Customer Relationship Management

Diary of a Deployment Team

2012-01-18T16:11:41Z

How difficult will it be to roll out existing in-use Siebel application to few more European countries? Easier said than done and that's what we have realized in past few weeks. Even after numerous process workshops and conversion sessions, we are tackling loads of setup and data issues. What does it reflect? Global roll-out is a different ball game altogether - not to be taken easily. We had the inputs from incumbent partner doing roll-outs so far. We had the documentation in place. So what went wrong?

]]> Aspects such as process standardization, legacy system integration and most importantly localization of the global application are worth giving a thorough thought. You may have a standard process approved by PMO but without addressing the local angle, it will not get acceptance. Acute case is of Entitlements which vary from country to country. Some countries are offering 24/7 support where as others are sitting to office hours for service coverage. Another example would be setting up Field Engineer teams to cover the geography. Small countries do not cause that much of damage but with big countries covering the service area becomes a nightmare. The fact that Siebel CRM is the front end makes it more difficult as that is the first point of contact of the new system for the end-users. And the 'mantra' to address such diversifications would be to involve local business community to complete the fit-gap. Let them come up with ideas for alternative solutions around the given constraints of 'existing' application. Similarly a detailed study of existing systems is required to arrive at a wise decision of retaining or replacing the system. Engage the teams representing interfacing systems such as handheld devices, Scheduling systems or Dealer Mgmt. systems well in advance to avoid last minute shocks. Give them a heads up and keep sharing the updates so that they are prepared to face what is going to hit them. Last but not the least assimilates your learning from each roll out during the process of deployment - not at the end - as half of the things will get lost by then.

Forced or Not? You know the price

2012-01-18T09:49:29Z

With Legacy applications, deciding about expected returns on IT investment has always been a tough task due to numerous cost components involved (Software installations, hardware investments e.g. servers, storage devices, maintenance, training etc.), longer deployment period spread across several financial quarters and nature of benefits achieved. By nature of benefits, I mean, that IT investment not only gives a measureable financial benefits but a majority of benefits are non-financial but crucial too. Also, the legacy packages come with lot of tools/features which are rarely used by organizations. Does cloud computing add a new insight for decision making?

]]> In a recent interview with Forbes Asia, Paul Maritz (CEO, VMWare)1 said that under-hyped thing about cloud computing is the efficiency and simplification that it will bring. For the first time, we are starting to get some objective metrics with which we can measure IT. We can measure our own IT with external benchmark.
While browsing through pages of some leading cloud-based CRM players, a sentence on Microsoft Dynamics CRM website caught my attention: "Don't get forced, Get what Fits".2 Certainly, an aggressive marketing strategy from Microsoft Dynamics over Salesforce.com. On its website, Microsoft Dynamics has put a comparison chart to compare its offering with other major cloud CRM Players (Salesoforce.com and Oracle CRM On-Demand)3. The comparison chart shows that for Salesforce.com Professional edition charge is $65/user/month plus other charges like Mobile, Multidimensional knowledge base, offline access, visual workflow etc. Oracle CRM on Demand charge have been charging $75/month/user plus other charges for Mobile sales assistant, Contact on demand, partner relationship management etc. As it is MS Dynamics website, they have certainly put their offerings as the best deal ($44/user/month). My point here is not to evaluate which of these packages is the best one, but to discuss representation of IT investment in very simple components.
Although it can't be concluded that Cloud based packages provide better returns on the investment keeping data security issues and regulatory policies in view, it certainly puts itself as one of the viable options for decision makers in the organization.
Reference:
1.http://www.forbes.com/sites/richkarlgaard/2011/10/19/vmwares-paul-maritz-virtual-success/
2. http://crm.dynamics.com/online/default.aspx?fbid=Bm5MCQ5BFqU#right-value
3. http://crm.dynamics.com/en-us/price-comparison

Salesforce.com - Expanding footprint of Social Strategy

2012-01-13T10:12:22Z

Come 2012 and Salesforce.com (SFDC) will add another lethal ammunition to its stable, taking the cloud wars to the next level. On December 15, 2011, Rypple, an innocuous start-up into cloud based human capital management (HCM), signed agreement to be acquired by SFDC. It will be re-christened as SFDC Successforce. This plugs a significant gap in SFDC offering portfolio, and will have significant (upside) impact for go-to market strategy for its enterprise social offerings. While Radian6's acquisition was aimed at improving the social strategy for SFDC client's customer, Rypple's focus will be on employees of SFDC clients. Triggers for the deal
Dreamforce '11 was all about Social Enterprise Strategy. The social offering is broadly based on two pillars, Radian6 and Chatter. Chatter offering, was in fact, implemented internally by SFDC and anchored by Marc Benioff himself. Radian6 is a social media monitor and engagement tool, which is currently available as independent offering and not bundled with SFDC (plans are in effect to integrate radain6 with SFDC license by 2012 end). SFDC already occupies 'Leaders' quadrant in Gartner's Social CRM magic quadrants. Over 100,000 companies worldwide are using Chatter and Radain6 counts more than half of the Fortune 100 companies in their exhaustive customer list. So, why this need to tread the inorganic route? Well, the following points are the place to start.

