SEMESTER 1, 2012

Submission Instruction:

• Due: Week 10 – A hard copy of your assignment and coversheet must be submitted to by Wednesday 23 May 2012
• No extension will be granted for students who are enrolled late in this subject.
• Late submissions will be penalized at the rate of ten precent (10%) of the available marks per day.
• Students must attach the assignment coversheet and fill in the correct information about your tutorial including your tutor’s name. Penalty will be applied if you fail to do so.
• The policy statement on cheating and plagiarism is a cornerstone of academic integrity at Macquarie University. All students are responsible for familiarizing themselves with the policy, seeking further advice if necessary and complying with it at all times. If you use any material, for example textbooks, journal articles, etc, to support your answer, you are to use the Harvard Style of referencing in your answer for both in-text and bibliography referencing.
• Format requirements: “Times New Roman” size 12 with 1.5 line spacing, approximately 600 words in total (not including references and questions). You must include the total of words used in your report.
• Students must submit the following document in the specified order shown below:
  • Printout of the marking sheet
  • Individual Cover page (Students must complete the cover page including your tutor’s name and tutorial date/time to enable your assignment to be returned correctly.)
  • Answers

1. Go to www.sap.com and answer the following questions:  (3 marks)

1.1 What is SAP?  Provide a brief history of SAP and its relation to ERP and AIS.  (1 mark)

1.2 What are the four processes that can be helped by using financial and management accounting function in SAP ERP Financials?  (2 marks)

1. The company you work for is a user of the SAP ERP system.  Management have heard a lot about Customer Relationship Management (CRM) but like most people are unsure what is involved. They believe that SAP provides a CRM solution. You have been asked to create a management report on CRM and the implications to your company for the meeting in the following week. (7 marks)

      The report should explain

2.1  What is CRM

2.2  Two benefits that it offers?

2.3  Provide an example of company that have implemented this component and any issues associated with this implementation?

You must explain the component without using SAP jargon and journalistic terms.  Management should be able to ask you questions about any section of your report and you should be able to explain it.  If you can’t then don’t include it.

SOLUTION

Contents

SAP: History and Implementation. 1

Report on CRM… 1

References: 3

SAP: History and Implementation

SAP termed as System Analysis and Program Development was founded in 1972 by five former employees of IBM and has been associated with ERP, Enterprise Resource and Planning as the products of SAP are based on ERP which provide solutions to the enterprises in managing the resources and cost reduction.

Automatic Identification System is tracking system traditionally used on ships. This concept has also been in implemented together with ERP that has increased the overall efficiency of the system.

SAP ERP Financials has found its implementation in various fields such as Billing, Material Management, Supply Chain Management and the Customer Relationship Management.

Report on CRM

Customer Relationship Management

It is the application of softwares and the computer applications for the better management of the customer relations in organized and systematic manner so as to ensure the optimum level of efficiency is achieved in meeting the requirements of the customers. (Sageagility.com,2010)

In this the relationship is developed between the various aspects that form part of the system that have role in the customer relationship management. This include management, salespeople, individual in direct interaction with the customers.

Thus the above people in the system need to have access to the system so as to ensure the requirements of the system are fulfilled in order to maintain the uniformity in the system.

Benefits of CRM

It helps an organisation in identifying the areas that need improvement and work on them in order to ensure that the deficiency in the systems are removed and thus ensures the quality in the services provided is maintained. Thus it is a very important tool for maintaining the standard of the services that are provided.

Another benefit of the customer relationship management is that it provides assistance in streamlining the complete process and thus it ensures that the key areas are identified which have the importance in the complete process as well as the cost reduction that can be implemented  (Ueno, 2006). Thus it provides the complete solution recognizing all the aspects of the functional management as well as the consideration for the technical aspects for the complete process.

CRM Success & Failures

Bell Canada that has operations in Canada and is the largest communication company in the country has its success story after the implementation of CRM as it provides the solutions and increased the efficiency of the company that has an employee base of around 28 million.

DHL the largest courier company of the world introduced the CRM in their system and has witnessed extreme results as the technology enabled them to have increased efficiency in the coordination between their offices that are spread across the world (Ueno, 2006). It not only enabled them to have increased productivity, but also reduced the operational costs and thus increased profits. The success story of DHL can be attributed at large to the application of CRM which enabled the company to operate efficiently in the remotest of areas of the world and become the market leader of the business which started with the handling of bills of lading.

The best part of the CRM is that it fits almost all the business environment. It is not customer, product or industry centric rather it works on those aspects that are generalized for each and every industry and ensures that all the parameters are covered (Ueno, 2006). Thus it becomes easy for any organisation to implement CRM as it provides standardised well as customized solutions.

The only limitation of the CRM is that the viability of the project for which it is implemented has to be estimated. CRM is associated with high costs as it involves modern technology and the implementation cost of maintaining the database. Thus CRM may not be financially viable for small organisation but certainly be beneficial for growing enterprises.

Another limitation is the knowledge of the system. CRM implementation requires knowledge of not only the system but also the knowledge of technical aspects. Thus it requires training of the personnel which adds to the costs to the organisation.

Conclusion

The CRM has many benefits but before it is implemented the complete nature of business and the system has to be understood and the viability of CRM in achieving the objectives is supported. This is to say the various aspects discussed above need to be considered before CRM is actually applied.

References:

SalesAgility.com. (2010). Introduction to CRM. Available: http://dl.sugarforge.org/training/training/IntroductiontoCRM/CRM_Fundamentals.pdf. Last accessed 17th May 2012.

SAP at a Glance: Press Factsheet, April 2007″. SAP. http://www.sap.com/company/press/factsheet/corporate.epx. Retrieved 15 October 2007.

Satoshi Ueno. (2006). The Impact of Customer Relationship Management. Available: http://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/us-japan/research/pdf/06-13.ueno.pdf. Last accessed 17th May 2012.

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