Implementation of Cloud CRM in Warnaco Company - Essay Example

? Implementation of Cloud CRM in Warnaco Company By: Jeanette Moore BSA/376 – Systems Analysis and Design Michele A. Busby --------------, 2013 1.0 Introduction In the modern era of globalization, art of buying and selling has also changed abruptly. Now producers and manufacturers are not simply concerned with the production rate, but they are struggling hard to get response from the users and critically implement their suggestions. Social media has immensely improved the speed of marketing and getting response from the consumers. Therefore, each company now desires to implement latest technology to interact with its customers to better improve their product quality and hence sales. In this era of extreme competition, everyone wants to get response in-time which is being achieved by implementing customer relationship management (CRM) softwares. These softwares are provided by salesforce.com or Microsoft dynamics CRM. Large enterprise systems have been using CRM from long before but now technology improved a lot and this system is applicable by almost all companies(Chen & Popovich, 2003). Now all enterprise levels can easily implement customer relationship softwares to directly communicate with their users and take feedback of their newly launched as well as upcoming products. 2.0 Cloud Computing With the advent of cloud computing technology, computation has become more convenient and usage of technology is cheaper. Cloud computing has allowed industries to expand their business based on hardware as well as software, at even low costs than ever before. Now industrialists need not to pay expensive computer systems and networking complexities; rather they simply need to make their own network on cloud and pay little for that. Nowadays, cloud computing is extensively being used for implementing CRM in most of the companies. This results in low cost implementation of CRM yet effective. Cloud system is provided with state of the art user friendly setup with the ease of usage as well as provides extensive productive system. Although usage of cloud computing technology is getting fame day by day but still it is having some flaws. While making use of cloud technology for Warnaco group, one threat could be non-reliability of cloud data as this data can be accessed by anybody on the public network. This threat can be overcome by implementing private cloud rather than public(Rittinghouse & Ransome, 2010). Therefore, Warnaco could made use of private cloud technology where sensitive data as CRM, can be saved with greater security and control. 2.1 Cloud CRM and Warnaco CRM is specialized software that helps organization keeping record of all of its constituents. In case of Warnaco group, this software is to be implemented for keeping track of company’s user profile, their purchasing power, views and reviews of latest and upcoming products, letting employees keep record of latest suggestion and much more. Cloud CRM makes use of data centers that are owned or rented by the CRM providers over the internet and can be accessed on one’s desktop. 2.2 Compact System Cloud CRM, unlike traditional costly and complex CRM systems, are much convenient to be used. They need not to own multiple licenses and complex hardware installations including high costs. Also cloud CRM provides flexibility in the number of users who want to access the database; rather than specific number of users, followed by additional charges for increase in users as in traditional systems. Therefore, cloud computing is good to be used for implementing CRM in Warnaco as this company is having ever-growing business with frequent variation in the number of users accessing database of the company. Also Warnaco is having branches all over the country; this helps employees to connect to database remotely from an office server. Also, cloud networks are hosted by their own vendors who keep track of bugs and updates and provide timely fixes for them. 2.3 Hardware Requirement for Cloud CRM Cloud CRM is actually hosted at remote locations therefore, Warnaco group need not to arrange for some hardware data storage devices and equipment for installing CRM. Only, technical staff needs to check that the computers being used by the employees to access cloud CRM must be updated. 2.4 Environment Friendly Cloud CRM also helps Warnaco be an environment friendly company by reducing GHG emission. Reduced hardware consumption reduces GHG emissions into the environment. Actually the computers hosting data of Warnaco put more power as work load increases, but when work load of Warnaco decreases, same systems work for other cloud networks and in this way excess emissions are minimized and environment friendly effect is produced. 3.0 Implementing Cloud CRM in Warnaco Group As Warnaco is implementing CRM for the first time, therefore we need to configure out specifications of the company and have a detailed insight into the company’s profile to better have an idea whether or not this system is applicable. Before implementing cloud CRM, technical staff must review the workflow pattern for the specific task for which CRM is being implemented(Rittinghouse & Ransome, 2010). Technical staff must know: How a product is being introduced into the market. How much time is taken by the consumer to respond back after using the product? What is the most common aspect for which consumers complaint about. Possible strategies followed in order to overcome complaints. Time taken by the company to come up with the new product. Configuring out this workflow helps in deducing type of database needed for implementing CRM(Leavitt, 2009). It also helps in configuring how the customer should interact with company’s management system and how the database integrates with customer’s reviews and opinions and keep record of each thread. Technological staff at Warnaco is also required to improve cloud CRM system by calling interviews and focused group discussion with stake holders and employees to develop user friendly interface providing customers access to most useful knowledge and allow them to best describe the product in use by undergoing a survey for that particular article. Although cloud CRM is cheap software to be installed in Warnaco but it exclusively needs time as well as excess funds in terms of teaching the staff for proper working of the software. This cost is termed as the cost for adopting the new technology and is one time cost implemented to the whole project. Although cloud CRM needs excessive training, it also needs an expert who is capable of porting all the information of Warnaco into the database of cloud CRM. Cloud space for implementing CRM technology of Warnaco can be purchased from salesforece. It is one of the best cloud space vendors which provides with fully automated and customized solutions for complex markets. Another good option for Warnaco group is Microsoft Dynamic CRM. It is new vendor in the market by Microsoft Corporation. It is capable of directly importing data from other CRM websites if needed. 4.0 Defined and Repeatable Process Defined processes are those which exhibit in a single go according to the defined or pre-determined process. Such a system is fully determined and has minimum flexibility in it. Practically implemented systems are not fully defined as they do possess a degree of imperfection. Therefore, such systems are repeated a number of times in order to get closer results. Such systems are called repeatable systems or processes(Humphrey, 1988). While implementing CRM strategy in Warnaco, repeatability of the process is checked in order to get better results. 5.0 Conclusion Private cloud CRM systems are good for Warnaco to implement CRM technology as they are secured with private networks. Such clouds are not accessible by public. Also cloud CRM is rather cheap technology for implementing CRM rather than traditional methods in which huge cost is invested for purchasing hardware components and licenses for installing CRM for their company. While implementing cloud CRM, size of company does not matters because increase in users does not increase cloud charges. Also, before implementing cloud CRM, technological staff of Warnaco should have detailed understanding of workflow taking place inside the company. This helps in selecting required database and user interface for the company. While dealing with CRM installation of Warnaco, it is good to follow repeatability of process for getting better results. References Chen, I. J., & Popovich, K. (2003). People, Process and Technology. Business Process Management Journal. Humphrey, W. S. (1988). Characterizing the Software Process: A Maturity Framework. IEEE, 5. Leavitt, N. (2009). Is Cloud Computing Really Ready for Prime Time? IEEE Computer Society. Rittinghouse, J. W., & Ransome, J. F. (2010). Cloud Computing: Management and Security: Taylor and Francis Group. Read More