Appendix II: Analysis operational application
Process Segment
Selling Telecom Utilities Media
Manage prospects Product overview Product overview Product overview
Qualify and educate customer N/A N/A N/A
Negotiate sales N/A N/A N/A
Acquire customer data Ordering process Ordering process Ordering process
Cross / up selling N/A N/A N/A
Score 2 / 5 = 0.40 2 / 5 = 0.40 2 / 5 = 0.40
Order handling Telecom Utilities Media
Determine pre-order feasibility
Ordering process
Ordering process N/A
Authorise credit N/A N/A N/A
Validate customer orders Ordering process
Ordering process Ordering process
Track order & manage jeopardy
Unknown Unknown Unknown
Complete order N/A N/A N/A
Score 2 / 4 = 0.50 2 / 4 = 0.50 1 / 4 = 0.25
Problem handling Telecom Utilities Media
Isolate problem & initiate resolution Customer service and frequently asked questions Customer service and frequently asked questions Customer service and frequently asked questions Report problem N / A N / A N / A
Track and manage problem Unknown Unknown Unknown
Score 1 / 2 = 0.50 1 / 2 = 0.50 1 / 2 = 0.50
Billing & collections management
Telecom Utilities Media
Manage customer bill inquiries Customer service and frequently asked questions Customer service and frequently asked questions Customer service and frequently asked questions
Apply pricing, discounting & rebate
Ordering process
Ordering process Ordering process
Create & deliver bill Online billing Online billing N/A
Manage customer billing Unknown Unknown Unknown
Manage collection Unknown Unknown Unknown
Score 3 / 3 = 1.00 3 / 3 = 1.00 2 / 3 = 0.67
Appendix III: Analysis collaborative application
Technology Segment
Passive Telecom Utilities Media
Cookies Present Present Present
Chat rooms N/A N/A N/A
Bulletinboards and fanclubs N/A N/A N/A
Mailinglists Present Present Present
News groups N/A N/A N/A
Observation studies through virtual reality and simulated environments
N/A N/A N/A
Product-related discussion groups and lists
N/A N/A Present or N/A
Score 2 / 7 = 0.29 2 / 7 = 0.29 2.5 / 7 = 0.36
Active Telecom Utilities Media
Chat rooms N/A N/A N/A
Bulletinboards N/A N/A N/A
Forums N/A N/A Present or N/A
Internet surveys N/A N/A N/A
Product-related discussion groups and lists
N/A N/A N/A
Recommender Software Present Present N/A
Score 1 / 6 = 0.17 1 / 6 = 0.17 0.5 / 7 = 0.08
Interactive Telecom Utilities Media
Email Present Present Present
Forums N/A N/A N/A
Interactive online interviews N/A N/A N/A
Survey panels N/A N/A Present
Auctions N/A N/A N/A
Online trade shows N/A N/A N/A
Shopping agent Present Present N/A
Score 2 / 8 = 0.25 2 / 8 = 0.25 2 / 8 = 0.25
Analysed websites
Telecom: Essent kabelcom (www.home.nl), KPN (www.kpn.com/kpn/show/id=281955), Vodafone (www.vodafone.nl/prive)
Utilities: Nuon (www.nuon.nl), Eneco (www.eneco.nl)
Appendix IV: Business value eCRM
A company will need to close the gap between the existing as-is eCRM infrastructure and the to-be infrastructure. This appendix provides the accompanying business value from such
implementation. This value can also be used by Atos Origin TUM as a means of selling its (future) eCRM solutions to (potential) clients. The first section will describe the advantages to the
management of the Atos Origin TUM client and the second section the advantages to the end-users (the customers of the clients).
Managerial value
For the management of a company the advantages of eCRM lie in the field of efficiency, effectiveness and cost reduction. For the different departments of a company, the advantages of eCRM lie in the fields of sales, marketing and service (Rietdijk & Steenbakkers 2003).
Sales:
- More profit for each sales employee; - A shorter sales phase;
- More orders for each customer; - An increase in the amount of orders; - A rising rate of conversion;
- An increase of profit per customer.
Marketing:
- An increase of effectiveness of campaigns; - A decrease of lead generation costs; - A decrease of customer acquisition costs; - An increase of speed of campaigns;
Service:
- An increase of customer retention;
- An increase of productivity of customer service; - A reduction of customer service costs;
- A decrease of service response time; - A reduction of waiting time;
- A quicker response time.
The described efficiency and effectiveness lead to cost reduction. For maintaining a customer service department, a company needs many resources. For example, the average phone call to a call centre will cost € 15.00. When customers use the internet instead of offline channels, the reduction of costs is substantial. However, when an eCRM infrastructure is too expensive, it might be cheaper to keep employees in a call centre. One fact is that the increase of self-service
Customer Value
After introducing an eCRM infrastructure, a company should be able to specify the benefits to customers. In case customers do not see the benefits, the value of an eCRM infrastructure will decrease. The benefits to customers of using an eCRM infrastructure are the following (Dann & Dann 2004):
- Speed;
- Wide range of product information; - Product comparison;
- No pressure from sales people;
- Post-purchase evaluation, communication and feedback; - Customisation;
- Global accessibility.
Appendix V: Risk analysis eCRM
To be able to harvest the benefits of an eCRM infrastructure, several risks have to be taken into account for the implementation of such an infrastructure. These risks have to be considered when Atos Origin TUM advises a client on a certain solution. Two types of risk can be identified. The first is integration risk, as described in the following section. Another risk is the risk of the actual implementation. This lies in the field of complexity, the timeframe and the configurability of an eCRM infrastructure.
Integration risk
When implementing an eCRM infrastructure, several integration risks can occur. These lie on a technical, a functional and a cultural level. To be able to minimise these risks, technical, functional and cultural integration of the eCRM infrastructure has to be realised (Adebanjo 2003). Technical integration is needed to establish integration between the new infrastructure and existing business infrastructures such as intranet, extranet, portals and existing legacy. A solution to overcome this risk is adapting the infrastructure to the existing legacy, replacing the legacy with a completely new infrastructure or adapting the legacy to eCRM.
The functional integration is necessary for an eCRM infrastructure in order to fit to the existing business processes in a company. Either the business processes can be adapted to the infrastructure or the infrastructure can be implemented around the existing business. When functional integration is not obtained, the benefits of eCRM are lost, since business processes are not aligned with the system.
Implementation risk
After describing the risks in the area of the existing situation at a company (legacy, processes and people), also during the implementation of an eCRM infrastructure several risks are at hand. According to a study of Adebanjo (2003), an eCRM implementation has three perspectives: the complexity, the timeframe and the configurability view. The risk on implementing an infrastructure will mainly depend on these perspectives.
The complexity of an infrastructure is related to the type of eCRM infrastructure and the costs. The higher the complexity, the higher the purchase costs and the higher the risk of failure of a system. Table 1 displays the complexity of an implementation in relation to the costs.
Table 1: Complexity Best of breed / ERP
applications Bespoke CRM applications P u rc h a se c o st
Basis stand alone / modular ERP applications
Implementation complexity
Table 2: Timeframe Fully deployed
ERP applications
Best of breed / bespoke CRM applications Im p le m en ta ti o n c o st
Basis stand alone applications
Modular ERP applications
Implementation timeframe
The configurability of an eCRM infrastructure will influence the time necessary to implement an infrastructure and also influence the risk of an implementation. Table 3 describes the amount of possible configurability in relationship to the time.
Table 3: Configurability Bespoke applications Best of breed applications T im e ERP applications Basis stand alone
applications
