c




 
I¶ve never really liked the term. Sounds so haughty. I prefer µCompetency or Capability Center¶
or pick any another term you like. But, µCenter of Excellence¶ seems to be what has stuck in the
business world, so we¶ll go with it here.


: Whatever you call them, a Center of Excellence (CoE) should, at a most basic level
consist of: 
  



 

    


 
 
    

 
  

 This team could be staffed with full- or part-time
members.

Ô
: In my experience, CoEs should serve five basic needs:

2 i 
: For their area of focus, CoE¶s should offer support to the business lines. This
may be through services needed, or providing subject matter experts.
2 G 
: Standards, methodologies, tools and knowledge repositories are typical
approaches to filling this need.
2 i

Training and certifications, skill assessments, team building and
formalized roles are all ways to encourage shared learning.
2 Œ
 : CoEs should be able to demonstrate they are delivering the valued
results that justified their creation through the use of output metrics.
2 G
 
: Allocating limited resources (money, people, etc.) across all their possible
use is an important function of CoEs. They should ensure organizations invest in the most
valuable projects and create economies of scale for their service offering. In addition,
coordination across other corporate interests is needed to enable the CoE to deliver value.

: One organization I worked with defined 13 centers within just their IT department.
While all of these are important competencies they need to develop within that department, I¶m
not sure all reach the threshold of a CoE. Some common examples of CoE¶s I¶ve seen are:

2 Six Sigma ± Perhaps six sigma is the most mature of the CoEs that some organizations
have embraced. This type CoE was invented by Motorola and popularized by GE. Many
companies have grown this into a strategic asset they use to differentiate themselves and
drive competitiveness. It has formal roles (Champions, Sponsors, Black Belts), a well
understood methodology (DMAIC), standard set of tools (Statistical control, etc.), a
formal certification process (Green Belt, Black Belt, Master Black Belt) and an active
community.
2 Process ± To me, this is the most strategic of all CoEs since all businesses are made up of
processes. I¶ve started to see a few companies establish this as a CoE. One I know of is
currently creating a role for a µGlobal Business Improvement Executive.¶ I love that. It
allows for all the traditional focus of lean and six sigma as well as for creating new
strategies and business capabilities. I¶ll have more comments on this as a CoE in a later
post (see Process Center of Excellence.)
 2 Project Management Office (PMO) ± Many fail to think of themselves as a CoE and act
as little more than a governance body, but the most successful PMOs grow beyond that
single focus and take on a full CoE role around project management.
2 uality Assurance ± Whether for new product or software development the complexity of
the roles, tools and techniques needed for quality often get formalized into a CoE. This
may be tied to a six sigma CoE or stand alone.
2 Business Analysis ± Some organizations have embraced the idea that getting business
requirements, especially around software development, is a problem best addressed by a
CoE. A certification for Business Analysts from the IIBA has further advanced this idea.
2 Communications ± Corporate communications, employee and customer relations are
activities that are often supported by a centralized support process or function. At a basic
level, their role is to support the line business around this focus area.
2 Ôisk and Compliance ± Many organizations have created this capability without formally
calling it a CoE. Insurance and financial institutions without exception will have this
function. Other verticals may also embrace it. They almost always have veto power on
changes to business processes or external communications. In ideal cases, they will help
deploy standards and facilitate understanding throughout the organization.
2 Duman Ôesources ± Another ³function´ or support process many businesses have
embraced at a strategic level that meets the definition of a CoE.

Dopefully, some of these bullet points get you thinking more broadly about what a CoE is. If I
extrapolate this thought stream past its current use, CoEs can really refer to any of the support
processes within an organization that complement the line businesses. Not all organizations will
embrace all the CoE¶s listed above, but most will have some support processes. Is product
development a CoE? Dow about sales and marketing or finance? While I don¶t think businesses
are ready to broadly embrace this concept, I do think that having leaders of all support processes
think like a CoE can improve their focus and the value they deliver.

i
i
 
Œ



Typically, a company¶s product management/solution department performs strategic
product/solution marketing management with the assistance of the marketing and sales
organizations.

Strategic product marketing is not selling, or marketing research or product marketing per se. It
is the strategic placement of products, solutions and services to lock in the market and thus keep
competition in check while ensuring that the target market evolves in such a way as to guarantee
long-term demand for the supplying corporation¶s solutions and services.

