MAR 4860 - Assignments

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Subject: Dell - Marco Fiorentino Topic: Discussion Assignment #1

Author: MARCO FIORENTINO Date: January 25, 2011 11:05 PM

1. State the name of the store and the number of times you have visited it.

Dell.com. I have visited their site about 7 times just this month. This is my 5th computer, and I'm a

happy customer.

2. Explain why you go frequently. What are the main reasons?

I have IT knowledge. When Apple tried (many times) to pay $ 1200 for a Mac Book (Laptop computer by

Apple), they've approached me with their 'We're better than anyone, and if you buy our product, you

will be better than anyone as well' speech. I study communications (advertising), and literally it is very

hard to sell an image or a product to me. Apple was trying to give me, not a computer, but an expensive

'toy' on which you can't have the same productivity as in a PC or a regular Windows laptop. Plus, I

understand about computers, and I know the difference in quality from a Dell to an HP to an Apple. My

main reasons are simple.Dell is used by the government. Every federal building that has a computer, carries Dell as a main

provider. Why? stability, reliability and price. Dell sends me discounts all the time. Dell gives me the

chance of having a very good computer for less than $600, and for the person who actually understand

what is to have a computer, you can make that $600 computer run faster than any Mac or any HP. Dell

promotes new ideas, and listens every time you make suggestions on their webpage.

3. If you had to pick a CRM definition that best describes this store which one would it be and why?

Explain how this store lives out the definition.

To my view, Dell holds an Operational, Sales Oriented, Direct to Customer (DTC) CRM . I've seen that Dell

has a record of my previous purchases, and they send me more offers so I keep on buying. They don't

have a huge inventory, they also don't have a factory that produces computer parts for them. Not even

the software that reads 'Dell' is made by them: it is all made through precise research, investigation and

knowledge, that they are delivering cheap parts with good quality. They have a direct contact with theirsuppliers and your computer usually gets assembled in 24 hrs. something that is harder for other

competitors such as HP, Toshiba or Apple. Why? simple: it doesn't matter what do you want your

computer with; they will configure it so you have it fully customized. Even though the customization

process is limited, because of technical specifications and discrepancies between specifications of

internal computer parts, you computer is fully customizable. You can literally order anything you want

on it, and they will assemble it on 24 hrs.

4. Has this store expressed an interest to establish a long-term relationship with you as opposed to

merely selling or serving you in a single transaction? What have they done specifically, to indicate that

they are interested in your long-term business as opposed to one-time transactions?

They have given me discounts, gift cards and special offers, besides treating me like an A class customer.

They have even upgraded my peripherals (mouse, keyboard, memory card reader, speakers, monitor)free of charge. They really deserve more attention than some other computer manufacturers.

5. Do you think the store follows a certain type of CRM perspective(s): strategic, operational,

analytical, or collaborative? Explain why or why not using the material from the chapter.

I believe that a company is a combination of strategies set to achieve a goal. Nothing really is properly

structured as it was before. I already stated the reason why Dell computers has an Operational

perspective. However, if the reader pays attention to a specific part of it, he or she will detect that there

are some brush-strokes of Collaborative CMR. And to my belief, it is true. I think that Dell has a very fast

response towards the customer's request, and I also think that it doesn't really matter what the

customer wants: they will have it in less than 24 hours, so your computer is completed on that time.

They also have business programs, where they assist you setting up a company computer's workgroup

Assignment # 1Monday, February 14, 2011

5:56 PM

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through, selling, installing and assisting the customers. They also sell smart mobile phones, as Windows

Phone 7 and Android based phones from different carriers, which they physically don't have in their

warehouses. And that's maybe why I am on their customer suggestions program.

You can tell: it's Dell.

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Brief background about the company. Include name(1), purpose for implementing CRM(2), type of CRM

initiative(3), problem they were trying to solve(4).

•

Cigna is one of the largest health insurers in the US.1."To render consistent and quality service to all customers nation-wide." That was the vision

statement of the new CRM project.

2.

Analytical CRM. The core of the solution was based on the purchase, and deployment of new it

hardware and software, specific for customer data mining for tactical purposes.

3.

In December 2002, they announced that problems in their customer database systems resulted in

misquoting their number of customers by an extra 900,000. Membership fell due to poor

customer service. The main reason, according to analysts was that the failure of restructuring of

it's IT and CRM systems: the company was operating on systems that were almost two decades

old.

