中文 5000 字 畢業(yè)論文（設(shè)計） 外文翻譯 A Framework for Understanding Customer Relationship Management Systems Graeme Shanks Department of Information Systems, The University of Melbourne, Australia Ilona Jagielska Caulfield School of Information Technology, Monash University, Australia Malini Jayaganesh Department of Information Systems, The University of Melbourne, Australia Abstract.This paper presents a structured framework for understanding the benefits of CRM systems. The framework is comprised of a set of benefits grouped into categories with empirical indicators and example metrics. The framework provides researchers with a systematic approach for exploring CRM system benefits and provides a sound base for further empirical research. It also provides practitioners with a means of defining objectives for CRM projects during specification of the business case and for conducting post-implementation reviews. Keywords: customer relationship management, CRM system benefits I. INTRODUCTION Customer relationship management (CRM) is concerned with the business processes and enabling technologies that focus on managing and improving relationships with customers in the areas of sales, marketing, and customer support and service. CRM systems consist of operational and analytical technological components as well as relationship marketing strategies and supporting, customer-centric business processes . Although CRM systems were initially designed to help solve operational and tactical problems, they have since evolved to support strategic initiatives and are used by a variety of employees, from front office staff to senior managers. As companies move into the new consumer-driven economy, customers are their most important asset and their success in the globalized economy depends on effective customer relationships . CRM systems are perceived as important strategic imperatives , with investment forecasts predicting that global spending on these systems is expected to increase over the coming years . The worldwide CRM application software market is set for 10 percent growth from 2007-2012 despite the recession, with total revenue expected to reach $10 billion in 2009 . In a U.S. based survey, Goodhue et al. found that 91 percent of organizations either already had a CRM system in place or were planning to acquire one. The implementation of a CRM system is, however, fraught with risk and high failure rates have been reported . Boardman suggested that 70 percent of CRM projects are failures, and found that more than half of all companies investing in CRM consider it a disappointment. The absence of a clear and consistent definition of what constitutes a successful CRM system implementation makes it difficult to evaluate industry experiences. One approach to overcome this problem is to determine the success or failure of CRM system implementations in terms of benefits realisation. Understanding the business benefits is considered to be a critical success factor for successful CRM system implementation , while low awareness of benefits is perceived to be a barrier to successful implementation of CRM systems. CRM system benefits are typically presented as unstructured lists or focus on the enabling drivers, while Freeman and Seddon have adapted an Enterprise Systems benefits framework to CRM systems. The framework presented in this paper is designed specifically for CRM systems, identifies and categorizes CRM benefits, provides indicators for each benefit, and describes example metrics that can be used for each indicator. The benefits framework provides researchers with a systematic approach for exploring CRM system benefits and a tool that can be used in further empirical research. It will assist practitioners in determining the feasibility of CRM projects, ascertaining which benefits have been achieved in CRM projects during post-implementation review, and establishing benchmarks for effective CRM system implementation. II. CRM SYSTEMS BENEFITS AND EVALUATION There is a large body of research in information systems concerning benefits realization and evaluation. Expenditure on information systems and information technology represents a substantial investment for many organizations that managers find increasingly difficult to justify . Evaluation of information systems involves establishing quantitative and qualitative means to assess the worth of information systems to organizations . In practice, little attention has been paid to formal evaluation of information technology investments and many firms do not conduct rigorous evaluations of their information systems investments . The value of information systems investments is often justified by faith alone, or by understanding costs and using mainly notional figures for benefits assessment . A significant reason for this is that there are few reliable measures for assessing the impact of information systems . Information systems evaluation is a complex process, which includes aspects of efficiency, effectiveness, and competitive advantage within a complex social and political context . There is a lack of consensus on how success and failure are constituted, and different social groups will have different views of success and failure at different points in time . The results of information systems implementation are also emergent rather than planned, and are often realized several years after implementation by the interaction of technology, people, and institutional context . Furthermore, the superficiality and simplicity of much information systems evaluation leads to little difficulties in learning from failures . Despite these difficulties, much greater care should be taken in ensuring that planned benefits are actually achieved . Lyytenin notes that information systems evaluation should recognize a wide range of consequences and focus mainly on effectiveness rather than simple technological and cost measures. In