Professor
Meeting times: 1/26 (
Office: KMEC 8-92
Phone: 998-0832
e-mail:
The field of CRM can be compared to an iceberg. Above the surface, we can observe how companies interact and build lasting relationships with their customers, whereas, hidden below the surface, lies formidable CRM infrastructure driven by sophisticated CRM technologies and systems that helps building and driving these relationships. These CRM systems learn and affect customer behavior as they interact with customers, and impact customer acquisition, retention, loyalty and profitability.
The purpose of this course is to develop a thorough understanding of how these CRM technologies and high-performance systems work and how they can provide effective solutions to various customer-centric business problems by facilitating meaningful interactions with the right customers through various “touch points” at appropriate times. Understanding this “hidden” CRM infrastructure is crucial for developing deeper insights into the observable activities above the surface in terms of what kinds of customer interactions and CRM solutions are feasible and what it takes to realize them.
The students will learn the material through the combination of class lectures, discussions, case studies, and demos. Also, experts from the industry will be invited to share their experiences with various CRM technologies and discuss current trends and future directions in CRM. The guest speakers this semester include:
Mel Taub, Stern’s Executive in Residence; formerly, Corporate Technology Officer, CitiGroup.
Ron Swift, Teradata Corporation; Vice-President of Strategic Customer Relationships.
By taking this course, the students would be able to:
This course does not have any formal prerequisites. However, some basis familiarity with key IT concepts, such as databases, Internet and WWW technologies is a plus.
This course should be useful for the students interested in careers in marketing, Information Technologies, and consulting.
There will be two assignments for the course: a group project and a case analysis.
Group Project. As a part of the course, the students will work on a group project in which they will be split into small groups of 3 – 4 students, will study a particular CRM company, application, technology or an issue, and will provide a thorough analysis of the selected topic. The purpose of this project is to encourage exploration and independent research and to stimulate thinking about factors contributing to the success or failure of various CRM initiatives. This project will be of two types:
Project Deliverables:
A report providing an analysis of the selected topic (length of the report: 10
– 15 double-spaced pages). The project will be
evaluated based on:
Since
this is a group project, the students will be grouped into small teams (3-4
students per team on average). The grade is a group
grade and, thus, will be assigned equally to all the group members.
Due date: one week
after the last class.
Case Analysis. The students will be requested to write a short analysis report for one of the cases to be discussed in class. The expected length of the report is 3 – 4 double-spaced pages. This is also a group project. The case will be graded based on this report and on the class discussion of the case.
Due date: when the
case will be discussed in class.
In addition to the project and the case analysis reports, there will be a quiz administered in class to test the knowledge of the material. A student’s overall combined average score will be calculated based on the following components:
1. Project report 50%
2. Case analysis report
15%
2. Quiz 20%
4. Class participation 15%
All of these items will be graded on a 100-point basis (i.e. no grades will be given for individual components). These grades will be combined using the weights specified above, and the final grade will be based upon the weighted numerical score.
Some of the factors affecting class participation include showing interest in the subject and active participation in the class discussions, regular class attendance, and preparedness for the classes.
1. Jill Dyche, The CRM Handbook: A Business Guide to Customer Relationship Management, Addison-Wesley, 2002.
2. Reading packet and the Handouts.
Additional
1. Paul Greenberg, CRM at the Speed of
Light, McGraw-Hill, 2002.
2. Don Peppers and Martha Rogers. Managing Customer Relationships: A Strategic Framework. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2004.
3. Duane Sharp. Customer Relationship Management Systems Handbook. Auerbach Publications, 2002
4. Ron Swift. Accelerating Customer Relationships: Using CRM and Relationship Technologies. Prentice Hall, 2001.
Please note that, if necessary, the following schedule may
be altered depending on the progress made during the course. If this is the
case, the instructor will provide a modified schedule in advance. Each lecture
below constitutes a 3-hour class.
Lecture 1
Introduction to CRM; what CRM is, why it is needed and how it integrates people, processes and technology to maximize relationships with the customers. Discussions of the Customer Lifecycle Management (customer identification, acquisition, service, profitability, loyalty and retention) and of the IDIC process (Identify, Differentiate, Interact and Customize). The customer-system interface of CRM and overview of the interactions across this interface in a coordinated manner across the full range of communication channels, such as in-person, phone, mail, e-mail and the Web. Discussions of the virtuous cycle of CRM that helps turn customer information into positive customer relationships. Discussion of the promises and the pitfalls of CRM.
Overview of various applications of CRM developed to identify, acquire, serve, and retain profitable customers. These applications include marketing automation, sales force automation, contact center management, customer service management, self-service applications and e-CRM, field service management, and partner relationship management. Discussion of functionality and importance of these applications.
Lecture 2
Overview of the architecture of CRM systems and of the operational and analytical CRM. Introduction to data management, data warehousing and the discussion of how to build 360-degree “view” of the customer in terms of the relevant data. Discussion of customer-tracking and profiling technologies on the Web and off-line – how data on customer activities is collected, processed and synthesized into customer profiles.
Lecture
3
Overview of the analytical CRM and of various methods for analyzing customer data. Overview of business intelligence technologies (query-reporting, OLAP, and data mining tools) and of the personalization process (from collecting customer data to providing personalized services and delivering personalized information) and personalization technologies, including profiling, collaborative and content-based filtering, rule management, dynamic content presentation, and data mining technologies. Discussion of how “smart” personalization contributes to building lasting relationships with the customers. Overview of the decision support and action layers of the CRM architecture; discussion of the campaign management systems and of the customer interaction management technologies. Discussion of how some of these technologies are deployed in the personalization systems; capabilities of these technologies and applications that they enable.
Guest Speaker: Ron
Swift, Teradata Corporation; Vice-President of
Strategic Customer Relationships.
Lecture 4
Case Discussion: Hilton HHonors (tentative).
Guest Speaker: Mel Taub, Stern’s Executive in Residence; formerly, Corporate Technology Officer, CitiGroup.
Lecture 5
Case Discussion: Capital One (tentative).
Privacy: overview of major principles of privacy; opt-in vs. opt-out policies, ownership of raw and processed customer information; conflicting views on privacy as expressed by the industry and some of the privacy advocates; discussions of how to satisfy privacy concerns and the needs for personalized services.
Lecture 6
Overview of the CRM market and its various segments such as the enterprise, mid-market and small business markets. Overview of various vertical CRM markets, such as financial services and insurance, telecommunications, retail, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and healthcare.
Overview of the CRM vendors, including enterprise suite vendors (such as SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft and Siebel), other suite vendors (such as Microsoft, E.piphany, Onyx, and Salesforce.com), and CRM best-of-breeds (point product) vendors. Studies of some of the vertical market vendors and of the CRM application integrators. Discussion of how thesee vendors target particular CRM markets and how they compete and cooperate among themselves. Discussion of the tradeoffs between best-of-breeds and CRM suit approaches. Discussion of CRM’s best practices, successes and failures of implementing various CRM systems; analysis of reasons behind these successes and failures.
Discussion of future directions and trends in CRM. Course wrap-up.