Supply Chain Management - Assignment Example

Supply Chain Management and Relations Management systems both allow businesses create more efficiency and flexibility in order to attract and satisfy consumers. One of the most significant challenges to integrating these two systems seamlessly is a lack of definition close to the end user, in areas such as sales, inventorying, manufacturing and order management. The fundamental problem lies in the fact that many Supply Chain Management Systems provide customer-side services which, while accomplishing different things than Customer Relations Management, overlap sales-oriented design.

This means that many important functions of Customer Relations Management may be underutilized because Supply Chain Management systems, which tend to be more fully implemented (as they require a company-wide or multi-company approach), can override the important uses of Customer Relations Management systems, which affect a smaller number of staff. This can be especially problematic in inventory situations where both SCM and CRM could be used. One of the most important issues when trying to integrate these two types of systems is training users on all levels and having active trouble-shooting response teams.

Many users may have to be familiar with both types of systems, and it is thus important that a business train every user with where Supply Chain Management systems should be used versus where Customer Relations Management systems should be used. This can even mean instructing employees to completely ignore part of the functionality of one of the systems, to ensure the same type of activity is not being divided between them. This will help avoid situations where employees sidestep Customer Relations Management systems out of sheer confusion, which costs businesses astounding amounts of money in losses of efficiency and in wasted investment in CRM implementation (Dickie).

Works Cited Dickie, Jim. "Demystifying CRM Adoption Rates - CRM Magazine." Destination CRM. July 2006. Web. 27 June 2011.