Reflective 2 - Analytical CRM

During lecture 2, Rob explained the technologies that are needed to sustain a good and proper Customer Relationship Management (CRM). However, it is important that these technologies must be viewed as tools which are only intended for medium to large businesses to operate and compete globally. This can be seen in SAS whitepaper, entitled “Implementing the Customer Relationship Management Foundation – Analytical CRM”, where it highlights corporate competitions as opposed to the general low-level type of competitions in the marketplace. Thus, having analysed this situation it is important that we should not get confused on the type of organization that it targets to utilize these advanced tools such as: Data Warehousing, Data Mining and OLAP, as well as Advanced Decision Support and Reporting tools.

There is no denial with the statement that an effective CRM depends on Data. The author of SAS whitepaper also elaborated that the data collected will cover areas such as: who the customers are; their preferences, their behaviour, their status with the company, their purchase history and also their classification based on demographic and psychographic information. Moreover, the author also stated that “A repository of customer data must be created within a single, customer centric Data Warehouse”. However, according to my personal opinion, a Data Warehouse shall not be viewed as a “must” to all medium – large organizations who want to be competitive globally. Although, there is no denial that incorporating it to support a good CRM can be viewed as an advantage as long as it has the support of Board of Directors, a good and suitable data to support Data Warehousing, appropriate Data Extract, Transform, Cleansing, and Load process, the technical knowledge of Data Warehousing technology within the company, as well as the organizations’ ability to provide intensive trainings to managers and board of directors as needed. If an organization does not have all the qualifications as mentioned above and still forced itself to develop a Data Warehouse Technology for the sake of following other organizations success, then it is better for the company to think twice before it begins the costly and complex development process.

To back up the main argument that I’ve made above, let me tell you a story about a company named PT. Dyandra Promosindo. In December 2006, I had an internship in this company and I was amazed on how they deal with their customers regardless on their minimal use of technology (such as: data warehouse, data mining, as well as business intelligence). Headquartered in Jakarta – Indonesia, Dyandra Promosindo is a leading professional event organizer with massive amount of customers. As a proven example of its success, the company has conducted over 200 exhibitions in Jakarta as well as other cities in Indonesia. Over 1000 exhibitor participate each year and they had a good time exhibiting and promoting their products successfully. Year after year, Dyandra Promosindo has been earning the reputation of “a reliable business partner” while strengthening its initial success through building the so-called “level of exhibition culture” in the country. For more info, you can click the link at (http://www.dyandra.com/content.php?go=profile).

What amazes me that although there is no CRM technology to improve its ongoing customer relationships as there is no customer maintenance through Data Warehousing, Data Mining and OLAP, as well as Decision Support and Reporting tool, and despite its massive customers base (both local and foreigners), Dyandra Promosindo has proven itself to be the best in the field through:

1. Their ability to understand their customer intensively, they are available and can be reached easily to answer all the needs, doubts, and wants experienced by the customers.
2. The reliance on Good Marketing strategies and excellent communication ability to gain and retain their profitable customers.
3. Consistent maintenance of sets of customer information for every exhibition manually and electronically (Through file folders and excel documents).
4. Appointment of a single Project Manager so that whenever customers have any enquiry, they can always talk to the same person. This ensures consistency in managing customers.
5. The nature of All the Project Managers which shows corporation, consistency, and hard work to aim and deliver the best event as possible, creating high satisfaction level for the customers.

In summary, although technology might promise greater benefit to support a good CRM, it is important to note that organization should view it as critical investment. It is also critical that an organization must not believe their consultants or other external vendors 100% as they have the tendency to oversell the technology. Finally, if the organization does not have internal motivation or at least realize that the development of such technology will consume a lot of time, skills, and money and may end up as a failure if not managed properly, then it is better for them to think twice before constructing it.