CRM USER GUIDE
Contents
1. continues 1 3 54 Post Training Survey Required 4 How much do you feel your skills improved because of CRM training Mog d ATA Not at all A great deal 5 Do you feel you learned enough to get started with CRM 4 2 Yes No 6 How motivated do you feel to use CRM after the training 4 2 35 Not motivated at all Very motivated 60 completed Powered by This content is neither created nor endorsed by Google Google Drive Report Abuse Terms of Service Additional Terms Post Training Survey T Is there anything else you would still like to learn about CRM 8 Free word other suggestions ee 80 completed Powered by This content is neither created nor endorsed by Google Google Drive Report Abuse Terms of Service Additional Terms continues 2 3 55 56 3 3 Post Training Survey Thank you for answering this survey Please click Submit and your answers will be recorded lt Back Submit n Never submit passwords through Google Forms 100 You made it Powered by This content is neither created nor endorsed by Google Google Drive Report Abuse Terms of Service Additional Terms2. 4 1 Lean System Merus Power has implemented Tieto s Lean ERP System Lean System which was specifically built to be adapted to any company s needs The main point is that ERP won t restrain companies actions but with Lean it can bring added value to all opera tions As a growing company that also manufactures their products Tieto Lean System was a natural choice because Tieto prides themselves with being the best choice for these kinds of small amp medium sized companies Tieto Lean System Ketter mpi ERP 2010 Not only is Lean System a resource planner for production but it also has a CRM func tion built in where one can manage customer data and relationships The version cur rently in use is the basic version of 6 0 which has not been altered besides simple pa rameterization according to the case company s wishes Being a small size company they feel this version fills their needs for CRM at the moment 4 1 1 Lean System General Applications The Lean System is an enterprise resource planning system developed to aid a company in planning and managing its operations Options included in the home menu are avail able in both in Finnish and in English but for the thesis purposes only the English lan guage version is in use 27 The home page figure 7 can be divided into two panels and three different sections On the left side there is a panel which displays the folder structure On the panel on the right one can v
3. CRM is and what it does why it is used To benefit the case company e Improved user abilities Skills e Level of knowledge of CRM to start using the tool Sub goals were also set to be the following e Understanding the link between sales process and CRM tool e Motivation exists to start using the tool The perspective that is going to be taken at the training is that instead of enforcing the CRM tool as a mandatory must the participants will be explained the importance of this software and its usefulness to them personally From the psychological side participants are hence more likely to learn and be motivated as opposed to being told they have to learn Thorne amp Mackey 2007 43 The training program was planned together with the Lean consultant Jukka Lehti as it is beneficial to have an expert present to give feedback and opinions Thorne amp Mackey 2007 55 It was agreed with Kari Tuomala that I will personally conduct the training 38 The training is held in two sections table 1 because the needs of the audience are dif ferent The first part is very basic and the second part will focus more on things that are relevant mostly to sales and marketing The first part is kicked off with an introductory presentation thereafter will follow the functions of CRM The forms will be firstly introduced after which the basic functions are shown There will be no exercises as the test version of Lean could not be update
4. CRM tool gives to the case company Questions 7 8 included development ideas and free word if there was anything else to add 3 3 Analysis of Results Figure 3 shows the time the workers have been at Merus Power Two of the interview ees were the founders and have worked at Merus Power for 5 years now 4 other em 23 ployees had been in the case company for a shorter time having worked there for 2 3 years m Number of employees Year 2 Years 3 Years 4 Years 5 Years FIGURE 3 Years of employment situation in October 2013 As discussed in the earlier stages the employees had not gone through any formal train ing on the Lean system and the training question informed that 5 out of 6 employees had received some sort of training either before or after entering Merus Power 3 out of 6 had been using Lean system before being employed by Merus Power and one person had not received training at all This was due to the fact that remote access to Helsinki had not been arranged up until this point and it is the main residence of this person Although the training level has not been very high it can be seen figure 4 that 5 em ployees out of 6 were aware of the CRM tool albeit one of them aware because the mat ter of the thesis had been discussed in the case company The sales person living in Hel sinki had not been aware for the obvious reason of not using the application Number of Not aware FIGURE
5. How motivated do you feel to use CRM after training When asked if there was anything else the participants would have liked to learn about CRM one respondent felt that at a later stage when CRM has been used more other matters might arise Another recipient stated the desire to know and learn more about document linking The last question was an open one leaving space for free word and suggestions One respondent felt the training was very simple to follow and understand Another re spondent commented on developing the search functions and options of CRM windows and that responsible persons should be named for each customer partner to ensure accu racy of data The results give positive feedback on the success of the training The goals of the train ing were for participants to understand the meaning of CRM why it is used and to learn how to use it Since this was the first training session on CRM only the basic functions were taught but already the participants felt it was enough to get started and felt moti vated to use CRM Overall the training met its purpose in the way that all relevant people were able to at tend all the matters were gone through thoroughly and at the end of the last session a conversation was sparked about Lean and CRM in general 45 Kari Tuomala the managing director was unable to join the first meeting due to a scheduling error but he was familiar with the basics of Lean beforehand and was goi
6. customer and a non customer How long will a customer stay a customer after the last purchase Who are the most important customers 2005 16 Defining the term customer depends on how the employers of a company perceive the word A customer could be someone a sales person has just made contact with and strongly feels they will succeed in making sales Another person might see this as just a prospect When already negotiating with someone are they a customer until the very moment they accept your offer The definitions are important for a company so that the separation can be made and the efforts allocated to the right sources After the sales person manages to get their offer accepted a sale is made it is obvious they now have a customer But how long should they maintain this status This criterion should be business specific as some things are bought every 20 years and some every few months Companies should develop their own time frame after which it is clear there will be no more sales or during which the customer does make a new purchase 14 The last question leaves the most leverage to the employees of a company This is a question that all sales people should discuss together as everyone knows their own cus tomers better than the others They should discuss the criteria with which they will to gether classify the customers into order of importance After these questions it should be clearer to a company who is a
7. for these products abroad The first one is related to rules and regulations of the countries and how much harmonics disturbances in the power network is allowed to exist In Finland this limit is 896 in other words not as strict and there is not such a high need to remove the dis turbances In comparison the limit in the UK is 596 Zia 2013 Moreover a company may simply want to make their process more efficient improve power quality and ener gy efficiency The case company has offices for operations and manufacturing space in Nokia Fin land and they work with their partners distributors around the world to sell their prod ucts Furthermore they also sell through brand labelling selling their core technology to companies who build their own products around them Merus Power is also a part of Cleantech Finland which supports the growth of compa nies creating products and technological innovations that create environmental value Heavily supported by the Finnish government the idea is to make Finland the leading Cleantech country Cleantech Finland 2014 1 3 Objectives and Research Problems The main objective of this thesis is to develop a CRM tool which is part of Lean ERP Enterprise Resource Planning System hereafter referred to as Lean System to im prove and enhance sales and marketing processes An additional objective is related to the re introduction of the tool A training session will be planned and con