4.

Application of CRM planning & implementation guidelines. Include the parts of the course materialthat this company used(1). What did they do right? (2)Be sure clearly state and highlight the course

concepts it used - you must have at least 4 connections.

•

It is clear that there was a situation analysis, and that the Phase 1 (development of the strategy) is

completed. Phase 2 of the project, lacks a risk management plan. When Anania (CIO) saw the

results from the situation analysis, she immediately proposed acting by developing a plan to fix

the problem. The CRM business case misses and miscalculates the total cost of the project. There

was also the problem that, after building the project foundations, there was basically almost no

'Phase 3'. Therefore, after realizing all their mistakes on an urgency released pseudo-phase 5, they

came to realize that Anania's plan was crooked. They needed to restructure the whole idea.

1.

They assessed the outcomes of the project performance (as seen on phase 5) after

committing several implementation errors. This allowed them to create the

www.mycigna.com. After this situation, they turned around the company's situation after

allowing each customer to have access to their medical insurance records and claims over

the internet, and thus, the customers started migrating to the new system gradually.

a.

The creation of the mycigna portal was in collaboration with Yahoo! Business Solutions and

Sun Microsystems, part of the assessment and partner selection, as seen on Phase 3.

b.

Yahoo! Business Solutions and Sun Microsystems replaced the it staff on the creation of

mycignna. They have prototyped the design, tested and modified the program required for

it. This is part of the last stage of phase 4.

c.

As mentioned on C, this interaction with the service provider, gave Cigna the possibility to

allocate their it resources back to their normal job, not worrying too much about the new

project. This generated other possibilities, like creating a new portal for Business health

insurance: Cignature. This was all made, right after they evaluated the performance of the

mycigna it project, as seen at Phase 5.

d.

Everything could be considered as "good" after Anania's first plan. However, right after evaluating

their first plan, they did some things that brought the company to their golden years.

2.

Mistakes in CRM planning & implementation. Explain the reasons why this company's CRM didn't work

out as they expected. What did they do wrong? Be sure clearly state and highlight the course concepts it

used - you must have at least 2 connections.

•

Assignment # 2Monday, February 14, 2011

6:04 PM

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http://www.mycigna.com/





When Anania (CIO) saw the results from the situation analysis, she immediately proposed acting

by developing a plan to fix the problem. The CRM business case misses and miscalculates the total

cost of the project. There was also the problem that, after building the project foundations, there

was basically almost no 'Phase 3'. When the food started to burn, Anania didn't knew how to take

it off the stove, and started to force the staff to do "too much in too little time," as said by the

company's CEO Edward Hanway. They realized that they had to remake everything from scratch

again when they discovered Anania's innoperance. IT was her responsibility as a Chief Information

Officer, she should've known what the new plan could mean for the company, the costs, the effortand everything technical regarding it. How is it possible that a CIO doesn't know the specifications

of the system they are picking on? Simple, because she shouldn't have been selected as CIO

without having her under control regarding the decisions that she would take. While everybody on

the IT department was fighting to get the transition on, when the unrealistic goal wasn't met,

Anania blamed the IT staff instead of blaming herself, and taking responsibility over her mistake.

1.

According to many of the former employees at Cigna, the management had unrealistic

expectations about the new IT and CRM systems. As an ex employee said, "they (management)

just thought they could hire some clerks and have it done in a couple of weeks, and we kept telling

them, 'you guys don't understand, it's a really complicated system to set up and it's going to take a

lot more than that.'" Unrealistic expectations occur because the proper investigation and

assessments aren't made. Management change wasn't a problem, because all employees helped

for the transition to occur, it was the plan what was crooked.

2.

References-

http://fcis.vdu.lt/[email protected]/FOV1-000893DA/Case_Cigna.pdf

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Sprint, the Now Network.

Intro

Sprint is the "corporative son" of the union between Sprint PCS and Nextel in 2004.

Sprint, as we know it today, was born in July of 2005. Despite the fact of being the

product of two top companies (On top national wireless companies, Sprint PCS was #3

and Nextel was #5), Sprint lacked a good eye for customer segmentation. The processes

that occurred between 2005 and 2010 (when it became "the NOW network") allowed

Sprint to gain strength in a very populated market.

