Assessment 2: Case Study

You work for ABC Company. You have created a very good internet shopping website for your customers who can pick their products online, put them in the cart and pay online. However, you still use manual monitoring system to identify how many product views and website visitors every day. Your website software could only help you collect total number of views of each webpage, and you need to manually type these figures on spreadsheets and create some tables to analysis those figures by yourself. There are lots of potential problems. For example, time consuming, there are administrative errors, you could not segment customers and identify who are new customers.

You want to choose one CRM system in order to receive and track leads then turn them into paying customers. Your business strategy is very simple which is 'give customers what they want, stay connected and get paid'.

According to your own research and you know that there are some popular products on the market and they do not cost much. For example, Zoho CRM, Sugar CRM etc. You can search these companies online and help you to understand more about how a CRM system to improve customer engagement.

1.Make an appointment with your assessor to do role play. Your assessor will act as a CRM specialist and you need to:

-Identify your company's needs and requirement

-identify how can a CRM system help you to solve your current issue and make improvement on your existing system

-identify what system is suitable to your company and explain why. If your budget is tight and you only can spend less than $2000 per month to make the improvement. You can use the table below to help you to evaluate the new system. Please note that the table is a guide only, you need to write few answers for the system evaluation.

New CRM System Evaluation

Ease of use

Ultimately, the administration needs to be user-friendly. You should make sure that users are consulted and given an opportunity to list their needs and wants, as they are the people who will be directly affected by it. The system must enable users at all levels (with the necessary training) to use the system easily. It should be logical and practical. Productivity will be reduced if the system is difficult to use.

Capability

The system must be able to process, analyse and present data in the formats and configuration required by users. Obviously what this means in terms of computerised systems is that they must be capable of (and supplied with) suitable software, and for both manual and computerised systems, system users must have the appropriate knowledge and skills.

Cost

What costs are associated with:

1.set up of the system

2.ongoing use of the system

3.training personnel to use the system

Supplies

There are extra supplies that will need to be purchased, including disks, paper, printer toner and other associated accessories. Are there resources available as needed and are they cost-effective?

Improvement/ upgrades

What upgrades are required and when are they required? Upgrades should be considered part of the ongoing cost of system and should be included in the budget at appropriate intervals.

Maintenance and repairs

What maintenance is required and what are the current and ongoing costs - in terms of hardware and system integrity (eg developing consistent storage/ filing systems, deleting duplicates and inactive files, checking for irregularities in the system)?

Support

Included in the cost of the system, is the expense, direct and indirect, of supporting and maintaining the system and ensuring that both technical support and training in the system use are available as required.

System elements

The system elements consistent with the requirements of the organisation, the capacity and capability of the system itself and the competency of its users

Integrity

System integrity is vital. It ensures that records are stored in the correct place, are accessible to the current people in a user-friendly format and that communication between the various sections of the organisation (information sharing) is efficient. Is the system secure? Can policies and procedures be introduced to ensure that data is not lost, that is, system backups, file duplication, storage and archiving (on and off-site)?

Outputs

Are the system outputs cost-effective, controlled and user-friendly? Output requirements are often not specifically detailed and can contribute to organisational waste. Waste has obvious associated costs. It is uncommon for multi-page printouts. To be generated in order to check, for instance, a single fact or to access a single paragraph of information. The system should include directive and incentives to encourage waste minimisation.

Value adding

What value does the system contribute to organisational efficiency and effectiveness? Does the system provide enough value to warrant the cost? Are there cost reduction measures that should be investigated?

2.After obtain the trial CRM account, prepare resource and cost plan by estimating the human, technical and equipment resources required for the project, and their costs.

3.Identify and assess risks to the project, and include contingency strategies as appropriate. Complete risk assessment using the risk management plan template, and submit this with the project implementation plan.

4.Determine how you will measure the quality of the CRM. Develop a quality management plan that outlines how performance of the CRM will be measured.

5.Develop a communications and reporting plan to explain how information will be communicated to identified stakeholders to meet their needs. To report progress on achieving milestones and project costs and benefits on completion.

a)Identify what needs to be communicated to whom (stakeholders) during the project, and how you will do it

b)Consider the need to communicate to all ABC staff how this idea has become an innovation initiative that will lead to competitive advantage and therefore sustainably

c)Consider the communication required to manage resistance to a change in the way customer service staff will manage queries, complaints and follow-ups.

d)Identify how you will communicate the costs and benefits of the innovation to senior management

e)Plan for lessons learnt to be communicated to the IT department and recorded in ABC knowledge management system

f)Participate in a role play with your CEO (your assessor) to consult and communicate effective about the plan. You need to ensure your CEO is clear about your plan and answer all enquiries.

6.Include a section in the plan on how you will celebrate the achievement of milestones and project finalisation (the launch of the CRM).

7.Prepare schedule for the development and trial your idea, and its integration with the organisation's systems. Calculate the total time for the project, beginning with estimating the time, it will take to complete ctivities. Allow for:

A comprehensive trial of the idea

Analysis of issues and problem-solving

Applying identified corrections

Be sure to identify dates for milestones to enable the team to monitor progress.