Filling the Strategic Gaps
Gartner has forecasted that Social CRM market will be worth more than USD 1 bn by 2012 end.

Spending on cloud computing and social media are the only bright spot in the otherwise gloomy scenario in the technology space. Social CRM solution provider space is highly fragmented, and the opportunity is immense. So, having tested the waters with its Chatter and Radian6 offering, the significant 'whitespace' in the portfolio for SFDC was human resource management (HRM) application. Rypple effectively plugs this gap.

Complementary and Supplementary DNA
Social Goals 2.0 agenda unveiled by Rypple on December 2011 is in sync with the Social Enterprise vision by SFDC. After Sales and Service cloud apps, HRM application is a significant complementary offering, with high levels of potential cross-sell opportunity. The client list for Rypple already includes prestigious and hig-end names like Facebook, Nexius, Zendesk, Gilt Groups, etc. The theme of the offering is to move from a transaction based, infrequently used to a engagement and experience based system, with focus on sharing, collaboration and productivity.

Proven Business Model
The on cloud, get-to go applications with collaborative platforms on Web 2.0, is based on businesses model that drive revenue by selling services. SFDC was the first of its kind firm to implement the business model, and no one understands the viability and potential upside better than them. That is why, even though with less than USD 1 mn in total revenue (and not profits) for FY11, the deal value is estimated at USD 65 mn.

Competitive Intensity
On October 2011, Oracle acquired RightNow Technologies, Inc. for about USD 1.50 bn, paying about 19.60% premium to the listed price. This gives Oracle a significant presence in cloud spaces (especially service space) and mid-market CRM solutions with 2,000 customers. SAP, whose cloud offering Business ByDesign failed to create any ripple in the cloud space, announced a USD 3.40 bn all cash to acquire SuccessFactors, provider of cloud-based human capital management applications. The premium paid is almost 52%. What gave in was the diverse customer base (3,500 customers across 168 countries) and sound business model (15 million paying user for repeat business). Hence, when the two of top three package solution companies are growing their footprint in the cloud space, the leader in cloud based packaged solutions needed to respond effectively, and they did by improving their solution footprint (in HRM) and enhancing their strategic offering (Social CRM).
The cloud computing and solutions market place are teeming with seemingly endless and innovative opportunities, and the firm(s) with vision, technological prowess and courage can chart the extraordinary path. The arena is set for the battle among the industry heavyweights and technology leaders.

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Game-changers in the Cloud: Salesforce.com offers Data Residency Option

2012-01-13T03:17:02Z

Hello Everybody. Wishing you and your families a very happy New Year!

In my last blog - Game-changers in the Cloud Focus on CRM - Part I, I had written about a new offering from Salesforce.com named DRO (Data Residency Option) or On-premise storage of data at customer location. Marc Benioff, Salesforce CEO had classified this offering for few large Salesforce customers who have data security or IP related issues with deployment of their key data on cloud. This development created a lot of buzz and the feature is expected to be officially available in 2012 i.e. this year. Hence, I found it wise to dig deeper and ponder on what is the technology backbone of DRO and what strategic benefits will Salesforce achieve after its acquisition of Navajo Systems, who were the owning company to this data storage and encryption technology.

]]> DRO will be a part of database.com - a cloud database Salesforce made generally available. It gives an option to the customers of Salesforce to store their mission critical data at their own location and hence keeping complete control of the inward and outward flow of the data across the customer firewall.
The technique developed by Navajo, also called Virtual Private Saas, provides the cloud vendor, Salesforce.com in this case, a key that enables it to translate the encrypted data as it passes through its cloud application. The data is then re-encrypted as it leaves the cloud vendor's solution and returns to the customer's data source. The corporate data is unreadable on cloud provider's servers during this entire operation. VPS is available both as a cloud service, as well as an appliance sitting on the customer's local or Wide area network. With VPS, the customer is solely responsible for its data security as it will hold all the encryption keys.
The flip side to using such a technique would be the security of the encryption and decryption keys used for the process. It is highly critical to properly manage the keys as once the key is lost, the encrypted data can no longer be accessed. Hence, this calls for robust key management to avoid any such eventuality.
But, barring the above, In my view, this technique will overcome the most important impediment to cloud adoption and will be a foundation of technological acceptance as it addresses the key customer fear i.e. about potential data threats in the cloud.
Coming to the acquisition, Navajo systems, founded in 2009 was one of the existing encryption service providers for Salesforce. Salesforce decision to acquire Navajo hence made a lot of sense when other cloud based CRM tools such as Sugar CRM already has possible options for deployment on public clouds (Amazon EC2, Rackspace etc.), private clouds such as VMWare and also on-site behind customer firewalls.
According to a recent report from IBIS World, one of the world's largest independent publishers of U.S. industry research, CRM industry today stands at 60% on-premise deployments and 40% cloud based solutions (1). For customers who are looking for new purchases or upgrade of their legacy applications, DRO might just be the key decision influencer. Let's wait and watch!!