Rugrats: if you are a young gentleman or lady within the age of 12-18, you fit

this group. Your pockets are full of holes that connect straight to mom and/or

dad's wallet. High on texting (because you cannot talk over the phone in the

middle of the class), low on calling minutes (because mom doesn't want to giveyou a right that you don't deserve), super-connected with social media and

internet (because you need to know what happens behind your back). Represents

a problem to most companies due to data caps, which is usually set by the

competition upon the 2GB/month margin. Your phone is your first one: cheap,

usable and nothing fancy.

1.

Van Wilders: you are between 18- 26 (6 year bachelor program contemplated +

the gift of a masters program), and broke man! You need money for studying

(books, supplies, tuition, room & board), personal entertainment (dating

including movies and restaurants, alcohol + partying, Spring break and vacation

venues), existential needs (eating, sleeping properly, STD's prevention, etc.) and

other expenses. You text your friends most of the time (you cannot afford to

call), and you call mom only when you need money (because you're a disgraced

bastard). You will not use the wireless internet that much, unless you had that

super phone from the commercials, but you cannot afford it anyway, because

you will probably leave it at a bar. If you manage to get several A's mommy and

2.

What would you call each group of customers? Give them a name to help distinguish them from

others. For example, bicycle riders could be classified into different groups such as: exercisers,transportation riders, socializers, adventurers, and environmentalists. This is differentiation based

on needs. You can also differentiate based on the value that the customers generate to the

company, or loyalty or any other basic criteria.

I have made a full description of each of any wireless company's customers. Obviously

this is my perspective and probably doesn't reflect wireless companies' reality. My

customer identification is based on age, income and service usage criteria:

1.

PART 1

Assignment # 3Friday, March 11, 2011

2:23 AM

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daddy will buy you the phone you like, and you will use internet a lot. On your

laptop, you will try to get the most tech related advancements if you have a

top-of-the-notch wireless device, participating into forums, and giving your

opinion about products and quality. That's why you also represent a problem to

most of the wireless companies, and hence they apply a 2GB/month data cap.

Young Professionals: After college you decided to look around for something todo with that framed piece of paper. You are between 26-35, and you have

started a professional life. This means that you are more computer-savvy than

your boss, but you don't have the professional experience and you need to work

your way up, hence in order to overcome this problem, you need either a PDA,

a Blackberry or an Android phone. Your salary is the best news to your parents

in 26 years and your moving out idea was a reason to celebrate. Still you are

dependent on your job, and you need to pay back your loans, so you are not

entirely debt-free (in most of cases, Americans are never debt-free) and you

want to form a family with your college sweetheart. You need e-mails, moreminutes, less internet and social media, and a balanced budget. You also need

more apps that will allow you to do more in less time, or to organize the mess

that you have on your desk/computer/life.

3.

Super mom: so, your husband got a job and you are set to raise the kids,

awesome. You are from 35-50, but still socially active. You handle the household

accountability and hence distribute the money expenditure, always winking an

eye towards shoe shopping and clothing stores. So now that you do household

activities, you need to be aware of what's happening around you and your kids:

you need social networking, whether it is Facebook, Myspace or Twitter; texting

(the only way to communicate with a pre-teen) and calling (husband, kids, the

mom's of other kids, principals and teachers for stalking reasons; mom and dad,

and friends for social reasons). e-mail is rarely used (unless you have all your bills

transformed into e-bills, or you happen to be a secret-by-contract ninja).

Mostly average quality and middle priced phones are used by this customer type,

and in the case of having a top-of-the-notch phone, they won't buy too many

apps.

4.

McDaddy: your boss retired or passed away (due to a cardiac arrest provoked by

a mistake on your last report) and you got promoted. You made it, you are

between 35-55 and rolling on a "Benzo." You are still using social networking

(LinkedIN, off course, and Facebook to reconnect with your long lost high-school

bully, to show him how better than him you are now) and your e-mail is your

best ally. Since you are an executive, you are subject to travelling, and your

phone needs to be full on with minutes and needs to have the best coverage.

5.

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Texting to your inept employees is a must, because they need to feel your breath

on their necks constantly to work better. You might also text your attractive

new secretary, something that you will deny and erase from your phone as soon

as possible, in case that the text has nothing to do with work-related issues. You

are a valuable costumer, because you pay the amount of money required without

questioning the price plus, you never call customer service, because you simply

have no time for that.

