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342 Chapter 12 • Customer Relationship Management

connected to the supply chain management and ERP application. These tools can be accessed by
a trained help center agent or by customers directly via the Internet.

DATA MINING AND ANALYTICS The amount of data being generated by the Web-driven
business has been a driver for data mining and analytics functionality because it represents an
extension of existing product lines rather than the creation of new ones. Such businesses as
Amazon and eBay generate gigabytes of data per day, and even small Web sites easily generate
megabytes of data. These data must be collected, sorted, organized, and analyzed for trends,
demographics, cross-selling opportunities, and identification of other sales patterns.
Sophisticated OLAP and data mining software are often integrated with CRM packages.

CRM Packages and Vendors
Recently, several major enterprise software vendors have announced new suites or services in the
CRM area, although, these new offerings do not offer all major functions associated with the
preceding categories. Big CRM vendors provide more features than do the smaller vendors, but
there is no software package that can work directly off the shelf. Most CRM packages will
require moderate-to-extensive customization and integration to provide the features necessary
for a company. The ability of a company to implement various CRM solutions can depend on the
size of the company. A large company will have a better chance to find a CRM package to match
their needs. CRM vendors today provide software for big and small businesses (Table 12-2).

CRM Architecture

CRM systems architecture can utilize connections to multiple sources of data to provide support
and service representatives detailed information that can aid a customer experience, increase
sales revenue, and provide more efficient and faster real-time data.
The CRM hardware architecture (see Figure 12-3) depends on a number of factors and
considerations. Typical CRM systems follow client–server architecture. The system environment
would consist of the following components:
•Application server: runs either front-end processing or querying data and possibly a Web
interface for the CRM system.
•Database server: houses the back-end database and possibly retrieves information from
other database systems in the company to present through the application server.
•Web server: used if the CRM provides an extranet access point for such external users as
vendors or customers and an intranet access point for employees.
Factors to consider when building the hardware architecture should be based on scalability
for future growth, performance of the end-user and back-end processing, and security requirements

TABLE 12-2 CRM Vendors by Company Size

Target Market Vendor
Large Enterprises Siebel, Vantive, Clarify, and Oracle
Midsize Firms Servicesoft, Onyx, Pivotal, Remedy, and Applix
Small Companies Goldmine, Multiactive, and SalesLogix