Liu Tianbei
This paper introduces the various application modes of the current CRM system, pointing out the advantages of the Java platform to implement the CRM system, and propose "progressive" principles to implement CRM projects.
Keyword customer relationship management CRM Java
Display window: A variety of application modes of the CRM system
Undoubtedly, as an author who introduces the article "CRM system", I have a responsibility to show all the connotations containing this abbreviation. However, due to the fact that each manufacturer's definition is quite average, the definition of a complete and general CRM system is really quite difficult. We may wish to start with the current popular various CRM systems, and we will make a curious and cautious customer, making Window shopping in this field.
Based on the focus of the business, we can roughly divide the four common CRM system application modes of sales, marketing, customer service types and operations. Sales Force Automation / SFAs, mainly focus on the capture and sales opportunities of the sales customer clues. By recording sales staff and customer / contacts, the promotion of sales processes, achieving the visibility of sales, and ultimately increase sales benefits. Marketing models, mainly through investigations, consulting methods, analyzes purchase intent, and discover potential customers. Common ways include telemarketing, email marketing, and market questions. Customer Service Application Model is also known as the customer service center, mainly through the process of after-sales customer service, consultation, warranty, complaints, etc., thereby reaching the ability to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, reducing customer loss. Operating application mode is often used for service opening, order processing, etc. These content is especially important for emerging industries such as online transactions or electronic shopping.
According to the system function, four aspects of interaction, storage, business process processing, and data analysis can be divided in the CRM system. Interaction refers to a multi-channel communication between enterprises and customers by the CRM system. Advanced CRM systems can integrate almost all customer interactions through modern communication technologies such as CTI (Computer-Telephony Integration), Internet-Telephony Integration, Integration, and implement a unified front-end office (Front-Office) platform. Storage refers to the basic information of customers, and the transaction information of the enterprise departments, and the transaction information is saved in a unified customer base in a unified customer base to quickly locate the customer when the next interaction occurs, and provides a basis for the analysis. For large commercial enterprises, maintenance of complete customer history data often means a use of mass storage technology.
Business process processing refers to a process of distributing, approving, and processing a specific task based on a specific business rule and workflow. These are generally achieved by workflow and message intermediate technology. Data analysis refers to a relatively complete client library and a certain period of customer history, and the related data is mining, analyzing, achieving a Segmentation, a cross-selling (Cross Selling), and achieves the purpose of decision support. Data Warehouse and Data Mining technology are critical here.
Gradually: Implementation of CRM project
At this point, I introduced the different modes and functional levels of the application CRM system in the enterprise. Different vendors are often emphasized in one or more aspects of the technical background and product positioning, and the "CRM system" gives itself a definition. Imagine a SFA product manufacturer and a call center manufacturer's mind in the minds of the CRM system, almost harmoniously with the "Red Mansions" in the eye of the revolutionary home. In the face of a dazzling novelty concept and frontier technology, how to implement the CRM project for its own enterprises, it is a problem for enterprise decision makers. In fact, "CRM system" has great differences from "CRM". "CRM system" is an enterprise application of software and hardware, but "customer relationship management / CRM" itself, but it is not necessarily specific technology connotation, and first is a modern enterprise management practice. The core content of CRM is nothing more than "through effective means, maintains the original customer, attracting new customers, and reaches the principle of customer profits." For similar purposes, a savvy grocery boss may comply better than a company that has just been on the large-scale CRM system. It can be seen that CRM is implemented in a business, more related to the standardization of corporate management and the wisdom of team business, but far non-simple technical issues, can not expect to solve only by introducing a software system. The risk of current CRM project implementation is mainly from here. I have recently seen a lot of implementation cases, because it is too pursuit of rapid implementation and "one step", there is no practical analysis of business needs, and expensive hardware and software configurations are just complex abstract applications and the end user complaints. Many people implement the system to the quantitative body. However, for CRM projects, this metaphor is probably rushed, and may give us a dangerous technical illusion. Regardless of how smooth implementation is implemented, the intensive skills cannot be replaced by the process of learning, adapting to the company. This process is destined to be slow, including a lot of repetitions, as the company has gradually deeply in-depth, many business needs will gradually expand or dramatically change. All of this decided to implement the implementation of the CRM project. Therefore, a gradual attitude is especially important here. The ideal CRM project implementation should be a constant attempt-adjustable adaptation process. Unlike "CRM, CRM", I am more willing to advocate the methodology of solving a particular problem, namely, divide the implementation of the entire project into multiple steps, each step to solve specific business (such as sales, customer service) The actual urgency is milestone. Compared with a large and fully constructed system in place, this method is obviously more robust, sensible. As mentioned above, the CRM project is first not technical. But this does not mean that the selection of the technical platform is not important to the project. Below I will make an argument on this. Art: the advantage of the Java platform
As we all know, in the field of enterprise applications, mainly three system frames, namely Microsoft's .NET framework, LAMP (Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP) framework, and Java platform advocated by Sun. Any one of them is sufficient to constitute a complete, efficient enterprise application. Thus, which framework is more suitable for building a system, it is a very difficult choice. An expert I have encountered even joked that I can only make a decision on the dice. Similar to the unintroned attitude may be effective and even necessary when developing a universal software product. But for a particular industry application and a specific project, which is more desirable in these three options, it should be able to derive by analyzing the characteristics of each platform.
