Digital Transformation Project – CRM implementation

12

October

2016

5/5 (1)

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.

Benefits of a CRM system © Hubspot
Benefits of a CRM system © Hubspot

 

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.

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Smart textiles: Fashion & Technology

3

October

2016

4.25/5 (4)

In my previous blog, I introduced the See Now, Buy Now, which allows customer’s to immediately buy a new trend as it is shown on the catwalk. However, fashion and technology have been integrated in many more ways, and will continue to do so.

Two months ago, TU Delft and AMFI (Amsterdam Fashion Institute) joined forces to blend technology and fashion. New materials and smart textiles are offering major opportunities for designers. According to TU Delft professor Kaspar Jansen, who specializes in these materials, there are three trends we can expect to see on the streets in the future.

He says that there are a number of opportunities in sectors such as wellness, transport and health, and by working together, AMFI and TU Delft can develop these new materials quicker. Developments include for example sensors that can be integrated into clothing, which can help with to monitor your heartbeat or actively maintain your body temperate.

TREND #1 LIGHTED CLOTHING
We already know that clothes can integrate LEDs and light panels. For example, for this fall HEMA had introduced a jacket with reflecting parts. But it can go much further than that: in just a few years’ time, it will be possible to apply lighted coatings directly onto fabrics, due to their flexibility.

TREND #2 THERMAL COMFORT
Clothing that can heat up and cool down offers plentiful opportunities for many professions. Not only athletes can benefit, but fireman or health workers could benefit as well. And living in a cold country like the Netherlands where the weather changes with the minute, how cool would it be to have a jacket that keeps you warm or cools you down when needed?
omnifreeze1

TREND #3 SENSORED CLOTHING
Nowadays, many people use mobile apps or smartwatches to track their heartbeat, the amount of steps they walked or other bodily functions. But the future might look different: integrated sensors can subtly be woven into fabrics, to take over these functions of smartwatches or apps. The key, of course, is to make these efforts stylish.

But there’s more: according to CNCB (2013) other trends include wearable solar (so you can charge your phone with your clothes), a personal air purifier (Worn on the wrist, this design sucks up and filters polluted air, and recycles it back into the atmosphere), wearables that react to their enviornment (items that change colour or other things depending on the amount of light or what they hear around them), or even items that make movements when they are being looked at, to name a few.

These are just a few of the many possibilities technology offers to fashion. What do you think? Do you think these developments set the future for fashion? Would you wear any of these innovations? Or what other trend do you think will appear when integrating fashion and technology?

References
http://www.cnbc.com/2013/06/28/Future-Fashion:-10-Wearable-Tech-Trends-to-Watch.html
http://fashionweek.nl/artikel/01aug16-drie-tech-trends-die-we-binnenkort-het-modebeeld-terugzien

Fashion + Technology: The Newest Trends


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Technology of the Week – the real estate Industry

16

September

2016

5/5 (2)

Watch the video here

This week, we had to make a video regarding Industry Disruption. We chose to focus on the real estate industry, as it is often overlooked when thinking about disruption, while there are endless technologies that could disrupt the industry. Real estate plays an important role in everyone’s live, as we all need a place to live. In order to learn more about the industry, we watched several videos and read different articles (which you can find in our reference list, if you are interested).

The real estate industry, as we currently know it, has been stable for a long time. While some processes have been digitized, the majority of the processes is still done offline (for example, visiting a house, meeting with a broker and signing a contract). However, digitization is about to have a huge impact on the retail industry. Currently, the top 50 largest real estate companies own 30% of the market, and rivalry among competitors is high, mainly due to low barriers to entry (if you wanted, you could be a broker tomorrow!). While there are substitutes, production is limited (it takes time, money and material to build a house. The bargaining power of both suppliers and buyers depends largely on their geographical location (for example, finding a house in Amsterdam is way harder than finding one in a small village).

Since classifieds moved online with Craigslist in 1995, real estate has started innovating by advertising online. However, since trust is very important when purchasing a house, it is hard to totally complete the process online. While they are more specialized portals nowadays, such as Zulia or Trillow, a large part of the transaction still takes place offline. However, the platforms offer value-added features, creating a new business model: the online real estate marketplace. These marketplaces are likely to substitute traditional brokers to a large degree and to automate the whole real estate purchase process. These online platforms eliminate the broker, and thus its commission. Online platforms offer numerous options, depending on the willingness to pay for both parties (for example, a buyer can choose between different subscription plans, and a seller can pay to have its listing appear on top).

But what about fraud? This is where the block chain comes in. While it is commonly known as the background technology for Bitcoin, the block chain offers many additional benefits which can be used to optimize the process of buying or renting a house online. The core advantage of block chain lies within its decentralized structure. The block chain is essentially a database that provides cheap, durable, time-stamped and transparent records of all transactions online. However, the security issues that arise, as well as the immense energy costs that go together with the transaction volume and the data storage have prevented the technology from being legalized in the majority of the countries.

We believe the real estate industry will change, based on the Newly Vulnerable Markets Theory. By changing the online real estate market place by implementing block chain, the three conditions for the theory are met: it will become attractive to attack, easy to enter and difficult to defend.

What do you think? How do you believe the retail industry will change?