8. the development of CRM and secondly creating a training plan The applications need to be taught in training and to make sure no one is left at their own devices henceforward Furthermore to make sure whatever problems may occur they will be resolved Lastly major changes were not made in all categories Hence the ones that went under scrutiny will be explained and general changes will follow thereafter 5 1 Targets of Development Confidential not published 5 2 Linking CRM Tool to Presales and Sales Processes Confidential not published 36 37 5 3 Training Training was decided to be included in the scope of the thesis for what good is a system if no one knows how to use it Moreover training needs to be planned just as carefully as the CRM project has been This is because no matter how well the development pro ject might have gone if it is not communicated efficiently and the right way the results will be as good as nothing Thorne and Mackey 2007 49 advice to start the planning process or training with mapping out the needs of the client in this case Merus Power They also offer a way of helping define the need by asking At the end of this training what would you like peo ple to be able to do that they cannot do now or what would you like to be different 2007 50 With those questions in mind and based on the goals of the thesis project the following were defined as goals e Understanding what
9. tool If yes why What benefits do you perceive the CRM tool is giving to you company Do you have any development ide as for CRM tool Free word other suggestions 5 9 11 Have you been aware that there is CRM tool If you have been do you use it If you are aware but do not use it why not If not aware move to question 5 How do you store your customer data Even if you do not use CRM tool do you perceive any benefits it gives the company Do you have any development ide as for CRM tool which could in crease your use of the system 12 Free word other suggestions 51 Appendix 2 Questionnaire Form for Interviews in Finnish 10 12 Kuinka kauan olet ollut Merus Powerin palveluksessa Oletko saanut valmennusta koulutusta Lean Systeemin k yt ss Jos kyll mil laista Oletko ollut tietoinen CRM ty kalun Asiakastiedonhallinnan olemassaolosta Jos olet k yt tk sit Kuinka usein ja miten Jos on tie toinen ja k ytt Jos ei siirtyy ky symykseen 5 K yt tk CRM ty kalun rinnalla vaihtoehtoisia tallennustapoja asia kastiedon s ilytt miseen Jos kyll miksi Mit hy ty koet CRM ty kalun tuottavan sinulle yritykselle Onko sinulla kehitysehdotuksia CRM moduuliin liittyen Vapaa sana muita ehdotuksia 5 Miksiet Jos on tietoinen ja k yt t Jos ei siirtyy kysymykseen 5 7 Miten s ilyt t asiakastietos
10. 3 20 2 7 CRM Aspects for Merus Power Good service is something Merus Power says they have a reason to be proud of Their desire to keep developing customer service to an even a higher level is the reason why CRM is going to be implemented in the first place The current state of service is good but there is always room for improvement Hidden services are what Merus Power is aiming to focus on with improvement of the CRM system As basic services are done properly at the moment the focus can shift to CRM By creating a database of customer information Merus Power can provide their custom ers with more diverse services and in the future as the customer base has hopefully grown significantly offer customers the kind of service they desire Gr nroos states Customers often want to be treated as segments of one Peppers amp Rogers 1997 ac cording to Gr nroos 2001 316 By paying attention to good service early on a compa ny can abide to this statement in the coming years 21 3 CURRENT SITUATION This chapter will focus on the current situation of CRM at Merus Power To be dis cussed are the introductory meeting that was held at the beginning of the process the research that was decided on and the structure of the research All of these will be fol lowed by an analysis of the research findings and the findings which will create an out line for the development project 3 1 Introductory Meetings Before arriving a
11. 4 Awareness of CRM situation in October 2013 24 The user level is not very high as 3 6 uses CRM when needed and 1 6 a few times a week This has resulted in customer information being stored elsewhere figure 5 Most popular places were Excel and Word documents business cards and the company S drive which is for internal storage However all participants thought CRM would be useful if certain criteria are met These were mostly related to access information avail ability and training Amount of people FIGURE 5 Used databases for storing customer information situation in October 2013 The following is a SWOT chart figure 6 based on the interviews It shows the strengths weaknesses opportunities and threats of the current situation It was made to clarify opinions on the CRM tool Strenghts Weaknesses Good application Motivation issues Consultant available for Lack of time assiting 1n use Information scaterred Threats Complexity of application Opportunities Good application Ceco Motivation might not rise Constrains of the Room for development Coen 25 FIGURE 6 SWOT analysis of the current situation in October 2013 As to the question regarding development ideas by the personnel the following were mentioned More training Increase customer information market information such as segments price lists contracts customer capabilities Quality and accuracy o
12. NTRODUCTION This thesis was done for the Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Internation al Business during the fourth year of studies I started working at Merus Power Dynam ics Oy hereafter referred to as Merus Power or case company as an assistant at the beginning of the thesis process which also facilitated the gathering of information and enabled full support from the company during the process I wrote this thesis during a 4 month period in addition to performing tasks assisting sales and marketing Even though I worked at the company during the thesis writing process I did my best to remain as a neutral researcher also due to being new to the company 1 1 Background The decline of the global economic situation over the past years has led to stronger competition and the markets are ruled by the customers Bigger and smaller companies all fight for the same customers but if strong customer relationships have been achieved a company may have a fighting chance Merus Power is a new company with 5 years of operations in the business In this rela tively short time they have gathered a good amount of customers and contacts Never theless as a growing company it has been realized that customer relationships are a pro cess and take time to develop The fact that Merus Power is growing makes CRM Cus tomer relationship management increasingly important to be adopted as a strategy let alone as part of the daily op
13. Suomalainen CRM markkinointikatsaus 2010 Helsinki THO Con sulting Peppers D amp Rogers M 1997 Enterprise One To One London Currency Doubleday Peppers D amp Rogers M 2011 Managing Customer Relationships A Strategic Frame work 2nd edition New Jersey Wiley Planson Y Russian Sales 2013 Interview 22 10 2013 Interviewer Heinonen H Selltiz C Jahoda M amp Deutsch M 1965 Research Methods in Social Research London Methuen amp Co Swift R S 2001 Accelerating Customer Relationships Using CRM and Relationship Technologies New Jersey Prentice Hall PTR Thorne K amp Mackey D 2007 Everything you ever needed to know about training 4th edition London Kogan Page Limited 49 Tieto Lean System 2010 Ketterimpi ERP Read 17 10 2013 http www leansystem fi Tiira A Product Development 2013 Interview 22 10 2013 Interviewer Heinonen H Tuomala K Managing Director 2013 Interview 22 10 2013 Interviewer Heinonen H Zia A Sales Engineer 2013 Interview 15 10 2013 Interviewer Heinonen H APPENDICES 50 Appendix 1 Questionnaire Form for Interviews in English 10 How long have you worked for Merus Power Have you received training on how to use Lean System If yes what kind If you are aware and use CRM how often do you use it and how If you are not aware move to question 5 Do you use any alternate ways of saving customer information alongside CRM
14. ales and service This application is taken to use after a product has been sold and has been initialized Through the application the whole maintenance lifecycle of the product can be accessed i e maintenance maintenance history and parts servicing Basic data Offers information on many basic things that a company may need in day to day operations This information includes employee data exchange rates price lists VAT information etc CRM Customer details can be managed and stored here This is the main target for development as the application is not utilized to the fullest in order to sup port the sales staff and customers This application and the development plans will be discussed later on Finance This application is mainly to store financial information such as bank account numbers invoicing related details and so on This application also ena bles the processing of financial results by different functions Instructions Application has PDF copies of all user manuals that are related to the applications of Lean The fact that instructions have been inserted in the pro gram promotes a user friendly approach Maintenance Whereas AFS amp Service focused on the maintenance of sold products the Maintenance application is associated with the machinery and equipment of Merus Power On the event of equipment breaking during assem bly the maintenance process will be recorded and processed through the maintenance ap
