CRM (Customer Relationship Management) has witnessed steady growth during recent years and is considered essential for any company wishing to compete and prosper in the e-business arena.  CRM is an information industry term for software, methodologies and, increasingly, Internet capabilities that help a company manage customer relationships in a structured and organised way.

The main business areas affected by CRM are:

- Customer Support;

- Sales Support;

- Technical or user help-desk.

The data collected, from a series of rules-based parameters, enables one-to-one marketing to be conducted, leading to personalised offers according to a client's specific needs.

For instance, CRM involves helping a company enable its marketing department to identify and target its best customers, implement marketing campaigns with clear objectives, and generate quality leads for the sales team. In its early days, CRM technology was developed to improve internal processes such as billing, sales and orders. However, the trend has shifted to an increased focus on the relationship with the customer. By engaging with individual customers, CRM optimises customer satisfaction as well as increasing profitability, revenue, and competitive edge. CRM is about assisting a company to improve telesales, account and sales management by optimising information shared by multiple employees, and streamlining existing processes. CRM entails providing employees with the information and processes required to build up a knowledge of their customers, understand their needs, and build relationships between the company, its customer base, and distribution partners.

In a nutshell, CRM focuses on retaining customers by collecting data from every interaction made with the company by every customer from every kind of access point ? telephone, mail, fax, e-mail, the Internet, or in the field. The data collected can be used for dedicated business purposes, such as Marketing, Service, Support or Sales, concentrating at the same time on implementing a customer-based rather than a product-based approach.

Why should you consider introducing CRM into your company? Not only will it help you run your business and reduce costs; it will help you keep customers. Software consultants eLoyalty found that it can cost four to seven times more to replace a current customer than to retain one!

CRM implementation is more than just a technology solution. It is a strategic business issue, which requires a cultural and business shift within an organisation. Knowledge sharing is paramount, it is intrinsic to every job, and must become second nature to everyone involved. The majority of businesses have a variety of contact points with customers, such as sales offices, call centres, helpdesks, telephone and e-mail. It is imperative that all channels have access to, and convey, consistent information, enabling consistent levels of service. This means that, ideally, all employees ? both direct and indirect ? should have access to the company's CRM system.

As an example of CRM in practice, a company might create a database or ?data warehouse? about its customers, which describes relationships in sufficient detail so that management, marketing personnel, sales people, service providers, and perhaps also the customer, could access the information directly, match customer needs with product plans and offerings, remind customers of service requirements, know what other products a customer has purchased, and so on. The uses of centralised customer data are endless, and new data mining tools are being developed every day that lead to an increasing number of applications for CRM.

Once your company's management is persuaded of the benefits of implementing CRM ? and it is vital that the concept has the backing of management and that CRM has a place in your company's business strategy, the next step is to identify the most appropriate CRM supplier. There are suppliers who offer turnkey CRM solutions for small and medium-sized businesses, and those who provide greater scalability and integration within their applications for larger enterprises. There are companies who provide call centre and customer services software, and others who deliver smaller, ready-to-use functions for specific individual tasks like tracking Web site users, identifying where your customers live, or e-mail handling and automation. Suppliers of Web-enabled CRM offer packages that help companies install appropriate mechanisms for customers using self-service channels like the Web and WAP phones.

Looking briefly at some facts and figures about the CRM market at global level, a recent report from IDC predicts that the world-wide revenues generated from CRM data warehousing software and services will increase from under $4.2 billion in 1999 to over $20 billion by 2004. Research undertaken by the Hewson Group, a specialist CRM consultancy, indicates that the global market for CRM software is growing at approximately 78% a year. Despite slower growth of the market in Europe than in the US to date, and an 18-24 months? lag in uptake of the technology in the majority of European countries, the Hewson Group forecasts 100% growth in CRM revenues in Europe in 2001, with the figure possibly as high as 120%.

With the increased availability of CRM applications and services, it only remains for increased awareness to be raised among European companies of the manifold benefits of implementing CRM systems. To compete successfully in the business structure of today's Knowledge Economy, retention of customers is crucial, and will become increasingly so in today's global commercial environment. Efficiently managed CRM systems, with the necessary cultural and business adaptation, and attitude to knowledge sharing among company personnel, are the key to ?delighting the customer? and ensuring long-term customer relationships.

Judith A. Pretty

TECSYS infopartners, company specialised in e-business