Advantages of e-CRM systems - Coursework Example

This involves first seeking the customer’s permission and providing them with an incentive, before targeting them with the organization’s given marketing message. E-CRM systems make it easy for organizations like Our Town Photography to engage in multiple relationships with multiple customers through the use of different opt-in and opt-out tools such as checking a box in an online form. E-CRM systems are essentially designed for this new form of marketing. Permission marketing ensures that the company only concentrates its marketing on customers who are interested.

This leads to the second advantage of e-CRM systems: effective targeting. E-CRM systems keep records of those who have visited a web site and expressed an interest in the products or services offered by registering their name and other details. By sending marketing messages to this category of web visitors, Our Town Photography will receive higher response rates from its target customers. With the e-CRM technology, the company could further tailor its messages to customer micro-segments. With effective targeting, the overall cost of reaching customers also goes down.

Firstly, it is cheaper to use electronic communication methods than physical ones. Secondly, with effective targeting the number of mail-outs is reduced . These systems also support active information gathering from customers through tools such as online forums and communities, new product prototype evaluations and even customer-led innovations. List the specific data you would to store in your system Name Address Birth dates Purchase History Product or service recommendations made Gifts sent and received Anniversaries Hobbies and interests Gender Marital Status Post-sales service and/or product rating Research at least two e-CRM systems that are available and do a compare contrast between the two systems.

List the advantages and disadvantages of each the system and create a side by side comparison matrix. Table 1: SugarCRM versus Microsoft Dynamics CRM Feature SugarCRM Corporate Microsoft Dynamics CRM Deployment On-premise or cloud-based On-premise and cloud-based Trial period 7 days 30 days Cost US$ 45/user/month US$ 44/user/month Databases -Client can opt to use SugarCRM datacenter or Client datacenter or third party datacenter -Offers 30GB free -Client can use own datacenter or Microsoft Cloud datacenter -Offers 5GB free, client pays for extra storage Employee applications and channels -Unlimited customization options / based on Open Source standards -Proprietary system thus customization limited by vendor -Massive ecosystem of extensions developed by Open Source community found at SugarExchange for over 200 commercial extensions and SugarForge.

org for over 800 free extensions -Seamless integration to Microsoft products -Integration with Outlook and Microsoft ERP is especially very appealing to small and medium businesses. -Full sales, marketing and support automation -Full sales, marketing and support automation -Email integration, reporting, team selling, collaboration tools, advanced security, workflow