The role of information and Communication Technologies in Customer Relations Management

The use of Information technology has enabled businesses to better understand their customers by collecting and analysing data on them such as their product preferences, buying habits through the use of software. Kenneth C and Carol G, (2004:405) state that, It has enabled strategies that generate a 360 degree view on customers across all functional areas.

Despite the humble start of CRM, the last decade witnessed a massive growth of CRM systems in many business industries, thus the emergence of ICT has positively affected the CRM by introducing a new era of IT based CRM models. Kenneth C and Carol G, (2004:406) Customers now come to firms not just over the Web, but also through telephone call centres, customer service representatives, sales representatives, automated voice response systems, ATMs and kiosks, in store point of sale terminals and mobile devices. From an Information Technology (IT) perspective, CRM is considered as an enterprise wide communication and integration of various technologies such as: data warehousing, web site, intranet and extranet, mobile application system, marketing, accounting, and sales. More Efraim T et al (2000:104) over, CRM can be defined as a set of activities that utilize technology to gather, analyse, and distribute data about existing and future customers. This will enable one to generate better understanding of customers and thus create longer relationships with them.

Jagdish N(2001:40) argued that the enhance- ment of CRM strength and capabilities relies on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), by benefiting from massive computing power, enormous database and storage facilities, and communication technologies, via networking on the internet (. Thus, ICT can be considered a major factor in the success of CRM, and it plays a key role in achieving a better CRM experience. With the advent of the internet and new technology, a new concept of CRM is born and changed into electronic Customer Relationship Management (e-CRM) or Web-based CRM. This includes all the processes needed to be acquired, built and maintain customer relationship through e-business operations Robinson A. (2000:2). E-CRM emerges from the internet and web technology to facilitate the implementation of CRM. E-CRM performance as the amount of improvement that companies achieve in customer relationship strength, sales effectiveness, and marketing efficiency after implementing CRM technology.

E-CRM is a combination of hardware, software, process, applications and management commitment to improve customer service, retain customer, and provide analytical capabilities. Studies found several positive outcomes of e-CRM performance such as customer satisfaction, purchase intentions, customer retention, knowledge management, profitability, relationship development, organizational commitment and customer loyalty. Recent developments in internet technology have given the impact of e-CRM on customer loyalty is real and so are the problems for certain organizations in terms of successful implementation. Satisfaction may lead to customer retention, customer loyalty, lower customer switching costs and higher income and profitability Robinson A. (2000:4). Usually

loyal customers have a positive attitude towards the service provider, less price-sensitive and less tendency to switch provider. In turn loyal customer has a positive effect on a company's profit and competitive. Customer loyalty one of the major positive roles of Information and Communication technologies in CRM performance. Electronic customer relationship management performance is operationalized by two dimensions namely tangible and intangible aspects. Tangible aspects refer to customer behaviour-based CRM performance such as customer retention, repurchase, cross buying and word-of-mouth, while the intangible aspect of CRM performance is represented by customer satisfaction. Tangible aspects refer to customer behaviour-based CRM performance such as customer retention, repurchase, cross buying and word-of-mouth, while the intangible aspect of CRM performance is represented by customer satisfaction. The key to any CRM implementation is data. Without good data as a starting point, we are limited in our ability to make accurate and insightful decisions on any level Robinson A. (2000:5). In today's CRM world, one of the toughest challenges is aggregating and cleansing data from various systems into a single repository or data mart/warehouse. Industries such as banking are fortunate to have core processors that can provide a rich starting point for customer information. Accordingly, technology is viewed as a main driver of CRM and its most significant success factor. Melanie A,(2001:54) contend that technologies such as data warehouse and parallel computing have metamorphosed into the main enabler of CRM. Researchers have identified some key technological aspects, particularly sales force automation, as the critical factors in the success of CRM projects. Accordingly, McDonald S (2002:3) believe that, although some argue that CRM has a meagre role in CRM success, each key CRM

