Managing Customer-Driven Process Improvement, Essay Example

The 21^st century, the information age, has become characterized by markets shifting strategies towards Customer Driven Businesses. This inherent need to focus on the client stems from the growth and development of global markets that are considerably competitive. Customer driven business involves and influences (1) supply chain management (SCM), (2) customer relationship management (CRM), and enterprise resource planning (ERP).

Companies around the globe have realized that developing a formidable relationship with customers is an excellent way of getting them to be loyal. These companies have premised the belief of loyalty on profitability. Most of these organizations believe that organizations that have loyal customers are more profitable than those that are not. It is arguable that a company can achieve significant increases due to only small increases in the customer retention rates. In addition, companies improve their relationship with customers in order to gain a competitive edge through the use of differentiated customer experiences.

Supply Chain Management (SCM)

As companies move towards realizing full market efficiency operations are geared towards fulfilling customer expectations. Businesses have to develop supply chains that ate designed to fulfill the expectations held by clients and potential clients. Businesses can integrate customer driven improvement process into supply chain management by developing systems that enable clients to make decisions about their deliveries based on their own expectations (Lindstrand, Johanson, & Sharma, 2006). The modern day business offers clients the ability to personalize services they receive from businesses. This would significantly improve customer satisfaction and at the same time reduce unnecessary costs for the business.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Customer relationship management can be crucial in enhancing the company’s activities, especially as pertains to their customers. CRM brings together organizational strategy, technology and information systems to provide their customers with better services. The main objective of CRM and CRM strategy is acquiring new clientele, retaining loyal clients and developing the relationships with its clients.

While CRM strategies had initially been focused on automating the processes that existed within the market, it has taken a different approach towards business process management orientation. The first stage is the purchase and implementation of single-function systems that support a given department to improve the customer’s experience and satisfaction (Netessine & Tang, 2009). The second stage entails cross-functional integration to development aimed at understanding the relationships with clients. The third stage is development of customer self-service through the use of the internet. The final stage is the designing of systems based on customer requirements while also providing clients access to this information.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

ERP and CRM are considerably intertwined as certain aspects of one are evident in the other. One of the most significant similarities is their use to increase profitability. However, while CRM focuses on the customer, the ERP is geared towards the businesses. In the modern-day business world ERP systems can be employed to improve customer service in three vital areas, (1) direct interaction at the point of sale, (2) delivering quality product at fair prices, (3) delivering it in a timely manner. ERP systems hold considerable potential in moving businesses towards customer satisfaction (Barkley & Saylor, 2001). The integration of the collection of data in ERP systems can be used to analyze the different processes, allowing the business to make changes relative to the needs and wants of their clients.

In conclusion, as businesses move towards customer driven processes improvement, supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) are crucial tools that can be integrated to facilitate this move. SCM, CRM and ERP are fundamentally configured to provide the business with essential tools to improve business operations. Businesses need to determine the extent to which their legacy systems allow them to realize customer satisfaction and profitability.

References

Barkley, B., & Saylor, J. H. (2001). Customer-driven project management : building quality into project process.New York: McGraw-Hill.

Lindstrand, A., Johanson, J., & Sharma, D. D. (2006). Managing Customer Relationships on the Internet. Oxford: Elsevier.

Netessine, S., & Tang, C. S. (2009). Operations management : contemporary concepts and cases. New York: Springer.