15. based on the lure of a fantastic product Competitors have been the main rea son companies have been developing their products and strategies to be able to sell more and outrun competition The pivotal focus has been on finding that competitive advantage and calculating profits based on expected sales 15 The fact that consumers are now able to ask for what they want and are not afraid of doing so has forced companies to implement a customer centric strategy where inputs and investments are made to ensure of the loyalty of customers Loyalty has become something companies are willing to fight for 2 3 Benefits of CRM Relationships can most certainly be defined in more ways than one Hence defining a relationship that exists between a customer and a company is not a simple undertaking Peppers and Rogers 2011 suggest that a customer relationship is in reality the custom ers preference and trust towards a company over another Trust takes some time to build and when companies give time and effort customers see this as caring 2011 18 Already in the 1990 s companies were beginning to realize the importance of under standing the customer and their needs Nowadays customer relationships are considered to be a type of capital in the sense that when making an effort to develop the relation ships and the way customers are handled a company can build a stronger foundation on the markets Hellman et al 2005 9 According to Pepper
16. cides to spend their time on other things than updating a system they may or may not find useful Oksanen 2010 25 From the point of view of a company employee turnover and lack of a CRM database will not cause problems in the short term but in the long term Managing customers will become a problem when it is not clear who should manage and what Oksanen 2010 26 2 5 Critical Points in Successful Implementation Implementing a new program is never easy whether it is a laptop at home or an ERP system at work Naturally the scales of these projects are very different but in both cas es there are factors that play a part in whether that implementation turns out to be suc cessful or not Oksanen 2010 as many of the writers in the field of CRM discusses the challenges of CRM He however notes that the literature on factors in successful implementation have not been discussed much further Oksanen discusses in his book a research his company THO Consulting Oy executed in 2010 in which the attitudes of corporate managers were measured on the topic of what makes an implementation successful All in all there were seventeen factors that were graded based on importance but the top five are discussed in more detail Oksanen 2010 47 48 The five most important factors can be seen from figure 2 Originally the order is hier archical but as the later four were within a 3 margin difference from each other 2010 48 the differ
17. customer and who is not Hellman et al 2005 14 believe the financial effect is the most significant proof that a company has been able to land the customer Sometimes the definitions might be hard to think up but when taking the time and effort it will improve the sales process 2 2 Value of Customers Hellman and V ril 2009 introduce a concept called customer capital which they be lieve is a vital aspect when calculating the value of a company However fragmentation and heterogeneity as Hellman and V ril 2009 169 put it make it difficult to measure the actual value that customer capital is bringing This is especially true if there are no systems where one can make reports and calculations of any kind in relation to custom er behaviour and the monetary value they bring to a company There are no actual indicators based on which it can be calculated if investments made towards customers have paid off in profits or not These issues are influenced from oth er matters a company has no control over The media can publish stories about a com pany their brand value may go up and down and no matter how much market research a company has done people are such individuals that it can never be 10096 sure what they will think of goods sold 2009 169 Customer value and customer capital have not always been visible to companies Previ ously customers have been considered to be simply a mass of consumers that will buy products
18. d without a signifi cant cost to meet up with the developments However the participants will have a pos sibility to bring their laptops and to view the system as the training progresses TABLE 1 Structure of training Session 1 Session 2 Introduction Contacts and Tasks Action plan Companies Marketing events Contacts Contact persons of marketing event User contacts Sales leads Contacts and Tasks Basics Sales lead products As seen in table 2 the first training session will be attended by all who participated in the questionnaire as well as a sales manager who was absent during this time For the second part Aki Tiira from product development will not be attending Below is a list of participants and it has been marked to which parts they participate in TABLE 2 Participants of training Participants Part 1 Part 2 Adnan Akram Zia Sales Engineer X X Aki Leinonen Sales Manager Aki Tiira Product development Kari Tuomala Managing director Maiju Levirinne Export and logistics assistant Risto Laakso Design manager A amp N Ri opa cpm lt x K K gt gt gt lt x xK gt Yana Planson Russian sales 39 In other matters supporting material for the training is created consisting of a presenta tion and a user guide which will be discussed in the next chapter Furthermore there will be a post training follow up in the form of a feedback questionnaire This will be discuss
19. ducted to en sure a successful implementation The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the current situation of the CRM tool to find out the needs of sales people and develop CRM into a useful tool At the beginning of the project the case company was not utilizing the CRM tool they possess to the fullest of its abilities and customer data was not managed in an efficient way CRM is increasingly important nowadays and it is something Merus Power wants to focus on in the future The research problem is e Can Lean CRM tool be developed so it will support the sales and marketing functions of Merus Power Sub problems are e What kind of data of pertaining to the customers should be stored e How can the CRM database be utilized e Can the motivation to use CRM be increased A link between sales processes and CRM 1 4 Methodology This thesis will be supported by qualitative and quantitative data and by relevant litera ture The literature will cover the theoretical framework and provide a foundation to the matters discussed Qualitative and quantitative researches differ from each other in many ways Davies 2007 10 11 Qualitative research can be though to be easier re quires less mathematical skills and takes less time In contrast quantitative research offers perhaps a more scientific method which some consider to be more accurate and to provide undisputable data 2007 10 11 Qualitative study is used in the b
20. e determined by using quantitative research as an evaluation form see Appendix 5 The form will be made utilizing the Google Drive tools and distributed to participants through email 40 As mentioned the questionnaire will focus on how participants perceive the outcome of the training The questions are comprised of the topics of how people feel about CRM and if their knowledge has increased Moreover it will be unravelled whether the partic ipants felt the training was useful for them and contained functions that will aid them in their work The first question concerns with CRM and the familiarity and purpose of its use It is important to find out if the training has managed to express the desired information on CRM and its purpose generally speaking and at Merus Power Questions 2 and 3 ask about usefulness of the training to participants This way it can be evaluated if the contents and the way it is expressed are the right way and amount The next three questions 4 5 and 6 evaluate the results of the training in terms of improved skills level of learning and motivation The last two questions 7 and 8 are open answer questions and not mandatory The first of these two enquires if there is something left after the training that respondents would like to learn The last is an open field where respondents can leave comments and suggestions if they so wish 5 3 3 Analysis of Feedback Questionnaire results The questionnaire wa
