Customer information is linked directly with systems, rather than being centralized, making new types of information del

Week 12|CRM at Minitrex Key Issues

Case Study | CRM at Minitrex Key Issues

1. Customer information is linked directly with systems, rather than being centralized, making new types of information delivery extremely difficult.
2. There is no backend OR front-end integration leaving customers to deal with the structural problems of the organization.
3. No ability for data mining, or to understand cross-functional customer needs, problems.
4. Lack of information for customer identification; customer history; tracking; access to pricing; customer profiling and segmentation; prospecting; the ability to support various channels; tools to support different roles.
5. There is little strategic alignment between the goals of the business and the information systems supporting them.
6. There is no defined strategy – from either a business or an IT point of view, nor are there any action plans to address the problems caused by lack of integration and no strategic planning process.
7. Forces against alignment: lack of vision; politics; functional silos.
8. No real support for retaining existing customers no philosophy about treating customers at the enterprise level.
9. This company knows little about its customers and is not exploiting customer information.
10. There are significant political issues around data and functionality.

Week 12|CRM at Minitrex: Exploring the IT Perspective

Case Study | CRM at Minitrex Exploring the IT Perspective

To understand why the Customer Contacts system holds inaccurate information, it is necessary to identify each of the four key systems at Minitrex. In particular, identify the flow of information among these systems.

1. The Customer Contacts System schedules sales calls on a periodic basis and provides mechanisms for generating and tracking new leads; it also forms the basis on which salespeople’s commissions are paid[1]. It maintains real-time information on sales by product, salesperson, and region and gives feedback on how well-centralized marketing strategies are performing. The Customer Contacts system also feeds data into the Insurance and Financing Divisions’ systems, after sales are made, for purposes of invoicing and servicing these accounts. This system is the “brainchild” of Jon Bettman, VP of Marketing.
2. The Management Business Center System is an online customer self-service system. Customers can obtain statements and financing online and often can get credit approved instantly. Customer-service representatives use the same basic system, with additional functionality, to track customer transactions and to provide customer support as needed. This system was developed for the Financing area at the request of the VP, Mariella Hopkins.
3. The Credit Administration System (developed over twenty years ago) is a “back-end” system used by the Insurance area to track its customer billings and payments.
4. The General Management System is another “back-end” Insurance system which keeps track of which products a customer has bought and what services they are entitled to.

Week 12|CRM Minitrex Information Flows

Week 12|CRM at Minitrex Case Study

Group Assignment for Lesson 6: CRM at Minitrex Case Study Information

Follow the steps below to complete the assignment.

Read the Week 12 CRM at Minitrex4 Case Study on pages 243 through page 245 in the IT Strategy: Issues and Practices textbook.

1. Click on the Group Case Study Assignments link above to work with your group.
2. Click on the link for the case study.
3. Discuss the case study with your group members.
4. Work with the group to write a 3-5 page paper.

Answer the Questions Below

1. Explain how it is possible for someone at Minitrex to call a customer and not know (a) that this is a customer and (b) that this is the third time this week that they had been called.
2. Outline the steps that Bettman must take in order to implement CRM at Minitrex. In your plan be sure to include people, processes, and technology.

Use the IT 630 textbook as a reference and two references from the UC Library Resources. Add the citations to match the references. Follow APA Guidelines to document the references. Check out the Basics of APA Style Tutorial to help you with citations and references.