nr 414 zeszyty naukowe uniwersytetu szczecińskiego 2005

For these reasons, the Internet diffusion is progressively changing the external environment andenterprises under the organization point of view; and while in the past informatics concerned just staffpositions, nowadays it becomes a widespread activity and it refers to every business functions startingfrom the management to the operative or strategic function.In brief, the network use is a fast and economical way to carry out successfully one’s ownbusiness and makes it evolve towards a more profitable method.The Internet is used by enterprises in several ways: from the simple information research on line,to the birth of an ever higher number of firm websites, to the on-line sale; from the e-mail use to moreelaborate applications such as the Customer Relationship Management.The Customer Relationship ManagementOn the inside of enterprises, the concept of customer care has been a very important issue fora long time; at the moment, the main elements of a business activity refer to understanding whichclient target to turn to, to study the best formulas in the aim of interesting potential purchasers and tokeep their faithfulness as time goes by.Customer purchases, indeed, are strictly correlated to the moment that follows the purchase, theservice, extremely necessary for client satisfaction. This way, the transaction becomes a complexoperation, composed of different moments, but correlated by the common goal to establish a profitablerelationship between the enterprise and its interlocutor-consumer.Typically, the marketing initiatives have been the instruments to reach this goal. But nowadays,the information technology has given to enterprises very powerful informatics instruments that, if wellused, can support the organization efficiently in opening towards its market. Any software solutioncreated in this aim refers to a specific kind of methodology, the Customer Relationship Managementapplications (CRM).The enterprise challenge, nowadays, consists in creating and keeping the value that is to detectnew profit opportunities, to make the sale process and the client management as more efficient aspossible, to apply oneself into the customer service. In this meaning, the Customer RelationshipManagement, as an interconnected whole of strategies, processes and technologies, represents the newbusiness opportunity for enterprises.The goal of CRM projects is to create profitable long run relationships with clients through threecombined activities: to create, build and care for the client, thus generating value.The CRM, therefore, can be defined as a wide ensemble of processes and technologies to managethe relationship with potential customers, consolidated customers and commercial partners in themarketing, sale and service sector, independently of the distribution channel. From this point of view,an effective CRM requires a uniform approach towards any relationship of the whole organization thathave to be shared at different enterprise levels (figure 2).1. FIRM GOALS1 …2 …3 …2. PROGRAMINITIATIVESProgramsParameters3. DEPARTMENTALPLANSMarketing Sales Service4. TECHNOLOGYT E C H N O L O G YFigure 2. Structure of a potential CRM systemSource: „Economia Aziendale”, Tramontana, Milano 1999.17