The Relationship-Based
Enterprise
Powering Business Success
Through Customer Relationship Management
Increasing amounts of money
are being spent on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) but these investments are not
being consistently translated into business value. How do business managers design
solutions that make CRM profitable? Written by a leading expert in the area of strategic
management and based on the real-world experiences of senior management consultants and
their clients, this timely and practical book shows you how.
Many organizations have
pieces of CRM in place, but few have pulled together all of the components required to
create a company-wide strategy. This fragmented deployment often results from multiple and
conflicting definitions of CRM. In addition, organizations and vendors have focused on
finding "silver bullet" information technology (IT) solutions, excluding other
business considerations.
While enterprise integration
is a challenge that must be addressed, it is not enough to retain customers. Connecting
with customers is the bigger challenge. Today, new technologies are enabling the market to
converse. Companies must now figure out how to enter this global conversation rather than
relying on old marketing, sales, and communication techniques. They need to understand and
master the process of conversation moving from monologue to dialogue, from providing
traditional services to engaging in value-adding conversations. CRM solutions that do not
balance the challenges of integration with a sound approach toward conversation are likely
to fall short of producing expected business benefits.
The Relationship-Based
Enterprise provides an operational approach to implementing CRM across the enterprise. It
considers all components business, organization, technology, people, and process providing
business and technology executives with a no-nonsense practical guide that walks them
through the most critical questions about Customer Relationship Management. It helps those
organizations not only put together an integrated strategy, but also move to the next
level becoming a Relationship-Based Enterprise.
Ray McKenzie is a customer
advocate, enterprise architect, and Director of Management Consulting at DMR Consulting.
He lectures worldwide to major business forums and groups of senior executives on both
customer relationship management and IT-enabled change. He lives in Seattle, Washington.
DMR Consulting's Center for
Strategic Leadership is a think tank whose mission is to further the development of
processes and techniques for applying IT intelligently to a wide range ofe-business
operations. DMR Consulting is a leading global provider of e-consulting services and
business solutions to Fortune 1000 companies and Internet start-ups, with 65 offices in
the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
361 pages