Continuing with my focus on Game changers in the cloud, I am hearing quite a bit about Speech Analytics as a technology which promises a lot of traction for the customer facing business functions for any organization. Wait for more on that in my next Post

References:
(1) http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Columns-Departments/Insight/Are-CRMs-Worst-Years-Behind-It-79254.aspx

Social CRM & Salesforce - Part 1

2012-01-05T10:38:06Z

Since last couple of years internet has been taken over by the likes of Facebook, Twitter & Google.
Social media is impacting every aspect of our lives. People share their ideas, happiness, events, and issues over these social media websites.
"Arab Spring" is a classic example of what social media can do to a country; imagine what it can do to your business if used in the right way! Social media has evolved from just being a mode of interaction to a revolution that harnesses the power of multitude. ]]> Companies across the world have realized the importance of Social media & are doing their bit to be a part of this change. One such example is "Toyota Friend". Now Toyota cars act like a friend to their owners. They provide real time information about themselves to their owners on Toyota Friend webpage, social media sites (Facebook, Twitter) and their cellphone.
More on "Toyota Friend" will be posted in the following blogs.
Organizations aspiring to become true social enterprises need to focus on both the internal as well as external customers.
The most important prerequisite for an organization to cater to external customers successfully is to have a strong collaboration and networking inside the company. Till now employees in large organizations have been working in silos and there was not much handshake between various departments, knowledge remained scattered which resulted in lot of delays and redundancies.
In the ideal scenario, information flow should be smooth & quick. There should not be any information island in the modern organizations.
In this series of posts I will focus on how Salesforce is helping companies to walk the social path.
Salesforce has been one of the first few CRM companies to focus on social media as a channel to collaborate with the customer. Salesforce is continuously investing and innovating its social CRM strategy. Major part of this year's Dreamforce event was focused towards innovations to harness the power of "Social CRM".
Salesforce has provideds various social CRM enablers like Salesforce Chatter, Radian6, and Database.com to harness the power of Social Media.
In this post I will focus on new innovations on "Salesforce Chatter" which is one of the most important & mature tool provided by Salesforce for employee social networks.
Salesforce Chatter is a platform for internal collaboration. Employees can reach each other instantly. They can share ideas, files, videos etc. They can work on the documents in real time. Employees can follow events, documents & colleagues. They may be in different teams, working in different locations but they can help each other in many ways.
With the latest edition of Dreamforce (August 2011) Salesforce has unveiled quite a few new functionalities for Chatter which will extend it from just internal customer focused to include external as well -
1. Chatter Now - with this feature Salesforce is trying to build IM (Instant Messenger) like features in Chatter. Just like IM users, Chatter users will be able to see their online colleagues and can do real time chat, screen-sharing on the same Chatter page.

2. Chatter Connect - with this functionality Salesforce is providing REST APIs for Chatter. Using these APIs Chatter feed can be integrated with SharePoint, internal company portals and legacy systems. Information can be streamed into these systems or vice versa.

3. Chatter customer groups - employees can now create focused chatter groups. Customers can be made part of these groups. These groups can be used as a place for employees & the customers to work together on common Assignments, issues etc.

4. Chatter approvals - this is an important addition to chatter. This brings workflow & approvals functionality in Chatter. Now the managers will be able to approve requests via Chatter messages only.

5. Chatter inline filters - with this functionality Chatter user will be able to filter the Chatter feed to suit their needs.
With the addition of the new functionalities Salesforce is making Chatter a stronger collaborative platform which can talk to internal customers, external customers and third part legacy systems.
Time is not far when Salesforce Chatter is going to become the new wall of employee social networks.

Cloud Computing: Will it thunder or rain?

