Supply chain processes customer relationship management

These and other questions are natural. A trap is trying to correct basic process flaws with complex software. The consequences of the confusion can be seen in the implementation of one popular application — Customer Relationship Management (CRM). It is certainly a supply chain application, located in Figure 25.1 at the interface between the company and its customers. 

It is not unusual for the actual shipment date to be a few days different from the original promised shipment date due to uncertainty in supply chain processes. However, this unreliability might not be acceptable to relationship-based customers. Therefore, Dell offers a special service through Dell Premier accounts at premier.dell.com for business and public sector customers. The service not only provides reports and tools to assist purchasing, asset management, and product support, but also allows customers to hook up their ERP/EDI systems with Dell s to perform real-time computer systems procurement. Through Premier accounts, Dell commits to more responsive and reliable order promising and fulfillment solutions for its relationship-based customers with support from advanced IT systems (see Kraemer and Dedrick 2001). 

Customer relationship management system (CRM) Software that provides customer input and keeps the customer iirformed about the planning of the production and delivery process by managing all contacts and communication with the customer thorough all channels including internet and traditional sales and customer service channels 5-Supply chain governance 0 X X X X... 

DuPont Canada has developed a new business model that redefines its relationship to its key customers through managing material supply chains. Working with the Ford Motor Company on processes for applying automobile finishes, the firm found it could reduce the amount of paint used, close-loop the painting system, turn waste streams into useful products, and, thereby, develop new ways to generate revenue (GEMI, 2001). 

As the Motorola case illustrates, mounting a multicompany effort with customers like Nextel is unlikely unless one s own processes and responsibilities are coherent. Effective supply chain management requires collaborative relationships throughout the organization, not competitive ones between profit centers like those that Zander found at Motorola. 

Showing the relevance of CRM for the supply chain context, the Global Supply Chain Forum (GSCF) has set CRM as the first of eight identified key processes of supply chain management (Cooper et al. 1997). Here, CRM is seen as a means to provide a structure for the development and maintenance of the relationship with the customer (Croxton et al. 2001). 

The chapter has described the need for customer and supplier relationship management with regard to the supply chain differentiation process. In the following the PC Manufacturing Inc. aims to identify the hierarchy of different customer and supplier segments and align the CRM as well as SRM to this hierarchy. 

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