£



    
  
  

There are many ways to organize a company so that it can be considered market, rather than
product driven, and any good text on organizational structure and organizational behaviour can
be referred to for this.
Any market driven company must necessarily contain in one way or another the functions of
marketing, strategic product/solution management and sales and these functions must interact
properly and efficiently in order to enable proper strategic product marketing.

This article refers to functions rather than departments or units because the article does not
address organizational structure efficiencies; sales, marketing and product management can be
within the same unit or in distinct separate units for the purposes of this article.

What is important is that these functions exist and interact properly. Where they are placed is a
question of organization efficiency that has to do with the corporate culture and size of a
particular company amongst other things.

ÿ  



Upon identification of the customer¶s needs ± usually communicated by market research and
general marketing in the form of wants ± the role of the product/solutions management function
is to define and deliver a feasible solution whose benefits cover the needs of the customer in
question.

Taken in an even grander scope, the main goal of the product/solutions department is to have a
balanced competitive portfolio of products, solutions and services timely available to address the
general market needs and industry trends.

This portfolio is a result of the strategic strengths of the company, the competitive environment,
the market needs and technology/ industry trends, and is designed, bundled and communicated
for the relevant target customer base, always within the general framework of the relevant socio-
economic environment.

Good marketing input will give the product/solutions management function enough
understanding of where the particular customer wants to go in order to be able to conceive
(perhaps with the customer¶s help) a solution whose benefits fulfil to a large extent the
customer¶s wishes.

Again, if the marketing information was at the right abstraction level, and did not consider or
base itself on any particular solution, this gives ample flexibility to the product/solution
management function to use all the available information at its disposal.

This information will usually include an adequate analysis of the competitive environment, a
general roadmap of new technologies and product trends, strategic issues important to the
company (information that may not be present at the marketing stages) and any other relevant
information that will allow the supplier to to both satisfy the customer and keep in tune with the
suppliers short term margins and long term interests
 
  

 


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

 
  

 

Ԍ is a widely-implemented strategy for managing a
company¶s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology
to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes²principally 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.[1] Customer
relationship management describes a company-wide business strategy including customer-
interface departments as well as other departments.[2]

p

hide]

2 º Phases
2 M Benefits of CRM
2 Ñ Challenges
2 § Types/variations
„ § º Sales force automation
„ § M Marketing
„ § Ñ Customer service and support
„ § § Analytics
„ §
Integrated/Collaborative
„ §  Small business
„ §  Social media
„ §  Non-profit and membership-based
2
Strategy
2  Implementation
„  º Implementation issues
„  M Adoption issues
2  Privacy and data security system
2  Market structures
2 ë Related trends
2 º See also
2 ºº Notes and references


 ÿ 


The three phases in which CÔM support the relationship between a business and its customers
are to:
 2 Acquire: CRM can help a business acquire new customers through contact management, selling,
and fulfillment Ñ]
2 ànhance: web-enabled CRM combined with customer service tools offers customers service
from a team of sales and service specialists, which offers customers the convenience of one-
stop shopping Ñ]
2 Retain: CRM software and databases enable a business to identify and reward its loyal
customers and further develop its targeted marketing and relationship marketing initiatives §]


 

  p


The use of a CÔM system will confer several advantages to a company:

2 uality and efficiency

2 recreased costs
2 recision support
2 ànterprise agility


 p 




Tools and workflows can be complex, especially for large businesses. Previously these tools
were generally limited to contact management: monitoring and recording interactions and
communications. Software solutions then expanded to embrace deal tracking, territories,
opportunities, and at the sales pipeline itself. Next came the advent of tools for other client-
interface business functions, as described below. These tools have been, and still are, offered as
on-premises software that companies purchase and run on their own IT infrastructure.

Often, implementations are fragmented²isolated initiatives by individual departments to address

their own needs. Systems that start disunited usually stay that way: siloed thinking and decision
processes frequently lead to separate and incompatible systems, and dysfunctional processes.

