5
THE NEED FOR CUSTOMER CENTRICITY
Today's saturated and demand-driven markets confront you
with an array of new challenges. Differences in price and prod-
uct are becoming increasingly negligible, and you can no longer
attract customers by offering standard products or services.
Open and deregulated markets, which are rapidly changing
from sellers' markets to buyers' markets, mean intensified com-
petition and compressed marketing cycle times. The Internet
opens up a wealth of information 24 hours a day, seven days a
week, thereby heightening the transparency of the markets.
Customers use the Internet to quickly shop around and see
what your competitors can provide - the next supplier is only a
mouse-click away.
As a consequence, the attention span of customers has
decreased, and customer loyalty is subject to new laws. Your
customers are looking beyond products to assess whether the
overall solution you provide addresses their individual needs
and priorities. Your customers - and your knowledge of your
customers - is one of your company's most important assets.
Customer-oriented approaches and customer focus are the
main pillars for competitive business models for the twenty-first
century. You must continually reinforce the value your compa-
ny provides to your customers. The period of time between a
new customer request and its fulfillment is also decreasing. This
means that, if you don't react quickly enough, your customers
will find someone who can.
THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY
Technology has also paved the way for a new dimension of cus-
tomer relationship management.
The Internet
The Internet has made markets more transparent, but it is also
dramatically changing intercompany relationships and the way
companies collaborate with su ppliers and sales partners. The
Web has brought about unprecedented real-time connectivity,
which empowers companies to work together within a network
and extend their operations beyond the conventional bound-
aries of the organization. The increasing importance of perva-
sive computing devices will rapidly extend the same capabilities
to the field and to mobile users.
Seen from another angle, the Internet offers a tremendous
opportunity to strengthen customer relationships. No other
shop in the world so accurately and completely documents
your customers' preferences as the Web shop. Your Web shop
becomes an invaluable source of information that you can use
to capitalize on a deep understanding of your customers and to
deliver personalized offers.
Additional IT Developments
The falling costs for computing power and the arrival of new
software tools for capturing and analyzing mass data have pro-
vided the main thrust behind the increase in importance of ana-
lytical solutions in general. Powerful hardware and software give
you better ways than ever before to understand and leverage
your customer relationships.
Appreciate ERP and Data Warehouse Implementations
Starting in the 1990s, companies successfully integrated back-
office processes and information flows enterprise-wide by
replacing function-oriented legacy systems with a single ERP
system. The payoff for significant investments in ERP and
reengineering the processes comes in the form of streamlined
transactions, better quality of information, and better decision-
making processes within the enterprise. More recently, compa-
nies have been implementing supply chain management (SCM)
and CRM to optimize end-to-end operations. They have capi-
talized on the Internet to tighten collaboration with other com-
panies, strengthening connections with their value chain part-
ners. This diverse mix of technology solutions has resulted in a
complex system landscape and tough new integration
challenges.
ERP provides an essential foundation for the evolution of your
IT infrastructure. You need a robust, tightly integrated ERP sys-
tem to handle at speed the high volume of transactions gener-
ated by successful e-business and to share accurate information
with business partners in a timely manner. Some companies
have progressed toward integrated enterprise reporting by using
a data warehouse to bring together data from ERP, SCM, and
CRM systems and to deliver associated key performance indica-
tors (KPIs).
MANAGING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS
IS KEY IN THE NETWORKED ECONOMY