Joe Averagio: In a parallel universe, a copy of yourself dropped out of college and

started to work to cover his/her debts. Being a waiter is hard when you are still

28-50. You need something that allows you to call mom, text your friends and

cheap, that's it. No monkey business.

6.

Dinosaur: You worked your whole life and either you are so on the top of the

world that you don't need to use your mobile that much, or you are getting

retired next year and your grandchildren are playing with your wireless device.You want to call every living family tie, especially on holidays. Texting and

internet is something that won't bother you, because you forgot how to use it

properly. A cheap device with huge numbers (to combat your sight problems), a

reliable network (to call your family ties, doctor appointments and 911), and

affordable plans. You will call customer service mostly to protest about life.

7.

Wireless Addicts: (Rugrats & Van Wilders)1.

Head of Households: (Super moms)2.

Multi-taskers: (Young Professionals, McDaddy's)3.

Cheapos: (Joe Averagio and Dinosaurs)4.

Since Sprint offers services, devices and plans that are different to the rest of the

companies, we could divide their customers into different segments. The main options

that Sprint gives are surrounded by the speed of the internet, the quality of the

devices, and the affordability of plans.

Taking into account the given intel on the subject, we can divide all those identified

customers into three segments:

For each group defined in #1, what specific criteria or variables do you think are best for

segmenting in this company and WHY? Discuss what data and information you would gather and

use to classify a customer into this group.

2.

The first thing that came to my mind was to concentrate on wireless usage. Because

other companies imposed contractual limitations upon the internet usage of their

customers, Sprint had to come out ahead in something: unlimited internet for

everyone, plus 4G connection (destroying competition's 3G, and getting all the addicts

to switch to Sprint). The data and information to collect in this case was how much

internet people uses on a daily basis, including apps and widgets on smart phones.

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A second variable could be quality and tech of the devices. Many geeks out there want

to have 'the best phone' on the market, and they don't control themselves at the time

of spending grand on them. Since Sprint cannot have the Iphone due to Apple's

contract with AT&T and the fact that the Iphone is GSM and Sprint's whole network

is CDMA, Sprint pointed towards getting the best and functional phones (HTC EVO,

Samsung Galaxy S, Windows Phone 7, Blackberry , etc.) that are strong responses

towards Apple's only option. It is imperative, then, to count how many smart phoneswere in the market in general, and then divide that number within providers. Right

after that, start to make partnerships with leading tech companies, like HTC to

develop exclusive phones for Sprint.

The third variable that I analyzed was price and package. The slogan "The now

network" means two things, first that they have wild-fast connectivity service, and

then that is oriented to a younger market, which tries to get the most out of their

plan, for less coin. In this case is necessary to evaluate the income, age and

expenditure of the Sprint customers.

In any case, at least to my perspective, the more information that you have regarding

the customer, the better will be your vision to give that customer a personalized

service. It seems that Sprint has been collecting this information for a long time, and

now has applied it on marketing campaigns, management change, creation of new

ideas and personalizing products.

Like Harrah's does, how would you use a customer-related database to help your selected

company improve knowledge of its customers and most importantly, create more value for the

customers AND for the company? Use specific examples to explain this.

3.

first, I become cheaper than my rivals.○

Then, I become cheaper by $20, because people reads "$60" instead of "$70".○

Like I said before, the more information that you have regarding the customer, the

better will be your vision to give that customer a personalized service. It seems that

Sprint already did what it seems logic to me. First I make an analysis of the prices of

the competition and compare them to mines. Then I analyze what customers are

paying our price (these are most likely to keep on paying, because they can afford it,

and if it gets lower they will cheer it!), and which customers are begging for Sprint to

lower them. Let's see: The government taxes, plus the running of the company gives

me a cost, that is divided monthly to each and every single contract (customer) as abase cost. Let's say that that base cost is $25 per person minimum. The rival

companies have the same or similar running costs, but are not willing to change their

base price of $80 (plus taxes and outrageous charges). After seeing this, I (Sprint)

move my base price from theirs to $69.99 (plus taxes and few-to-none charges). This

generates two things:

Right after that, I analyze the usage of internet through phone and phone apps.

