Managerial Information Technology Literature Review

Managerial Information Technology

Literature Review

Abstract

Traditionally, business organizations focused on products and services rather than being more customer-focused; however, increasing competition has coerced modern day organizations to adopt a more customer-centric approach to doing business. In their pursuit to achieve customer loyalty and retention, businesses have made Customer Relationship Management (CRM) their focus. For years CRM is being studied and researched yet no distinct definition has be attached to it. Instead, there is a diverse perspective of what it means among research and business professionals. These views range from CRM being a software application, a strategy, a business process, technology or as people, process and technology, among others. Notwithstanding this mishmash of opinions, there is one communal inference about CRM; that is, its objective is to find, get and retain customers. This paper will take a panoramic view of CRM by examining i) its two main components, operational and analytical CRM, ii) its elemental aspects of people, process and technology, iii) it as a social tool, SCRM, and v) successes and failures of CRM systems.

Introduction

Traditionally, organizations focused more on products and services rather than on customers; nevertheless, modern day organizations have adopted a more customer-focused approach to doing business. The increase in competitiveness in the marketplace forces businesses to look for newer and better ways to manage their relationship with customers to produce more efficient and effective results. Consequently, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has become a focal element of most businesses as it is considered very crucial to marketing ideology. As such, companies invest copiously in that area to attract, capture and retain loyal customers.

CRM is continuously being studied and researchers tend to differ in their definitions of CRM. In general, the aim of CRM is customer...