09.19.03
 By
Carol Parenzan Smalley
An interview by Carol Parenzan Smalley, Managing Editor, CRMGuru
Which CRM solution to buy? One that touts itself as best-of-breed
(specific application such as sales or marketing) or one claiming
to do it all? Ask any two people and you are sure to get three different
answers. To begin our discussion among colleagues, let me introduce
two leaders from both sides of the issue. After you read their words,
be sure to share a few of your own.
CRMGuru: Please introduce yourself and the company you represent,
including the CRM segment you service.
Lee: My name is Yuchun Lee and I am co-founder and CEO of Unica
Corporation, the world leader in enterprise marketing management (EMM)
solutions. I am responsible for the company's strategic direction
and day-to-day business operations.
Unica Corporation provides best-of-breed enterprise marketing management
(EMM) solutions for innovative companies that want to optimize customer
acquisition and relationship management, streamline processes, and
empower strategic planning for added profitability and marketing success.
Based on an open, scalable architecture, Unica's Affinium Suite enables
marketers to gather and analyze customer knowledge from multiple data
sources; identify customer wants and needs; plan, execute and manage
tailored programs for interactions through multiple touchpoints; and
measure and optimize marketing effectiveness. Affinium is used to
achieve customer-focused marketing and to drive customer intelligence
throughout the business to deliver value at every point of customer
interaction and over the life-cycle. |
Unica has over 300 customers across five continents and multiple industries
including banking and diversified financial services, travel & hospitality,
insurance/healthcare, pharmaceutical, publishing, retail/catalog,
telecommunications, automotive and energy. Customers include KeyBank,
Lands' End, Medco Health Solutions, Bank of Montreal, Nordstrom, ABN
AMRO, Cintas, Peugeot, Club Med, SNCF, EDF, Scotiabank, United Loyalty
Services, Choice Hotels International and AIG.
Grozier: Hello, my name is John Grozier, and I am the Vice
President of Global CRM Product Marketing for SAP, the world's leading
provider of business software solutions. mySAP Customer Relationship
Management (mySAP CRM) addresses the unique needs of manufacturing
and service companies, large and small, across 23 industries.
With more than 2,200 customers world-wide, SAP's CRM solution allows
companies to tie together all of their front and back office functions
in a single system, leveraging the relationships customers have with
the entire enterprise. As the only vendor to offer seamless integration
of customer-centric business processes, tailored industry-by-industry,
SAP helps companies increase the effectiveness of customer interactions,
enhance the customer experience, and reduce the total cost of ownership
through end-to-end business processes.
Developed in collaboration with market-leading companies in 23 different
industries, mySAP CRM provides solutions for industries including
automotive, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, engineering, construction
and operations, consumer goods, high tech, industrial machinery and
components, leasing, media and entertainment, oil and gas, professional
services, public sector, retail, telecommunications, and utilities.
CRMGuru: To lay foundation for today's discussion, please share
your definition of CRM and the role that technology plays in a company's
customer care strategy.
Grozier: CRM is a connected solution that seamlessly integrates
the entire enterprise and business eco-system—from customers to suppliers
and partners—helping companies achieve the greatest level of customer
loyalty and profitability. CRM provides relevant, personalized information
gathered from multiple data sources and business processes for a single
view of the customer to enhance customer relationships and maximize
the efficiency of customer interactions.
With a connected CRM solution, companies can integrate channels for
sales and customer interaction, align their financial systems and
metrics, and synchronize all activities throughout the value chain.
By linking CRM with the supply chain, product development cycle, financial
systems, service delivery and more, companies operate more efficiently,
deliver products to market faster and increase revenue through improved
customer satisfaction.
Lee: We believe that CRM is not technology but rather a business
strategy and the process for delivering that strategy. CRM encompasses
not just customer interactions, such as sales and service, but also
marketing and product development. CRM embodies a company's approach
to serving a market across the entire corporate operation. Technology
can be key to enabling a customer-centric business vision but it is
not the sole answer nor does it ensure success.
Technology gives companies the ability to deliver a customer-focused
strategy more cost-effectively and with higher returns. In many cases,
technology can enable a company to deliver a product, service, or
customer experience never before possible. For example, customer analytics
help companies accurately understand and predict customers' interests.
Data warehousing allows companies to capture critical customer data
and preferences (such as preferred contact channels, acceptable frequency
of contact, special services desired). Marketing automation and campaign
management technology lets companies deliver a personalized marketing
experience based on increased knowledge and known customer preferences.
Together, these integrated technologies help companies deliver an
end-to-end customer experience aligned with their competitive business
strategy and brand.