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It gives the customer the power of customizing their phone○

It's a Branding tool.○

new device (tutorials), listen to requests or complaints (chat rooms and forums), and

filter information (e-billing, communication preferences). They have also released an

application for Android based phones (most of the phones in Sprint use Android) that

is called "Sprint ID". This app works in the following way: Android is the phone

system (the system that supports everything inside). Android has an app launcher

(what makes every part of the Android system, from calling to texting to any app, to

work: the phone's interface), which is given by the company that produced the phone.What Sprint ID does is to change the interface so the customer can customize their

mobile phone's screens, in just a second. This app is free, but it gives two benefits:

How can the customization create value for you? What sources of customer value can be

addressed?

Customization allows each person to have a different product from their neighbor.

This marks the aids for a company to highlight itself compared to other ones. You

cannot customize your Iphone (AT&T and Verizon), but you can download Sprint ID

and customize your HTC EVO 4G (Sprint). That customization creates the sensation

that your phone is unique. The mass customization of the plans create the illusion

that the plan adjusts primarily to your economic needs, and secondarily to your usage

needs. This customization give more benefits for less sacrifices.

2.

As the book says "[…] companies cannot be all things to all customers[…]," but perhaps

one of the goals of marketing is making that company to be "all things" to every

customer. At Sprint they realized that perhaps they will not have the best customer

service, so perhaps they kept that one low cost by giving plans on which customerscannot complain, basically. The service is highly rated, their phones are on the top of

the lists, and their plans are affordable. However, the story doesn't end there. They

proposed another source of value: 4G. They were the first wireless company to

announce 4G internet connection for smartphones. This didn't just gave them the

product leadership badge, but also the product innovator one.

NOW, put yourself in the shoes of the company. Explain what you think can go on behind the

scenes to create the customization (back-office CRM)?

The first thing that comes up to mind is to make a research about our owncustomers, using the CRM database. Therefore, after understanding their situation, I

think they can run numbers to see if they can mass-customize their plans. On the

other side, you have technology customizations: the website and the phones.

The major problem that Sprint had was that, by having so many smartphones,

Sprint could not put one as a flagship. AT&T has a flagship phone: the Iphone. Even

now that Verizon got the Iphone, when you say the name 'Iphone' the first thing that

rings in your brain is AT&T. Sprint had that problem, until they started promoting

the HTC EVO 4G. Since the EVO had the best app launcher (called HTC Sense), being

3.

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customizable for business oriented people and social networking, Sprint adopted the

device as their best option. Since the rest of the phones using the Android system

were not as productive with their own app launchers, Sprint ID adopted a "watered

down" version of HTC Sense and distributed around the other phones, making Sense

the "(un) official Sprint app launcher" for Android devices. In order to make this

happen, Sprint had to hire a developers team that would design and write the

Android code for that free application, and make it "stable" so it won't crash on thedifferent Android phones. That demands research, time and money, and over all a lot

of customer experience comments.

On their website, they had another problem. It was out of date, boring, and

aesthetically horrible. They changed the whole interface, basically because of their

team work with Sun Microsystems (developers of Java), and because it was really not

appealing to anyone's eyes. They created the possibility of allowing each customer to

register and have a user name; this didn't only gave the possibility to gather more

information about the customer, but also, allowed them to offer that customer more

products and services.

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Answer these questions:

Article name, author, publication, publication date. Provide link if available.1.The name of the article is "Helping Clients Succeed in Today's Rapidly Evolving Markets",

taken from the Siebel Annual Report, therefore the author is unknown. The year of

publication is 2003, and the article on page 10 of the report can be found here.http://www.slideshare.net/crmrussia/annex-1-siebelannualrpt

What is the name of the company? What CRM technology did the company implement?

The name of the company is "The Bank of New York." The company used an Enterprise

CRM suite called Oracle's Siebel CRM. They have designed their own custom Siebel

Finance Application, hosted on the Oracle's SaaS network.

2.

Increased cross selling: the sales personnel gets advice from the lead management

application, and were able to coordinate the sale of other products

a.

Increased Customer Satisfaction: the bank has developed value-added solutions and

coordinated customer outreach, because…

(please read C)

b.

the sales force has a shared system. This allows that a contact management

applet helps the sales force to update data and use it instantly. This is very

important, since the Bank uses the software to be able to have up-to-date

information of all its customers, in a timely manner, all around the world (this

bank operates in 33 countries).

i.

