ASSIGNMENT ON

CRM IMPLEMENTATION OF A
COMPANY

SUBMITTED TO SUBMITTED BY

A. RAJYA LAKSHMI AVINASH KUMAR

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR ROLL NO-4
NIFT HYDERABAD MFM- 3rd SEM

INTRODUCTION
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a broadly recognized,
widely-implemented strategy for managing and nurturing a company’s
interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves
using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business
processes—principally sales activities, but also those
for marketing, customer service, and technical support. The overall
goals are to find, attract, and win new clients, nurture and retain those
the company already has, entice former clients back into the fold, and
reduce the costs of marketing and client service. Customer relationship
management denotes a company-wide business strategy embracing all
client-facing departments and even beyond. When an implementation is
effective, people, processes, and technology work in synergy to increase
profitability, and reduce operational costs.

3 Key Elements of CRM

What is CRM? CRM or Customer Relationship Management is a
corporate strategy composed of applications, technology and products
that fulfill three essential requirements:

• To give your enterprise a 360° view of each customer for

consistent and unified contact with that customer whenever anyone
anywhere in the enterprise deals with that customer. This
knowledge increases the opportunities for sales and the
effectiveness of customer service.
• To enable your customers to have a consistent view of your
enterprise, regardless of the way the customer contacts you. This
improves customer satisfaction and customer retention.
• To enable front office staff to perform sales, service and marketing
tasks more efficiently as a team, increasing expertise and reducing
costs.
CRM describes a strategy used to manage and report
customer/prospect/partner/contact interactions with enterprise contacts
including inside and outside sales, marketing, billing, shipping and
customer service and support.

Advantages of CRM
CRM solutions help companies boost their business efficiency,
thereby increasing profit and revenue generation capabilities. Let us
take a quick look at some of the measurable benefits that your
organization can gain by implementing a CRM solution.
• Increase Customer Lifecycle Value
In most businesses, the cost of acquisition of customers is high. To
make profits, it is important to keep the customer longer and sell him
more products (cross sell, up sell, etc.) to him, during his lifecycle.
Customer stays, if they are provided with value, quality service and
continuity. CRM solutions enable you to do that.
• Execution Control
Once the business strategy is put into motion; the management needs
feedback and reports to judge how the business is performing. CRM
solutions provide management with control and a scientific way to
identify and resolve issues. The benefits include a clearer visibility of
the sales pipeline, accurate forecasts and more.
• Customer Lifecycle Management
To keep the customers happy, you need to know them better. At the
minimum, you need a centralize customer database, that captures
most of the information from your entire customer facing
departments and partners. Integrated CRM solutions, like CRMnext
enable you to manage customer information, throughout all stages of
their life cycle, from contact to contract to customer service.
• Strategic Consistency
Because CRM offers business and technological alignment; it enables
companies to achieve strategic company goals more effectively, like
enhanced sales realization, higher customer satisfaction, better brand
 management and more. Additionally, the alignment results in a more
consistent customer communication creating a feeling of continuity.
• Business Intelligence
Due to the valuable business insights that CRM provides, it becomes
easier to identify the bottlenecks, their causes and the remedial
measures that need to be taken. For example, CRMnext provides real-
time business focus dashboards with extensive drill down capabilities
that provide the decision makers with the depth of information
required to identify the causes and spot trends.

Disadvantages of CRM
A customer relationship management (CRM) application is one that
small to large businesses use to keep track of customer contact
information, addresses, orders and shipping information. A CRM can be
pre-packaged or custom created by a software development company.
The complexity of the software depends on the business rules and size
of the company. Although CRM applications have their advantages,
they also have some disadvantages.
Record Loss
Some CRM applications use remote Internet connections to save
customer records. Sales force is a popular CRM application provided
through an Internet connection on the company's domain. The
disadvantage of this type of CRM is that the company does not have
control of the data, and if the remote CRM system has an outage, the
company is unable to retrieve records. If the company chooses a small
CRM application that is not stable, it can mean several thousands of
dollars in lost revenue. When using a remote CRM application hosted by
another company, use local backups to avoid record loss.