2012-01-05T10:28:43Z

Higher productivity, better resource utilization and innovative solutions are some of the critical factors for sustainability of any organization. In today's highly competitive environment, organizations need to be more agile, flexible and able to respond to changing customer preferences quickly. IT, as an enabler of doing business efficiently, has always provided a bucket of solutions to organizations to achieve their business goals. Customized applications, SAP, Oracle, Siebel packages etc. are some of the preferred solutions for the organizations. Although these IT solutions provide desired results to organizations but their implementation and maintenance are huge upfront costs for any organization. In global economic uncertainty and tightening market, organizations need to evaluate other options which are secure, reliable and cheaper. It makes a case for cloud computing based IT solutions. Cloud computing has become buzzword in today's business world globally and organizations are certainly cannot ignore it without evaluation. Some of the important features of cloud based solutions are multi-tenancy, rapid deployment, pay-as-you-go model, high flexibility, On-demand solution, automatic upgrade and Lower total cost of ownership. Salesforce.com as compared to traditional systems (SAP or Oracle) has very small implementation cost and deployment time. Pay-as-you-go model works like our electricity bill. Organizations are charged for what they are actually using. Hence, Organizations are not needed to buy heavy infrastructure and licenses keeping future expansion plans in mind. They can scale up their CRM application as per their requirement. It puts lesser burden on company's cash flow.
Salesforce.com offers automatic upgrade to any new feature to running applications. It also has a repository of hundreds of applications where organization can browse, test and implement as per their need. Force.com is delivery platform for Salesforce.com which is secure, reliable and scalable. Salesforce.com also offers Chatter, a collaboration cloud product for providing private organizational networking tool.
Cloud computing solutions are fast, user-friendly and cost-effective compared to traditional IT solutions. So, should we assume that traditional system has outlived its utility and cloud based solutions are going to replace them? In my view, there is little possibility for it.
There are certain downsides also with cloud computing solutions. The biggest threat is that as organization's crucial data is lying in cloud and if unauthorized access is obtained to these data, it would pose a big question mark to Cloud based CRM reliability. As these cloud service provider has tie-up with various third-party vendors, it makes the system more susceptible.
As most of the organizations have already invested huge sum in implementation, training and maintenance of legacy system, they would be reluctant to move to cloud based system. Any CTO would not be willing to experiment their business data with new cloud solutions.
Any interruption in third-party data hosting facility would impact the all organizations under multi-tenancy arrangement. In August this year, Amazon's Elastic computing cloud (EC2) suffered outage for few hours impacting its clients' (Foursquare, Netflix) business.
Keeping above concerns in view, organizations can adopt private cloud or hybrid cloud options. I would discuss about these options in my next blog.
Reference:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2390702,00.asp
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Game-changers in the Cloud: Focus on CRM - Part 1

2012-01-05T10:14:46Z

Lately there has been a lot of debate on the possible barriers to user adoption of cloud based technologies due to obvious concerns of data privacy, especially when it comes to sensitive data like company IP (design, manufacturing, etc.) residing on service provider's datacenters with little or no control. Lately there has been a lot of debate on the possible barriers to user adoption of cloud based technologies due to obvious concerns of data privacy, especially when it comes to sensitive data like company IP (design, manufacturing, etc.) residing on service provider's datacenters with little or no control.
In an extension to this debate, I shall focus on this lingering concern about data privacy, security and ownership of CRM data as a first part of my series of Blogs around innovations which may/already have altered the course of the industry ecosystem.
In the Dreamforce'11, though primary focus was on Chatter social networking platform as the foundation of the new "Social Enterprise", a subset of eye-balls was dedicated to the announcement of Database.com DRO which will be a hybrid model of cloud deployment. DRO or Data Residency Option provides an alternative to customers for on-premise storage of critical data instead of Salesforce datacenters. Although, with the announcement of DRO, Salesforce is in essence, replicating the model that already exists for SugarCRM and is in the stack from Microsoft Dynamics CRM as well, I believe DRO will be a new disruptive trend which will jolt the landscape of cloud based CRM industry. With this, Salesforce is finally recognizing the challenge behind data placement outside of a company firewall.
DRO is based on a unique encryption technique (more on that later) developed by Navajo Systems, an Israeli start-up which Salesforce.com acquired shortly before Dreamforce.
Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff said in his keynote at Dreamforce'11 that DRO was intended "only for specific large customers to withhold specific information" (1). In a way this is a response to the rumors that have floated around the cloud industry for years that Salesforce.com has deployed its cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) solution behind the corporate firewalls for few of their prized customers.
I shall bring to you more on how DRO functions and similar other trends in my upcoming series.

I would love to receive feedbacks on the blog and any information which will be augmenting the above subject.

References:
(1) http://blog.sugarcrm.com/2011/09/02/10-questions-about-salesforce-that-dreamforce-answered-%E2%80%93-more-or-less/

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Social Contacts in Salesforce.Com

2012-01-05T09:57:30Z

About the feature
Social Contact
Social Contacts feature is enabled by default for organizations created after October 7, 2011, and for existing organizations, they have to be enabled by default. It lets the user of the system view contacts' social network profiles directly in Salesforce.com instance. Currently, it is supported for the following social networks.
 LinkedIn® - Can be used for being up to date on contact's professional information and history
 Twitter™ - Can be leveraged to understand the contact's public personas and track their interactions. Recent tweets, followings, and contact's following can be used to gain insights
 Facebook® - Can be used to gain and track personal information regarding contacts and their interests. Integrate the information related to profiles, status updates, and mutual friends.]]> Enable Social Contact

