Literature Review

ICT80003 – PROFESSIONAL PROJECT – LITERATURE REVIEW
1CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM)
Literature Review
Supervisor: Ronald Bartels
Group: Niharika Neervani (Leader) 100042073 Mobile: 0470419413
Gelareh HosseinPour Niri 100100052
Batish Sama 100048262
Long Trieu 100010287
Kush Luthra 6627412
Suresh Kumari 4985559

Executive Summary
This paper aims to provide a comprehensive insights into the Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) knowledge area, where most organisations attempt to understand and
implement in order to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of their customer service. First of
all, the report presents a brief background to CRMas well as the dominant CRM vendors and the
respective solutions offered (e.g. Microsoft provides both on-premise and cloud-based CRM
solution). After that, some of the value-adding attributes of CRM will be introduced in terms of
technology, business and organisation. Subsequently, the literature review goes through some
of the most popular CRM systems in the market such as SAP, Oracle and Microsoft; then
addresses the challenges of implementing a CRMsolution, which are classified under three main
categories, namely:
 Human-related challenge
 Technology-related challenge
 Business-related challenge
Microsoft Dynamics CRM will be the main focus of the discussion throughout the rest of the
literature review since it is the primary software solution the project team of this research
component has been working on during the last ten weeks. Particularly, this paper introduces
Medica, a successful case of Microsoft Dynamics CRM implementation, which was reported to
significantly improve its customer’s experience, boost productivity and increase profitability.
Medica has been struggling with the ever-increasing growth of the business until the
management decided to adopt a new systemto tackle to problem. Finally, the security aspect of
Microsoft Dynamics CRMis discussed in a thorough manner. This is also a worrisome concern to
all organisations that plan on adopting CRMsystems (e.g. Microsoft, SAP and Oracle) to support
their businesses.

Table of Contents
Executive Summary......................................................................................................................... 2
Table of Contents............................................................................................................................ 3
Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 4
Background to CRM .................................................................................................................... 4
A literature review of CRM ............................................................................................................. 6
How CRMs add value to the business......................................................................................... 6
Some dominant CRM vendors in the market ............................................................................. 7
What are the challenges of implementing a CRM system?...................................................... 10
A successful case of Microsoft Dynamics CRM implementation.............................................. 12
Security of customer data in CRMsystems .............................................................................. 13
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................... 15
References..................................................................................................................................... 16

Introduction
Various studies have been exploring the customer relationship management (CRM) concepts in
terms of strategies, practices and solutions available in the market. However, there is a need for
a systematic review of the literature in order to understand how a good CRMsystemin place can
help organisations improve customer retention, boost sales and increase productivity. By
reviewing a diverse range of articles and papers, this report has come up with an insightful
analysis into how CRM systems can add value to the business as well as the challenges of
implementing them in organisations. More importantly, the literature review also addresses
various types of CRMsystemin the market in order to offer a clearunderstanding of the situation
where each type best fits.
Background to CRM
In an increasingly competitive market, organisations are striving to increase profitability, reduce
cost and retain customers. Customer retainment is a contemporary issue that every organisation
is concerned about since customers tend to be increasingly rigorous in making purchase.
Customer relationship management (CRM) emerges as set of practices, strategies and
technologies that organisation adopt to manage customer interaction through the life cycle so as
to improve the relationship with customers, increase customer retention and improve sales. The
collection of customers’ data across all channels (e.g. website, phone, email and social network)
of an organisation is done via CRM systems, which in turn use the collected data to support
customer-facing staff in their daily tasks (Rouse 2014). Typically, a CRM solution provides three
main features:
 Data consolidation: customer data from various sources is stored in a centralised
database, which is available to all business users.
 Customer interaction record: customers’ call, email, feedback or inquiries are archived
the system and can be accessed by relevant business users
 Automation of business processes: such as qualify a lead; transform an opportunity into
an account.