Overhead
If the company decides on a local CRM application, there are overhead
costs associated with running the software. If the software is proprietary,
the company needs to pay software developers, system administrators
and maintenance people to keep the software running. It's also important
to keep backups of the information, which adds an expense to running a
personalized CRM application. There may also be system downtime.
Having a local personalized or proprietary CRM system also requires
the owner to do system upgrades and security patches to ensure the
integrity of the system.
Training
If the company is small, training issues may be a small disadvantage.
Large corporations need to roll out training schedules for all their
employees. For large-scale CRMs, this can mean hiring professionals to
train employees in groups. Training takes away time for productivity, so
it is a disadvantage for brand-new CRM systems. The CRM training is
also different for managers compared to regular staff, because most
CRMs have specialized functions for managers and executives. These
extra functions are also required learning. The training requirements can
be as short as a few hours or can take up to several days.

DELL COMPANY PROFILE

Dell Inc. is a multinational information technology corporation based
in Round Rock, Texas, United States, that develops, sells and
supports computers and related products and services. Bearing the name
of its founder, Michael Dell, the company is one of the largest
technological corporations in the world, employing more than 96,000
people worldwide. Dell is listed at #38 on the Fortune
500 (2010). Fortune also lists Dell as the #5 most admired company in
its industry.
Dell has grown by both organic and inorganic means since its inception
—notable mergers and acquisitions including Alienware (2006)
and Perot Systems(2009). As of 2009, the company sold personal
computers, servers, data storage devices, network switches, software,
and computer peripherals. Dell also sells HDTVs, cameras, printers,
MP3 players and other electronics built by other manufacturers. The
company is well known for its innovations in supply chain
management and electronic commerce.
On May 3, 2010, Fortune Magazine listed Dell as the 38th largest
company in the United States and the 5th largest company
in Texas by total revenue. It is the 2nd largest non-oil company
in Texas (behind AT&T) and the largest company in
the Austin area.

Commercial aspects
Organization
A board of directors of nine people runs the company. Michael Dell, the
founder of the company, serves on the board. Other board members
include Don Carty, William Gray, Judy Lewent, Klaus Luft,Alex
Mandl, Michael A. Miles, and Sam Nunn. Shareholders elect the nine
board members at meetings, and those board members who do not get a
majority of votes must submit a resignation to the board, which will
subsequently choose whether or not to accept the resignation. The board
of directors usually sets up five committees having oversight over
specific matters. These committees include the Audit Committee, which
handles accounting issues, including auditing and reporting; the
Compensation Committee, which approves compensation for the CEO
and other employees of the company; the Finance Committee, which
handles financial matters such as proposed mergers and acquisitions; the
Governance and Nominating Committee, which handles various
corporate matters (including nomination of the board); and the Antitrust
Compliance Committee, which attempts to prevent company practices
from violating antitrust laws.
The corporate structure and management of Dell extends beyond the
board of directors. The Dell Global Executive Management Committee
sets strategic directions. Dell has regional senior vice-presidents for
countries other than the United States, including David Marmonti
for EMEA and Stephen J. Felice for Asia/Japan. As of 2007, other
officers included Martin Garvin (senior vice president for worldwide
procurement) and Susan E. Sheskey (vice president and Chief
Information Officer).
Marketing
Dell advertisements have appeared in several types
of media including television,
the Internet, magazines, catalogs and newspapers. Some of Dell Inc's
marketing strategies include lowering prices at all times of the year,
offering free bonus products (such as Dell printers), and offering free
shipping in order to encourage more sales and to stave off competitors.
In 2006, Dell cut its prices in an effort to maintain its 19.2% market
share. However, this also cut profit-margins by more than half, from 8.7
to 4.3 percent. To maintain its low prices, Dell continues to accept most
purchases of its products via the Internet and through the telephone
network, and to move its customer-care division to India and El
Salvador.
A popular United States television and print ad campaign in the early
2000s featured the actor Ben Curtis playing the part of "Steven", a
lightly mischievous blond-haired youth who came to the assistance of
bereft computer purchasers. Each television advertisement usually ended
with Steven's catch-phrase: "Dude, you're gettin' a Dell!"
A subsequent advertising campaign featured interns at Dell headquarters
(with Curtis' character appearing in a small cameo at the end of one of
the first commercials in this particular campaign).
A Dell advertising campaign for the XPS line of gaming computers
featured in print in the September 2006 issue of Wired. It used as
a tagline the common term in Internet and gamer slang: "FTW",
meaning "For The Win". However, Dell Inc. soon dropped the
campaign.
In the first-person shooter game F.E.A.R. Extraction Point, several
computers visible on desks within the game have recognizable Dell XPS
model characteristics, sometimes even including the Dell logo on the
monitors.
In 2007, Dell switched advertising agencies in the US
from BBDO to Mother. In July 2007, Dell released new advertising
created by Mother to support the Inspiron and XPS lines. The ads
featured music from the Flaming Lips and Devo who re-formed
especially to record the song in the ad "Work it Out". Also in 2007, Dell
began using the slogan "Yours is here" to say that it customizes
computers to fit customers' requirements.
 CRM IMPLEMENTATION OF DELL

