1. E-Supply Chain Management (E-SCM) |
Explanation | Issues | Advantages
WHAT IS E-SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT (E-SCM)?
E-Supply chain management is practiced in manufacturing industries.
E-SCM involves using internet to carry out value added activities so
that the products produced by the manufacturer meets customers’ and
result in good return on investment.
E-SCM is the effective utilization of internet and business processes
that help in delivering goods, services and information from the
supplier to the consumer in an organized and efficient way.
PLAYERS OF E-SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
ESCM chain consists of the following players — manufacturer,
logistics companies, distributors, suppliers, retailers and customers.
E-Supply Chain Management concentrates on the coordination
between the various players in the chain. Coordination is very
essential for the success of the organization. E-SCM focuses on
reducing the inventory cost.
SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT FLOW
SCM flows can be divided into three main activities
1. Product flow,
2. Information flow and
3. Financial flow.
1. Product Flow: The product flow includes the movement of goods
from a supplier to a customer, and also any goods returned by
customers.
2. Information flow: The information flow involves transmitting orders
and updating the status of delivery.
3. Financial flow: The financial flow consists of credit terms, payment
schedules, consignment and title ownership arrangements.
2. ISSUES DEALT BY SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Supply chain management deals with three issues:
1. Coordinating all the order processing activities that originate at the
customer level, such as the process of order generation, order
acceptance, entry into order processing system, prioritization,
production, and material forecast.
2. Material related activities such as scheduling, production,
distribution, fulfillment and delivery and
3. Financial activities such as invoicing, billing, fund transfer and
accounting.
SCM involves counter checks of materials, information and finances as
they move in a process from supplier to manufacturer to wholesaler to
retailer to consumer. It involves coordinating and integrating these
flows both within and among companies.
Extranet, intranet, Internet are used in e-supply chain. Extranet helps
to connect the participating companies. It may be the supplier or the
customer. A customer can check the order status. Likewise, a supplier
can collect data about inventory to know about the replenishment of
the inventory.
With the help of internet, a company can advertise about the product
and accept online orders. With the help of intranet, an organization
can maintain communication within the boundaries of the company. It
is said that the ultimate goal of any effective SCM is to reduce
inventory.
E-supply chain enables to link the supplier with the customer by
exchanging information instantaneously. The organization has
sufficient inventory when required. There will not be any shortage or
surplus of inventory. Shortage of inventory brings down the reputation
of the firm. Likewise, excess inventory blocks the funds of the firm
unnecessarily.
3. ADVANTAGES OF E-SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Companies implementing E-SCM can enjoy the following advantages:
1. It improves efficiency
2. It reduces inventory
3. It reduces cost
4. It helps to take competitive advantage over competitors.
5. It increases ability to implement just-in-time delivery, increases on-
time deliveries, which enhances customer satisfaction.
6. It reduces cycle time, increases revenue, by providing improved
customer service.
7. It improves order fulfillment, order management, decision
making, forecasting, demand planning, and warehouse/distribution
activities.
8. It reduces paperwork, administrative overheads, inventory build-
up, and the number of hands that handle goods on their way to the
end-user i.e., the customer
4. Electronic Customer Relationship
Management (E-CRM)
Definition - What does Electronic Customer Relationship Management
(E-CRM) mean?
Electronic customer relationship management (E-CRM) is the application of Internet-
based technologies such as emails, websites, chat rooms, forums and other channels to
achieve CRM objectives. It is a well-structured and coordinated process of CRM that
automates the processes in marketing, sales and customer service.
An effective E-CRM increases the efficiency of the processes as well as improves the
interactions with customers and enables businesses to customize products and services
that meet the customers’ individual needs.
Electronic Customer Relationship Management (E-CRM)
Electronic customer relationship management provides an avenue for interactions
between a business, its customers and its employees through Web-based technologies.
The process combines software, hardware, processes and management’s commitments
geared toward supporting enterprise-wide CRM business strategies.
Electronic customer relationship management is motivated by easy Internet access
through various platforms and devices such as laptops, mobile devices, desktop PCs
and TV sets. It is not software, however, but rather the utilization of Web-based
technologies to interact, understand and ensure customer satisfaction.
Electronic customer relationship management provides an avenue for interactions
between a business, its customers and its employees through Web-based technologies.
The process combines software, hardware, processes and management’s commitments
geared toward supporting enterprise-wide CRM business strategies.
Electronic customer relationship management is motivated by easy Internet access
through various platforms and devices such as laptops, mobile devices, desktop PCs
and TV sets. It is not software, however, but rather the utilization of Web-based
technologies to interact, understand and ensure customer satisfaction.
