions that are performed within that house
or within that company, and how technology and the infrastructure help those people within that house perform
those functions.

In the case of a house, if it doesn't have a refrigerator, then it's difficult to perform some basic cooking functions. If
you don't have a stove within your home, then it's difficult for you to cook. The same thing holds true in a
bathroom. If you don't have a toilet, or you don't have a place to take a shower, you would be limited in terms of
your personal hygiene. The same thing holds true when the company can't perform certain functions if it doesn’t
have that technology in place.

In Module 8, we will discuss those providers, or vendors that made that house possible. If you remember back in
earlier modules, we talked about what we needed in order to build that house. You needed the design, which was
your CRM vision, then you needed different objectives, etc., tocreate that blueprint. We will look at the providers,
the vendors, the architects, the electricians, and the designers -- all of the people that need to provide us what we
need in order to build the home. With that in mind, let's start with the learning objectives for this module.

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Module 7 Learning Objectives

There are four learning objectives in this module. The first objective is to guide you to describe the
big picture information technology framework for CRM and the three basic components:

1. A data collection system to be able to collect information from customers

2. The data storage system so once you collect data and information from customers, you need to
be able to put it somewhere and keep it somewhere

3. What to do with that data, after collecting it -- the different processes that are performed on that
data and then how that information gets delivered to the users themselves.

The second objective has to do with the basic information technology and the meanings of the
different terms and concepts.

We will also be looking at the role of CRM technology in achieving the CRM strategy objectives, the
impact that CRM technology has on the sales, marketing and service functions, and then the
common uses of technologies in these functional areas.

Please note that Data Quality will be addressed through the Trailhead Salesforce module.

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Gartner Model

Where are we now within the eight building blocks of the Gartner Model? We have already covered a
little bit of block number six, which is CRM information, when we spoke in Module 4 about
identifying and differentiating customers and the type of data that we collect when we interact with
customers. You will see that blocks 6 and 7 are very interrelated.

In this module, we are going to be concentrating more on block number seven, which is
CRM technology. This has to do with the infrastructure of technology within an
organization, the architecture, and the different software applications that are used to collect
information, store information about the customer, and then deliver the information to those who
need to use it to better interact and customize interactions with customers.

Once again, please note that Data Quality will be addressed through the Trailhead Salesforce module.

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The Role of Technology

Given the current needs and trends in business today, CRM technology plays a key role
in enhancing the quality of customer experiences. Some of technology’s key roles are:
• To collect customer information from all touch points.
• To put to use this information to build accurate profiles on each customer.
• To organize and deploy customer information in a systematic and orderly fashion to those that
serve the customer.
• To use customer information in an intelligent way and make decisions about CRM-related sales
and marketing strategies.
• Ultimately, the role of technology is to create and maintain a unique customer experience.

Now there are challenges that exist in using CRM technology:

• CRM must be flexible enough to stay in touch with a changing audience (the customer). CRM
must satisfy the different requirements of different industries.
• CRM must be accessible to external stakeholders and mobile professionals such as salespeople
and field technicians. CRM must operate over any communication channel.
• CRM must integrate with other systems to provide a single view of, and for, the customer. CRM
must be implemented in such a way that appropriate work processes and skills are deployed.

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Data Flow

We will now revisit this diagram but looking at it from a different perspective. When we looked at
processes in the last module, we focused on the top part of this diagram, which showed the different
customer touch points a customer can use to come into contact with the company. Customers can interact
with a salesperson in a retail store, phone conversations, support services e-mail, e-commerce, an ATM machine
or some other device that could be used to communicate with the company. We also saw that through business
processes, a company is able to communicate with these different customers at these different points.

Now, we are going to concentrate on the bottom part of this slide and look at how data flows from the customer
all the way through the company and then through company all the way back to the customer. Through business
processes, we collect data and information from the customer. We can collect contact information or information
on the different purchases that they make. That data then goes to different units throughout the company. On
the right-hand side of the diagram, we see data and that information possibly going to a customer service area,
which could use information learned in order to improve their processes and then feed those improvements to
their contact with those customers at the beginning or to those touch points.

If we go to the left-hand side, we see that data and information are then stored in a central repository and data
warehouse. Then, that data warehouse communicates with other departments through different databases. The
smaller modules are also databases, and they are around the center one. These databases concentrate on different
functions. So we have one that concentrates on company contacts, another one that concentrates on human
resources or HR, we have one on accounts receivable, one on marketing, and so on.

