Customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning

1. How can a sales department use relationship management (CRM) to improve operations? relationship management (CRM) is the aspectof the company, which involves the potential and valued customers (Pakroo, 2012, p. 312). It is capable of organizing vast amount of information pertaining to company’s clients. Thus, it can be employed by the sales department and the entire company to operate with ease as it eliminates confusion and redundancy. CRM can provide better tracking of the unanswered queries and enable easier access to information (Boone & Kurtz, 2011).
It can improve operations of a particular sales department when it manages to find and retain clients and reduce marketing costs. CRM assists in managing accounts, prospects, and territories (Pakroo, 2012, p. 213). It identifies what type of communications and outreach were conducted to the individual contracts. In addition, it enables the sales team to determine the best prospects. CRM provides pertinent information that assists the sales team into transforming such prospects into paying customers. In addition, it allows the sales team to follow-up contracts to make sure that customers are satisfied. The sales department can also improve its operations when it utilized user-friendly call center to manage customer’s inquiries and complaints (Pakroo, 2012, p. 213).
References
Boone, L. E., & Kurtz, D. L. (2011). Contemporary marketing. USA: Cengage Learning.
Pakroo, P. H. (2012). The small business start-up kit: A step-by-step legal guide. USA:
Nolo.
2. How can a marketing department use Customer relationship management (CRM) to improve operations?
A marketing department can improve its operations through employing CRM to determine trends and evaluate the popularity of the services and products of the company. It assists the marketing team to develop appropriate marketing messages and campaigns (Pakroo, 2012, p. 213). CRM can only improve the marketing productivity of a company when it manages to enhance marketing effectiveness and increase marketing efficiency. It can increase marketing efficiency through collaborative and cooperative processes that help reduce transaction cost and the overall cost for the company. Thus, it is important to build partnering relations with valued customers and promote proactive customer business development (Sheth, 2001, p. 6).
References
Pakroo, P. H. (2012). The small business start-up kit: A step-by-step legal guide. USA:
Nolo.
Sheth, J. N. (2001). Customer relationship management: Emerging concepts, tools, and
applications. USA: Tata-McGraw-HILL Education.
3. How does an Enterprise resource planning (ERP) help a business?
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) employs a common software infrastructure and single database that presents up-to-date and broader scope of information. It enables the management to come up with good decisions, which are beneficial to the entire supply chain. ERP is fairly robust in presenting real time information (Wisner, Tan, & Leong, 2008). It communicates information pertaining to operational changes with minimal delay to supply chain members. In addition, ERP systems are created to fully take advantage of Internet technology; thus, it allows users to communicate and share information via the Internet (Wisner et al., 2008).
The ERP also helps a particular company reduce supply chain inventories through added visibility in the entire supply chain. It allows the manufacturing, logistics, and supply processes to flow smoothly through the visibility of order fulfillment processes in the supply chain. The reductions of visibility lessen bullwhip effect as well as assist the supply chain members to plan the production and end-product deliveries (Wisner et al., 2008).
It also helps the company to standardize the manufacturing processes. Most manufacturing firms use multiple business units to create the same products utilizing different information systems and processes. The ERP functions to automate some of such steps in the manufacturing process. This process of standardization increases the company’s productivity and eliminates redundant resources (Wisner et al., 2008).
Reference
Wisner, J. D., Tan, K-C., & Leong, K. (2008). Principles of supply chain management: A
balanced approach. USA: Cengage Learning.