1. Browse to Setup à App Setup à Customize à Social Contactsà Settings
2. Click on 'Enable Social Contacts'
3. In the Social Networks, click on the various social network sites i.e. LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook
Social Contact - Privacy & Security Overview
 Trusted OAuth protocol is used by Salesforce.com when the user signs in to the social network accounts. Thus, the user's login credentials aren't exposed to Salesforce.com instance.
 Importing or storage of social information does not take place in Salesforce.com. Each time the contact's social profile is selected; Salesforce.com retrieves the information directly from the corresponding social network and displays it. The information Salesforce.com instance is read-only and not modifiable by the user.
 As import or social information storing in contact records is not possible, this ensures that only current details are visible when viewing the contact's social profiles.
 The details that are visible to the user during viewing of a contact's social profile are determined by the connection that the user has with the contact and the contact's privacy settings. Typically, the same information is displayed as that when viewing the profile while logged in directly to the social network. Restricted visibility of some contacts may be enabled through privacy settings, which would limit some or all of their profile details accessibility outside the contact's network. The native feature of Salesforce.com is to display limited information, and not all the details.
 The contact's social profile view is not shared with other users in the organization.
 For other users to view the social profile, users must sign in to their own social network accounts, and the profile details that are visible will depend on each user's connection level with the contact and the privacy settings set by the contact.
 Salesforce.com does not store social profile information. Also, there is no posting of any information about the user or activities to the user's social network accounts.
 There is no notification to the users when the user views their social profiles using the Social Contacts feature.

Social Contact's Profile - Functionality
Signing In
In order to start using Social Contacts, the user needs to sign in to the social network accounts from Salesforce.com. This will create private and secure connections between the Salesforce.com package and the accounts in the social network, which in turn will enable viewing of external social profiles in the Salesforce.com instance.
If the user does not log out from the social network account, the connection/session that is already established with the Salesforce.com and the accounts in the social network will still be present and not cease to exist.
Steps for signing in to Contact's Social Profile:
1. Browse to the Contacts tab à Contacts list view, and click a contact's name to go to the detail page.
2. Click on the specific social network icon in the header on the contact's detail page.
3. Click the Sign in button on the Social Contact popup box.
4. Enter the credentials for the social network account and authorize Salesforce.com to access your account.
Finding and Viewing
Social Contacts can be used to find the account's/contact's social profiles and link them to their contact records. This can be done only after the connection has been established. The information can be viewed as and when needed, directly from contact detail page.
Browse to the Contacts Tab à Contacts list view, and click on contact's name. The contact detail page gets displayed. Click a social network icon in the header on the respective contact's detail page. The profile selected by the user is linked to the contact record, and other Salesforce.com users accessing the record will also be able to view the profile.
If the contact has not been associated with the social profile, Salesforce.com does automatic searches for profiles that match the contact name. Select the appropriate social profile in the search results displayed on the Social Contacts popup.

Enterprise networking using Salesforce Chatter

2012-01-05T09:48:17Z

In today's complex networked organizations, integration of different business functions has become more important than ever. Consider the case of a manufacturing unit - the procurement team requires inputs from inventory management before placing orders for raw materials; the manufacturing division has to negotiate with resource management for optimizing human and capital resources; and the sales team has to constantly keep the finance department in the loop about customer pricing. Up-to-date information has to be shared across the organization for centralized decision making. The need of the hour is a platform that helps business information to be shared in real time. Enter Chatter, the enterprise networking application from Salesforce.com.

Chatter brings to the forefront the networking principles pioneered by Facebook and Twitter but with an enterprise twist. Over and above vanilla networking functionalities like creation of profiles and contact lists, Chatter provides enhanced capabilities like tracking record updates using feeds and sharing business information using groups (1). The wealth of information available by integrating data across the organization assists management in making critical decisions. For example, a retail store manager will be able to place timely orders for a particular product by tracking real time updates to the inventory field of that product (2); a business opportunity can be converted by creating a group to share available information before the client presentation.

According to a Gartner report (3), over 50 percent of enterprises will use activity streams like micro-blogging by 2012. The quest for synergizing organizational capabilities has set the precedent for a new paradigm in which an 'enterprise Twitter' or an 'enterprise Facebook' will be used not just as networking tools but also as change agents. What is needed is a holistic understanding of the benefits of enterprise networking and how Chatter, with its collaboration capabilities and built-in integration with the Salesforce CRM suite is best-placed to lead this revolution.
References:
1) http://www.salesforce.com/in/chatter/features/
2) http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications/salesforce-steps-enterprise-social-networking-718
3) http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1293114
4) http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/salesforce-chatter-social-network/

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Impact of Master Data Management on Supply Chain - Part 4

2011-12-13T16:16:55Z

By Atin Harsh Bhola

Master Data Management Solution for a Supplier Hub
Supplier hub is an application that unifies and shares critical information about an organization's supply base. It does this by enabling customers to centralize all supplier information from heterogeneous systems and thus creates a single view of supplier information that can be leveraged across all functional departments.