Now what happens is that these databases store certain types of information on the customer and then through
customer analytics or through analytical-type software, the company is able to learn information
about customers to then interact more intelligently with them in the future. That's what happens when you
see the box or the arrow that goes back up to the business processes called business intelligence. Business
intelligence is the ability to make predictions about the future behaviors of customers and through that
continuous learning process. We build knowledge about our customers. The more knowledgeable we become,
the more intelligent we can be with our future interactions with them.

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CRM Basic Architecture

Now that you have a better idea of the big picture from the customer, all the way through the company, and then back to the
customer again, let's dig deeper into the diagram that we just looked at. On this slide, we see what we call the CRM basic
architecture. This architecture is common to any company that has a CRM system in place. Now, when we refer to a CRM
system, we are talking about everything from technology to processes, to inputs to outputs, and to the people
involved. So the system is all of that put together. Obviously, a system includes technology. When we look at this
diagram here, what we see is the basic architecture. It's the basic framework or the bare-bones that any company that has a
CRM system in place needs.
This architecture is made up of three components: data collection system, data warehouse system, and the information
delivery system. Keep in mind that we’re using the word ‘system’ here. The system is not just one piece of information or
one item -- it's a collection of activities/processes, people, and technologies. In this diagram we see that the inputs into this
data collection system are data and information, and they can come from internal sources, external sources, or from those
customer touch points that we looked at in the previous slide.
Let's look at an example to better understand what the data collection system includes. Let's assume that you have a
phone. Your phone rings and when you look at the caller ID or the screen, you don't really recognize that phone number. You
answer the call anyway. Your phone is being used as a data collection system. The data that came into that phone is a phone
number. You need hardware to process that phone call and you need the phone number information. You need a software
application that enabled you to see the actual signal coming in and to hear the actual ring so that you would take action on
that phone number.
If you decided to take the phone number and set it up as a new contact, you would need a software application within your
phone that would enable you to go ahead and save that phone number, give it a username first name, and add a last name. In
addition to that, you could even go further and say that this is somebody that you are interested in and want to also
capture their birthday, address, or e-mail address. So all of these other functions that you want to perform require a
software application, and all of that can be done in that data collection system.
Once you make that decision to capture all this information about this person, this information gets saved into the second
component of this architecture, which is the data warehouse system. All of that goes into storage and that storage or that
warehouse can be looked at in two different subcomponents. One is individual databases. Depending on how robust the
CRM system is, you can have multiple databases. In the case of our telephone example, you would probably only have one
little database in there. The point here is that once you save that information, it gets stored in a location. We will cover
these in more detail later.
Assume three weeks go by and you decide that you want to make a phone call to this person, follow up on their birthday, or
you want to send them a text message. You extract the information from your phone and you take action on that
information -- that's the third piece of this which is the information delivery system. In order for you to take action, to text
that person or call them, you need the software application and the hardware to be able to do so. The information delivery
system is that ability to extract the information out of storage, which is the output, and to use that information through a
process of making a phone call or texting that person.

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Technology Infrastructure
What kind of technology infrastructure did we need in order to be able to perform the three basic functions of data
collection, data storage or the warehouse, and then the information delivery? That's what CRM technology infrastructure is
all about. It's all of those different pieces of hardware and software that support the flow and the processing of information
back and forth. Notice that in this slide we have four different areas. We have hardware, networks, software, and
databases. We will now review these in greater detail.
Let’s think of the information as being similar to electricity, being crucial to the functioning of a house, then the IT
infrastructure is like the transmission lines or the power plants that run behind the scenes that generate and supply that
electricity. In this context, the IT infrastructure is going to include the transmission media, such as the telephone lines, the
fiber-optic cables, the satellites, and the routers or computers that are necessary to successfully operate that network.
Those would be the hardware components of this infrastructure.
The IT infrastructure also includes software that is necessary to send, receive and manage all of the signals and all of that
information that is transmitted on this network. In the case of our telephone example, the software was needed to be able to
send that phone information back and forth and then to receive the signals back and forth. The software includes 2-3 three
general categories. The first one is the operating system that you need for the network operating system. The second is
middleware for legacy databases, which we will discuss later, and then the actual software applications. We talked about
software applications a little bit already in the semester with the three main software application types being sales force
automation, marketing automation, and service support.
As far as networks, a local area network or LAN is a group of computers and associated devices that share a common
communications line. They also typically share the resources of a single processor, or what we call a server, within a small
geographic area or within an office building. Usually, the server has applications and data storage that are shared in
common by multiple computer users. A local area network (LAN) may serve as few as two or three users in a home
network, or as many as thousands of users in a large corporation. The LANs in a corporation may then be connected to a
bigger area network which is called a wide area network, or a WAN. A WAN is much larger than the land geographically
and consists of several local area networks that are all connected together. So a WAN may span a corporate campus or
even several states. WANs can be privately owned or can even be rented, but usually some portion of its structure includes
public networks. Most enterprise networks consist of a wide assortment of different communication media and network
configurations.
Another important component of the overall infrastructure are databases. Databases are primarily the accumulation of
data which are organized in an efficient manner. We will also cover more about these later. There are many different types
of databases and you can arrange information in different ways based on the different formats of the data that you are
storing.

