Customer Relationship Management is a strategic approach aimed at creating improved shareholder value. Firms that invest in CRM systems could gain great benefits and achieve customer-focused business objectives that are critical for succeeding in competitive markets. Because of the rise of the social web, the opportunities for organizations to improve their customer relations have increased. Online platforms are becoming more and more important when looking at value generation for stakeholders and organizations. This is called CRM 2.0. A company that could potentially benefit from transforming its CRM systems into CRM 2.0 platforms, is the internship intermediary foundation Integrand. Through interviews with several stakeholders, their opinions about the current IT within Integrand and potential improvements have been outlined.
Integrand currently uses multiple IT systems on a daily basis, the most notable of which being Salesforce and Connexys. Although multiple strengths for the current operations have been stated – the no-cure-no-pay principle, the helping of the recruiters and the personal attention for students – there are also some weaknesses. The experience on the website and the current connection between the website and the CRM systems are not optimal. Most notable is the fact that the overall integration of the IT system needs to be improved. The proposed solution aimed at resolving several drawbacks in the current IT system, namely: scattered information for internals, restricted access to information for externals and a lack of streamlining in the process. To this goal, a business plan for the development of an online platform has been formulated. There are several requirements that this platform should comply to, but it should most importantly allow Integrand board members, recruiters and students to interact more efficiently. The online platform must serve as one communication tool between all stakeholders in order to simplify the one’s participation. Implementation of this online platform will entail several risks, which can be prevented by assigning an external project team to this proposal. Finally, Integrand will mostly benefit from the competitive advantage that is gained by implementing this platform and disrupt the current industry.
Team 40
Maira van Andel – 384965
Emily van der Haagen – 371781
Chucky Tam – 462302
Jasper Tax – 462315