Business reputation has become a growing challenge. The outcome of internal fragmentation that
is observed and commented upon by customers is now visible to the rest of the world in the era
of the social customer, where in the past, only employees or partners were aware of it.
Addressing the fragmentation requires a shift in philosophy and mindset within an organization
so that everyone considers the impact to the customer of policy, decisions and actions. Duman
response at all levels of the organization can affect the customer experience for good or ill. Even
one unhappy customer can deliver a body blow to a business.[5]


 
 

 
  
 

Sales force automation (SFA) involves using software to streamline all phases of the sales
process, minimizing the time that sales representatives need to spend on each phase. This allows
sales representatives to pursue more clients in a shorter amount of time than would otherwise be
possible. At the heart of SFA is a contact management system for tracking and recording every
stage in the sales process for each prospective client, from initial contact to final disposition.
Many SFA applications also include insights into opportunities, territories, sales forecasts and
workflow automation, quote generation, and product knowledge. Modules for Web 2.0 e-
commerce and pricing are new, emerging interests in SFA.[1]


  


CÔM systems for marketing help the enterprise identify and target potential clients and generate
leads for the sales team. A key marketing capability is tracking and measuring multichannel
campaigns, including email, search, social media, telephone and direct mail. Metrics monitored
include clicks, responses, leads, deals, and revenue. This has been superseded by marketing
automation and Prospect Ôelationship Management (PÔM) solutions which track customer
behaviour and nurture them from first contact to sale, often cutting out the active sales process
altogether.


 p


  

Ôecognizing that service is an important factor in attracting and retaining customers,

organizations are increasingly turning to technology to help them improve their clients¶
experience while aiming to increase efficiency and minimize costs.[6] Even so, a 2009 study
revealed that only 39% of corporate executives believe their employees have the right tools and
authority to solve client problems.³.[7] The core for these applications has been and still is
comprehensive call center solutions, including such features as intelligent call routing, computer
telephone integration (CTI), and escalation capabilities.


 

Ôelevant analytics capabilities are often interwoven into applications for sales, marketing, and
service. These features can be complemented and augmented with links to separate, purpose-
built applications for analytics and business intelligence. Sales analytics let companies monitor
and understand client actions and preferences, through sales forecasting and data quality.

Marketing applications generally come with predictive analytics to improve segmentation and
targeting, and features for measuring the effectiveness of online, offline, and search marketing
campaign. Web analytics have evolved significantly from their starting point of merely tracking
mouse clicks on Web sites. By evaluating ³buy signals,´ marketers can see which prospects are
most likely to transact and also identify those who are bogged down in a sales process and need
assistance. Marketing and finance personnel also use analytics to assess the value of multi-
faceted programs as a whole.

These types of analytics are increasing in popularity as companies demand greater visibility into
the performance of call centers and other service and support channels,[6] in order to correct
problems before they affect satisfaction levels. Support-focused applications typically include
dashboards similar to those for sales, plus capabilities to measure and analyze response times,
service quality, agent performance, and the frequency of various issues.

 


p 

Departments within enterprises ² especially large enterprises ² tend to function with little
collaboration.[8] More recently, the development and adoption of these tools and services have
fostered greater fluidity and cooperation among sales, service, and marketing. This finds
expression in the concept of collaborative systems which uses technology to build bridges
between departments. For example, feedback from a technical support center can enlighten
marketers about specific services and product features clients are asking for. Ôeps, in their turn,
want to be able to pursue these opportunities without the burden of re-entering records and
contact data into a separate SFA system.


   


For small business, basic client service can be accomplished by a contact manager system: an
integrated solution that lets organizations and individuals efficiently track and record
interactions, including emails, documents, jobs, faxes, scheduling, and more. These tools usually
focus on accounts rather than on individual contacts. They also generally include opportunity
insight for tracking sales pipelines plus added functionality for marketing and service. As with
larger enterprises, small businesses are finding value in online solutions, especially for mobile
and telecommuting workers.


 


Social media sites like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook are amplifying the voice of people in the
marketplace and are having profound and far-reaching effects on the ways in which people buy.
Customers can now research companies online and then ask for recommendations through social
media channels, making their buying decision without contacting the company.

People also use social media to share opinions and experiences on companies, products and
services. As social media is not as widely moderated or censored as mainstream media,
individuals can say anything they want about a company or brand, positive or negative.