ABSTRACT

Dell is one of the most successful and profitable computer corporations

in history. It has been known for its innovative customer service and
product custom configuration. As it continues to grow, it is faced with
the challenge of how to maintain its customer relationships and
inventory management, while continuing to meet the demands and
requirements of its customers. This paper will examine how Dell
implements enterprise-wide computing software, which profiles and
targets its customers, as well as streamlines the flow of its products
throughout the supply chain. Dell’s collaboration with other computer
software companies has allowed it to become a leader in customer
relationship management (CRM) and supply-chain management (SCM).
These initiatives have resulted in net revenues of between $30 and $60
million over the last five years.

INTRODUCTION
The computer industry encompasses computer software, computer
hardware, as well as the production of computer components, assembly,
logistics distribution, sales, marketing, and the provision of information
technology services. Dell is in the business of manufacturing computers
and servers. Its competitors are Hewlett Packard/Compaq, IBM, Apple,
and Gateway.
The new trend in the computer industry is to become a virtual
corporation and Dell is leading the way. According to Dedrick and
Kraemer (2006), Dell is “aiming to combine the cost advantages of
horizontal specialization with close coordination of vertical integration”.
In the early 1990’s, Dell shifted gears and tried to distribute its products
through retail outlets, later realizing how unprofitable this approach was.
It decided to focus on improving customer service and support by
allowing customers to place and custom configure orders directly. This
resulted in a unique strategy, synonymous with Dell, customization.
Nearly one out of five standards-based computer systems sold in the
world today is a Dell.
Dell has one simple concept: to sell computer systems directly to
customers. Dell’s customers are global wide and range from individuals,
small businesses, large businesses, and institutional organizations, such
as schools and hospitals. The mission statement for Dell is “to be the
most successful computer company in the world at delivering the best
customer experience” (htttp:\\www.dell.com). Since Dell is a global
wide company, its “direct approach is relevant across product lines,
regions and customer segments” (http://www.dell.com).
When Michael Dell started Dell in 1984, it was out of his dorm-room.
He had limited cash and purchased most of the supplies needed to
build his first computers after the sales were made. Well-established
computer manufacturers like IBM had a lock on the computer
market, where customers preferred to purchase products from retail
outlets. This new idea of “building-to-order” and ordering over the
phone was a major risk. The first obstacle was to create a need on
part of the customer to desire the purchase of a customized
computer. The second hurdle was having customers call a toll free
number to order the product. Dell had to find a way to overcome
these obstacles and then provide a service that would build a
reputation for superior business to consumer efficiency. Facing
these challenges, Dell had to answer the following questions:

How can Dell maintain its customer relationship management,

and what technology will it need to implement to accomplish this
goal?

How can Dell streamline its supply chain to further enhance

planning and execution, reducing inventory levels while still
meeting customer demands?