Here first talks about the general characteristics of the Java platform, and then analyze why these features can form an almost winning bet when building a CRM system.
* Operating system independence may be the most famous feature and slogan of the Java platform. The same application, there is no need to recompile, as long as it is simple to configure (even if you are lucky), you can run on a variety of different operating systems. If there is a Java version CRM system in hand, whether it is a first time to try only to use the idle PC in the office, or a Linux expert, or a company CIO, a plurality of high-end Sun servers, can be convenient Use, and obtain their own experiences. * Vendors unrelated Java platform companies have mature open standards, namely Sun proposed J2EE framework. For all levels of the frame, such as a database management system (DBMS), application server, data cache, message middleware, web server, etc. we can make optimal choices from a large number of compliance with standard products. Especially due to standard norms, manufacturers, product choices are transparent for system core code. Even upgrades or replace specific system software (such as moving the web server from Tomcat to RESIN), no change in the occurrence of the core application module.
* Abundant product development or purchase ("Build or Buy"), this is an important consideration when building a system. Using ready-made products can greatly reduce system implementation cycles, this factor is self-evident for decision-making. In a number of specific business areas, such as workflow, enterprise application integration (EAI), etc. have a variety of ready-made software products suitable for Java platforms. In these products, there are many open source software (OSS) to further reduce overall development costs, and can be ironically suitable for the special needs of the enterprise by slightly modifying.
Obviously, with the high integration and ease of use of the .NET platform, the fundamental feature of the Java platform is the freedom of freedom, or, it provides a variety of options. However, if this degree of freedom is just an abstract possibility, we have avoided it for the price of it (for example, sacrifice is essential for maintenance personnel vital). So, what is the advantage of the "freedom" of the Java platform will bring to the CRM system?
First, a Java-based CRM system can form a variety of schemes from low-end to high end according to the project budget. If the budget is sufficient, we can use the high-end server, operating system, and use the top database management system to match the data cache to meet the high concurrent access and massive data indicators of large-scale CRM applications. In particular, it is benefited from the excellent declaration of the J2EE framework, and we can also configure server clusters and hot backups on each level of the system, such as database servers, application servers, to implement high availability (HA) of the system. For various system middleware and specific business components, we can also choose the industry's leading product. In response to the same system (accurately, it is the same system code), we can also constitute a low price that is comparable to LAMP: Very cheap, or even free products can be found at all levels of the software system, such as Mysql as DBMS, JBoss acts as an application server, Tomcat / Apache as a Web Container ... The above open source product has been asserted and verified by a large number of users, which is fully capable of competing for small and medium-sized application requirements for general enterprises.
Second, the Java platform is easier to meet the requirements of the CRM system on application integration. As in the first part of this article, a complete CRM system integrates a large number of different business applications. For example, integration with communications systems such as accounting systems, product catalog / inventory management systems, enterprise information systems or phones, emails, often involving data sharing, including interaction and collaboration. The Java platform is unrelated, and its powerful support for Web Service provides a variety of possibilities for application integration. The JCA architecture proposed by Sun provides a public standard for application integration. High-end projects can especially use existing multi-mature EAI products on the Java platform (such as WebMethods). Finally, it is also the most fundamental, built a CRM system on the Java platform, which is more in line with the "progressive" CRM project implementation principles of this article. As mentioned above, the meaning of the CRM project is far greater than a simple software system. Compared to the concerns of TCO, system integration, policymakers should be more interested in the success or failure of the CRM project itself. The essence of the CRM project has also been determined, and its implementation is a progressive process that requires repeated adjustment. Regardless of the initial investment, a mature CRM system is impossible, but must be implemented by multiple periods and gradually enters better. If this is recognized, the "freedom" of the Java platform is not only reflected in it to meet the size of the scale of different budgets. More importantly, it can also ensure that the company has completed the implementation of the CRM project in a multi-step manner. To give an application scenario: a small and medium-sized enterprise can use the "free PC in the office", using the ready-made CRM software products, for an urgent need to adjust for the company (such as orders processing, After-sales support or sales opportunity management) Start CRM practice; when "customer-oriented" is gradually starting to form in the enterprise, the company's client library tends to be complete, and some of the company's business is also improved due to the introduction of CRM, Gradually expand the business scope involved in the CRM system, expand the hardware and hardware configuration, and further customize the CRM application suitable for the enterprise in accordance with existing client libraries, and introduce reasonable business rules and processes; until the CRM concept is in-depth enterprise, CRM system The application also naturally reaches considerable extent, then the CRM system and the enterprise system are adjusted, and the data analysis module is completed as needed. The CRM project implemented, the earnings per stage, the risk is minimized, and CRM can truly become the core part of the business operation. During the above implementation, the Java platform ensures consistency of the system under the hardware and software adjustment of each step. When the system is finally stable, the utility is fully utilized, we can also configure supplementation and performance adjustment to ensure high availability based on possible maximum loads. The end language is just like CRM is not a simple software system, and the implementation of the CRM project is not a simple software installation or system integration. Currently, as a hotspot in an enterprise application, CRM has gained the attention of corporate decision makers and favor of IT manufacturers. But beautiful enthusiasm is solid results - Andre Ji Tir said that people make poor work with a beautiful feelings - the methodology and lasting patience of mature. This article is willing to make a thin contribution to the two aspects of the improvement (rather than those who are not talking about).