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Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is internet-based computing in which large groups of remote servers are networked to allow the
centralized data storage, and online access to computer services or resources. Clouds can be classified as public,
private or hybrid. For a user, the network elements representing the provider-rendered services are invisible, as if
obscured by a cloud.

Cloud computing is the result of evolution and adoption of existing technologies and paradigms. The goal of cloud
computing is to allow users to take benefit from all of these technologies, without the need for deep knowledge
about or expertise with each one of them. The cloud aims to cut costs, and help the users focus on their core
business instead of being impeded by IT obstacles. The “cloud" also focuses on maximizing the effectiveness of the
shared resources. Cloud resources are usually not only shared by multiple users but are also dynamically reallocated
per demand. This can work for allocating resources to users. For example, a cloud computer facility that serves
European users during European business hours with a specific application (e.g., email) may reallocate the same
resources to serve North American users during North America's business hours with a different application (e.g., a
web server). This approach should maximize the use of computing power thus reducing environmental damage as
well since less power, air conditioning, rackspace, etc. are required for a variety of functions. With cloud
computing, multiple users can access a single server to retrieve and update their data without purchasing licenses for
different applications.

The term "moving to cloud" also refers to an organization moving away from a traditional model (buy the dedicated
hardware and depreciate it over a period of time) to the cloud model (use a shared cloud infrastructure and pay as
one uses it). Proponents claim that cloud computing allows companies to avoid upfront infrastructure costs, and
focus on projects that differentiate their businesses instead of on infrastructure. Proponents also claim that cloud
computing allows enterprises to get their applications up and running faster, with improved manageability and less
maintenance, and enables IT to more rapidly adjust resources to meet fluctuating and unpredictable business
demand. Cloud providers typically use a "pay as you go" model. This can lead to unexpectedly high charges if
administrators do not adapt to the cloud pricing model. The present availability of high-capacity networks, low-cost
computers and storage devices as well as the widespread adoption of hardware virtualization (mobile devices),
service-oriented architecture, and self-managing computing have led to a growth in cloud computing. Cloud vendors
are experiencing growth rates of 50% per year.

The main enabling technology for cloud computing is virtualization. Virtualization software separates a physical
computing device into one or more "virtual" devices, each of which can be easily used and managed to perform
computing tasks. These devices include laptops, tablets, cell phones, desktops, and so on.

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Multi-Tiered Computer Architecture

The diagram in this slide shows a simple but typical, multi-tiered CRM computer architecture.
Different customers, also called ‘clients’, both internal and external, can access a company’s web
server and can enter data and extract data, using the Internet. Through the use of software
applications, customers or partners, internal departments, service employees, and salespeople can
access software application servers using CRM software applications. Today, the use of ‘cloud
computing’ eliminates the need for companies to have web servers and even databases, because the
cloud providers keep all the data within their location, on a private server, and databases for each of
their customers. There are pros and cons to that, which we will study later.

A service representative can use a laptop in the field to collect customer data and synchronize the
data with that on an application server, online, and in real time. This is considered a Point of Sale
(POS) Input where laptops or even mobile phones can scan product data from bar codes and obtain
customer data from credit cards, checks, or store identification cards. POS data can also be keyed
into workstations by data entry operators or sales people.

Many businesses go to the customer’s premises. Salespeople and service technicians must provide
an overall great customer experience and need current customer and product information. Two main
technologies available to support mobile professionals: 1) mobile (synchronized) handheld or
laptop device, with a small resident database and 2) wireless (online) handheld devices connected to
the main system using a wireless connection such as a mobile phone.

Within the walls of the company are storage systems, such as a data warehouse and databases, that
clean the data, perform quality checks on it, format it, and store it in the right location, for the right
users. There are even software applications that manage databases. In this slide, we see three
common types of databases: operational or transactional databases, analytical databases, and
metadata (which means data about data) databases.

