According to one industry view, CRM consists of:

• Helping an enterprise to enable its marketing departments to identify and target their best customers, manage marketing campaigns with clear goals and objectives, and generate quality leads for the sales team.
• Assisting the organization to improve telesales, account, and sales management by optimizing information shared by multiple employees, and streamlining existing processes (for example, taking orders using mobile devices)
• Allowing the formation of individualized relationships with customers, with the aim of improving customer satisfaction and maximizing profits; identifying the most profitable customers and providing them the highest level of service.
• Providing employees with the information and processes necessary to know their customers, understand their needs, and effectively build relationships between the company, its customer base, and distribution partners.

CRM--Customer Relationship Management--has entered the mainstream. Despite the uncertainty of the economy, CRM is being thrust into corporate budgets and talked about as a critical initiative by hundreds of Fortune 1,000 and tens of thousands of other companies. It has gone from being an important edge in the business world to a necessary tool for survival. The notion of the customer as king or queen is once again the rule. How you treat this is a mission-critical business issue.

But, what is CRM and how does it change the way companies do business? The changes in the world have been so dynamic and so dramatic that the path isnt necessarily all that obvious. How CRM impacts that business path is a continuing source of debate in the world of corporate management.

Managing relationships with customers has become a critical organizational competency. Get winning strategies for acquiring and retaining customers by leveraging the latest advanced technologies. This course will teach you how to select the right tools for your business-- so it can grow today--and on into the future. Lagging means lost customers, which means damage to the bottom line. But how do you not lag when customers are moving lightning fast to demand constant changes in the speed to complete their transactions? How do you keep your customers when the move to another company is nothing more than a mouse click and a minute away?

CRM is the answer. Customer Relationship Management, a strategy that leverages very advanced technologies is the way to cut to the 21st Century business chase.

Overview of CRM
CRM Concepts; CRM - More definitions; CRM Drivers; Constituents of a Good CRM Strategy; CRM and Technology; CRM Solutions Map; The Concept of e-CRM; e-CRM and CRM; Implementation Challenges

Developing a Customer Strategy
Section 1: Fundamentals of Customer Strategy; Customer Strategy Basics' Customer Loyalty; Customer Satisfaction; Customer profiling and Modeling

Section 2: Evolution of a Customer Centric Enterprise; Customer Centric Enterprise - Background; Customer Centricity - Concepts; Product Centricity Vs. Customer Centricity; Customer Centric Strategy; Evolution of Customer Centric Enterprise (CCE); Specific Adaptations of a CCE

Section 3: Discussing the core of successful CRM initiatives; Core of any successful CRM initiative; Seven Habits of a successful CCE

Section 4: Mapping People, Processes and Technology; Revisiting the basic precepts; Discussing People, Processes and Technology; Transitioning from product centricity -Processes; Transitioning from product centricity -People; Transitioning from product centricity -Technology;

Customer Lifecycle Management and Lifetime Value
Concept of Customer lifecycle; Customer Life Cycle stages - Illustrated; Customer Life Cycle Management; Managing the Customer Life Cycle in a CCE; Concept of Customer Lifetime Value; Customer Lifetime value assessment

CRM Technology
CRM Ecosystem; Customer Interaction and CRM; Three Pillars of CRM
Operational CRM; Analytical cycle of CRM; Analytical CRM; Collaborative CRM

Operational CRM
Sales Force Automation; Account Management - Illustrated; Opportunity Management -Illustrated; Sales Forecasting; Sales Funnel management
Sales Pipeline Management; Marketing Automation; Campaign Management; Analyzing, Learning, Listening and Responding; Workflow Management; Marketing Communications - Illustrated; Contact Management; Contact Management - Illustrated; Ticket Management

Analytical CRM
Critical components of Customer Centric Strategies; Analytical CRM defined; CRM Intelligence Management Cycle; Analytics and Customer Life Cycle Management; CRM Data warehouse; Analytical CRM Components; Benefits from CRM Analytics; Customer Centric Data Mining; Analytical CRM application areas; Teradata Industry CRM
Requirements from an Analytical CRM application; Data Extraction - Illustrated; Data Enhancement -Illustrated; Clustering and profiling
Model building and Analysis; Scoring; CRM Analytics - Sample vendor options; Common Implementation Problems

Collaborative CRM
Collaborative CRM; Customer Centricity revisited; Channel evolution
Multi-channel Strategy; Multi-Enterprise Value Networks; Mapping Customer interactions into Life Cycle stages; Customer Interaction Centers; Avaya Communications architecture -Illustrated; Customer Interaction Center - Detailed; Avaya Unified Communication model -Illustrated; Call Center - Explained; Evolution of Contact Centers;
Contact Centers -Evolution Phases; Technology Transformation and Migration; Customer interaction -illustrated; What do portals address?
Integrating Customer Information through portals; Employee Portal
Customer Portal; Partner Portal

CRM Project Management
CRM Initiative- Phases; Planning the CRM initiative; Preparatory Phase
Preparatory Phase - Activities; Defining the CRM vision; Assessing CRM readiness (Organizational perspective); Analyzing business processes
Auditing the IS/IT infrastructure; Establishing CRM project objectives
Building a business case for CRM; Building the team; Ensuring involvement of key people; Prioritizing the requirements; Establishing the budget; Establishing tentative timelines; Short listing prospective CRM solution vendors; Selecting the CRM solution; Selecting the solution partner; Implementation Phase; CRM implementation project methodology; Definition Stage; Analysis Stage; Design & prototyping Stage; Configuration & Testing; Deployment Stage; Managing Change;
Training is key to implementing change; Post Implementation Phase
Post Implementation Support; Problem areas to look out for

Building a Business Case for CRM
Need for a Business Case; Elements of a good Business Case; Challenges in quantifying CRM Benefits; Categorization of CRM Benefits
CRM Metrics Framework; CRM Benefits -Customer’s perspective; A methodology for ROI Estimation; Presenting the benefits - Illustration; Identifying and mitigating risks