IMPLEMENTATION OF A CRM STRATEGY

Customer relationship management (CRM) is used to define the process
of creating and maintaining relationships with business customers or
consumers (Moon, 2003). A long-term relationship with the customer
insures their repeat business. It costs more money to gain new customers
than it does to retain current ones. Dell’s goal is to provide customers
with their technological, as well as customer service needs. There are
three types of software that facilitate Dell’s CRM: marketing automation
software; custom designed Web pages containing purchase data; and a
system that benefits the sales, marketing, financial and management
segments of Dell.
Before Dell’s concept of building made-to-order computers, people went
to an electronic or retail store to buy computers. There was no
interaction with the manufacturer, only with the salesperson of that
particular store. These salespeople were not as knowledgeable about the
product since they were not involved in building the computers. Dell
pioneered the concept of interacting with the customer by phone or by
way of the Internet to custom-build a computer specific to that
customer’s needs and delivering that computer in a very timely matter.
Dell created a supply chain management (SCM) system that ensured that
the right computer parts were always available when and where needed.
SCM is the term used to describe the management of the flow, of raw
materials to the end product, which a company uses to get products and
services to its customers. Dell has developed a strong relationship with
both its suppliers and customers that allow it to ensure that computer
components are available from suppliers to meet customer demands. It
also ensured that a system was in place to get the product shipped and
delivered to the customer effectively and efficiently. This direct
customer focus resulted in Dell’s competitive advantage.
Dell utilizes database software, which is effective and efficient with
customer relationship management. These particular databases store
tables of data that can be mined for information about clients and used to
generate promotional campaigns. The databases would include customer
information, their interests, and products. The customer database helps
increase profits because the database contains client information that
helps determine effective and efficient ways to target and segment the
customers.
Dell’s business strategy focuses on creating one of the most effective
supply chain management systems via the i2, which would streamline
the supply chain process by linking Dell’s suppliers and planners
together to meet demand and customer requirements. The software that
Dell uses to increase relationship marketing is made by Hotlink. Hotlink
is a marketing automation software program used to aid e-marketers in
“effective targeting, efficient marketing communications, and real-time
monitoring of customer and market trends” (Moon, 2003) This program
strengthens the sales-customer relationship. This also gives Dell free
advertising – word of mouth. The bottom line to CRM systems is that it
directly impacts its customer base, ensuring that better service is offered.
A second type of software that Dell uses is a transparent online system
called “Premier Pages,” which are custom-designed Web pages
containing purchase data. This system also has a paperless ordering
process, with the customer’s existing technology configurations already
captured. Dell states that the idea behind Premier Pages was to “gain
less information about customers – they already know about them – and
more to create a real win-win situation” (Levey, 1999) the process of
knowing the customer begins when the customer orders a PC. The PC is
built after the customer orders it. This means that Dell has to have a
direct relationship with the customer.
The final system that Dell is using to maximize CRM is the Dell South
Africa’s implementation of an enhanced CRM system with the help
of IS Partners, an information systems company. “ProClarity offers
in-depth analytical abilities, resulting in positive and negative areas
of business being clearly highlighted. Sales are also broken down
by region, with an overview of each sales team, enabling Dell to
measure trends and successes” (http://www.itweb.co.za). Sales,
marketing, financial and management segments benefit significantly
from this software. The Dell staff has easy access to the detailed
demographic information about customers, customer sales history
and trade relationships. Sales management can track activity within
accounts, and lapsed quotes can be acted on. The marketing
 department can track customer activity, product sales, and
marketing mixes.

Dell Harnesses the Power of Salesforce CRM and the Force.com

Platform to Drive Innovation and Success
"Cloud computing makes global scale a lot easier. For example,
Salesforce CRM Partner Networks helps us work more closely with our
partners and keeps us from unintentionally competing with each other.
Over $200 million in deals submitted by partners have been approved
and all serviced using salesforce.com’s partner relationship management
tool. And with Salesforce CRM Ideas, the best ideas bubble to the top.
We’re able to gather all our customer feedback in one place and use the
robust management tools to track and implement the ideas.”

Challenge
• Dell--a leading global systems and services company--wanted a
CRM solution capable of providing a global view of its pipeline
and a way to collaborate across global sales teams.
• The company relied on multiple homegrown opportunity
management solutions in each region.
• The company wanted a flexible and easy-to-use system that was
globally consistent. IT was building out a centralized solution but
found it costly.
• Dell manages a large number of internal and external
recommendations for key technology partnerships. Executives
wanted a centralized location they could go to to determine the
status of current and past technology partnership evaluations.
• The technology giant also needed a scalable way to collect
feedback from its community, helping the company capture
feedback and drive innovation.
• Dell interacts with more than three million customers every day.
 • The company wanted to create a secure employee community to
capture candid feedback from 80,000 employees from across the
globe.
• In addition to the online communities, Dell also developed a plan
to launch a global partner program in less than 6 months.
• Considered “anti-channel,” Dell needed to gain the trust of value-
added resellers.
• Varied channel-facing business units had disparate needs.