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Data Collection System

The data collection system (also termed data input, acquisition, capture or data gathering process) is a set of steps
(or process) whereby data is collected and converted into some electronic format. Data collection is the process of
capturing computer-readable formats acquired from internal sources, from data entry operators, or from multiple
touch points from external sources. Data collection is the ongoing process of gathering information about customers -
their needs, desires, interests, characteristics, demographics, and behaviors.
Refer to the right hand-side of the diagram. Hardware and software applications enable the capturing of data. There is
a growth in the number of communication technologies available today for company employees to collect customer
data such as a phone, fax, email, web, wireless devices, laptops, direct mail, salespeople, and more. There is also a
growing trend in the number of company touch points in which customer data can come into the company: a branch,
contact center, field service, service desk, partners, suppliers, and more. CRM systems must then be able to operate
in the office, out of the office, and over the web.
You, as a customer, have been involved in giving companies information about you and your computer. Most of the
time, the data must be secured from the customer. Some retailers, in an effort to capture marketing information on
their customer, have implemented systems at the POS location which a salesperson can use to enter subjective data
on the customer, such as level of satisfaction, temperament, and optimal approach (Like how to approach the
customer based on first-hand experience) for a respective customer. The companies are capturing behavioral data.
This type of data collection may happen at high-margin retailers where personal selling is a large part of the sales
process (Example: Nordstrom). The customer would probably perceive this data collection negatively, so the entering
of this information must be secure from the customer. To enter at a later time may not be feasible, as the salesperson
may forget, become distracted with another customer, or still be involved with the customer that they are entering
information on while the sales process is still in play.
Once collected, the data must be secured. The data captured must not be lost, either in whole or in fragments. The
amount of data, by that I mean the number of transactions and data elements within transactions, must be quantified
as a control function. If for any reason the software or system being used loses data, there should be a process defined
and executable to recover the data.
Finally, as data is being transferred from the point of collection to its next processing step, such as the process of
placing data into a common format, it must not be modified, thus maintaining its original content and integrity. This
is critical not only for completeness of marketing information, but also for input into the decisions made afterward
when referencing the data. Users must have quality data.

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Data Storage & Information Delivery

Data sources, both inside and outside the firm, provide data that describe relationships with
customers. The data warehouse system (considered the heart of CRM) prepares the data for storage,
stores the data, describes the data so that it might later be retrieved, and performs a management and
control function.

The information delivery system, or third component of our CRM system, allows the contents of the
data warehouse to be made available to the information users in the form of electronic or printed
information reports and displays. The system therefore transforms data into information. Since CRM
system users can be found at all organizational levels, from the president to sales clerks, executives
can use the system in formulating corporate strategies involving the organization’s customers
(summary data) while sales clerks can use the system in working with their individual customers
(detailed data).

A database is an accumulation of computer-based data that is arranged in a format to facilitate

retrieval. It is a collection of data stored, controlled, and accessed through a computer, based on the
way the data are organized. As noted in our last slide, a company can have many databases. A data
warehouse is a large reservoir of detailed and summary data that describes the firm and its activities,
organized by the various business units in a way to facilitate easy retrieval of information describing
the firm’s activities. A data mart is a subset of the data warehouse that contains data relating to
a portion of the company’s transactions. Data mart project costs are lower because the volume of
data stored is reduced, and the number of users is capped. Technology requirements are less
demanding.

In this module, we just want to give you a basic understanding of the 3 components of the CRM
architecture. Now let’s look at learning objectives 3 and 4. These relate to the enabling role of CRM
technology in sales, marketing, and service functions and the common uses of technologies in these
functional areas.

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Functions Impacted by CRM

We've already talked a little bit about the business processes involved in sales, sales management,
marketing, and service. Now we need to go a little bit deeper, look at each of these functional areas
individually, talk about how technology can be used within each of these areas, and about what is
required of each area in order to make that technology successful.

Some general comments first. An effective CRM process must integrate all phases of the sale in order
to create that optimal customer experience. We can't just worry about one functional area and not be
concerned with the others because they are all interconnected. We saw in previous modules that these
are all cross-functional in nature. Often the service and support functions of an internal operational
organization don't receive the same investment or attention as some of the other areas of the business,
such as a development area or operations, or sales and marketing. On the other hand, many companies
differentiate themselves from the competition through the excellence of their customer service. This is
a big area right now. We will be dedicate an entire module to the customer experience management
concept.

Let's look at an example. The service center for a washing machine manufacturer can sell a washing
machine to a customer who calls in frequently for washing machine repairs. There you see the
connection between a service activity and the upsell or the cross sell opportunities that exist from that.
The support service records can be analyzed and then sales efforts can be taken from those records,
such as warranty upgrades or new machine sales, or it can be employed by the support area generating
more warranty and sales revenue for the company. Let’s look at each of these functions individually,
keeping in mind that they are not isolated areas and that we need to look at them as part of an
integrated effort and process.

