Customer Relationship Management(CRM) System Implementation Planning for Manufacturing Industry

The competitive advantage of Electronic Manufacturing industry is used to focus on cost reduction, production cycle and supply chain efficiency. Facing the severe global competition, cost reduction and quality improvement are no longer sufficient; the transformation from product-oriented to customer-oriented companies is the key to success. Therefore, the customer relationship management is expected to become the new and important competitive advantage for Taiwan Electronic Manufacturing industry.
Due to the importance of CRM adoption for future competition and the lack of related empirical studies, this research attempts to build up a framework for enterprises to evaluate and plan the implementation of CRM system. This research first analyze the factors for enterprises to plan and implement CRM Strategy, blueprint, implementation methodology, key successful factors, and expected benefits, and then further validate the proposed framework and factors through in-depth case study of one large Taiwanese electronic manufacturing company.
Based on the results, this study concludes that for the electronic manufacturing companies: (1) Transformation of customer-oriented company is the key strategic initiative to implement CRM. (2) The main requirements of CRM system are sales process, after-sales service and warranty management, analytical reporting tool, and CRM information sharing platform.(3) The main expected benefits are to increase profitability, shorten sales cycle, improve the accuracy of sales forecast, increase cross-selling and up-selling opportunities, reduce service costs and internal communication costs, and increase customer satisfaction and retention. (4) The internal process change and the change management are the keys to success for CRM project.