Increasingly, companies are looking to gain access to these conversations and take part in the
dialogue. More than a few systems are now integrating to social networking sites. Social media
promoters cite a number of business advantages, such as using online communities as a source of
high-quality leads and a vehicle for crowd sourcing solutions to client-support problems.
Companies can also leverage client stated habits and preferences to "hyper-target" their sales and
marketing communications.[9]

Some analysts take the view that business-to-business marketers should proceed cautiously when
weaving social media into their business processes. These observers recommend careful market
research to determine if and where the phenomenon can provide measurable benefits for client
interactions, sales and support.[10] It is stated[  ] that people feel their interactions are peer-
to-peer between them and their contacts, and resent company involvement, sometimes
responding with negatives about that company.

   

 


Systems for non-profit and membership-based organizations help track constituents and their
involvement in the organization. Capabilities typically include tracking the following: fund-
raising, demographics, membership levels, membership directories, volunteering and
communications with individuals.

Many include tools for identifying potential donors based on previous donations and
participation. In light of the growth of social networking tools, there may be some overlap
between social/community driven tools and non-profit/membership tools.


  



For larger-scale enterprises, a complete and detailed plan is required to obtain the funding,
resources, and company-wide support that can make the initiative of choosing and implementing
a system successful. Benefits must be defined, risks assessed, and cost quantified in three general
areas:

2 Processes: Though these systems have many technological components, business processes lie
at its core It can be seen as a more client-centric way of doing business, enabled by technology
that consolidates and intelligently distributes pertinent information about clients, sales,
marketing effectiveness, responsiveness, and market trends Therefore, a company must
analyze its business workflows and processes before choosing a technology platform; some will
likely need re-engineering to better serve the overall goal of winning and satisfying clients
Moreover, planners need to determine the types of client information that are most relevant,
and how best to employ them M]

2 People: For an initiative to be effective, an organization must convince its staff that the new
technology and workflows will benefit employees as well as clients Senior executives need to be
strong and visible advocates who can clearly state and support the case for change
Collaboration, teamwork, and two-way communication should be encouraged across
hierarchical boundaries, especially with respect to process improvement ºº]

2 Technology: In evaluating technology, key factors include alignment with the company͛s
business process strategy and goals, including the ability to deliver the right data to the right
employees and sufficient ease of adoption and use Platform selection is best undertaken by a
carefully chosen group of executives who understand the business processes to be automated
as well as the software issues repending upon the size of the company and the breadth of data,
choosing an application can take anywhere from a few weeks to a year or more M]


  



  

 


Increases in revenue, higher rates of client satisfaction, and significant savings in operating costs
are some of the benefits to an enterprise. Proponents emphasize that technology should be
implemented only in the context of careful strategic and operational planning.[12]
Implementations almost invariably fall short when one or more facets of this prescription are
ignored:

2 Poor planning: Initiatives can easily fail when efforts are limited to choosing and deploying
software, without an accompanying rationale, context, and support for the workforce ºÑ] In
other instances, enterprises simply automate flawed client-facing processes rather than
redesign them according to best practices

2 Poor integration: For many companies, integrations are piecemeal initiatives that address a
glaring need: improving a particular client-facing process or two or automating a favored sales
or client support channel º§] Such ͞point solutions͟ offer little or no integration or alignment
with a company͛s overall strategy They offer a less than complete client view and often lead to
unsatisfactory user experiences

2 Toward a solution: overcoming siloed thinking àxperts advise organizations to recognize the
immense value of integrating their client-facing operations In this view, internally-focused,
department-centric views should be discarded in favor of reorienting processes toward
information-sharing across marketing, sales, and service For example, sales representatives
need to know about current issues and relevant marketing promotions before attempting to
cross-sell to a specific client Marketing staff should be able to leverage client information from
sales and service to better target campaigns and offers And support agents require quick and
complete access to a client͛s sales and service history º§]


  


Distorically, the landscape is littered with instances of low adoption rates. In 2003, a Gartner
report estimated that more than $1 billion had been spent on software that was not being used.
More recent research indicates that the problem, while perhaps less severe, is a long way from
being solved. According to CSO Insights, less than 40 percent of 1,275 participating companies
had end-user adoption rates above 90 percent.[15]