this paper, we do not address the evaluation of information systems or attempt to define success. We focus on developing a framework of benefits relating to efficiency, effectiveness, and competitive advantage that may be used within an evaluation process. The identification and measurement of benefits is a key aspect of information systems evaluation . Benefit frameworks should include both tangible and intangible benefits and can be used in the development of business cases and for performance monitoring . However, when assessing information systems investments, many organizations include partial and inaccurate treatment of benefits, and focus on tangible benefits due to the difficulty in dealing with intangible benefits . It is difficult to build a comprehensive list of benefits for an information system implementation . Benefits should, however, be identified as early as possible in an information systems implementation project and they should be closely related to the formulation of user requirements . Furthermore, potential benefits evolve as a project progresses; new benefits can be identified, and benefits that were originally identified may no longer be valid . The development of a framework for understanding CRM system benefits would be of great help in defining benefits that can apply within specific projects. There are many lists of general benefits for information systems broadly, and for enterprise-wide packaged software systems in particular . While there will be some high level benefits that are common to these systems, for a benefits framework to be useful, detailed indicators for the benefits need to be included. For a CRM benefits framework many of the benefits, and almost all of the indicators, will need to be specifically focused on CRM systems . Therefore, in this paper we develop a framework specifically focused on CRM system benefits, including both tangible and intangible benefits and detailed indicators for each benefit. III. THE CRM BENEFITS FRAMEWORK The CRM benefits framework describes and categorizes CRM benefits for operational, tactical, and strategic levels of management . Benefits for Operational Level of Management 1. Improved customer data management 2. Improved process management 3. Improved customer service 4. Empowerment of staff 5. Improved productivity 6. Enables real-time responsiveness to trends Benefits for Tactical Level of Management 1. Facilitates market segmentation 2. Facilitates key account management 3. Improved channel management 4. Improved analysis, reporting and forecasting Benefits for Strategic Level of Management 1. Improved customer satisfaction 2. Improved business performance 3. Improved value-added partnerships 4. Improved innovative use of CRM systems Benefits for the Operational Level of Management These benefits pertain to day-to-day operations of the business. Several of these benefits may trigger related benefits at the same or higher levels of management as discussed below. 1. Improved Customer Data Management To be effective, CRM systems require integrated and high quality customer data. Customer data is often recorded within different functional areas within companies and on different media . In order to manage customer relationships, organizations need a whole of customer view to manage individual customer relationships . CRM systems seek to integrate customer data and provide the means to improve customer data quality. One expert pointed out that, improved customer data can be regarded as an enabler of CRM system benefits rather than a benefit itself since virtually every other benefit identified in the framework is in some way dependent on high quality, integrated data. Indicators for improved customer data management are: Improved accuracy of customer information Improved completeness of customer information Decrease in the number of duplicate records Reduction in time taken to access complete customer information Increase in timeliness of information Improved customer data history 2. Improved Process Management For successful implementation of CRM systems, the alignment of information technology and business processes is essential. Customer related business processes need to be designed and managed to ensure that this alignment occurs. One expert felt strongly that process management is as important as customer data management, and the failure to recognize this is one of the key reasons why CRM systems might fail. Indicators for improved process management are: Reduction in the number of redundant processes Increase in efficiency at different stages of managing the customer Increase in efficiency in assignment of tasks 3. Improved Customer Service By aligning people, technology, and processes together, CRM systems assist organizations in providing consistent and personalized customer service. The level of service has a direct impact on customer satisfaction and the generation of repeat business. Indicators for improved customer service are: Increased number of resolutions at first point of contact Reduced handling time for enquiries Increased access to high quality information at the point of customer contact 4. Empowerment of Staff By giving employees access to more customer data, CRM systems provide them more autonomy in their tasks to shape procedures to the requirements of specific customers. Sales force automation systems and related products empower employees with relevant information that assists in contact and lead management, configuration support and knowledge management. As one expert pointed out, the inclusion of empowerment of staff in the CRM benefits framework is in keeping with the recommendations of IBMsCRM Done Right study which suggests a crucial link between alignment of CRM systems with employee goals and the outcome of the system implementation. Other experts agreed that empowerment of staff is an essential benefit of CRM systems and one