Master's Thesis from the year 2010 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: 1,7, University of Bedfordshire, course: Applied Management Project / Master Thesis, language: English, abstract: III Executive Summary In the past, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) was seen more clearly as a strategic tool in conjunction with technological progress. Now more and more companies use CRM to earn benefits. It helps to understand, manage and develop customer-specific analyses in order to increase customer loyalty and customer satisfaction. The fast-growing market of the different CRM systems is becoming more and more obscure but also more and more interesting for medium sized enterprises. This implementation promises to survive in the market and achieve a competitive advantage. This thesis therefore aims to create a guideline to set aside to a number of clients that helps the clients of medium sized companies to get a sufficient overview of the whole situation around the subject of CRM. Relevant information about the variety of systems, conditions and requirements of using CRM within an enterprise will be provided. In addition, the positive and negative aspects of CRM will be mentioned in this report. Based on the findings this report will clarify the question which economic strategy is correct or preferred for medium sized companies. Many providers offer companies to rent their CRM system during the first steps of implementation rather than to buy it. This offers the possibility to optimise one’s own corporate strategy with regard to the procedure which will change a corporate strategy by implementation of a CRM system. The prerequisites of successful implementation consist of many different changes within the company. These changes are the key factors to a successful and profitable decision about the failure or success of the strategy in the market. To round off the issue of the topic, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and changes in consumer behaviour will be analysed. To benefit from a customer it is particularly important to understand this first. It is advantageous to monitor and track changes in the consumer behaviour and to be prepared at the next step or be one step ahead. Finally, the downsides, risks, benefits and opportunities of the CRM implementation will be analysed and evaluated at the end. Also, a recommendation is offered for the approach of medium sized companies within the implementation-stage.

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2008 in the subject Business economics - Marketing, Corporate Communication, CRM, Market Research, Social Media, grade: 1,2, Maastricht University (School of Business and Economics), course: -, language: English, abstract: 1. General introduction Up to now, it has always been the task of marketing to be close to the customer and to know how to reach him in order to ultimately increase sales of the company's product or service. This focus on customer acquisition is widespread among companies, and many companies consider this to be sufficient in order to survive in the business world. Nonetheless, a vital flaw of this common view is that there is more than just focusing all efforts on acquiring new customers - That is, convincing the customer that it pays for him/her to continue doing business with the provider, which is called customer retention. Enter Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Throughout this paper, the definition of a CRM will be equivalent to the interpretation by Payne and Frow (2005), who state that CRM is a strategic approach that is concerned with creating improved shareholder value through the development of appropriate relationships with key customers and customer segments (Payne and Frow, 2005a). In the 1990s, organizations recognized the need for not relying on customer acquisition all alone, and stressing the relationship with the customer became imperative in the business world's strategic orientation. Unfortunately, implementing CRM systems turned out to require more work than the plain desire to be chosen as a provider over and over again. A great source of uncertainty was the vague definition of relationship management itself. Another pitfall was how to establish a CRM system in an organization. As relationship management was not up to executives' expectations, many companies were disappointed by the results - And yet, there were companies that succeeded in implementing a CRM system. Taking a closer look a

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Business economics - Marketing, Corporate Communication, CRM, Market Research, Social Media, grade: 1,7, University of applied sciences, Munich, course: Customer Relationship Management, 7 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Investing in information technology without relevant questions or a plan for application can lead to the development of a very expensive toy that offers no return on investment. While the planning and implementation of the CRM projects are examined in this work, potential organisational problems and barriers in the attitude of involved employees are analyzed for each implementation phase. The foundation of an accurate CRM implementation is the adoption of a firm's strategy that should be designed to optimize both profitability and customer satisfaction. Many organisations today have discovered it is a mistake to think about Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems exclusively in technological terms. A customer focus without accurate information is similar to attempting to circumnavigate the planet without a map.1 Investing in information technology without relevant questions or a plan for application can lead to the development of a very expensive toy that offers no return on investment. While the planning and implementation of the CRM projects are examined in this work, potential organisational problems and barriers in the attitude of involved employees are analyzed for each implementation phase. The foundation of an accurate CRM implementation is the adoption of a firm's strategy that should be designed to optimize both profitability and customer satisfaction. To realize CRM, organisations must foster behaviours and implement processes and technologies which support coordinated customer interactions throughout all customer channels. In order to achieve this, organisations must develop the strategic and functional components of the CRM projects. The implementation of a