 

REFERENCES:Brennan, M. (2016, September 15). 3 Real Estate Scams And How To Avoid Them. Retrieved from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/morganbre… Buterin, V. (2015, August 7). Vitalik Buterin: On Public and Private Blockchains. Retrieved from CoinDesk: http://www.coindesk.com/vitalik-buter… Deloitte. (2016, September 15). Blockchain: the next game changer in real estate? Retrieved from Deloitte: http://www2.deloitte.com/nl/nl/pages/… Ernst & Young. (2016, Semtember 15). Retail sector – Top 10 Opportunities . Retrieved from EY: http://www.ey.com/GL/en/Industries/Co… FranchiseHelp Holdings. (2016, September 15). Real Estate Franchise Industry in 2016 at a Glance. Retrieved from Franchise Help: https://www.franchisehelp.com/industr… IBM. (2016, September 15). What can blockchain do for you? Retrieved from IBM: http://www.ibm.com/blockchain/what_ca… Kinsman, S. (2015, December 10). I witnessed the largest bank heist in history ……. It would have been impossible with the loanbook published on the Blockchain. Retrieved from Medium: https://medium.com/@BambouClub/i-witn… Makkonen, J. (2016, September 15). Marketplace Academy . Retrieved from Marketplace Academy : https://www.sharetribe.com/academy/ho… Marino, B. (2015, December 2). Smart Contracts: The Next Big Blockchain Application. Retrieved from Cornell Tech: http://tech.cornell.edu/news/smart-co… Mougayar, W. (2016, September 15). The Blockchain is Perfect for Government Services, Here’s A Blueprint. Retrieved from Medium: https://extranewsfeed.com/the-blockch… Oparah, D. (2016, September 15). 3 Ways That The Blockchain Will Change The Real Estate Market. Retrieved from TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2016/02/06/3-w… Reuters. (2016, September 15). This Country Is Testing the Tech Behind Bitcoin for Real Estate Transactions. Retrieved from Fortune: http://fortune.com/2016/06/16/sweden-… Schneider, J., Blostein, A., Lee, B., Kent, S., Groer, I., & Beardsley, E. (2016). Profiles in Innovation: Blockchain. New York: Goldman Sachs . The Economist. (2016, September 15). The promise of the Blockchain: The trust Machine. Retrieved from The Economist: http://www.economist.com/news/leaders… Torpey, K. (2016, September 15). Why 2016 May Be the Year of Real Estate on the Bitcoin Blockchain. Retrieved from Inside Bitcoins: http://insidebitcoins.com/news/why-20… Tracey, M. (2016, September 15). VR Headsets: Real Estate Game Changer? . Retrieved from RealtorMag: http://realtormag.realtor.org/technol… UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser . (2016). Distributed Ledger Technology: beyong block chain . London: OGL. Weiss, M. (2016, September 15). How Bitcoin Technology Could Make Home Buying Hassle-Free. Retrieved from Fast codesign: https://www.fastcodesign.com/3045710/…

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‘See Now – Buy Now’ model: another shift in the Fashion Industry

9

September

2016

5/5 (7)

New York Fashion Week just hit off, and with the new ‘See Now – Buy Now’ model, fashion lovers will be able to immediately order their products – straight of the runway (Saxon, 2016). While some designers are reluctant to implement this model (Hunt, 2016), major fashion icons such as Tommy Hilfiger, Prada and Burberry have made the switch.

The ‘See Now – Buy Now’ model allows customers to buy their items as they are shown on the runway.

This isn’t the first time the Fashion Industry has been affected by technology: e-commerce has been trending, 3D printing has been introduced to make clothes, and social media has been used extensively to promote, rate and share fashion brands.

Traditionally, fashion shows presented in the fall reflect the next spring’s styles (Wallace, 2016). Thus, once an item you adored would be shown during a fashion show, you most likely had to wait until the next season to wear it. With the new ‘See Now – Buy Now’ model, fashion show outfits are transformed into more season appropriate and ready-to-wear styles (Wallace, 2016). Next to that, fashion shows have also become more accessible. Where one needed a ticket in the past to attend a show, live streams now make it possible to see a show from any place (Wolfe, 2016). Thus, new trends are within reach – and anyone can give their opinion on them straight away.

Fast fashion has and will continue to affect to fashion industry (Bhardwaj & Fairhurst, 2010). With the new ‘See Now – Buy Now’ model, fashion seems to be faster than ever. It is only a matter of time before we find out what the impact of the ‘See Now – Buy Now’ model is on the fashion industry.

What do you think? Should the entire fashion industry shift to a ‘See Now – Buy Now’ model, or do you believe its effect will be minimal?


– Hunt, R. (2016). “See Now Buy Now” Or How Digital Is Changing Fashion. [online] Wtvox.com. Available at: https://wtvox.com/fashion-tech/see-now-buy-now-fashiontech/
– Saxon, K. (2016). Digital Revolution Is Changing The Fashion Industry. [online] Wtvox.com. Available at: https://wtvox.com/fashion-tech/digital-revolution-fashion-industry/
– Wallace, T. (2016). Fast Fashion Spurs Need for Change in Fashion Industry. [online] The BigCommerce Blog. Available at: https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/new-report-proves-unanimous-agreement-time-ripe-change-fashion-industry/
– Wolfe, N. (2016). Will the See Now/Buy Now Fashion Model Really Work?. [online] Harper’s BAZAAR. Available at: http://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/fashion-week/a14343/fashion-industry-changes/

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