The CRM system on the Java platform

Profile

This paper introduces various application modes of current CRM system, points out the advantages of Java platform in realizing CRM system, and puts forward the principle of "progressive" implementation of CRM project.

Display window: A variety of application modes of CRM system

Undoubtedly, as the author of an article introducing the "CRM system", I have a responsibility to show the full implications of this abbreviation. However, because of the different definition of each vendor, it is difficult to give a complete and universal definition of CRM system. We might as well start by enumerating the current application patterns of a variety of CRM systems, with the right to fill a curious and cautious customer with a window shopping in this field.

According to the business focus, we can roughly divide the sales type, marketing type, customer service type and operation type four kinds of common CRM system Application mode.

Sales-type Application model is also known as Sales automation (Force AUTOMATION/SFA), the main focus on pre-sales customer lead capture and sales opportunities throughout the track. To standardize, streamline sales processes, improve visibility of sales and ultimately increase sales revenue by documenting the activities of salespeople and customers/contact people and the progress of each phase of the sales opportunity.

Marketing-oriented application mode, mainly through investigation, consulting means, analysis of purchase intention, and at the same time to explore potential customers. Common ways include telemarketing (telemarketing), email marketing, and market questionnaires.

Customer service-oriented application model is also called Customer Service Center, mainly through after-sale customer service, consulting, warranty, complaints and other processes, so as to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, reduce customer churn.

Operation mode is often used in service opening, order Processing and other links. This is especially important for emerging industries such as online trading or electronic shopping.

According to the system function, it can divide four aspects of interaction, storage, business process processing and data analysis in CRM system.

The interaction refers to the CRM system as the communication platform to realize multi-channel communication between enterprises and customers. The advanced CRM system can integrate almost all customer contacts through CTI (Computer-telephony integration), Internet and other modern communication technologies, and realize the Unified Front-End Office (Front-office) platform.

Storage is the basic information of the customer, and the various departments of the company's exchanges, transaction information by the unified storage in the unified customer base, so that the next interaction occurs quickly positioning customers, and provide the basis for analysis. For large commercial enterprises, the maintenance of complete customer history data (total customer experience) often means the application of mass storage technology.

Business process processing refers to the process of distributing, approving, and processing specific tasks according to specific business rules (business rules) and workflows (workflows). These are generally implemented through workflow and message middleware technology.

Data analysis is based on the relatively perfect customer base and a certain period of customer history records, the relevant data mining, analysis, Customer layering (segmentation), cross-selling (cross selling) and other functions, and to achieve the purpose of decision support. Data Warehousing (warehouse) and Datamine (data mining) technologies are critical here.

Progressive: The implementation principle of CRM Project

At this point, I introduced the enterprise application of the CRM system in different modes and functional aspects. Depending on the technical background and product positioning, different vendors tend to emphasize one or more aspects of the "CRM system" to give their own definition. Imagine a SFA product manufacturer and a call center manufacturer in the mind of the concept of CRM system, almost and the Taoist and revolutionary eyes of the "dream of Red mansions" as diverse. Facing the dazzling novelty concept and the frontier technology, how to implement the CRM project for the enterprise needs to put forward the problem to the enterprise decision-makers.

In fact, the "CRM system" and "CRM" are very different from the two. "CRM system" is a kind of enterprise application which is composed of software and hardware, but "Customer relationship management/crm" itself, it may not have specific technical connotation, but first is a modern enterprise management practice. The core content of CRM is nothing but the principle of "keeping original customers, attracting new customers and maximizing customers ' profit through effective means". For similar purposes, a savvy grocery store owner may be better than a company that has just launched tens of millions of dollars in a CRM system.

Thus, CRM in an enterprise implementation, more and the standardization of Enterprise management and team business intelligence, and far from simple technical problems, can not expect to rely on the introduction of a software system to be able to solve. At present, the risk of CRM project implementation is mainly from here. I have recently seen a number of implementation cases, because too much pursuit of rapid implementation and "one-step", no actual analysis of business requirements, expensive hardware and software configuration in exchange for complex abstract applications and end user complaints.

Many people compare system implementations to tailored ones. But for the CRM project, the metaphor may still be a rush, and it could give us a dangerous technical illusion. No matter how smooth the implementation, the performer's skill is not a substitute for the enterprise's own learning and adaptation process. And this process is doomed to slow, including a lot of repeated, as the enterprise understanding of CRM gradually in-depth, many business needs will gradually sprout or a dramatic change. All these, all decided the implementation of CRM project is difficult to do overnight.

So a gradual attitude is particularly important here. The ideal CRM project implementation should be an ongoing attempt-adjustment of the adaptive process. In contrast to the "CRM-CRM" approach, I would like to advocate a methodology that addresses a specific problem, that is, to divide the implementation of a project into multiple steps, each of which is a milestone in solving the pressing problems that actually exist in a particular business, such as sales and customer service. This methodology is clearly more robust and rational than the one-step system for constructing all-inclusive.

As noted above, the CRM project is not a technical issue at first. But this does not mean that the choice of technology platform is not significant to the project. Here's what I'll argue.