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As shown above, centralizing the master data and then publishing to all the relevant systems provides the following benefits
-Reduces purchase order errors
-Reduces payment errors and reduces order to cash time
-Reduces supplier related financial risks
-Reduces supplier related non-compliance risks and collaboration costs
-Reduces supplier information look up times
-Reduces report generation costs
-Reduces new product introduction cycle time

Supplier hub can be leveraged to effectively perform supplier profile management, procure blended supplier information from multiple sources, and perform supplier data enrichment and supplier evaluation. This gathered information can then be published to disparate systems which require supplier master data.

Supplier Profile Management
Organization, banking details, purchasing terms and controls, invoicing terms, payment controls, receiving controls, tax details.
Blended Supplier Profile
Create single supplier truth blended profile from multiple sources.
Profile the attributes from many sources (eg: invoice terms from first source is Net 45 and other is Net 42).
Supplier Data Enrichment
Search and import D&B information like credit and risk info, relationship info, supplier risk analysis and evaluation scores.
Supplier Evaluation
Is supplier flexible during negotiations?
Is supplier responsive?
Any quality complaints and overall satisfaction?
Supplier Data Publication
Publish the latest and the most trusted supplier master data to all the systems needing supplier master data.

Conclusion
MDM can help enterprises to start moving their organizations towards a common environment. In the supply chain world that is full of sub-contractors and third-parties that are located in different geographies with different technical backgrounds, MDM becomes a unique tool to help. Process adherence in supply chain also becomes very difficult as product moves across the globe and is transported from warehouse to carrier to customers and back again. With MDM, large 3PLs and others can start to orchestrate systems and applications that facilitate compliance to standardised organizational processes. MDM can help multi national enterprises in implementing global inventory management, global order management, global price management in a faster and a cheaper way as MDM ensures standardization, integrity and a single version of truth of all master data.

About the Author: Atin Bhola is a consultant working on SCM domain having 5 years of IT experience. He has worked on oracle applications (distribution modules) and also in MDM domain (Siebel UCM).

Impact of Master Data Management on Supply Chain - Part 3

2011-12-01T23:00:07Z

By Atin Harsh Bhola

In the last part, we discussed about the practical supply chain issues for the enterprises and their MDM solutions. In this part, we will look into the business benefits as well as the functional benefits of the proposed MDM solutions.

Business Benefits of Master Data Management
Below are some of the business benefits of master data management

Data Consolidation from M&A
MDM defines a single, trustworthy version of important enterprise master data

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Streamlined supplier management
Supplier lifecycle management gives a 360 degree view to supplier information
Supplier hub provides a consolidated single source of truth for supplier data

Reduced cost of error
Accurate information at point of sale leads to correct distribution and inventory management
Reduced logistic cost due to reduced dimensional errors in carriages

Streamlined pricing updates
Efficient and uniform publish of price updates across all systems
Decision support to help predict revenue and profit-margin impact of price change for each SKU

Ordering costs
Ensures lowest cost supplier is chosen
Changes in part numbers, price from legacy systems appear correctly in ERP systems leading to better EOQ and incorrect PO costs

Data governance
Enforce data governance policies through improved collaboration with suppliers, customers and partners
Enforce data standards and metrics

Planning and scheduling
Integrity and standardization of master elements in supply chain leading to reduced impact of change in BOM, subassembly, parts
Faster logistics and delivery

Master Data Management Functional Benefits
MDM is a combination of applications and technologies that cleans, consolidates, governs and shares the critical business information (master data) supporting the transactional and analytical operations of enterprise.
-Clean and consolidated data: Enables accurate reports, efficient operation, trustworthy analytics and cross-communication between disparate systems
-Data governance: MDM eliminates inconsistencies in core business data and enables strong process controls. This reduces application fragmentation and results in effective data governance
-Data share: With MDM, new applications can easily integrate and share the most trusted version of master data. This integration shortens the time it takes to achieve ROI on application investment.

Impact of Master Data Management on Supply Chain - Part 2

2011-11-24T13:22:34Z

By Atin Harsh Bhola

In the last part, we discussed the supply chain pain points that modern enterprises face. In this part, we will look into the key supply chain practical issues and their MDM solutions.

Practical supply chain issues and their MDM solutions
Practical issue 1: A retailer's distribution center (DC) in X city has its operations shut down for an extended period of time due to a hurricane. Unfortunately, the retailer is unable to shift distribution for those regional stores because its store-order codes are a combination of item codes and the supplying DC's codes. Changing the distribution channel requires changing the order guides, which for most organizations is a herculean task. The delay leads to empty shelves, lost sales, unhappy customers and irreparable brand damage.

]]> MDM solution (Responsiveness): Sound master data can source items from anywhere to anywhere at the touch of a button because all data around items, suppliers, contracts and sites have been uncoupled from their source This enables the retailer to easily reconfigure the data so that store-order codes are a combination of uniform item codes and the new supplying DC's codes.