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Sales Functionality Providers by CRM Technology

Sales was the first area impacted by CRM technology. It started with keeping automated logs and
journals and then evolved over the years, to tracking sales opportunities and contacts, creating
sales forecasts, and acting as a catalyst for the sales process. Sales Force Automation (SFA)
is the application of computerized technologies to support sales people and sales management
in the achievement of their work-related objectives. It focuses on the functions performed in sales, as
noted here on this slide. On this slide, you see the many functions and activities performed by
salespeople, their managers, and support staff. Please take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with
them.

Related to SFA are hardware and software. SFA hardware includes desktop, laptop, mobile devices,
and contact/call center technology. SFA software comprises both ‘point’ solutions that are designed to
assist in a single area of selling or sales management, and integrated solutions that offer a range of
functionality. The integrated solutions can address most of the activities noted here in this slide.

NOTE: Be sure to read the Glossary of Terms under Supplemental Materials.

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Benefits for Sales Stakeholders

There are different stakeholders who receive the impact of CRM technology. Sales roles may differ
widely depending on the sales channel involved, which could include reseller partners, retail outlets,
catalog sales, e-commerce websites, and direct sales (possibly through a Website). Users of SFA
could be sales force, sales support, or sales management. This slide shows the benefits that can be
gained from SFA solutions. According to research studies, there are many reasons for wanting to
pursue this.

Below are some of the possible improvements that can be made with SFA.
• Improve efficiencies by 72%
• Improve customer contact by 44%
• Increase sales by 33%
• Reduce costs by 26%
• Improve accuracy by 21%

Here are some benefits for each of the different user groups:

Salespeople: Shorter sales cycles, increase in selling time available, more closing opportunities,
higher win rates, and expanded value to the prospect and customer.

Sales managers: Improved salesperson productivity, improved customer relations, increased

accuracy of revenue forecasting, more accurate reporting, and reduced cost-of-sales.

Senior management: Accelerated cash flow, increased sales revenue, market share growth, and
improved profitability.

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Example of Account Management

Let's look at how sales force automation tools have changed the sales functions. In this example from
the Salesforce Sales App, we see that this is the tab called accounts. If you look towards the top, you
will see that the tabs going across the top of the screen. There is a Leeds tab, an Accounts tab, a Contact
tab, Opportunities, Reports, Dashboards, Campaigns, etc., depending on what function you choose.
This is an image, but in a live scenario you can go to the top left where the app grid is and select Sales,
Marketing, Service, Content, etc. This screen is the sales module and we’re on the account tab.

Here we have the opportunity to be able to see in one place all of the account information and
everything associated with an account or an existing customer that we have. You see here all of their
contact information. You also have the ability within this screen to see all of the specific key people or
contacts within that account, their titles and if you click on any of these things, you're going to be able to
drill down and see much more detail. There's also a listing of all of the different open opportunities that
are available with this account. So even though it may be an existing customer, you see that there are
two opportunities listed here: Acme 200 widgets and Acme 600. Each of these opportunities is at a
different stage of the sales process.

It seems unreal that some decades ago all of this information was kept manually and was only shared
with a few people within a certain area. You can imagine the opportunities that existed for improvement
in processes, effectiveness, and efficiency in the productivity of a person so that they did not have to
search through various files to be able to get what they need and to make better decisions.

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Example of Opportunity Management

So far we've looked at some really important functions of sales. We've looked at the account
management, contact management, opportunity management or lead management. Here we see
another example by HubSpot CRM.

This is a slightly different look. They have tabs going across the top as well. They call refer to their
opportunities as deals. In this example, deals can be categorized by stage as appointment set,
appointment completed, etc. You can click on any of these boxes and are able to go to another part
of the system and receive more detail.

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Example of Opportunity

Here's another example of an opportunity snapshot and if you notice this one is a more visual
diagram. If you look down at the bottom, we see a sales funnel and we see that this company that
this system has identified their sales process as including nine steps. If you see the steps on the left,
they include prospecting, potential leads qualification, opportunity building, vision, shortlists
selected, negotiation and closed or lost.

Every company will design their sales process, according to the needs of that industry and according
to the needs of that business. Here you will notice that the colors represent different things. Green
mean you are meeting or exceeding your quota. If it's yellow, you're within 30% of your quota, and if
it's red, you're more than 30% below your quota. This is a great visual snapshot of how a salesperson
is doing. This is not only great for the salesperson but it's also great for the sales managers because
they can keep track of how each salesperson is doing in relation to the quotas.

