Analysis of ‘iif and Quateams Creating a Custom Crm’

EBTM 740

2/22/2016

Analysis of ‘IIF and Quateams Creating a Custom CRM’

        According to Dyna, et al., customer relationship management systems are “business strategy enabled by technology, aimed at helping companies know their customers better, with the goal of ultimately inspiring greater loyalty and a more robust bottom line.” It is commonly thought within CRM that it is more beneficial to rely on existing customers to increase revenues than to pursue strategies for growth (Dynia, 2012).  However, it is still unclear as to whether the ROI on implementing a CRM is worth it.  Some of the CRM’s in place still do not show all of the customer’s data into a single integrated view.  

        IIF, the International Institute of Finance, provides economic research and financial analysis to banks and other financial institutions through published reports, information on their website, and other events, such as conferences and meetings.  They provide value to these organizations by gathering and analyzing information that is easily accessible, up-to-date, and all in one place.  By becoming a member of IIF, potential customers would be able to effectively use this information to increase their revenues.

IIF’s strategy in implementing a CRM is to ultimately increase its’ customer loyalty to the program within its member organizations.  The hope is to bring on other departments within the member organizations, and thus have upper management of those firms realize that an IIF membership is not only valuable, but necessary to maximize profits. IIF can use CRM to aid in this strategy by being able to better capture, store, and integrate all customer data into a single system in order to better understand their member organizations’ needs. Once they have a greater understanding of those needs, IIF can act on providing more individualized service to each member and expand its use within the organization itself.

        Currently, IIF uses an Access database to store and use customer information, however there are a number of issues with the current system that it makes it difficult for IFF to effectively carry out their CRM goals/strategies.  The database is not accessible outside of the office for traveling staff members and it routinely shuts down when more than five people attempt to utilize the system.  The access database is also not integrated with their website and billing system, and much of the information has to be re-entered into the database from these sources.

        The new system developed by Quateams would touch on four main functions: membership management, events management, payment processing, and integration with any functionalities of its existing website.  It would also be a web-based system with an open architecture, meaning the system would be vendor-independent and non-proprietary.  The benefit of setting up the system in this way would mean they would not be reliant on a single vendor and they could more easily and more cost efficiently customize the CRM to their needs.  The fact that the system is web based also meant that anyone anywhere in the world with internet access would be able to get into the system.