of them reported that, in his experience, 60 -70 percent of the effort in CRM is directed towards the three indicators suggested for this benefit. Indicators for improved empowerment of staff are: Increased conversion rate of prospects Increased staff satisfaction level Reduction in administration of sales staff 5. Improved Productivity While prospective users of CRM indicate that growth in revenue is the biggest expected benefit, existing users report that the biggest benefits have been observed in the area of productivity improvements. This is particularly significant during economic downturn when productivity gains translate into increased profit margins through cost savings. Indicators for improved productivity are: Reduction in lost opportunity costs Reduction in costs for lead generation, marketing, customer service and sales Increase in the number of customers handled per sales representative 6. Enabling of Real-Time Responsiveness to Trends. CRM systems enhance relationships with customers by facilitating immediate response to their needs and foster continuous learning and improvement. However, while the experts agreed that CRM systems enable increased responsiveness, they were unanimous in their opinion that the concept of real -time responsiveness is only required only under select circumstances such as fraud detection. They suggested that most business circumstances do not require data processing in real time and that the emphasis should be on right time responsiveness, which is determined by the volume and frequency of transactions and contact. This could range from one day to six months and it is important to determine the right intervals. One of the experts added that win-back campaigns are the most time sensitive of all marketing activity and determination of the right time to attempt a win-back from a customer who has defected is very important and this is one of the determinants of the right interval for responsiveness. Indicators for enabling of real-time responsiveness to trends are: Increase in number of cross sales Increase in number of up-sales Earlier detection of trends Increased number of effective campaigns Benefits for the Tactical Level of Management These benefits relate to the middle level of management which is concerned with medium term planning and the development of tactical strategies such as specific marketing campaigns. 1. Improved Facilitation of Market Segmentation Traditional unsegmented marketing involves mass production, distribution, and promotion of the same product to all customers and focuses on what is common in the needs of the consumers rather than on what is different. On the other hand, relationship marketing is based on the principle that not all customers want the same product and that individuals may purchase the same product for different reasons. CRM analytics enables profiling of customers from a heterogeneous market to appropriate levels of aggregation to obtain smaller, more homogenous groups. Markets can be segmented on the basis of physical attributes or behavioural patterns. The former includes geographic variables, demographic variables, and socioeconomic characteristics while the latter includes lifestyles/psychographics, product usage, and benefits sought. Marketing strategies can then be adjusted accordingly. Indicators for improved facilitation of market segmentation are: Increase in campaign response rates Increase in identification and utilization of business opportunities Increase in target marketing driven revenue Increase in profitability of market segments Increase in number of target marketing initiatives 2. Facilitation of Key Account Management CRM systems enable better management of key account customers. Not all customers are equally profitable; for organizations in most industries and markets a small portion of the customer base provides a significantly higher portion of revenue . These are the key customers. Indicators for facilitation of key account management are: Increase in average customer lifetime value Increase in number of customers with high lifetime value Reduction in number of customers with credit risk 3. Improved Channel Management CRM systems assist in optimizing channel management. One aspect of this is ascertaining customer channel preferences. The other aspect is that it allows organizations to increase profitability by ensuring that the most effective channel is used for specific products and customers. Conflicts of interest between customers and the organization, in terms of channel preferences, are made visible and the organization is in a better position to resolve these issues satisfactorily. Indicators for improved channel management are: Increase in number of transactions through cost-effective channels Increase in the number of customer self-service activities Reduction in the usage of cost-ineffective channels Reduction in channel cost per sale 4. Improved Analysis, Reporting and Forecasting Organizations can improve analysis and produce more accurate forecasts using high quality, integrated customer data from CRM systems. CRM systems are usually equipped with the ability to generate predefined and ad hoc reports which can be effectively used to support functions such as forecasting and resource management. They therefore enable faster and improved decision making . Indicators for improved analysis, reporting, and forecasting are: Improvement in monitoring of KPIs Improvement in reporting at customer rather than account level Increase in the number of relevant reports available Benefits for the Strategic Level of Management These benefits relate to the top levels of management and are concerned with the long term vision and goals of the organization. 1. Improved Customer Satisfaction Customer satisfaction increases when increased value is provided to the customer. Almost all operational and tactical benefits discussed previously have a po