tasks relies upon technology significantly. Efraim T et al (2000) indicate revolution in marketing paradigms to be chiefly based on the rapid advances of IT in areas involving data warehousing and data mining. Efraim T et al(2000) characterize in similar fashion the functionality and efficiency of CRM in terms of database technologies. Therefore, IT plays a major role in developing CRM. In addition, it is assumed that off-the-shelf CRM packages propose a wide and comprehensive range of required technology for running customer relationship management initiatives . These could be executed for CRM planning as is done for ERP and advance. CRM technology gives support personnel the opportunity to contribute to company sales. The delivery of pertinent information to customer support personnel enables them not only to more effectively resolve customer issues, but also to offer personally tailored product offerings during the service transaction. Cross-selling capabilities can also be incorporated into automated devices and websites, providing additional avenues of profit during those transactions. CRM technology can distribute customer information to portable devices such as PDAs to give sales and customer service specialists a great deal of mobility. When they're not tied to a physical call center, service personnel can resolve customer issues on site while using the information provided by CRM technology to identify product offerings specifically tailored to that particular customer. Sales professionals can similarly suggest additional services or product bundles while at a customer's location based upon the customer's previous purchases and inquiries.

The key to any CRM implementation is data. Without good data as a starting point, we are limited in our ability to make accurate and insightful decisions on any level. In today's CRM world, one of the toughest challenges is aggregating and cleansing data from various systems into a single repository or data mart/warehouse. Industries such as banking are fortunate to have core processors that can provide a rich starting point for customer information. In addition to the organization's own data, CRM systems today often offer the ability to integrate third-party enhancement data. This additional data can provide information such as demographics, psychographics, and behaviours and preferences of customers. Prospect lists can be obtained as well, enhancing the organization's ability to track and analyse new customer acquisition sales cycles and to recognize the source of leads. Improvements in gathering and using behavioural and psychographic data will also be more readily available for smaller businesses in the next few years. Industry normative data, which provides base foundational analysis information today, will be used more and more to improve productivity and to provide a clear picture of the competitive landscape. This will help smaller businesses understand opportunities that they can exploit because of their ability to manoeuvre with more agility than larger organizations. Most CRM systems can interface with internal and external data sources in batch mode. When data is copied in batch, there is a deliberate process that updates data on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. This is done to avoid disruption of transactional systems and/or other processes that may be affected by data extraction. In most cases, data is moved in only one direction. In the case of CRM, the process is usually pulling data out of other databases to populate the CRM system.

As CRM systems become more sophisticated and users grow more demanding, we will see more real-time integration of data across the organization and an increase in the ability of all CRM tools to access that data Jagdish N (2001:34). As a result, CRM functionality will be embedded in core business applications. This will not only bring real-time data access through the CRM tools, but it will also enable the bidirectional movement of data from the CRM system back into the core systems. This means that new data collected in the CRM system will be available enterprise wide. For example, a conversation recorded in the CRM system or a change of address would be propagated back to the other customer systems that may be used by others within the enterprise. The Internet will continue to be exploited to gather and attract data from customers and prospects. New Internet-based techniques will become increasingly effective over time. Ad hoc survey engines, online self-help systems and e-commerce data collection are all means by which businesses can drive and/or assess user data on an on-going basis. To help manage support costs, many businesses will utilize and integrate chat-based or live help, proactive problem recognition and correction and the integration of call center systems with overall customer information systems to allow a single face to all customers Jagdish N (2001:35). These systems and processes will, in turn, generate data that needs to be collected and integrated with the CRM system. Data cleanliness will continue to be an issue as organizations deploy methods and processes to ensure data integrity. Techniques such as customization will be increasingly utilized to identify possible duplicate entries. Today, there are technologies that can help in this regard. Customization algorithms will continue to be improved to increase the accuracy of the matches. On the input side, customer and user adoption of data entry processes and

quality assurance of the data will increase as businesses recognize the importance of having a single, clean record for each customer.

Bibliography Kenneth C and Carol G, (2004).E-commerce: business, technology, society: Boston: Pearson. Efraim T et al (2000).Electronic Commerce a managerial perspective: New Jersey: Pearson. Melanie A, (2001).Customer Relations Management: Cambridge: Select Knowledge. Jagdish N (2001).Customer Relationship Management: emerging concepts, tools and applications: New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Robinson A. (2000) Customer relationship management, computer world retrieved from www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/apps/story/0,10801,41519,00.html (accessed in 26 March, 2012) McDonald S (2002), Electronic commerce: value chain. www.cs.tcd.ie/courses/ism/sism/resource/discuss/ecir195c/msg00050.html (accessed on 27 March 2012)