21. eclamation options for both the customers of Merus Power and Merus Power itself One can compose quality feedback and trace back on certain parts and locate them to a product they were used for Sales chain This application is divided into four sub categories Forecasts bill ing sales and delivery By utilizing the Forecasts application a company can give their projection of the sales they plan to make and monitor the actual out comes The sales process is supported by the sales application billing and the delivery through which vital functions can be implemented 30 Storage Inventory application where simply put the value of the storage amount of goods can be monitored According to the Lean principle the inven tory value should be kept as low as possible During inventory this application offers ways of managing it comprehensively Travel expenses When a person travels for business assembly or initialization of a product the details of the trip and the expenses could be put into a record at Travel expenses application This application also is not in use due to outsourced financial services Therefore there is a different medium for reporting these ex penses Nonetheless the possibility to report them through Lean still remains for the future 4 1 2 Lean System CRM Applications The CRM tool figure 8 was briefly introduced in the previous chapter and will be dis cussed in further detail Tieto s Lean Syste
22. ed in the projects can be put here for later reflection This is a useful memo style application through which no offers can be drafted Sales Team Members If the sales lead is big or complex enough to require mul tiple sales persons this is the place to upkeep the database on which teams are handling which sales leads ToDo lists of Company This application is not specifically related to CRM but has been put into this form for information purposes This application can be used to see what products are being assembled at the moment User contacts Each person who has access to Lean s CRM Folder will have a possibility to extract the contact information of their customers only into here so it is more easily available Some companies may have thousands of customers and searching for your contacts might end up such a sizeable measure that in that case this will be useful 4 2 Sales processes The sales processes as typically portrayed are made from the buyer perspective Starting with an acknowledgment of difficulties or problems leading to eventually choosing the right supplier and moving on to purchasing Kotler Armstrong Harris amp Piercy 2013 184 The sales processes at Merus Power are from the supplier point of view and had been drafted at the time the case company was founded They were very general and did not really give a good image of how the process actually goes especially for a new person who enters M
23. ed later as well 5 3 1 Training Material As previously discussed supporting material for the training is made in two formats The first is an introductory presentation see Appendix 3 and the second a user guide see Appendix 4 This will also support not just the training itself but the fact that peo ple are different when it comes to learning Thorne amp Mackey 2007 37 Having differ ent ways of expressing the information helps make sure the information is received The presentation is made to have an introduction and as a frame of reference Its themes will be CRM the importance of CRM and linking the tool to the sales process and ex pressing the benefits to the participants A CRM user guide will be made and it will be used partly as a base for the training and also as additional support for staff after the training It was thought that in the training the basic functions would be gone over to make sure everyone would be able to follow The guide would go deeper into explaining the functions The guide goes over the basic functions that were part of the training program and gives ideas on how to better utilize them At the end of the guide there is also a general section where useful functions such as searching for something are described 5 3 2 Structure of Feedback Questionnaire After the training has been held it is important to find out if the goals of the training and the whole project were met This will b
24. eginning in the form of interviews to map out the cur rent situation at Merus Power The current situation in this context means the prevailing situation of CRM at the case company The qualitative method was chosen because of the focus on finding the meaning and understanding the underlying issues Moreover as interviews are being used this method is more suitable as the interviewer can put an emphasis on the individual approach during the meetings Davies 2007 4 At the end of the thesis project the quantitative research method is used to get feedback on the success of the development project with the training Quantitative research was chosen as a method for the feedback surveys since quantitative research gives definite often numerical responses which are easy to analyse and leave little to the imagination Creswell 2009 4 Selltiz et all 1965 2 according to Davies 2007 10 Participants to the researches were chosen by Kari Tuomala the managing director of Merus Power The sample is a convenience sample as opposed to a random sample in which the participants are chosen at random Creswell 2009 155 By using the match ing participants approach a criterion was chosen based on which the people were se lected 2009 155 The qualification criterion is that the person should be using the CRM tool and benefit from using it as well as be present at the case company during the whole duration of the thesis writing process with
25. eminders events etc o To keep the system functional hitches must be kept away with constant updates o Data quality needs to be developed further o Other user guides for Lean if there is a need for clearer instructions 48 REFERENCES Barkema H Kudina A amp Yip G London Business School Business Strategy Re view 2007 Strategy and Entrepreneurship Born Global Read 8 1 2014 http bsr london edu lbs article 166 index html Creswell J W 2009 Research design Oualitative guantitative and mixed methods approaches 3rd edition California SAGE Publications INC Finpro 2014 Cleantech Finland Read 02 01 2014 http www finpro fi cleantech finland Gr nroos C 2001 Service Management and Marketing A Customer Relationship Management Approach 2nd Edition Chichester John Wiley amp Sons Ltd Hellman K Peuhkurinen E amp Raulas M 2005 Asiakasjohtamisen ty kirja Helsinki WSOY Hellman K amp V ril S 2009 Arvoisa asiakas H meenlinna Talentum Kotler P Armstrong G Harris G C amp Piercy N 2013 Principles of Marketing 6 edition Harlow Pearson Laakso R Design Manager 2013 Interview 23 10 2013 Interviewer Heinonen H Lean System 2013 CRM asiakkuuden hallinta Levirinne M Exports and Logistics Assistant 2013 Interview 22 10 2013 Interviewer Heinonen H Oksanen T 2010 CRM ja muutoksen tuska Asiakkuudet haltuun Helsinki Talentum Oksanen T 2010
26. ences are so small they are presented here as equally important In addition to the following five other factors included goal setting internal marketing training supporting material etc 2010 48 18 Management commitment and participation Strategic Main user of roject manager meaning system FIGURE 2 Factors of successful implementation Knowhow and experience of system provider By 93 of the respondents management commitment and participation was chosen as the most vital matter It is understandable that this was chosen as it is not likely that projects would succeed if they didn t have the support of the administrative organ of the company 2010 49 Ergo the key factor is that management communicates the chang es supports them and interacts with future users of the program However there needs to be a limit as to how far the management goes in supporting the change After all as Oksanen 2010 states it organizations are not day care places for grown ups and the decisions made by management do not have to please everyone 2010 62 In this context the project manager is in charge of the implementation of CRM systems and this position had 84 importance 2010 51 As the title states a project manager of the company is responsible from the company s side for ensuring that the process runs along smoothly The ability to get things done and work in co operation with the software provide
27. erations It is recognized that the sales and marketing processes provide important data for CRM hence the need to store the data for future purposes By storing the data there will be records of customer and company interactions and customer behaviour which can be used in analysing the customers needs and the strength of the relationship 1 2 Company Introduction Merus Power is an engineering company which designs and manufactures active filters A Series and M Series SVC s Static VAR Volt Ampere Reactive Compensators STATCOM s Static Synchronous Compensator and Energy storages which help save energy and improve power efficiency Founded in 2008 a prototype was created in the timespan of two years after which global sales begun As the markets for these products are mostly abroad the case company fills the criteria of born global This means that the company s strategy has been leaning toward interna tional orientation right from the start Strategy and Entrepreneurship Born Global 2007 As the power grid electricity network 1s functioning well in Finland there isn t a di rect need for these products like there is abroad For example in developing countries the electricity network has disturbances frequently caused by poor power quality and this causes major power losses Zia 2013 There is a direct need for active filters in these countries There are a number of reasons behind why there is a bigger demand