Four biggest vendors that are currently dominating the market are SAP, Microsoft, Oracle and
Salesforce. They are offering CRM solutions to all kinds of organisations from big corporate to
SMEs. The following table summarise three main types of CRM solution offered by most vendors:
Solution type Description
On-premise solution
On-premise CRM give the responsibility of
managing the software, maintaining the
database and ensuring the security to the
company itself. Particularly, organisations
have to purchase the license upfront and the
CRM software will locate at the server of the
organisation. This type of solution is suitable
for huge corporations with complex CRM
needs since it has to be configured specifically
to suit the business requirements and to work
with the legacy systems.
Cloud-based solution
Some SMEs seek cloud-based CRM (i.e. CRM
on-demand) as a cheaper alternative to the
fixed solution. This type of software is hosted
on an external server whereby employees can
access at any time via a web browser. This
type of CRM is suitable for small enterprises
that have relatively simple need for CRM
software as well as cannot afford a great deal
for license since they can purchase the
software through monthly subscription.
However, the biggest concern about this type
of CRM is the loss of control over data, which
is the most precious resource of an
organisation since data is stored externally.
Open source solution
The source code of this type of CRM is made
available to public, thus any organisation with
some expertise in IT can configure it to suit
their specific needs at little or no cost.
SugarCRM is one of the most popular open
source solutions.

A literature review of CRM
How CRMs add value to the business
Organisations facevarious issues in their daily operations such as high customer churn, inefficient
processes and unreliable reporting. Therefore, the implementation of CRM is essential to help
them overcome those issues, add value to the business through more satisfied customers and
gain competitive advantage over their rivals (Nisula 2008). Particularly, a CRM system in place
will offer organisation the following advantages:
From the technical perspective
 It offers organisations with scalability options in terms of adding CRM functions and
processes according to the future growth of the organisation. As business needs change,
CRM solutions like Microsoft Dynamics have the ability to grow with your business.
 It facilitates effective time management by prompting users to follow up on activities
alongside with automating alerts when important events occur, or if actions are missed.
 Resources can be allocated or prioritised in CRM as per the business needs.
 It features process automation that allows companies to cut down expense on wages as
resources are used in the most efficient manner. Furthermore, CRM is capable of
eliminating duplication of effort by integrate with finance and other back-office
application seamlessly, so that teams can focus on the core activities that add value to
the business.
 Most of the CRM providers in the market go mobile by offering a mobile version of the
CRM system whereby employee can connect and work remotely and be even more
productive at any time or anywhere
From the business perspective
 It enables organisation to make decision more effectively thanks to the real-time
reporting capability across all business areas.

 Better-quality lead generation can be done using marketing functions that leverage the
customer segmentation feature to send campaigns and personalised messages to the
targeted clients.
 Financial or cash flow of the company can be managed using pipeline reports, which are
the foundation for reliable sales and production forecasts.
 CRM allows for faster response to customers’ needs thanks to the integration of data
across the organisation, which grants access all employees involve in the process. The
faster and more effective the response is; the more satisfied customers will be.
From the organisational perspective
 CRM brings about a positive organisational environment where employees are eager to
share information, cooperate effectively as well as gain better understanding of other
departments in the organisation.
 Employees are better rewarded and motivated thanks to the performance tracking
capability that enables organisation to keep track of the best-performed staff member
(i.e. through KPIs)
(Nineteen business benefits of CRM 2016)
Some dominant CRM vendors in the market
Oracle CRM On Demand
Oracle’s CRMsolution offers organisations with extensive capabilities of driving sales, marketing,
service effectiveness and loyalty. It also delivers cross-channel experience to customer, in
combination with Oracle’s Commerce solutions. Essentially, organisations of all sizes and types
can use Oracle CRM On Demand to:
 Get smarter
 Get more productive
 Get the best value