Practical issue 2: Customer A goes to a grocery store to pick 8 items that are needed for dinner that evening. One of the most important item is out of stock in the store. The customer abandons the shopping cart and leaves without purchasing a single item. To this customer, purchasing all eight items in one store is a more attractive option than waiting in checkout lines at two different stores To the retailer, this out-of-stock led to the lost sale of eight items and a very dissatisfied customer
MDM solution (Reduced Out of Stocks): Out-of-stocks are inextricably linked to poor forecasts in 47 percent of cases. And poor forecasts are often the result of data inaccuracies in retailers' supply chain, merchandising and inventory systems--precisely the kind of inaccuracies that master data management helps prevent. An MDM implementation ensures that the inventory is correctly tracked and orders are placed accurately in advance to meet the demand. Since MDM implementation ensures that the customer, supplier, product, BOM data is correct, accurate forecasting also enables the correct value of safety stock to be maintained for changing demands.

Practical issue 3: A northern regional buyer of a multinational organization purchases a large volume of jackets from a vendor named 'Cook & Wilson Outfitters'. This allows him to negotiate a favorable deal with the vendor. Another southern regional buyer of the same MNC purchases a large volume of the same product from the same vendor. However, in the southern regional system, this vendor's details are entered as "C&W Outfitters." Because the vendor description is not uniform between the two systems, the southern buyer is unable to negotiate an advantageous price based on total volume purchased by the MNC as a whole
MDM solution (Cost Reduction): An MDM implementation ensures that the product codes appear uniform throughout the applications used by an organization. Since MDM serves as a central repository, any changes done to the product code/value through any applications comes to MDM. MDM validates the change and applies data quality rules so that the most trusted version of the product code/value appears in MDM hub. This cleansed and standardized product data is then published to the relevant applications using this data through real time/batch framework so that the most trusted version of product data appears uniformly in all the applications

Practical issue 4: A fast food company X is a competitor of a company Y.Company X finds that in order to compete, it has to improve value/revenue generated against some of its low revenue yielding products
MDM solution (Additional Revenues): With MDM implementation, a company may discover that in the northern region, customers who buy boneless chicken also buy a marinade 43 percent of the time.With that information, the retailer can craft a campaign to help drive sales of a slow-moving marinade while increasing the average customer sale.

About the Author: Atin Bhola is a consultant working on SCM domain having 5 years of IT experience. He has worked on oracle applications (distribution modules) and also in MDM domain (Siebel UCM).

Atom of CRM - Part 2

2011-11-23T09:42:31Z

By Richy Yati Mishra

In the last part, we discussed about how CRM is bound by the feeling of the consumers. To understand the same, we tried to focus on the 7 O's framework of consumer behaviour on which the marketing managers rely on for establishing a strong relationship with their customers. In this part, let us try and analyze on the basis of the 7 O's framework how the atom of CRM - feeling plays a key role in the relationship management of the customer.

]]> (1) Occupants: Who constitutes the feelings?
In this we have to identify who all are the stakeholders for whom any change in the business will link to their feelings. It may be the end-user for whom end-user application may be changing. It may be the manager for whom efficiency of the team will be increasing or it may be the owners of the organization for whom profit is increasing.

(2) Object: What does the customer feel?
This is very interesting for an IT industry because, given that our products are intangible in nature, the question comes how can an intangible product make a customer feel better? It is not the product rather the experience that will make the customer feel better. The marketer should always (or most of the times) come with a demo for product. Let the customer know what is going to be created in coming months; how the solution is going to change his present business style. The demo will take him to that phase where he can experience the end product which will make him feel better.

(3) Objectives: Why does the customer feel?
Here we have to identify what is it that matters most to the customer? For example, is it speed for some application or the efficiency of it? What is the objective of the customer and what are the key core values he is looking into? If we improve or can add value to that particular thing then definitely customer will feel good.

(4) Organizations: Who participates in feeling?
We have to identify who all will be participating when we will be proposing the solution. Then we have to identify and do something so that each one of them will be feeling better. There should be something for all to celebrate and this collective celebration will rise to stronger relationship.

(5) Operations: How does the customer feel?
In this we have to concentrate how to make the customer feel better.

(6) Occasions: When does the customer feel?
We have to identify/create occasions when the customer will feel better. The day, on which we are proposing a solution, how can we make it a great occasion for him? From the start time to the end till the time we deliver the product -should create an occasion when the customer will feel better.

(7) Outlets: How we present our feelings to customer?
How we present our feelings to our customers matters a lot. Starting from the way we present to the way we show our feelings (caring) towards the customer can play a decisive role in the customer's feelings and thereby our relationship with him.