An effective E-CRM system tracks a customer’s history through multiple channels in
real time, creates and maintains an analytical database, and optimizes a customer’s
relation in the three aspects of attraction, expansion and maintenance.
5. A typical E-CRM strategy involves collecting customer information, transaction history
and product information, click stream and contents information. It then analyzes the
customer characteristics to give a transactional analysis consisting of the customer's
profile and transactional history, and an activity analysis consisting of exploratory
activities showing the customer's navigation, shopping cart, shopping pattern and more.
The benefits of E-CRM include the following:
Improved customer relations, service and support
Matching the customers' behavior with suitable offers
Increased customer satisfaction and loyalty
Greater efficiency and cost reduction
Increased business revenue
Businesses that strategize and implement an E-CRM solution are able to align their
processes around technology to effectively deliver seamless, high-quality customer
experience across all channels. Customers have the power to help themselves through
online personalized services that are made available on demand. The Internet provides
a simple and ideal medium where customers can get information from websites, buy
products and find answers using FAQ sections, forums or chat rooms.
Current CRM and E-Support Environment:
There are currently over 200 CRM software vendors and the number
continues to grow. Although, there are various types of applications
included in CRM suites, as described earlier, the core application
within the CRM landscape that truly builds customer relationships is
the customer service application. Other pieces, though useful, are
focused on helping the vendor rather than the customer.
Many of these applications were initially focused on providing an
environment to improve the productivity of call-centers. In addition,
some of these applications integrated message queuing functionality
to provide a common environment for all channels. So, whether the
customer was trying to reach the call-center by making a call, via e-
mail, by fax, or through the Web site, their query is prioritized and
channeled through the same mechanism. Most customer service
applications now provide Web-based self-service features for
companies to offer their customers.
6. Business Benefits of E-CRM:
Implementation of an E-CRM system enables an organisation to
streamline processes and provide sales, marketing and service
personnel with better, more complete customer information. The
result is that E-CRM allows organisations to build more profitable
customer relationships and decrease operating costs.
Direct benefits of an E-CRM system include:
i. Service level improvements:
Using an integrated database to deliver consistent and improved
customer responses
ii. Revenue growth:
Decreasing costs by focusing on retaining customers and using
interactive service tools to sell additional products
iii. Productivity:
Consistent sales and service procedures to create efficient work
processes
iv. Customer satisfaction:
Automatic customer tracking and detection will ensure enquiries are
met and issues are managed. This will improve the customer’s overall
experience in dealing with the organisation.
v. Automation:
E-CRM software helps automate campaigns including:
(i) Telemarketing
(ii) Telesales
(iii) Direct mail
(iv) Lead tracking and response
(v) Opportunity management
(vi) Quotes and order configuration
7. Across every sector and industry, effective CRM is a strategic
imperative for corporate growth and survival:
a. Sales organisations can shorten the sales cycle and increase key
sales-performance metrics such as revenue per sales representative,
average order size and revenue per customer.
b. Marketing organisations can increase campaign response rates and
marketing driven revenue while simultaneously decreasing lead
generation and customer acquisition costs.
c. Customer service organisations can increase service agent
productivity and customer retention while decreasing service costs,
response times and request-resolution times.
Working of E-CRM:
In today’s world, customers interact with an organisation via multiple
communication channels—the World Wide Web, call centres, field
salespeople, dealers and partner networks. Many organisations also
have multiple lines of business that interact with the same customers.
E-CRM systems enable customers to do business with the organisation
the way the customer wants – any time, via any channel, in any
language or currency—and to make customers feel that they are
dealing with a single, unified organisation that recognises them every
step of the way.
The E-CRM system does this by creating a central repository for
customer records and providing a portal on each employee’s computer
system allowing access to customer information by any member of the
organisation at any time. Through this system, E-CRM gives you the
ability to know more about customers, products and performance
results using real time information across your business.
8. Implementation of an E-CRM System:
When approaching the development and implementation of
E-CRM there are important considerations to keep in mind:
i. Define customer relationships:
Generate a list of key aspects of your customer relationships and the
importance of these relationships to your business.
ii. Develop a plan:
Create a broad Relationship Management program that can be
customized to smaller customer segments. A suitable software solution
will help deliver this goal.
iii. Focus on customers:
The focus should be on the customer, not the technology. Any
technology should have specific benefits in making customers’ lives
easier by improving support, lowering their administrative costs, or
giving them reasons to shift more business to your company.
iv. Save money:
Focus on aspects of your business that can contribute to the bottom
line. Whether it is through cutting costs or increasing revenue, every
capability you implement should have a direct measurable impact on
the bottom line.
v. Service and support:
By tracking and measuring the dimensions of the relationship,
organisations can identify their strengths and weaknesses in the
relationship management program and continually fine tune it based
on ongoing feedback from customers