In a 2007 survey from the U.K., four-fifths of senior executives reported that their biggest
challenge is getting their staff to use the systems they had installed. Further, 43 percent of
respondents said they use less than half the functionality of their existing system; 72 percent
indicated they would trade functionality for ease of use; 51 percent cited data synchronization as
a major issue; and 67 percent said that finding time to evaluate systems was a major problem.[16]
With expenditures expected to exceed $11 billion in 2010,[16] enterprises need to address and
overcome persistent adoption challenges. Specialists offer these recommendations[15] for
boosting adoptions rates and coaxing users to blend these tools into their daily workflow:

2 Choose a system that is easy to use: not all solutions are created equal; some vendors offer
applications that are more user-friendly ʹ a factor that should be as important to the decision as
is functionality
 2 Choose appropriate capabilities: employees need to know that the time they invest in learning
and in using the new system will not be wasted, indeed that it will yield !
 advantages;
otherwise, they will ignore or circumvent the system

2 Provide training: changing the way people work is no small task; to be successful, some
familiarization training and help-desk support are usually required, even with today͛s more
usable systems

2 ^ead by example: upper management must — the new application   

 thereby
showing employees that the top leaders fully support the application ʹ or else it will skew the
ultimate course of the initiative toward failure, by risking a greatly reduced rate of adoption by
employees     ]


 ÿ    
  

One of the primary functions of these tools is to collect information about clients, thus a
company must consider the desire for privacy and data security, as well as the legislative and
cultural norms. Some clients prefer assurances that their data will not be shared with third parties
without their prior consent and that safeguards are in place to prevent illegal access by third
parties.


  
  


This market grew by 12.5 percent in 2008, from revenue of $8.13 billion in 2007 to $9.15 billion
in 2008.[17] The following table lists the top vendors in 2006-2008 (figures in millions of US
dollars) published in Gartner studies.[18][19]

           

'
 


   

   

   

SAP M,

MM
(-M  M,
  M
Ñ º,º  M 

Oracle º,§
º º º,Ѻë  º Ñ º,º  º

Salesforce com ë
º  
Ñ §
º  ë

Microsoft
º § ÑÑM º §º º º M

Amdocs §
º §ë §Mº 
M Ñ
ë


Others Ñ,M Ñë  Ñ,Më º §  M,º  §Ñ 

      





 


Many CÔM vendors offer Web-based tools (cloud computing) and software as a service (SaaS),
which are accessed via a secure Internet connection and displayed in a Web browser. These
applications are sold as subscriptions, with customers not needing to invest in purchasing and
maintaining IT hardware, and subscription fees are a fraction of the cost of purchasing software
outright.

The era of the "social customer"[20] refers to the use of social media (Twitter, Facebook,
LinkedIn, Yelp, customer reviews in Amazon etc) by customers in ways that allow other
potential customers to glimpse real world experience of current customers with the seller's
products and services. This shift increases the power of customers to make purchase decisions
that are informed by other parties sometimes outside of the control of the seller or seller's
network. In response, CÔM philosophy and strategy has shifted to encompass social networks
and user communities, podcasting, and personalization in addition to internally generated
marketing, advertising and webpage design. With the spread of self-initiated customer reviews,
the user experience of a product or service requires increased attention to design and simplicity,
as customer expectations have risen. CÔM as a philosophy and strategy is growing to encompass
these broader components of the customer relationship, so that businesses may anticipate and
innovate to better serve customers, referred to as "Social CÔM".

Another related development is Vendor Ôelationship Management, or VÔM, which is the

customer-side counterpart of CÔM: tools and services that equip customers to be both
independent of vendors and better able to engage with them. VÔM development has grown out
of efforts by ProjectVÔM at Darvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society and Identity
Commons' Internet Identity Workshops, as well as by a growing number of startups and
established companies. VÔM was the subject of a cover story in the May 2010 issue of p

Magazine[21].

In a 2001 research note, META Group (now Gartner) analyst Doug Laney first proposed, defined
and coined the term Extended Ôelationship Management. De defined XÔM as the principle and
practice of applying CÔM disciplines and technologies to other core enterprise constituents,
primarily partners, employees and suppliers...as well as other secondary allies including
government, press, and industry consortia.