28. erus Power Therefore new process flow charts were made and they will be discussed in more detail Moreover the functions of CRM will be linked to the sales process flow to give an idea of how it will in fact enhance processes 34 The marketing process does not have a flow chart at the moment but marketing efforts exist between the partner and the case company Such activities include brochures pro vided by Merus Power customer visits exhibitions and seminars 4 2 1 Pre Sales Process Flow Chart Confidential not published 4 2 2 Sales Process Flow Chart Confidential not published 35 5 CRM DEVELOPMENT PLAN The CRM tool at Lean is at the moment user friendly and has many useful functions that could be taken into use The need for a proper way of handling customer data was not paid attention to until recently This development plan is made and implemented for Merus Power for the re introduction of CRM In the following chapter the targets of development and change will be discussed The changes will be explained with the purpose and importance of them Moreover previ ously unknown possibilities are discussed simultaneously In this context a development project stands for finding out how CRM could be uti lized exploring the ways it could be improved by adding data fields and figuring out how it can support the marketing and sales functions The development process will be divided into two separate parts firstly
29. f the information to be improved marketing events should be made use of Would be useful to have contact peoples information under companies A calendar with reminders would be useful Test reports of machines could be added Evaluation of prospects and information about partners Shared history and business From the answers given it can be agreed that the staff indeed has useful development ideas as to what kind of changes they would prefer to have in the system Training was emphasized by many since at the moment the user level is low for the reason that they do not know how to use the application These suggestions listed above will be taken into consideration when making the development plan Overall the attitude towards Lean System s CRM is positive and interviewees do see that CRM would benefit Merus Power in many ways They actively ask for more train ing to be able to use the application more efficiently and had many ideas as to what could be possible improvements Most importantly in the interviews possible targets for development were identified and it was found that training was the key to higher user level 26 4 GENERAL ASPECTS This chapter discusses some general aspects to this thesis These are the ERP system which is in use at the moment as well as the sales process flows These two will be connected in the chapter 5 2 but it is important to properly introduce them to have a clear picture
30. i 9 Vaikka et k yt CRM ty kalua koetko sen tuottavan hy ty yri tykselle 11 Onko sinulla kehitysehdotuksia CRM moduuliin liittyen jotka voi sivat lis t k ytett vyys astetta 13 Vapaa sana muita ehdotuksia Appendix 3 Power Point Presentation for Training Confidential not published 1 5 52 Appendix 4 CRM User Guide Confidential not published 53 1 30 Appendix 5 Feedback survey Post Training Survey Thank you for participating in CRM training Please be so kind and answer the following questions Required 1 Please state where you stand on the following statements True Somewhat true Not true know what CRM is about feel more familiar with CRM know why we are going to use CRM at Merus Power mm 2 20 completed Powered by This content is neither created nor endorsed by Google Google Drive Report Abuse Terms of Service Additional Terms Post Training Survey Required 2 How useful was the training for you 32 3 5 Not useful at all Very useful Why was it useful not useful 3 How useful to you was the contents of the training rer 35 Not useful at all Very useful Why was it useful not useful 4096 completed dites by This content is neither created nor endorsed by Google Google Drive Report Abuse Terms of Service Additional Terms
31. iert 35 5 2 Linking CRM Tool to Presales and Sales Processes ers nn 36 Si E CULI ARR TUM 37 5 3 1 Training Material rac 39 5 3 2 Structure of Feedback Questionnaire i 39 5 3 3 Analysis of Feedback Questionnaire results nenne eeee 40 6 CONCEUSION rale ERO ER ao 46 6 1 Recommendations aaa ri 47 REFERENCES edat ene an 48 APPENDICES Seen ime troi ial ig ea RARA RA 50 Appendix 1 Questionnaire Form for Interviews in English 50 Appendix 2 Questionnaire Form for Interviews in Finnish 51 Appendix 3 Power Point Presentation for Training eene 52 Appendix 4 CRM LU Ser OUIdess nie pe ci bate Hiep eb rep reco itane rer bp e 53 Appendix 5 Feedback survey a ar b qd eaa 53 GLOSSARY Active filters Agreement A Series CRM Contract Energy Storage ERP Harmonics Memorandum M Series STATCOM SVC Understanding Perform reactive power compensation and active harmonic filtering A legally binding understanding Small sized active filters Customer Relationship Management A legally binding commitment between parties Device that stores energy to perform operations Enterprise Resource Planning Disturbances in the power network Joint will of two parties Large active filters Static Synchronous Compensator Static VAR Volt Ampere Reactive Compensator Shared opinions 1 I
32. iew all open forms and description texts if they have been deployed On the very top of the window there is a menu bar through which different settings can be accessed The files are divided into two main files Common Folders and Own Folders The Gen eral Folders content can only be altered by the user who has administration rights but the user can add applications and alter the content of Own Folders Consequently all the applications that a company uses can be found under General Folders These applica tions will be briefly introduced howbeit the CRM tool more thoroughly than others in the coming chapters Form Edit Tools Show Help a Gy G K Go To Form Common Folders Administration 2 AFS amp Service Basic data Customer relations management 2 Finance Instructions 2 Maintenance Product Planning 2 Production Projects Purchase chain Quality functions 2 Sales chain Storage Travel expense reports 3 My Folders 8 E E ED E ED E ED E ED ED E ee E EI FIGURE 7 Front page of Lean System 6 0 for Merus Power 28 Administration Application for system updates changes and other parameteri zation and modifications This is where the whole Lean System can be managed from however only few have rights to this application for some changes can be made in other folders too AFS amp Service Short for after s
33. is The interview structure and questions were designed to find out the level of usage of the CRM tool whether everyone knows how to use it and what are their thoughts about it Moreover it is important to find out if they find it useful for both themselves and other users This was important in order to identify potential motivational issues Further more development ideas are be asked to see what are the user needs regarding the CRM tool One question form base was made starting with three basic questions After this the question form was divided in half to better adapt the questions to levels of usage More over it was to make the analysis process easier as well as to make the interviews logical instead of having to skip questions during the interviews and have unnecessary breaks to the flow of conversation Question 1 was a basic question to find out how long the interviewees had worked for Merus Power Questions 2 3 measured the level of training of Lean and the awareness of its programs particularly the CRM After these questions the questionnaire paper was divided in half The right side of the paper was for those who did not use CRM at all and the left side to those who used it on some level Questions 4 asked either of the two how often and why or why not people don t use it Question 5 inquired if customer data was stored anywhere else and where Question 6 measured the perception interviewees had about the benefits the
34. k guestionnaire about CRM training and development Analysis of feedback survey results Conclusions and recommendations FIGURE 1 Progression of thesis 12 2 CRM CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT This chapter will discuss the important aspects of customer relationship management As old as the concept of customer is as a term its position was not established until the twentieth century along with the newer concept CRM Oksanen 2010 1 Customer relationship management or CRM is true to its meaning in building long lasting rela tionships with customers and managing them There was a time when businesses were able to produce whatever they wished and could not imagine taking in the opinion of the customer This was when demand was exceeding supply and customers had no other choice than to buy what was available Nowadays the power balance has been reversed and customers are gaining more and more power Business owners have to carefully analyse the needs of customers as well as the operating environment and to have that extra something to differentiate them selves from the competitors Hellman amp V ril 2009 19 The CRM system is based on increasing value for customers as well as for a company It strives for better customer service and experience When talking about customers in this thesis the term will be used for both the distributors and the direct customers This is because distributors first buy the products fro