CRMGuru: Please describe the typical CRM buyer and the approach
your company takes in meeting the needs of its potential customers.
Lee: There are plenty of CRM sellers (check out any CRM tradeshow)
but there is no single "CRM buyer." Rather, there are usually different
buyers for the different functional applications that are sometimes
lumped together into "CRM." These primarily include sales executives
looking for sales force automation, customer service people in need
of call center software, and marketers purchasing marketing applications.
Elsewhere in the organization, others are responsible for buying e-commerce
software, point-of-sale solutions, and many other applications across
the "front" and "back" offices. Rarely, if ever, are all of these
functions organized under a single individual responsible for the
entire purchasing decision. They are usually led by different individuals
with differing needs, various buying cycles, and separate budgets—but
all with a common goal of fulfilling a corporate strategy for CRM.
It's critical for corporate success to have alignment around a common
mental model, brand and customer strategy, and metrics. With alignment,
organizations can push decision-making down into the organization.
A common misperception is that because IT is involved in most CRM
purchases, somehow the CIO is the "one" buyer. That is simply not
true for most companies. IT provides technical due diligence during
the buying process, ensures corporate standards are followed, and
often provides invaluable advice in the process. Yet, frequently the
budget comes from the line of business. Even in cases where IT holds
the budget, the complexity of business needs across all these functions
means that line of business managers are usually the primary decision
makers. IT maintains veto power if an application's architecture fails
to fit the organization's IT objectives or is unsupportable, but in
world-class organizations, the IT department functions in support
of the business users' needs.
Our experience is that the key decision maker for the purchase of
enterprise marketing software is the "head of marketing," such as
the CMO, SVP of Marketing, Vice President of Relationship Marketing
and so forth. About 30 percent of the time, an IT executive such as
the CIO, drives the initiative to purchase marketing software. In
these cases the CIO is selecting technology to serve the needs of
the marketing constituents and deliver on an overriding customer strategy.
Grozier: Today's CRM buyer can be any company, large or small,
looking to address industry specific business processes throughout
the organization and achieve a quick time to value. We find the best
success in working with companies that identify specific business
opportunities or challenges to address, rather then simply focusing
on solving a single customer-facing problem, like improving the call
center or analyzing a marketing campaign. The majority of our customers
today take the pragmatic approach of tackling one challenge at a time
using the step before as a foundational building block for improving
the next business process. To achieve that end, customers want a fully
integrated suite of solutions—solutions that seamlessly link CRM with
key business processes like PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) and
SCM (Supply Chain Management), without the pain of tying disparate
point solutions together.
Companies today are increasingly demanding integrated technology solutions
to increase profitability, reduce total cost of ownership and achieve
rapid ROI. To help companies meet their goals with mySAP CRM, we offer
an industry-specific solution with complete end-to-end business processes
that drive maximum impact to the business.
Trade promotion management is an example of a new industry-specific
process of mySAP CRM that integrates with core solutions and systems
like supply chain, strategic enterprise management and business intelligence
to help consumer goods companies monitor trade promotions—a key business
process that an average of 17 percent of revenue is invested in yearly.
This type of end-to-end process is an example of the truly integrated
approach to CRM that identifies and solves the challenges our customers
are facing.
CRMGuru: The Gartner Group claims that "enterprises will rely
on best-of-breed applications for 75 percent of their CRM software
requirements." Do you support this statement? Why?
Grozier: No, because customers quickly realize that to make
customer interactions more effective, customer focused business processes
must seamlessly connect all parts of the enterprise to create maximum
value from customer relationships. Companies too often engage in CRM
projects with best-of-breed vendors to upgrade only one part of their
customer-facing processes, like improving the call center, or launching
a self service web site, and soon realize that by approaching each
project on a piece by piece basis the resulting CRM program often
conflicts with itself and requires costly interfaces that ultimately
result in a higher TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) and lower ROI.
In order to be successful and achieve desired results, CRM needs to
be the focal point for accelerating business efficiencies across the
entire business eco-system, not just an added functionality. Today's
customers need a fully integrated suite of solutions that seamlessly
link CRM with key business processes like PLM and SCM, without the
pain of tying disparate solutions together.
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Here to Read the Full Article
About the Author:
Carol Parenzan Smalley is the managing editor of CRMGuru.com, an online
community of 200,000+ global members focusing on customer relationship
management. She is also an e-professor of entrepreneurship, teaching
through a consortium of 1200+ colleges and universities. She and her
family find balance with technology while living in a log cabin in
the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. Contact her at csmalley@telenet.net
Used with permission. http://www.CRMGuru.com
Read this newsletter at: http://www.crmnewz.com/2003/0919.html |
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