Evolution Case

Evolution of CRM

Within the last 30 years, customer relationship management (CRM) has had many changes due to key events that have shaped its evolution. (Ciecierski,2010) It was not long ago many businesses operations relied heavily on spreadsheets, word documents and flat files. Core business processes involved manually updating these documents and passing them around. At the given time, these processes where efficient and perfect. If one was to analyze such a process, one may be able to point out all the areas where error can occur. However given the technology at the time, they utilized the tools the best way they knew how.

Shaping Events of the 1980’s

The CRM evolution began in the late 1980’s. There were two significant events that kicked off the ever changing fate of CRM systems. The first event was the introduction of client/server architecture. The second event was the introduction of contact management software in the year of 1986.

Client/Server Architecture

By definition client/server architecture is when a PC, which serves as the client or requesting machine and the server, which is the hosting machine are both connected by means of a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN). (Brittanica, ) In the late 1980’s the term client/server started to become a trendy term as many applications were moved from mainframes to networks of desktops. It would be a rare commodity to find a business that operates in an environment other than client/server architectures.

Contact Management Software

In 1987 Pat Sullivan and Mike Muhney, found Conductor Software Company. They released their first product which was originally termed Activity Control Technology, then later shortened to ACT. This software was marketed to businesses as an excellent tool to keep track of clients and client leads in a single database. (CRM MANTRA)

Shaping Events of the 1990’s

The 90’s was a decade in which a large number of technologies were introduced. This was the crucial point where technological advancements changed the way people interacted and communicated with each other. Consequently, there were many events that occurred during this decade that attributed to the evolution of CRM. During this technology boom, Seibel Systems was introduced into the market, the term customer relationship management (CRM) was born, ERP vendors expanded to front office, CRM expanded Beyond Point Solutions, SAP entered the market, acquisitions occurred, e-CRM vendors entered the market, Salesforce entered the market, and Nortel bought out Clarify.

Siebel Systems

In 1993, Tom Siebel and Patricia House founded Siebel Systems. In 1995, Siebel Systems launched Siebel Sales Enterprise Software for sales