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SFA Performance Enhancement

So how can you get the best out of the sales force automation tool in the sales function? We find, based on history
and based on research in the past, that there are certain critical success factors in order for sales force automation to
be effective. First, the salespeople have to find that the tool is easy to use. If they see that the tool is cumbersome to
use, or it's difficult to navigate through the different screens, or they find that they're spending more time inputting
or entering information or selecting information than doing their sales job, they're not going to be very open to the
change. Salespeople find the technology useful because it fits their roles well. If they see value in the tool, if they
see that this tool is good or really saves them time, enable them to contact more prospects, increase their sales
cycles and so on, then they will embrace the change with more ease.
SFA will also enhance their performance when the availability of the appropriate sales force automation training is
made available, if they're given the proper training, proper guidance, and also the proper time in which to learn.
Many companies make the mistake of thinking that all they have to do is just give a release date for the new
software and from that day forward, salespeople are just going to jump on the bandwagon and be productive on day
one. That's not the case. There is a learning curve involved, so that management needs to not only make the training
available to them, but they also need to take into account how long it's going to take them to gain some expertise in
using it.
Another is when users have accurate expectations. They need to be clear on what to expect from the tool. Part of the
change management of implementing CRM is making sure that you're communicating everything as you're going
through and developing your rollout plan.
It's also when users have a positive attitude, that comes with management. If management also embraces this tool
and embraces the change, then they can serve as change agents and motivate the others to take it on.
Also you need to have availability of user support after the rollout. Salespeople need to be able to contact a help
desk or a support area in case they have questions, or if they run into problems.
Also you need to involve the user groups in the planning of the technology selection tool and the actual selection
process. So when companies decide that they want to go ahead and implement a sales force automation tool,
usually a team is put together and they evaluate different software applications. The salespeople need to be a part of
that process, they need to be consulted as to what they think will work best for them and then obviously deploy a
multidisciplinary team again.
Make sure that the team that you're putting together during the evaluation phase includes people from all of the
different areas that will be using the tool. To achieve this, you need support from senior management leadership.

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Marketing Functionality Provided by CRM Technology

Marketing automation is the application of computerized technologies to support marketers, the actual marketing
roles, and the marketing management in the achievement of their work related objectives. Again, all of these
different functions listed on this slide are different processes or objectives that a marketing unit has. Now in
marketing, you have different users or different roles; you have market research functions which analyze target
markets. Usually this personnel may require primary or secondary data. So not only are they involved in surveys and
focus groups and so on but they're also interested in accessing secondary data from external sources.
Then we have the marketing communications functions, which are involved in producing collateral documents and
graphics for the products and services in that market. They provide the promotional materials, concentrate on the
highlights, the visuals, and the messages that need to be conveyed in the communications of certain products and
services.
Last but not least, you have the product or the program marketing people which set product strategies for the
pricing of the product. They go through product development, design the distribution channels, work with partners and
other distributors to get the product out there to the end user, and put together value propositions. They're more on the
strategic side. They look at how they can position their company competitively.
When we look at marketing automation, it's basically CRM focused on marketing. It's not sales or support but pure
marketing. This is one of the most strategic elements of the overall customer relationship strategy. The complexity of
data-driven, multi-channel marketing means that an in-depth focus specifically on marketing is really necessary. This is
why it is such an asset to the overall CRM strategy.
To consider marketing to be just another use of the customer database is inaccurate, and doesn't do justice to the
potential that marketing automation has on a company. It's a planned and coordinated effort to deliver promotional offers
to prospects or customers across a variety of channels given a defined campaign. Marketing automation is the vehicle
that can create a marketing program,. It can be scheduled, it can handle sequences of events,it can target the delivery of
an offer to prospects and customers, and then track whether the program worked or not from this information.
Marketers can learn how to do it better the next time. There's a lot of learning here, the continuous learning process
that we have been talking about throughout the course.
The process of marketing automation allows these different roles of marketers to easily identify a group of
customer segments as necessary, and then determine which of the various offers will be presented to each segment.
Critically, it also needs to execute these offers to see if they work, why they work, and why they don’t work.
There's a lot of analysis and a lot of intelligence embedded within the marketing function. Even though you're
going to see tools out there that are specifically labeled as marketing automation, in order for marketing to really take
full of the advantage of technology, there has to be some business intelligence components built into the process.