According to Oracle(2016), its CRMsolution provides organisations with an extensive set of tools
that optimises the entire sales process as well as increases productivity and sale results. Besides,
it also delivers crucial information to those who involve in the process including travel salesforce,
in-house sales, partners and management. Oracle CRMOn Demand is embedded with real-time
reporting along with effective historical analytics that provides management with actionable
insights to the current business in order to make better solutions. Sales and prospects
information can be quickly accessed through Outlook, web browser or on mobile device.
Moreover, the marketing feature of Oracle CRMOn Demand offers organisations a complete set
of capabilities to automate the marketing process, which includes designing inbound and
outbound campaigns, lead management and nurturing, and measuring marketing return on
invest. More importantly, Oracle CRM On Demand marketing can be fully integrated with CRM,
which presents various utility such as built-in email and web marketing, easy-to-use automation,
and built-in analytics.
(Oracle CRM on demand 2016)
SAP CRM
SAP CRMdelivers personalised and seamless customer experiences through SAP Hybris solutions
powered by SAP HANA. In-memory and big data technologies are used to drive digital
transformation as well as to smoothly integrate sales, marketing, commerce, and customer
service.
Particularly, SAP Hybris Cloud For Sales gives organisations easy access to real-time analytics,
social selling tools and customer information at any time. Using SAP Hybris Cloud For Sales,
organisations can take advantage of the cutting-edge capabilities such as Account Management
Intelligence, Mobility, Opportunity Management and Insights, Real-Time Analytics, Predictive
Analytics for Next Generation Customer Engagement, Email and Notes Integration, Sales
Performance Management, Cloud-based Platform in order excel in the market and gain
competitive advantage over their rivals.

On the other hand, SAP Hybris Marketing enable organisations to deliver individualised one-to-
one marketing to mass audience. It helps to obtain not only customer history, but also the
current tendency as well as motivation. With advanced analytics, organisations can discover
customer’s hidden trends and opportunities so as to remarket and target specific audiences in
their campaigns thanks to the understanding their online behaviour. With the aid of SAP Hybris
Marketing, organisations can monitor the performance of all marketing activities in order to
optimally plan resources and drive customer advocacy.
(Explore the SAP portfolio 2016)
Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a versatile and integrated customer relationship management
solution that offers a full set of capabilities in conjunction with integration Office 365, Power BI,
Yammer, Skype, Lync, and many other social conferencing systems that employees, business
partners, and customers already used.
In particular, the Sales functions provides a comprehensive and intuitive solution that allows
salespeople to be more productive and deliver excellent customer experience. Thanks to the
essential insights and guidance, salespeople can work more efficiently by collaborating with
colleagues or build a trusted relationship with customers through personalised engagements.
Some of the sales functions offered by Microsoft Dynamics CRM include opportunity
management, social selling, planning and management, content collaboration, mobiles sales and
sales intelligence.
On the other hand, the Marketing function is an integrated solution for marketing operation,
planning and execution across all channels—email, SMS, digital, social, and traditional. It enables
organisations to plan, execute and measure campaigns from start to finish in order to bring
organisation’s marketing vision to life.Organisations canengage with customers more intimately
across channels, build sales pipeline, and demonstrate the impact of marketing investments
made in real time. Marketing resource management, multichannel campaigns,lead management

and scoring, sales and marketing collaboration, social marketing, and marketing intelligence are
among the core capabilities of marketing.
Among all of the above CRM solutions, this paper’s main focus will be on Microsoft Dynamics
CRMbecause the main project of this research component is the configuration of a CRMsystem.
This paper will mainly focus on Microsoft Dynamics CRM because it is a relatively affordable
solution for all types of business, especially SMEs. However, being less expensive than its
counterparts does not necessarily mean it is not powerful. In fact, Microsoft Dynamics CRM is
better than rest thanks to the seamless integration with other Microsoft applications,which have
already been used by most organisations.
(Microsoft Dynamics 2016)
What are the challenges of implementing a CRM system?
There are numerous challenges face organisation during the implementation of the CRMsystem.
This paper has identified a number of pitfalls and classified them under three main categories,
namely:
Human-related challenges
 Lack of support from senior management can potentially fail the project, as they do not
enforce the adoption of the new systemcompany-wide. This is because the management
does not have a clear vision of the benefits offered by the CRM system once put into
operation.
 Lack of an adequate change management plan can have adverse impact on the
implementation of the CRM system, or may cause the project to fail in the worst case.
The new system is likely to be resisted by the employees as it is probably viewed as
“something that benefits management only”. Furthermore, employees tend to have the
feeling that they could be replaced by the new system, thus they may resist it or try to
undermine the implementation process. Finally, the migration to another environment