35. le times if they have presence in many companies or different positions This form includes more information fields than does Contact Persons Contacts and Tasks Functioning like a virtual calendar of planned events Such can be phone calls meetings campaigns sending contracts and offers etc In formation will be inputted of the time and date of the contact task company and the representative in question what type of a contact task it is and other second ary data A description field exists alongside comments where reasons for this action as well as the outcome can be written in detail Marketing Events An event by Merus Power or a third party is something that requires some arranging and that the data is in order as well With this applica tion one can create events and add details of it for later use One can specify the nature of the event and the deadlines and add participants either through catego ry lists or through here manually Sales Leads When there is a sales prospect that is not yet a customer in the sense that a deal has not been made details of this possibility can be inputted in to Sales Leads Very preliminary data will do in the beginning You can add use ful details such as probabilities of the sales lead turning into an actual customer what the final result is if there is competition and what kind it is 33 Sales Lead s Products After creating a sales lead the products that are included or offer
36. m Merus Power and then sell them for ward 2 1 Customer Concept Swift 2001 lists four types of customers 1 Consumer 2 Business to Business 3 Channel Distributor Franchisee 4 Internal Customer 2001 4 A consumer is a definition for customers that i e grocery stores have They are the end customers of a product A business to business customer is clearly one company buying 13 from another perhaps for their own use for resale or to modify into their own product and sell forward The third category consists of different ways a company can sell its services or products indirectly to the end customer The fourth category stands for a customer that exists within your company and buys your products to promote their business goals Swift 2001 4 Each type of customer brings different value to a company With business customers and direct sales companies will get excellent reference cases granted that everything goes as planned with the sales and the use of the product With distributors a company gets widespread visibility all over the world with less cost than they would normally get and will reach customers they wouldn t be able to without the help of the distributors large networks When it comes to customers and potential customers how to define who is in fact a customer and who is a prospect Hellman Pehkurinen and Raulas 2005 suggest ask ing a few questions such as What are the differentiators between a
37. m is not an actual CRM program like for example the market leader in CRM programs Salesforce However Tieto asserts it does focus strongly on building long lasting relationships and building customer base Lean System CRM asiakkuuden hallinta 2013 CRM is part of the system to support the sales and marketing actions which at the moment is what fulfils Merus Power s wishes entirely The following picture is a screen capture from the Lean System and gives a visual in sight to support the deeper written analysis that follows Each and every sub application is important but it remains to be seen which applications will be developed further and which will not be 3l Form Edit Tools Show Help AGE KA E GoToForm v Folder structure iCommon Folders 6 4G Administration HE AFS amp Service E Basic data Customer relations management Companies 5 Contact Persons E Contact Persons of Marketing Event 5 Contacts E Contacts and Tasks Marketing Events 5 Sales Leads F7 Sales Lead s Products E Sales Team Members E ToDo lists of Company f Users contacts amp 3 Finance EE Instructions Maintenance E Product Planning ED Production Projects E Purchase chain Quality functions Sales chain ED Storage Travel expense reports My Folders FIGURE 8 Front page view of CRM on Lean System 6 0 for Merus Power Companies This application opens up a view of a li
38. ng to attend the first session to show support towards Lean as management support in im plementing CRM system is important This was achieved during the second training session as well where he was present Generally the atmosphere was relaxed during the training which facilitated asking ques tions during training The only setback of the training session was that for the Russian sales person Yana Planson the remote access could not be installed due to technical difficulties which were caused by a laptop purchased in the USA This will be resolved in the future by purchasing a work laptop for her from Finland 46 6 CONCLUSIONS Customer relationship management was deemed of high importance for Merus Power prior to starting the thesis In competitive markets building long lasting relationships with customers and providing them with impeccable service is something that will sep arate you from the competitor Going the extra mile for your customers can ensure lon gevity of the business The state of the CRM tool in the case company was not commendable at the time the thesis project was started Detailed information about customers was in the minds of the sales personnel and on their computers This meant the information was scattered and no one had a good idea of where to find it let alone the fact that there was no record of this information anywhere From Merus Power s point of view the situation was prob lematic As such i
39. ng with the way the changes are implemented and the supporting process has a huge impact on the end result There are changes in certain software that are vital to a business and usually these implementa tions succeed because if a business cannot survive without a function it is bound to be used regardless the resistance from users Oksanen 2010 27 28 To start unravelling the challenges first must be mentioned a fact about the companies personnel Nowadays people are constantly looking to improve their position hence employee turnover is much faster than it used to be No longer do people work for the same company from graduation to retirement This means that when a person leaves a company they take with them all the knowledge they have gained This is also true when a good salesperson knows all the details of a customer but does not input this information anywhere in the CRM system When this person leaves the company there will also be a data gap in the company database This process starts with one of the basic challenges when a CRM system is implement ed The workers do apply the terminology but not the ways of working and do not end up using the system Numerous reasons can be behind this For one the implementation process might not efficiently hook the people into using CRM Secondly even if the 17 system exists and is ready to be utilised the system remains unused This can be a result of a choice a user de
40. plication 29 Product planning Although it implies to actual design with blueprints this is the place where the bill of materials can be found and managed All parts used in production are listed and again separate lists exist of actual products which are the BOMs One can follow the material usage and see at which stage the produc tion is at the moment Production This application presents the production manager with tools to man age the process all the way starting from resource allocation material reserva tion and meters to measure the effectiveness of production Projects With the Projects application all the functions during the lifecycle of projects can be managed through there i e planning budgeting and resource al location It is also a dexterous tool to store reports made from each project and overall works as a handy reference base for future projects Workers also allo cate their work hours in this application to different projects they have been working on Purchase chain Purchasing for parts materials and other miscellaneous items and handling the receipts are done at Merus Power through the Purchasing ap plication The application gives forecasts though which right amounts of prod ucts can be ordered at the right time The system offers accounts payable pro cessing however it is not used since Merus Power has outsourced financial ser vices Quality functions This application contains within the r
41. qi DEVELOPING CRM FOR A GROW ING INTERNATIONAL COMPANY The Case of Merus Power Dynamics Oy Heidi Heinonen Bachelor s thesis February 2014 International Business TAMPEREEN AMMATTIKORKEAKOULU Tampere University of Applied Sciences ABSTRACT Tampereen ammattikorkeakoulu Tampere University of Applied Sciences Degree programme in International Business HEIDI HEINONEN Developing CRM for a Growing International Company The Case of Merus Power Dynamics Oy Bachelor s thesis pages 56 appendices 40 pages February 2014 The economic downfall has created a challenging market situation which provides a different operational environment and companies are under pressure to shift to a more customer centric focus This has laid a base for the rise of Customer Relationship Man agement CRM as a strategy This thesis was written for Merus Power Dynamics Oy situated in Nokia Finland The need for a proper way of managing customer relationships resulted from the fact that for a growing company relationship building is essential from the start This led to the ob jective of this thesis which was to develop the Customer Relationship Management CRM tool a part of the Lean System to make marketing and sales processes more systematic and efficient A sub objective was to conduct a training session at the end of the development project for it was deemed to be of high importance that the system users know exactly how the system is to be u
