Developing a Customer Relationship Management System in a Medium-sized Enterprise

The objective of this study is to help Case Company X reap the maximum benefit from its Customer Relationship Management system. In the literature review, the author studies a Customer Relationship Management system from the perspective of different departments. In the empirical study, information is collected from the Case Company X and Benchmark Companies by interviewing key personnel. The specific needs of different departments are identified after analyzing the information gathered. In this study, implementation issues which are typical for CRM systems are investigated and discussed. As a conclusion, a list of recommendations is made for the upper management of the Case Company X. These recommendations can be divided into two main sections: 1) CRM systems need to expand from the existing status to these three departments: marketing, field service and supply chain. These functions should be included when implementing the system: target marketing and direct marketing in marketing department, an ability to save customer feedback and service reports in field service department, an ability to create a supplier database and to store meeting memos in supply chain department. 2) An action plan is given for implementing the CRM system effectively and supporting the end-users of the system after implementation. This action plan aims to avoid four issues in CRM system development: lack of responsible person, lack of preparation, lack of motivation and budget overrun