Solution
• Dell selected Salesforce CRM for its ease of use, flexibility, and
the ability to deploy worldwide. The company rolled out
Salesforce CRM to 4,000 users in 12 weeks in the United States
with help from Salesforce.com Consulting. This is now 15,000
users over 18 months globally.
• Dell managed the overall user training program, leveraging
Salesforce.com Training & Certification programs as well as a
sales process consulting firm; it contracted delivery to a select
group of companies who had worked closely with Dell in the past.
• Salesforce.com Training & Certification managed up to 140
instructor-led classes, training over 3,000 users in 5 weeks.
Salesforce.com Training & Certification also created eLearning
courses and other curriculum to provide ongoing training for
instructors and users.
• Dell leverages Salesforce.com Premier Support for 24x7 technical
support. The global Salesforce.com Premier Suppport team is
leveraged by Dell internal support help desk which is the
company’s first point of technical contact for supporting its
complex implementation.
• With help from Salesforce.com Premier Support, Dell leveraged
Force.com to map its business process and build an application for
tracking technology partnerships in less than 4 weeks. The
 application allows a team of 75 technology evaluators to track,
manage, and report on evaluations.
• Using Force.com, Dell allows venture capital firms and others to
submit new evaluation submissions via a simple email form.
• Workflow and analytics enable users and executives to easily
generate reports to quickly identify, track, and manage key
evaluations in real time.
• Dell CEO Michael Dell was so impressed with Salesforce CRM
ideas communities and the way they drive product development at
salesforce.com that he immediately wanted one rolled out at his
company.
• With help from Salesforce.com Consulting, the company had
launched Dell IdeaStorm—built with Salesforce CRM ideas in 3
weeks—to give customers and enthusiasts a chance to “walk the
halls of Dell” and share ideas that influence product development,
services, and operations.
• Posted ideas compete on equal footing; comments and voting
ensure the most popular ideas bubble up to the top.
• Within the first week, Dell IdeaStorm had collected more than 500
ideas; by the first month it had collected 2,500 ideas.
• EmployeeStorm is a secure community that allows employees to
post ideas regardless of where they sit within the company; in the
first two weeks of launching it had gathered more than 700 ideas.

Results
• With the Force.com platform and Force.com code, the Dell CTO
team can quickly adapt the technology partner evaluation
application to track key technology trends.
• Ideas bubble up through IdeaStorm, allowing the company to
identify pain-points and hone in on areas that need improvement
and enhancement.
• Customer feedback on IdeaStorm led the company to build select
consumer notebooks and desktops pre-installed with the Linux
 platform. Dell also decided to continue offering Windows XP as a
pre-installed operating system option in response to customer
requests.
• Dell leverages the wisdom of crowds to evaluate and prioritize
customer feedback.
• Dell customers and enthusiasts have a chance to be a part of the
product development process—to tell the company what they want
to see in future releases.
• Executive-level confidence drives home the message that
IdeaStorm is an important way to engage customers and broaden
innovation.
• EmployeeStorm breaks down the silos natural in corporate life and
increases collaboration—allowing, for example, tech support
employees in Asia to communicate and share ideas with sales reps
in Round Rock, Texas.
• Ideastorm also engages employees at every level to comment on
their area of expertise and to participate in the discussion.
• Dell is experiencing more than a thousand partner registrations a
month via Salesforce CRM Partners. Average turnaround time is
reduced to just 36 hours.
• Over $200 million in deals submitted by partners have been
approved and serviced using Salesforce CRM.
• Dell’s partner community applauds Salesforce CRM’s simplicity
and ease of use.
• Looking ahead, Dell is considering an extension to its
implementation through Salesforce CRM Partners with help from
Salesforce.com Consulting. Dell’s new global deal registration
program would use Salesforce CRM Partners to push leads to
partners and to manage channel conflict. Dell would be able to
create custom-branded portals for its 44,000 partners.
 CONCLUSION
CRM integration strives to satisfy and promptly deliver products to
customers, ensuring availability of the product and maintaining
profitability of the manufacturer. There are many lessons learned from
Dell’s experience. These lessons can be transferred to other companies
in the industry.
 Ensure better customer service is offered.
Dell has become an industry leader in service and reliability. Dell
has used CRM to its advantage. This has instilled trust into their
customers. By custom-building a computer that the customer
desires, this has created a very strong relationship with the
customers.
 Implement technology in a phased fashion
Dell tested key tasks in each of its regions prior to deployment. It
set-up mock environments to develop, test, and support the i2
systems in patches without disrupting the live version. Dell was
able to bring on one piece of the i2 system at a time. As one part
became more efficient, then Dell added other components in
stages. Dell ensured that each stage of the process performed will
and allowed for future growth before rolling out the entire system.
This minimized the risk, while at the same time increasing
efficiency.
 Extend the connection from the customer to the supplier
Dell was able to extend its build-to-order model from suppliers to
the customer while continuing to maximize operational efficiency
and customer satisfaction. Customers were able to save money
while being able to purchase a customized machine because Dell
passed on the savings, which resulted from efficient inventory
management, no excess inventory or inventory shortages. It was
able to share, in real-time, information with suppliers about
customer demands and buying patterns.