Due to confidentiality agreements, we replace the name of our company by *company*.
Our company is a fashion company, and focusses on the design and selling of fashion items. They do not produce clothes themselves, but hire local producers who have experience with handcrafting techniques. Thus, their production methods are focused on handmade products, and this is one of the company’s strenghts, as their customers like their story. The company is located in the fashion industry, which is characterized by a low bargaining power of suppliers, high bargaining power of buyers, large threat of substitutes, low barriers to entry and high intensity of rivalry. In order to survive in the fashion industry, a company needs to create competitive advantage.
The company started a few years ago, and grew quickly ever since. Products are sold through their online store and through retailers, and the number of retailers keeps increasing. Products ordered by retailers are send from the headquarters. As there is currently no system in place to keep track of all orders and contacts with retailers, we proposed a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, after a thorough analysis of the company’s micro and macro environment, including a PESTLE analysis, SWOT analysis and an analysis of Porter’s five forces.
A CRM system will help the company to have all its data in one place, and analyze this data in our to improve their customer knowledge management. Next to that, it will save the company a lot of time, as everything can be found in one place and done from one place. Thus, this greatly increase their efficiency. The CRM system will also give access to valuable data, which can help the company with its growth. CRM also adds a layer of accountibility, and improves the customer experience.
The costs of a CRM system depend on which system the company choices, as many ready-to-use solutions are out there, such as SalesForce. Thus, the company can pick a solution suitable for them. We also suggest the company’s management to receive training on the CRM system, as to be able to optimally use the system.
Of course, with the implementation of a new system also come risks. The main risk for our company is management resistance, which we believe can be reduced by efficient training and implementation. Another risks is compitability with current existing systems. However, as the company is a start-up, there are currently no other IT systems in place, allowing the CRM system to be fully compatible. It is crucial that the system gets implemented correctly, and that the software is used optimally to benefit the company.
In our assignment, we proposed different strategies for the company to optimally implement CRM and enjoy its benefits to the fullest. We hope the company will indeed implement our proposed solution, and we belief it will disrupt the way the company is working currently.
Hey Ananda, great that you proposed a CRM in order for the fashion company to handle their customer data more efficiently and improve their processes. A CRM is indeed a great way to become more efficient and automate business processes, an example for this is SalesForce with its AppExchange developer platform. It enables integration with most of the 3rd party providers. Say your company uses Google Apps for instance, the data can easily be migrated and processes like e-mail and shared calendars can be automated within the CRM. The benefits of using SalesForce over smaller CRM instance in my opinion is that the former has a very extensive developer network and community. If you happen to need an application to integrate different systems, you can always find SalesForce developers to take on the development of a customised project. It is important you mentioned risks, and in my opinion more than just efficient training and implementation is required. The team must be convinced and see the concrete benefit they would receive from a CRM-implementation. If a team thinks that it is a truly time saving proposition, it is more like that the resistance to change from legacy systems to a more modern solution can be overcome. Good luck with your transformation project, I liked your topic! 🙂
Dear Frederick, thank you so much for your reply! We will definitely have a look into your tips, and you are correct, there are more risks involved than the ones me mentioned. Thanks again!