Alice Klein wondered what she should do next as she hung up the phone. As vice president of sales for New World Manufacturing, she was responsible for more than 200 salespeople around the country. New World was a manufacturer of precision components for bicycles (gear shift mechanisms). Among the company’s clients were Cannondale and Giant Bicycles as well as other leading bicycle companies around the world. In addition to the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) market, New World did a great deal of business selling after-market accessories to bicycle retailers.

Alice had pushed hard for a CRM system to be implemented at New World. Finally, as part of an overall upgrade of the IT system at the company, senior management had purchased a CRM package that included state-of-the-art software and hardware to help New World do a better job of managing its customer relationships. It was expensive to get the package

Alice and other executives knew was the best solution. The final cost ran into several million dollars plus additional training time.

It is now six months since the purchase of the system and Elliot Whitney, vice president of information technology, just called Alice to say he still had not received a detailed summary of the information needed by the sales force. He told Alice that senior management was asking about the status of the CRM system. Management wanted the entire company to benefit from the system and were looking forward to its implementation.

The company had a lot of information about its customers as well as other data that could be incorporated into its CRM system (internal billing, price, and production schedules). Alice was well aware of the system’s potential and had spent a great deal of time thinking about how the sales force could use it most effectively. After hanging up with Elliot she knew it was time to decide how the new CRM system would be implemented with the sales force.

Questions

1. You are Alice Klein. What critical information do you think would be most helpful for the sales force to be able to access about the relationship between New World and its customers?

2. What technology would you use to deliver this information from the CRM system to the salesperson (tablet, smartphone, laptop, or something else), and why would you choose that technology?

3. What kinds of issues do you think might come up for New World as it implements the CRM system with the sales force, for example, possible salesperson resistance to collecting information for the CRM system?