42. r are essential 2010 104 106 The concept strategic meaning means the link between the company s strategy and the CRM software that is brought along to support it When CRM is brought along to sup port the company s overall strategies the chances of successful implementation are higher and this explains why it was third in importance with 82 2010 51 The fourth category was the main user of the system and had 81 importance Oksanen 2010 states that it is interesting how the project manager is rated higher in importance than the main user when the lengths of the roles differ so much One expla nation he provides is getting the system to work the way the company wants to as op posed to keeping up the good work 2010 51 52 19 Last of the top five was the knowhow and experience of the system provider by 81 It can be stated as a fact that the implementation process can naturally be expected to run more smoothly when the system provider knows what they are doing Moreover they can bring added details and guide the customer to get the most out of their system 2010 51 2 6 Service Marketing Service is usually described as something extra companies offer to customers These are added benefits and in the traditional sense not thought to be a part of the product Now adays customers will demand their right to have good service and they make companies fight over who can win the race to become the top company based on c
43. s will be reviewed Current situation is the topic of third chapter introducing the case more closely This chapter includes the research of the current situation as well as an analysis of it Chapter four is an overview of general aspects such as Lean System and the sales processes of Merus Power The next chapter CRM development plan is thereafter the actual project part based on from data provided in chapter three The conclusion follows as the last chapter Content wise the thesis will progress as seen on figure 1 The thesis will begin with a research of the current situation This also includes getting to know the program itself and to finding out its current capabilities The research findings together with observa 11 tions of the software are thereafter analysed and based on the results a development plan for CRM is devised In co operation with the Lean consultant Jukka Lehti the changes will be implemented in the system To carry on with the project a training session will be held to re introduce the CRM tool as well as to teach the relevant personnel on how to use it After the training session the participants will respond to a guestionnaire after which the results will be analysed The thesis will be finalized with final conclusions and suggestions for the future Interviews regarding the current situation Analysis of current situation Development plan Developments implemented Training sessions Feedbac
44. s and Rogers 2001 these are the characteristics of a genuine busi ness relationship e Mutual e Interactive e Iterative e Provides on going benefit to both parties e Requires change in behaviour for both parties e Unique e Requires and produces trust 2001 41 It is certainly no longer possible for major corporations to remember all the customer information by heart like in the old days This is where computerized systems such as CRM step in With the help of CRM data can be collected which creates a process called learning relationship Peppers amp Rogers 2011 19 In a learning relationship cus 16 tomers teach companies information about them enabling making even smarter sales decisions based on the information provided This gives the customer a feeling that a company is going the extra mile for them 2011 19 From a company s viewpoint having a database for customer information can help a long way As an example with forecasts when a customer is loyal to a company they will keep buying or give references for other companies with similar needs In small companies CRM can be done easily Swift 2001 26 as the customer base is not vast However as most companies aim for growth a database collected right from the start is a valuable asset 2 4 Challenges of CRM New is always better does not always ring true to everyone and apply to all organiza tions Changes are challenges for organizations alo
45. s sent to 7 people out of which 5 people replied The first question figure 11 requested an opinion on whether participants knew what CRM is about 3 out of 5 participants agreed that they do know and 2 out of 5 agree that the statement is somewhat true In the second question figure 12 all participants stated that they feel more familiar with CRM now The third question figure 13 enforces the status of CRM since 4 5 participants agree it to be true that they know why CRM is used at Mer us Power It can be stated based on the replies that the meaning and purpose of CRM was understood in the training 41 E True m Somewhat true B Not true True Somewhat Not true true FIGURE 11 I know what CRM is about B True Somewhat true m Not true FIGURE 12 I feel more familiar with CRM B True m Somewhat true B Not true True Somewhat Not true true FIGURE 13 I know why we are going to use CRM at Merus Power The usefulness of the training figure 14 and the contents were found good by all re spondents 4 5 thought the training was useful and 1 5 replied with very useful Content wise figure 15 4 5 thought the contents were useful According to the comments left by the respondents stated that the training was useful for the following reasons It 42 summarized issues we need to work on concerning CRM and Finding new ways of working with Lean 1 Not very useful m2 m3 m4 E 5 Very u
46. sed The research problem was how Lean CRM tool could be developed so it would support the sales and marketing functions of Merus Power Sub questions were what kind of data should be stored and how as well as how the new database could be utilized The last sub problem was whether motivation could be increased by linking sales processes and CRM This project utilized literature research on relevant topics such as CRM customer and service marketing Additional literature was related to research methods and training Furthermore qualitative and quantitative data were also gathered These were firstly qualitative interviews to map out the current situation and secondly as a quantitative survey at the end to find out the results of the training The results of this thesis project were a CRM tool that supported the sales and market ing processes to the best of the systems abilities Moreover a training session was held where an introduction to CRM and its importance was presented as well as the systems functions introduced A user guide was created to help the staff use the system inde pendently Based on the project results it can be stated that the users have generally understood its importance and that there is vast potential for the system Further suggestions were made for the future which will guide the development process This thesis includes confidential information which is removed from the published version Key words crm c
47. seful Not 5 Very very useful useful FIGURE 14 How useful was the training for you Not at all m2 m3 m4 B 5 A great deal Not at all 5 A great deal FIGURE 15 How useful to you was the contents of the training Comments were left related to the usefulness of the contents of the training One partic ipant thought that the instruction manual User guide was well prepared and suggested taking it a step further by integrating it with program guides however it is not specified whether these are internal documents or user guides by Tieto Another participant rec 43 ognized that some content might have been familiar to this person already but not to others Even though some information was familiar figure 16 3 5 respondents thought their skills were somewhat improved by the training and 2 5 thought they were improved by a good amount Not at all m2 83 m4 B 5 A great deal Not at 5 A great all deal FIGURE 16 How much do you feel your skills improved because of CRM training Promising results are given by questions 5 and 6 In the first one figure 17 all partici pants state they learned enough to get started with using CRM and in the second ques tion figure 18 all feel somewhat motivated to use CRM m Yes E No FIGURE 17 Do you feel you learned enough to get started with CRM 44 1 Not motivated at all n2 m3 E4 m5 Very motivated FIGURE 18
