96.
Why CRM? The Business Case for Customer Relationship Management Page 17
Superior Market Intelligence
Because CRM databases are updated dynamically in real time, they provide an
organization’s sales, marketing, and customer service people with fine-grained and
relevant information that can help inform strategic and tactical decisions. For
example, at one leading energy company, CRM technology provides useful insights
not only into broad market trends, but also into how individual customers make
energy choice decisions. “Knowing why we win a deal, or why we lose one,” says a
company executive, “provides a tremendous competitive advantage in a deregulated
market.”
Product Development Tied to Customer Needs
By providing a comprehensive view of customer buying behavior, CRM technology
can help companies tie product development efforts more closely to customer
needs. At a leading software company, for example, Siebel CRM technology allows
the rapid exchange of information between field sales personnel and product
development groups. Because the system provides a field for Product Detail in the
sales opportunities screen, product development personnel get highly specific
information about potential deals and customer requirements. Says the company’s
directory of customer information services:
And that information leads to action. For example, when a significant
opportunity moves forward in the sales pipeline, the Siebel CRM system can
send an automatic e-mail to the relevant product manager, and that manager
can then ask the sales representative, ‘Is there anything we can do to help move
this deal forward? Are there enhancements to consider? Should we send a
technical support person on a call with you?’ The exchange between the two
functions is extremely rich. The CRM system is now really driving our product
development.
Improved Forecasting and Financial Management
CRM technology can provide an organization with a more accurate picture of its
sales pipeline, which leads to numerous benefits, including better inventory
management, increased customer satisfaction, and stronger relations with the
financial community. Consider the experience of Asyst Technologies, a leading
provider of technology solutions that improve the productivity and yield of chip
manufacturing. Before implementing a CRM solution, the company’s account
managers submitted four separate and unlinked forecasts every month, each of
which was intended to satisfy the information needs of various internal groups.
However, each forecast presented a slightly different view of market demand, and
the forecasts could not be consolidated to show a single view of the sales pipeline.
Instead, a master scheduler would reconcile the four forecasts based on his
knowledge of the sales force and market, and then develop
guidelines for
manufacturing that often bore little relation to what customers were demanding in
the real world. Barney Huang, Senior Director, Asyst Technologies, explains,
Why CRM? The Business Case for Customer Relationship Management Page 18
The system was built on “Kentucky windage,” where you hold a finger into the
wind to make adjustments to your targeting. It wasn’t accurate, it wasn’t driven
by customer knowledge, and it wasn’t effective. We never knew exactly what
our inventory needs were, and we had problems with incomplete ship
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