Are We Ready for CRM?

It's no more "business as usual". The Internet started a

revolution by creating new avenues for businesses, a new medium to touch an

overwhelming mass of potential customers, and thus fuelled a growing economy.

Now, it's time for the next revolution-and the one omnipotent entity that

promises to entirely transform the way business happened so far is the Net age

customer. A new-breed customer, an empowered and more demanding customer who

holds a tremendous amount of purchasing power over the seller. A customer, who

wants to receive instant, highquality, personalized service, from first contact

on, throughout the life of the relationship. One who demands the exact product

he wants, at the right time, at the right place and at the right price. For

businesses, this change means mounting product parity, eroding customer

loyalties, intense global competitive pressures, shorter product cycles and

shrinking margins.

With the cost efficiencies and the transparency bestowed by Internet-enabled

communications, the customer has augmented his expected experience to an order

of magnitude which is constrained only by his imagination. The impact of the

ubiquitous Web to this effect and the quality of resulting relationships cannot

be questioned. It is being felt already and every business has to accept it as a

fact. The question is how prepared you are to cope with this e-customer. Are you

ready to promise what you can deliver, and deliver what you promise? Deliver not

only products and services but also the whole new e-experience that customers

demand?

To get answers to such strategic issues, you may need to go back to basics

and examine some of the fundamental business premises. From examining the very

business drivers and the related leadership processes; to determining the brand

values that you would want to create for yourself. You may need to decide on the

structure and dynamics of the business enterprise, the business partners you

want to collaborate with and the engagement models. Also, to plan the media and

methods you may want to adopt to enable you to focus on delivering messages to

the right target constituent while maintaining transparency of the value chain.

And finally, from drawing a technology roadmap that can sustain the above

processes; to also evolving the essential business infrastructure.

The checkpoints for assessing your readiness to adopt and practice new

customer relationship paradigms may broadly be ascertained from the

organizational, technological and behavioral processes you follow. Further, the

key areas to examine for enablement should be responsiveness, flexibility and

collaboration.

Implementing CRM, like any other business solution, can be expected to drive

fundamental changes in attitude, business process and the IT infrastructure. The

difference, however, is that it is not as much an aftermath of the need for the

adoption of technology but more of a preceding imperative for attaining business

leadership. Thus, after assessing your readiness for providing the e-customer

experience, you may want to have your solution provider partner with you in

co-architecting the business transformation you have set to bring about.

Arun Maheshwari is CEO, TriVium India

Software