48. st of all companies that have been entered into Lean System and is perhaps the most used application of all Company information will be founded here and their information updated when the need occurs Without adding companies to Lean System neither offers nor invoices can be generated Hence this is a vital application to be used and likely the reason behind the utilization grade This is an application that cannot be ig nored Contact persons Similar to the following Contacts form yet still different Peo ple who are added to this group will be only added once no matter how many companies they have relations with Therefore their information in this form is not company specific even though their primary company information can be added but person specific It can be mainly thought to be a person directory 32 sort of a company phonebook through which it is easiest to find out whether a person has been added to the database Contact persons of Marketing Event Once a marketing event is created there are two ways one can create participation lists One is through setting categories di rectly through contacts another is through Marketing Events One can manually pick people and allocate them to different marketing events Contacts The difference between Contacts and Contact persons is that when people are added to Contacts they are directly related to a company and their po sition in it Hence a person can be added multip
49. t Merus Power when the thesis was at an idea stage there was a pre liminary discussion about CRM development The outline was drafted and the topic decided on along with a discussion of the current situation Kari Tuomala the manag ing director of Merus Power explained the poor implementation of CRM He felt there had perhaps not been enough time to pay attention to the program The necessary in formation had been imputed but nothing more With this information in mind an intro ductory meeting was planned Upon arrival at Merus Power an introductory meeting was held with members of the personnel and Merus Power s Lean consultant Jukka Lehti to map out the current state of the CRM tool and to find out what it consists of The CRM tool was given an over view also to see what were the areas not being used These turned out to be numerous After this meeting interviews were held with selected members of the personnel to achieve a proper understanding of the current situation of CRM and the development needs 3 2 Structure of Questionnaire Form for Interviews As discussed in the previous chapter to map out the current situation of the use of the CRM tool personal qualitative interviews were held with the staff of Merus Power A question form was created and the structure will be discussed in the following chapters 22 The questions forms were made in Finish and in English and can be found in Appen dices 1 and 2 of this thes
50. t was deemed that a clear need existed to have a more systematic approach to sales and marketing processes and to make them more efficient Therefore the objective of this thesis was to develop the CRM system keeping in mind the sales and marketing processes With the objective in mind the thesis project was commenced with the sup port of literature and mixed methods research Data for the outline of the development project was gathered using qualitative methods from interviews Hence followed the development of the system after which training was planned and completed Quantita tive methods were used to derive data on the successfulness of the whole project The results of the thesis can be said to support the objectives set in the beginning and answers to the research problems were found The case company now has a well func tioning system which creates motivation for the personnel to use the system as it makes their everyday processes easier The functions of the CRM tool were able to be linked with the sales processes while also offering support to the marketing process What s more as the database becomes larger and larger information and reports can be derived from the system These facts combined create a good base for the future success of the company in the field of CRM 47 Finally developing CRM is more of a process than a project in the sense that a project has a definite ending whereas a process does not To ensure the con
51. the exception of Aki Leinonen who only participates in the training and second survey Based on this criterion the following seven people were chosen 1 Adnan Akram Zia Sales Engineer 2 Aki Tira Product development 3 Kari Tuomala Managing director 4 Maiju Levirinne Export and logistics assistant 10 5 Risto Laakso Design manager 6 Yana Planson Russian sales 7 Aki Leinonen Sales Manager second survey only 1 5 Scope This thesis will focus on the development of the CRM tool of Lean System and ensuring that it supports the sales and marketing processes to the best of its abilities Moreover the system will be introduced to users in a training session which will be part of the de velopment process Suggestions are made for future development purposes This thesis will be delimited to developing CRM and its functions even though it may touch upon other functions of Lean System However it will not focus on them in de tail even if they utilize customer information The selection of the CRM program is not relevant as the case company is already using Lean System which has a CRM function 1 6 Thesis Structure This thesis is comprised of six chapters The first chapter provides an introduction with background information on the case company as well as on the thesis in general The second chapter is the theoretical framework in which larger areas of literature related to CRM service marketing and customer concept
52. tinuity of success in the process of CRM in Merus Power recommendations were made for the future These will be discussed in the following chapter 6 1 Recommendations The following suggestions were made based on my experience from the CRM devel opment process as well as some matters that were left open during the thesis process l To keep the development process going a meeting should be held in the early spring Topics could be changes and further development needs related to con tent decisions and coherency of information when to add a prospect what meet ings or tasks to put in etc Keep the discussion open with Lean System representatives for future improve ments the current system could either be switched to a new version of Lean System or a new separate CRM system if seen necessary for the operations of the case company Further training is advised to ensure that user level and knowledge will be main tained Yana Planson needs to have a connection to Lean System technical difficulties American laptop could not put remote access Moreover the Russian sales process differs from the format created by the case company therefore this pro cess should be examined more to find out how Lean CRM could support its unique features Some system specific recommendations o Market analysis tool developed for the system o Lean system to be synced with Microsoft Outlook calendar with CRM s Contacts and Tasks to get r
53. ustomer relationships management customer services marketing training CONTENTS L INTRODUCTION eek ee 6 1 1 Background uses ke 6 1 2 Company ntroductiOn sienai ane eai pem Eo EI I Anal 7 1 3 Objectives and Research Problems eese 8 1 4 Methodel sy cuan a maisa Eden E YR DE KO TL seo ue da oO eee nae 8 E si T m 10 1 6 Thesis Structure riali ak age i vad 10 2 CRM CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT eene 12 2510 CUSO Mer CONDES ollare 12 22 Vaio PEUSIOME Sano alcool 14 2 5 Bereits Or CRM sol ar e M e 15 2 4 Challenges of CRM nun Al a 16 2 5 Critical Points in Successful Implementation essere 17 2 6 Service Marketing 451 ideo ce getan Ea e Vid d edes 19 A4 CRM Aspectedor Merus Power astrale nale 20 S CURRENT SIUNTION aut a a amb a i 21 Sal Introductory Meetings cic inte hoc eb rere Hoe die pe dtt ae 21 3 2 Structure of Questionnaire Form for IntervieWS nenn 21 3 3 Analysis of Results etse ecc E alia dai 22 4 GENERKALASPECTS Loi 26 A LEA SY ETRE IO RO IAA EM UE 26 4 1 1 Lean System General Applications o aa aaeeeen 26 4 1 2 Lean System CRM Applications nn 30 4 2 Sales processes ssaa lean REO RUSO Gadd UE RU RARE 33 2 2 1 Pre Sales Process Plow Charter 34 4 2 2 Sales Process Flow Chart tetti rn 34 5 CRM DEVELOPMENT PLAN elle rH ERI o ein rea 35 Sok Targets f Development n
54. ustomer service Gr nroos 2001 1 2 Services are most often intangible something you cannot perceive but feel Withal they can involve tangible aspects which you are able to feel as well Lawyers and consult ants offer these un perceivable services giving legal advice and guidance Services that have tangible aspect are for example maintenance jobs where factory workers can clear ly see that the machine is working better than before and is not making noise Therefore the benefit is visible to the ears These types of services are both something that customers are indeed aware of not the least because they are usually billed for them Gr nroos introduces a concept 2001 2 3 called non billable hidden services which are services that exist in companies but customers do not necessarily define them as services However that does not mean cus tomers do not pay notice to how these services are handled These services include for example the processing of different papers such as invoices and offers as well as how contacts are handled to and from a company Customers all over will more than likely state that they are happy if the process of these aspects moves along smoothly and rapidly Still management does not always include these in the cat egory of value adding operations Nevertheless for customers the efficient administra tion of these operations will give them an image of their value to a company Gr nroos 2001 2
Download Pdf Manuals
Related Search