CRM in Manufacturing

Andrea Cerri
Member
Picture of Andrea Cerri

Posted 20-Feb-2004 08:19 AM
Hi,
I thought it would be appropriated to add this thread to the vertical market area ( I searched for similar thread but there were none apparently...)
Here in Italy the manufacturing industry is slowly paying more attention to the CRM's issues, and I have to admit that both vendors and consulting companies seems somewhat unable to face our peculiar needs.
Sometimes they offer to the manufacturing companies model and software that are fit for a Telco company, in other case they understimates the level of complexity that each interaction has in ou market.
So I was wondering if the same problems are met by my colleagues in the rest of the World, and maybe talk a little of the development...

Ciao
Andrea

paola
Member

Posted 26-Feb-2004 11:01 PM
Dear Andrea, I am Paola, and I start working for an Associtaion named ECR Europe, the only platform at European level for co-operation on a parity basis between retailers and manufacturers in the consumer goods industry.ECR europe also has its national initiatives, and ECR Italy is one of the most importnat! At the moment we are working on the Collaborative CRM, which is a step above CRM, Go check the official web site www.ecrnet.org. The level of know-how in this assosiacition is amazing!

Ciao
Paola Cavaggioni

Bjorn Bjornstad
Member

Posted 02-Mar-2004 05:33 AM
Dear Andrea.
I really understand your confusion regarding the way of finding CRM tool for your need.There are a lot of companies telling you, showing you their best fit solution for CRM.My advise to you is to look into your own company and define the company processes.Then you look towards the market and your exsisting customer with two questions: How can I in the best way retain and satisfy my customer?
At this moment you have started to define the philosophy of your company and are now ready to look for a tool to cover up for your CRM need.
When you want to choose a CRM tool you must be assure that everybody inside your company are able to use and actually are using the tool you select. One of the most important criteria for this is: A ease of use tool.
The only tool I know about is SuperOffice
CRM 5 which you can read about at the web site www.projectus.it or www.Superoffice.com
I wish you good luck in the CRM jungle.
Bjorn—at your service.

paola
Member

Posted 04-Mar-2004 11:30 PM
Dear Bjorn And Andrea,
I believe, it is wrong to think about CRM in terms of tools, especially because by doing so, we reduce CRM to a simple technological innovation! IT, is for sure an essential support to the project/process of CRM but before this we have to think in terms of Strategy, because this is what CRM is a strategy! we need to talk about internal alignment, we have to talk about external alignment between partners if we are in a collaborative CRM area, we have to talk about strategic phase (consumer target, goals, consumer strategy, action plan) then execution ( segmentation analysis, Customization, Measurement Systems, Consumer interaction,Implementation) and we have to talk about Review (results analysis and follow up)this is CRM!! IT? is the glu that support this, but not the starting point!

CIAO

Paola Cavaggioni

DR PRABIR SARKAR
Member

Posted 11-Mar-2004 12:01 PM
CRM is definitely a strategy, but you need tools to implement it. It has got two segments, one is the general objective of the company or industry to deal with the customer satisfaction, and the other is business specific objective for the particular trade. Say for example, if you are manufacturing something which are directly consumables by the customer, your strategy will be different from raw material or spares manufacturers who are supplying to OEMs. As far as tools are concerned, a good CRM package serves all comapnies as far as general objectives are concerned. But, the real problem is to get it connected to the industry specific OSS, for which you have to build or buy a Middleware, which serves you most. For example, VITRIA is very popular Middlewatre among Telecom Indutry to connect SIEBEL to their OSS METASOLV CBP etc. Also there are some indutry specific requrements, mandatory or traditional, which are also addressed in the Industry specific (Vertical) modules.