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Benefits from Marketing Automation

These are some of the main benefits of Marketing Automation (MA):

Enhanced marketing efficiency

The replication of marketing processes delivers greater control over costs. When marketers use manual
systems and ad hoc processes, there can be considerable inefficiencies. MA enables companies to
develop more streamlined, cost-efficient processes that can be operated by any marketing incumbent,
whether experienced or new-to-role.

Greater marketing productivity

MA enables companies to run dozens, even thousands of campaigns and events through multiple
channels, simultaneously.

More effective marketing.

MA allows marketers to employ what is known as closed-loop marketing (CLM). CLM is based on a Plan-
Do-Measure-Learn cycle.

Enhanced responsiveness.

Marketers have traditionally created and implemented annual marketing plans with campaigns and
promotions planned and scheduled many months ahead. MA allows marketers to respond instantly to
opportunities, even if not part of a plan. MA functionality enables companies to engage in real-time
marketing, responding immediately to an identified opportunity.

Improved marketing intelligence.

MA’s embedded reporting and analytics functionality provides valuable management insights into
markets, customers, campaigns, events, and so on, leading to both enhanced efficiency and
effectiveness.

Improved customer experience.

Customers receive personalized, relevant communications and offers at appropriate times. MA means
less spam, from the customer’s perspective.

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Example of Email Campaign Management Process

In this examples you can see a semi-guided step-by-step process to setup a email campaign.
The steps guide the user from the 'enter details' step to the 'test' and 'schedule' steps. This
information also gets tracked and recorded in CRM.

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Example of Marketing Optimization

Another function of marketing is marketing optimization. So what exactly does that mean? It means
that you're able to run different scenarios and project how these scenarios or going to perform.
Then, depending on what data you have available, you're able to create predictions. Those
predictions will dictate whether you're going to run with the campaign or not. Such analytical tools
are used in this function. On the left side of this slide we see three scenarios that have been
identified and different reports that you can run with the data that you have in each of these
scenarios. You can compare all of these scenarios and determine which one fits best.

Marketing optimization software allows you to select the overall goal, which could be sales or profit
margin maximization, and then specify all of the constraints for your marketing campaign strategy,
such as the available budget, the customer contact policy that you may have, the channels that you
have available such as direct mail, or e-mail or text messaging and so on. You can determine what
your target customer segment size is going to be. These are just different variables: the product
volume requirements, the customer segments’ propensities to buy different products, etc. All of those
things, to name a few, are just some of the variables that you can take into account. With this software,
you can mix and match, through trial and error, all these variables to see which combination of
variables maximize that sales goal or that profit margin goal.

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Example of Web Analytics Report

Given the current trends in e-commerce and the use of websites to not only promote marketing
materials but also transact through e-commerce, web analytics has become a big area in the
marketing automation arena. In this example here, you see a web analytics report. Reports such as
this will actually report the behavior of website visitors. Routine reports like this one generally detail
web traffic data, but can also include performance data from campaigns and events that involve the
actual website. For example, you can track the number of click thrus to a web link inserted in an e-
mail campaign.

Two main technologies collect the data. First, the log file analysis and second, page tagging. Web
servers record all of the website activity in a log file, which can then be read by web log analysis
software. Log file analysis can deliver inaccurate readings of human website visitors because of the
cache in the visits by web spiders from the different search engines. This prompted the introduction
of what we call page tagging as an alternative form of generating website data. The page tagging
requires that the webmasters insert some extra JavaScript or HTML coding onto the webpages so that
the analytics software can identify how many visitors originate from search engines, the search terms
that are used, and whether they arrived from paid for or from free listings, and so on.

So take a look at this report, and look at how it can actually measure all of these website performance
activities. Some other terms you're probably very familiar with in which vendors of the web analytics
services and software make available are things such as hits, page views for the visits or sessions, the
unique ability to tag a unique visitor or a repeat visitor, or when a visitor is there for the first time.
These are all things that can be tracked and they can be measured with all of the software that is
available now.

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Example of Campaign Workflow

There's also the use of workflow engineering software which is useful for designing marketing
related processes such as the campaign process, as shown in this slide. Here we see how you can
actually design a campaign and identify all the specific steps in the campaign so that it's easier to
train people on how they're actually going to put it into practice. You can use it for campaign
processes, customer-based marketing processes, or just the marketing planning process in general. It
definitely is helpful in displaying what different departments will be doing and how things will be
performed.

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Service Functionality Provided by CRM Technology

Now let's look at service automation, which is another area of focus.

Service automation (SA) is the application of computerized technologies to support service staff
and management in the achievement of their work-related objectives.