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: 1,7, University of applied sciences, Munich, course: Customer Relationship Management, language: English, abstract: Investing in information technology without relevant questions or a plan for application can lead to the development of a very expensive toy that offers no return on investment. While the planning and implementation of the CRM projects are examined in this work, potential organisational problems and barriers in the attitude of involved employees are analyzed for each implementation phase. The foundation of an accurate CRM implementation is the adoption of a firm’s strategy that should be designed to optimize both profitability and customer satisfaction. Many organisations today have discovered it is a mistake to think about Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems exclusively in technological terms. A customer focus without accurate information is similar to attempting to circumnavigate the planet without a map.1 Investing in information technology without relevant questions or a plan for application can lead to the development of a very expensive toy that offers no return on investment. While the planning and implementation of the CRM projects are examined in this work, potential organisational problems and barriers in the attitude of involved employees are analyzed for each implementation phase. The foundation of an accurate CRM implementation is the adoption of a firm’s strategy that should be designed to optimize both profitability and customer satisfaction. To realize CRM, organisations must foster behaviours and implement processes and technologies which support coordinated customer interactions throughout all customer channels. In order to achieve this, organisations must develop the strategic and functional components of the CRM projects. The implementation of a CRM strategy is a series of small projects. These projects are all identified when the strategy is defined, and they normally fall into the categories: developing a strategy, implementing operational and analytical projects. If this is not done accurately and/or there is lack of management understanding and commitment, the organisation can be exposed to problems such as retention of employees or data quality problems. The organisation is thus not in a position to initiate the desired customer relationship and to increase revenues while at the same time reducing costs.

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2008 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: 1,2, Maastricht University (School of Business and Economics), course: -, language: English, abstract: 1. General introduction Up to now, it has always been the task of marketing to be close to the customer and to know how to reach him in order to ultimately increase sales of the company’s product or service. This focus on customer acquisition is widespread among companies, and many companies consider this to be sufficient in order to survive in the business world. Nonetheless, a vital flaw of this common view is that there is more than just focusing all efforts on acquiring new customers – That is, convincing the customer that it pays for him/her to continue doing business with the provider, which is called customer retention. Enter Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Throughout this paper, the definition of a CRM will be equivalent to the interpretation by Payne and Frow (2005), who state that CRM is a strategic approach that is concerned with creating improved shareholder value through the development of appropriate relationships with key customers and customer segments (Payne and Frow, 2005a). In the 1990s, organizations recognized the need for not relying on customer acquisition all alone, and stressing the relationship with the customer became imperative in the business world’s strategic orientation. Unfortunately, implementing CRM systems turned out to require more work than the plain desire to be chosen as a provider over and over again. A great source of uncertainty was the vague definition of relationship management itself. Another pitfall was how to establish a CRM system in an organization. As relationship management was not up to executives’ expectations, many companies were disappointed by the results – And yet, there were companies that succeeded in implementing a CRM system. Taking a closer look at the markets all over the world shows that all leading companies within their industries possess CRM systems, no matter whether it is in a B2B or B2C setting. This paper aims to convey how a company can use latest research findings to enhance a CRM system in order to maximize benefits and minimize drawbacks and critically portray the pros and cons of relationship management. Therefore, the following pages endeavour to answer the problem statement: The advantages and disadvantages of relationship management: How can a company integrate recent research findings in order to make its CRM system more efficient?

Die Implementierung von CRM in einem Unternehmen ist mit vielen Herausforderungen verbunden, da eine solche Implementierung viel Zeit erfordert und hohe Kosten verursacht. Diese Kosten sind mitunter schwer zu rechtfertigen. Jedoch verspricht man sich, durch diese Technologie ein besseres Kundenverständnis zu erlangen und somit auch seine Umsätze nachhaltig steigern zu können. Leider ist es oft der Fall, dass Systeme, die das Kundenmanagement erleichtern sollen, genau das Gegenteil bewirken und somit zu Frust und Enttäuschung führen. Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit den Erfolgsschlüsselfaktoren für die Implementierung von CRM in einer Vertriebsorganisation im B2B Bereich.

Firms are continually seeking new ways to forge close relationships with their most valuable customers. With recent advances in networking and database management, firms have both the motivation and the means for improving their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategies. This book focuses on the actuality of implementing CRM. It is about the organization's ability to provide a seamless and personalized experience to each customer rather than a transactional or product-focused approach where the future of the relationship is not an over-riding consideration. This book connects CRM systems implementation with organizational change for the first time. It looks into the factors that distinguish firms which connect with their customers and gain customer loyalty with firms that are not as successful. It also describes the micro-processes that occur on a daily basis in a company and all the small decisions managers and employees take during the implementation of change and the creation of knowledge. Finnegan and Willcocks note that CRM implementation is not the straightforward process that many of the trade publications would have us believe. They state the failure rate of large CRM projects may be as high at 70%. Through the lens of two detailed case studies, the authors investigate why CRM is no panacea.