IBM deploys largest worldwide Customer Relationship Management solution.

Customer Relationship Management, or CRM, is an essential part of modern business management. Customer Relationship Management concerns the relationship between the organization and its customers. Customers are the lifeblood of any organization be it a global corporation with thousands of employees and a multi-billion turnover, or a sole trader with a handful of regular customers. Customer Relationship Management is the same in principle for these two examples - it is the scope of CRM which can vary drastically.
Successful organizations use three steps to build customer relationships:
• determine mutually satisfying goals between organization and customers
• establish and maintain customer rapport
• produce positive feelings in the organization and the customers
The organization and the customers both have sets of conditions to consider when building the relationship, such as wants and needs of both parties;
• organizations need to make a profit to survive and grow
• customers want good service, a quality product and an acceptable price
Good CRM can influence both sets of conditions.
The ultimate purpose of CRM, like any organizational initiative, is to increase profit. In the case of CRM this is achieved mainly by providing a better service to your customers than your competitors. CRM not only improves the service to customers though; a good CRM capability will also reduce costs, wastage, and complaints (although you may see some increase initially, simply because you hear about things that without CRM would have stayed hidden). Effective CRM also reduces staff stress, because attrition - a major cause of stress - reduces as services and relationships improve. CRM enables instant market research as well: opening the lines of communications with your customers gives you direct constant market reaction to your products, services and performance, far better than any market survey. Good CRM also helps you grow your business: customers stay with you longer; customer churn rates reduce; referrals to new customers increase from increasing numbers of satisfied customers; demand reduces on fire-fighting and trouble-shooting staff, and overall the organization's service flows and teams work more efficiently and more happily.
There is little doubt that CRM is a high growth market. It is an area in which executives are doing everything they can to build a strong partner network. IBM has become a leader in CRM market with the launch of new products and services. Earlier this year, IBM announced that its joint sales revenues with mid-market independent software vendors reached US$1 billion worldwide.
The preceeding post might have cast a shadow over IBM’s capabilities in the CRM and outsourcing space, but here is some cheer for the company: In terms of business opportunities, IBM is making serious headway in the CRM space through strategic tie-ups with SMB partners. The CRM market has huge growth opportunities and IBM is cultivating a useful partner network, including links with industry biggies such as Siebel (now acquired by Oracle) and SAP.
If you are responsible for the deployment an effective CRM system in your company, the least you can expect from your vendor is deployment of the system within a set time frame and within the allocated budget. It is only after these two prerequisites that the CRM software can emerge as a true winner in the long run.
However, what do you do if your vendor is unable to complete its side of the agreement? For a start, you have to go in the red by allocating an extra budget. Then, you have to explain the time overrun to your superiors. When you eventually deploy the CRM system, you might well have lost out on several selling points. This is exactly the scenario with Vodofone, who selected IBM to provide CRM, billing, and provisioning systems “down under”.
The CRM deployment is a key strategic platform in IBM’s e-business infrastructure, and there are plans for further expansion and enhancement. “As a result of this ongoing initiative, we have developed tried-and-tested strategies for achieving the goals of CRM on an unprecedented scale,” said Wright. “We can offer our clients a set of unique skills and insights into how to leverage CRM technology and processes to serve customers better. We’ve proved we can build complex customer contact management environments and help global companies establish worldwide processes around intelligent data management and marketing. As a result, many companies can now benefit from our experience.”