If we notice keenly, then we will understand that this is all about CRM. We do mostly the above things for CRM which make me to believe that feeling is the key and it matters most. But one question left with me and I want you to take it with you... and that is, do we need to learn Customer Feeling Management? What sensory branding has done in marketing field, are we going to see a similar transformation in CRM too with Feeling Management?

About the author: Richy Yati Mishra is an associate consultant working for CRM domain; focus on go-to-market CRM solutions. He has more than 3 years of experience in IT industry.

Impact of Master Data Management on Supply Chain - Part 1

2011-11-19T10:12:27Z

By Atin Harsh Bhola

Many companies have IT systems that are inflexible, antiquated and are difficult and expensive to enhance, maintain and support. Such organizations have difficulty managing the data associated with their operations. Data ownership, fragmentation across systems, multiple points of failure and data inconsistency is among the problems that lead to product quality and recall situations in their supply chain. Master Data Management can be effectively leveraged to solve these issues through data standardization, data integrity and presenting a single source of truth. The blog provides a brief of the typical pain points that the complex supply chains of the companies today face.

]]> In order to simplify the explanation, the blog provides some practical examples and the resolution of the issues through master data management. The blog also summarizes the business benefits that master data management could offer. Finally the blog provides a brief of MDM solution that could effectively tackle the typical issues in supply chain through cleaning, consolidating, governing and sharing of master data and also talks about supplier hub solution and its benefits.

Supply chain pain points

Companies today foresee the following pain points in their supply chain

Slow supply chain responsiveness:

Ø Slow response to any change upstream or downstream.

Cost reduction:

Ø Incapability to reduce the costs of procurement by getting a better price from the supplier based on the total volume purchased.

Out -of-stocks:

Ø Poor forecasts due to data inaccuracies in the supply chain leading to stock outs

Slow product/price updates causing revenue leakage:

Ø Increased complexity in the supply chain and the increased number of systems involved leading to difficulty in publishing product/price updates to all the relevant systems in a timely manner. This results in loss of revenues and inconsistencies in supply chain.

Cost of error:

Ø Inconsistencies/duplicates in vendor, product or customer data causing considerable loss of revenues.

Data consolidation from M&A:

Ø Difficulty in consolidating product, vendor and customer data after a merger or acquisition leading to business disruption.

Having analyzed the pain points of supply chain, in the next part, we will look at the practical issues of SCM and their MDM solutions.

Atom of CRM - Part 1

2011-11-17T08:34:16Z

By Richy Yati Mishra

Customer Relationship Management... Some say it's a strategy and some say it's a process. It is an art or even could be science of understanding the customer behavior. However, in essence what is common is that we need to learn more about customers' needs and behaviors; we need to develop a strong relationship with customer. And through this the overall goal is to find, attract and win new clients, farm and retain existing clients, get the old clients back and reduce marketing expenditure.

]]> Well if relationship is the ultimate factor, then how to manage that? Why a customer is having a good relationship with one or two companies when there are N numbers of competitors? Why not all the companies are able to manage the relationship with equal effectiveness? When all the companies are investing in CRM, almost all the companies are equipped with latest tools and technology, then how is one company better than the others?
What is that factor which is binding customers with the company? How most effectively can we understand customers' needs and behaviors? What exactly are we doing in CRM? There are many theories, strategies and processes to achieve and this blog tries to explain it from the core..
I believe it is the feeling that binds. It is all about how to make your client feel better than others. Let me explain the same thing from our personal life. Why are few people closer to us than others? Why do we like some and dislike others? What is that which creates soft corner towards few people? It's the feeling and how we enjoy the company of the other one. Few people make us feel good and gradually we create a good feeling towards them and that creates a relationship.
So CRM is all about the feeling of customer and how to make the customer feel better. It's easy to mold the feelings of an existing customer more easily than a new one and that's the reason it takes only 15% of the cost of marketing to do business with an old customer than attracting a new one. If we have to make a great relationship with a particular customer then all the time we should think, what I should do to make my customer feel better. That may come in any form let it be security, confidence or profit to his asset. This is the way one learns Customer Relationship Management.
Now let me try to validate this theory with 7 Os framework of consumer behavior. This framework studies how consumers (in this case customers either individuals or groups) select, buy, use and dispose of goods, services, ideas to satisfy their needs.
To understand consumers, marketing managers rely on 7 O's framework of consumer research.
(1) Occupants: Who constitute the market?
(2) Objects: What does the market buy?
(3) Objectives: Why does the market buy?
(4) Organizations: Who participates in buying?
(5) Operations: How does the market buy?
(6) Occasions: When does the market buy?
(7) Outlets: Where does the market buy?
Marketing, consumer behavior and CRM are very closely coupled with each other. So, in the next part, we will explore the 7 O's framework of Customer Relationship Management using its atom - Feeling.

About the author: Richy Yati Mishra is an associate consultant working for CRM domain; focus on go-to-market CRM solutions. He has more than 3 years of experience in IT industry.