entails the change in employees’ routine task, which may cause inconveniences and
uncomfortable mindset.
 Lack of expertise from CRM vendor. The CRM vendor might lack experience in delivering
such a tremendous solution or they might not be able to anticipate the challenges of
implementing the CRM system in a complex environment.
Technology-related challenge
 Some CRM products are structured and do not allow for customisation to fit specific
business needs. Particularly, some of the solutions do not support multiple deployments
such as private cloud and on-cloud. Moreover, some solutions are not able to scale up to
the growth of the business as well as to keep pace with the technology advance.
 Integration is among one of the most troublesome issues, which can cause segregation of
systems, duplication of effort and multiple version of the truths. Most of the CRM
solutions does not integrate well with the legacy systems of the organisation; as such
would cost hundreds of thousand dollars merely to rectify the integration problem.
 Data migration is a great challenge for CRM adoption as data is stored in fragmented
legacysystems and data silos.The migration of data to the new systemwould cost a great
deal in terms of money and time.
Business-related challenge
 Business processes may be disrupted or redesigned during the implementation, which
may have detrimental effect on the business. CRMis considered a technology rather than
a business transformation tool thus business expects to customise and configure the CRM
towards their business processes rather than vice versa. However, the former is not
always the case since not many CRM solutions can cope with the specific needs of every
industry.
(Fifteen practical challenges in CRM implementation 2015)

A successful case of Microsoft Dynamics CRM implementation
Before organisation can leverage Microsoft Dynamics CRM to enhance customer interaction, a
successful implementation must take place. Ruston (2012) stated that all enterprise system
projects must follow an appropriate approach to implementation, and Microsoft Dynamics is not
an exception. This approach consists six steps, namely:
1. Diagnostic
2. Analysis
3. Design
4. Development
5. Deployment
6. Operations
Apart from implementation approach, there are many other factors that can influence the
implementation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. According to Immix (2015), the following factors
can dictate the success or failure of a CRM project.
 A clear project scope
 A good change management plan
 Dedicated support from high-level management
 Strong cooperation among employees
 Adequate training
 A good test plan
The case of Medica
Medica is a health service provider that provides health insurance for more than 1.5 million
customers. The firm has been growing rapidly and facing a significantgrowth in customer volume
in a short period of time lately. Medica management understands that getting customer is
difficult and retaining customer is even harder. The company has been facing several issues with
losing critical customer data and duplication of effort because the current Java-based CRM

application cannot not cope with the growth of the business as well as the change in technology
(e.g. mobile support).
To solve the problem, the management decided to adopt Microsoft Dynamics CRMfor their sales
and marketing processes and the results were significantly impressive.
 Medica employees begin to communicate and collaborate in a more effective manner as
CRM offers employees access to useful data for making decisions and measuring their
own success.
 Microsoft Dynamics CRM is compatible with various other applications such as Outlook
and Skype for Business. As such, it boosts the productivity of employees significantly as
they can perform their daily tasks in one single application.
 Medica was able to adopt CRM systemin a short period of time without too much effort
spent on coding and testing thanks to the built-in entities and easy-to-customise
processes.
 Customer service were substantially increased follow the implementation of the CRM
system as customers are more satisfied with the response time of the service when they
make a claim or submit an inquiry.
(CRM case study of Medica 2016)
Security of customer data in CRM systems
Organisations aretaking security and privacy issues more serious recently due to the proliferation
of mobile and cloud technology. The advent of those cutting-edge technologies on the one hand
has changed the way organisations do business, but also posed imminent threats on the
customer data on the other hand. Particularly, CRM mobile solution allows employee to work
remotely from office, which means they can meet customer, present proposal and update
information dynamically using their mobile phone. Additionally, the on-cloud version of CRM
offers organisation quick configuration time, centralised off-premise storage and competitive
price. However, there are severalinherent risks to data security when using mobile CRM(hacking,

