CRM: Strategic Engine or Just Another Tool?
The question of whether CRM is an engine or a tool is no longer a relevant one. CRM should not be equated with the computer system that resides in your company’s data center. CRM is the strategic engine that drives your company to success and delivers better results than other tools in diverse areas like marketing, sales, field service, customer retention, and product development.
With Salesforce pushing its new Einstein Platform, it's worth considering what this might mean for the future of CRM as whole before you start on your next project.
This post aims to provide you with all the information necessary to understand what CRMs are capable of delivering today and how that might evolve in the future.
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What’s the difference between CRM and SCM?
Both companies from CRM vendors and software vendors (e.g. SAP, Oracle, SAP, etc.) offer software called CRM. But there is one thing that distinguishes them:
An information system is designed so that data can be stored and analyzed in order to generate valid and useful information for decision-making purposes. It should operate as a single coherent whole with a single clear purpose, while being transparent in its use of data intelligence: it should be able to reflect reality as accurately (or not) as possible.
Supply Chain Management is the operational management of a company’s supply chain. It ensures that products are manufactured, delivered and sold at an optimal cost to the customer. This can be a complex management practice that encompasses many aspects of an organization’s functions, including production–distribution–inventory control–marketing and sales. Supply chain management crosses functional areas and is not confined to any one discipline, such as logistics or purchasing.
For example:
· A business might use its supply chain to maintain relationships with suppliers and communicate requirements to them – also known as "pull" operations which can be less expensive than "push" operations that involve sourcing goods when they are needed (rather than before they are needed).
The function of supply chain management is to improve the flow of goods throughout production, inventory and distribution. This can include processes such as manufacturing, warehousing and shipping. Supply-chain management has had considerable impact on business performance through the 20th century and continues to do so in the 21st century.
The concept of supply chain management was developed in the US during World War II. Its aim was to enhance financial efficiency and improve delivery times while minimizing expenditures on material and labor.
What’s common between CRM and SCM?
Both CRM and SCM are information systems that can be used to improve business performance by taking into account all the activities (e.g.