Using CRM technology to automate service functions can be deployed in four main areas:

Contact centers are configured to communicate with customers across multiple channels including
voice telephony, mail, email, SMS, instant messaging, web collaboration, and fax.

Call centers are generally dedicated to voice telephony communications, whether through a public
switched telephone network, cell-phone network, or VoIP.

Help-desks are usually associated with IT environments where assistance is offered to IT users. SA
applications such as case management, job management, and service level management are used in
this setting.

Field service is widespread in both B2C and B2B environments. Service automation applied to
field service operations involves technologies such as job management, scheduling, mapping, and
spare parts management.

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Benefits from Service Automation

Let's look at some of the benefits from service automation technology.

The first is enhanced service effectiveness. When a service request can be completed more quickly
to the customer satisfaction, you have a more satisfied customer. By having all of these facilities
and tools in place, the service reps can ensure that requests are handled, or on the first point of
contact, are routed to the right person or to the right engineer or customer service agent. This
enables these people to draw upon up-to-date knowledge bases in order to resolve that issue as
quickly as possible.

Greater service productivity. The caller contact center management systems ensures that
the optimal number of agents are scheduled and that their time is used productively. Field
service applications ensure that the workload of all of the service reps is equitable and it's
distributed correctly.

It also helps to improve customer experiences. Agents have the full visibility into customer
history and into service requests and can ensure that the service delivery is appropriate to the
customer status or to the agreed service levels.

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Examples of Escalation Business Rules

Escalation is one of the most important functions in service automation. It basically means that
you're making sure that the issues get escalated to the right level, according to internally
determined business rules. Higher levels of authority typically have greater direction or discretion
on how to resolve issues. For example, a front-line customer service agent may not have the
knowledge to be able to resolve a potentially high-cost issue. What they would do in this case is
escalate to a higher level of management. Business rules can be applied to determine the escalation
levels and then the actions that are appropriate to any given circumstance.

Many call centers are staffed by people with different levels of subject matter expertise. Each level
is designed to handle a progressively more difficult customer interaction. Therefore, each level
requires more expertise. This slide this shows a common hierarchy that exists within a call center
operation. The support center hierarchy often represents a career path for the call center agent. This
hierarchy within a call center is also used to escalate a call from level I to level II, or to level III. If
the first level call center agent can't resolve the customer problem then the agent can escalate the
problem to a higher level agent who may be more experienced in handling more challenging
customer problems.

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Call Center Operations

The diagram on this slide shows an example of a call distribution chart. Many call centers
have optimized staffing levels to meet a forecast of call volumes based on previous service call
history. This type of history is what managers will use to figure out how many people they need.

The call center distribution model has been adopted by many call center managers to help forecast
call volumes by time so that the call centers are properly staffed to meet the quality standards
established by the organization. Some of the things that are considered are call resolution time,
in other words, how long it takes to actually resolve the customer's inquiry. A performance indicator
to track is the first call resolution rate, which is the rate at which the problem or service call
is resolved during the first call with a customer inquiry. So basically it tracks the repeat calls if
the problem had not been properly diagnosed or resolved the first time around.

All of these things are just examples of some of the tools and some of the reports that the service
automation software application can provide.

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Example of Call Center Log

In this slide, we see a log which is the interaction between the customer and the call center agent.
The log is used to track both outbound which are sales and marketing and inbound customer
support calls. This figure shows an example of an application view that a call center agent may use
to interact with the CRM application. It shows all of the open service requests, the priority that each
one of them has the account that they're actually linked to and any activities required. So it's a
dashboard that indicates what's going on in terms of service.

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Trouble Ticket Example

Case management is one of the most important functions in the service area. It involves or covers
the full cycle of activities from the time an agent receives the initial notification of a concern from
a customer to its final resolution and then the case file being closed. This is known as case
management, also known as incident management or issue management. The processes are
typically designed using workflow applications within service automation software. Workflow
depicts the activities that have to be performed, the sequence in which they occur and sometimes
includes the standards to which the activities have to comply to.

Cases incidents or issues are initiated by the creation of a trouble ticket, or report of a problem.
Customers may be allowed to do this by web form, or by e-mailing or calling a service for contact
center. The ticket is assigned to a service engineer or agent. The software automatically
communicates with the customer at different trigger events such as scheduling of appointments or
follow-up after the case is closed. Case management software is often associated with the service
knowledge base that enables technicians to diagnose and fix problems quickly. The screen here
shows a trouble ticket screenshot with some of the information that's captured on the customer,
the type of problem that it is and the kind of resolution that's being handled, as well as a status of
priority, the type of issue that it is and who it is assigned to.

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