hijacking) or online CRM(no control over data, data loss over transmission); which organisations
need to consider when adopting a CRM solution (Boguhn 2011).
Microsoft Dynamics CRM uses the same security model for both Microsoft Dynamic 2016 and
Microsoft Dynamics Onlineto protect data integrity and privacy. The main objective of this model
is to provide organisations with role based,field leveland record levelsecurity. Microsoft ensures
the security of its CRMproduct is regularly enhanced, vigilantlymaintained and routinely verified
through constant testing. Customers’ data is stored in an environment, which is physically
secured by controlling accessibility through multiple security checks. These security checks are
applied at different multiple levels at certified Microsoft Data Centres, which are responsible for
hosting the online CRM solution. Those centres are located around the world and typically
implement the following industry standard features:
 Encrypted transmission: connections to the data centres are established using Secure
Socket Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS, which ensure a highly secured
connection between the server and the premise.
 User security: User access is restricted by roles and responsibilities so that users only
receive the right privileges to access absolutely right information needed to fulfil their
tasks. A two-factor authentication for access to CRM data helps prevent unauthorised
access to the system via misused device (i.e. smart phone).
 Data isolation: Microsoft provides each client with separate database to ensure isolation
from other customer data. Furthermore, clients’ databases in data centres are isolated
from each other based on security boundaries, which is enforced logically through middle
tier administration.
 Natural disastercontrol: Includes seismicallybracedracks as wellas fire extinguishing and
prevention systems.
(How secure is cloud CRM data? 2013).

Conclusion
The sum up, this literature review has addressed various perspectives of customer relationship
management including the dominant vendors, the challenges of implementation as well as the
security concerns of CRM. SAP, Oracle and Microsoft are the predominant CRM vendors in the
market that offer various CRM solutions to suit specific business needs and capabilities. Depend
on the particular situation of the business, organisations can choose from on-premise, cloud-
based or open source CRMsolutions. However, they need to be aware of the common pitfalls in
implementing a CRM solution such as change management, data migration and security issues,
which could exert serious impact on the business. Finally, a case of successful implementation of
CRM was introduced along with the critical success factors, which play a crucial role in adopting
CRM.

References
Boguhn, B 2011, CRM Security Concerns, Compare Business Products, viewed 30 September
2016, <http://www.comparebusinessproducts.com/crm/crm-security-concerns>.
Explore the SAP portfolio 2016, SAP, viewed 30 September 2016,
<http://go.sap.com/australia/solution.html>.
Fifteen practical challenges in CRM implementation 2015, Simple CRM, viewed 30 September
2016, <http://www.simplecrm.com.sg/blog/15-practical-challenges-in-crm-implementation>.
How secure is cloud CRM data? 2013, CRM Switch, viewed 30 September 2016,
<https://www.crmswitch.com/crm-security/crm-data-security>.
Immix, R 2015,’ Success factors for ERP Implementation (Microsoft Dynamics AX)’, immix, viewed
16th Sep 2016, <http://immix.co.za/success-factors-erp-implementation-microsoft-dynamics-
ax/>.
King, S & Burgess, T 2008,’ Understanding success and failure in customer relationship
management’, ScienceDirect, viewed 16th Sep 2016,
<http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/science/article/pii/S001985010700043
0>.
Microsoft Dynamics 2016, Microsoft, viewed 30 September 2016,
<https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/dynamics/default.aspx>.
Nineteen business benefits of CRM 2016, Preact CRM, viewed 30 September 2016,
<http://www.preact.co.uk/why-crm/how-businesses-benefit-from-crm>.
Nisula, A 2008, Final thesis report - Adding value to the customer through customer relationship
management, Tampereen University of Applied Sciences, Tampere.
Parr, A & Shanks, G & Darke, P 1999, ‘Identification of Necessary Factors for Successful
Implementation of ERP Systems’, researchgate, viewed 16th Sep 2016,

<https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220985012_Identification_of_Necessary_Factors_f
or_Successful_Implementation_of_ERP_Systems>.
CRM case study of Medica 2016, Power Objects, viewed 16th Sep 2016,
<http://www.powerobjects.com/case-studies/medica/>.
Rouse, M 2014, Customer relationship management (CRM), TechTarget, viewed 30 September
2016, <http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/definition/CRM>.
Ruston, P 2012, ‘AX Success: Managing a Successful Microsoft Dynamics AX Implementation’,
Ruston Group, viewed 16th Sep 2016, <https://www.rustongroup.com/2016/06/successful-
dynamics-implementation/>.
Oracle CRM on demand 2016, Oracle, viewed 30 September 2016,
<http://www.oracle.com/us/products/applications/crmondemand/index.html>.

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