Added to this, there's also an activity management app that also helps

customer service agents to stay "on-top" of their customers, by showing the

agent all the activities pertinent to that account, and generating to-do lists,

priorities, monitoring progress and programming alerts for the agents to

resolve a pending issue.

ii.

Increased productivity and efficiency:c.

Better planning of sales efforts: SFA software, allowed the Bank of New York to have

a good vision of future sales, through the Pipeline Management Application. This

d.

What processes were showcased/highlighted in the article as targeted for

improvement? Be sure to state the specific processes within sales and marketing that

the company addressed with technology (sales automation and marketing automation).

The SFA system implementation began in July 2002, and has seen since then:

3.

All connections to pertinent material are in bold and underlined.

Assignment # 4Thursday, March 31, 2011

11:48 PM

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http://www.slideshare.net/crmrussia/annex-1-siebelannualrpt

http://www.slideshare.net/crmrussia/annex-1-siebelannualrpt



one helps to manage the entire sales cycle process, but also, as it relies on accurate

and up-to-date opportunity information, can provide a good forecast of the sales

upcoming.

Increased cross-selling○

Increased customer satisfaction○

Better planning of sales efforts○

Increased employee productivity and efficiency○

Reduced IT maintenance costs○

How did the technology change the targeted sales and marketing processes? What do

the before and after processes look like as a result of sales or marketing automation? Be

specific.

The bank has five primary businesses, as stated in the introductory paragraph: Securities

Servicing and Global payment Services, Private Client Services and Asset Management,

Corporate Banking, Global Market Services and Retail Banking. Over the 90's, the bank has

made 80 acquisitions worldwide. This generated a huge issue, as the bank had

increasingly complex, cross-border customer relationships and multiple customer

databases and tracking systems. The bank needed technology to unify all the information,

in order to retain all the new contacts and relationships gained through these

acquisitions. According to Bruce Miller (Senior Vice President, Institutional Cross Selling

and Strategic Sales at The Bank of New York), "We wanted a customized solution that

would provide us with a 360-degree view of all our institutional customers, accessible

anytime and anywhere in the world." Since every acquisition of the Bank had a differentdatabase, tracking systems, and sales implementations, the deployment of a customized

financial software would allow the bank to impose a standard modus-operandi, that

would give, not only the solutions mentioned on question 3, but also the unique identity

of the Bank of New York: different countries, different markets, different languages, but

one identity.

Among the improvements after the implementation of the Siebel Financial pack, we can

find:

4.

All of these improvements have been properly explained before on the answer of

question 3. The last one ("Reduced IT Maintenance Costs") is an accident of the

implementation of the new SFA. As the software deploys most to all of the applications

that the associates need, the bank has been able to terminate services and systems that

would use other program for the same function. Therefore, the bank reduced its cost of

ownership significantly.

Another issue found was that the bank deals with financial markets worldwide, which will

require to have accurate on-demand information about the market fluctuations and the

respective analysis of them ready to go. This type of deployments require an SaaS or

hosted system.The software allows to cut the clutter and deliver the information

pertinent so management and the sales force can take better decisions.

What was the impact of the changed processes on the company's performance? What

did the technology actually do for them? Just because a process was changed doesn't

mean that the results of the change are good.

5.

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Well, everything on this article seems to be almost self-explanatory, especially if one has a

good "fix" of what it's said on the book about the SFA software functionality. What was

changed in the company revolves around the question 3. According to Miller, "The

technology foundation provided by Siebel Finance plays an important role in helping us

achieve our goals."

They seem pretty happy with it.

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MAR 4860 Research Paper

Description of Assignment

Option #1 – Retention Strategy Recommendation (Worth 135 points – 5 extra

points)

The purpose of this research paper is to apply as much as you can about what you have

learned in this class. Specifically, you will be analyzing a company of your choice andrecommending a customer retention strategy for that company. Retention strategies are

based on the benefits of long-term customers. We have studied these benefits throughout the

semester.

According to your textbook, there are 4 general objectives in customer retention strategies:

• Creating customer delight

• Adding customer-perceived value

• Creating social and structural bonds

• Building customer engagement

Here are a number of specific strategies you can consider:

• Preferential treatment – the customer’s perception of how much better they are

treated than the company’s other customers.

• Rewarding - when a company offers some tangible incentive to a customer in return for

loyalty.

• Loyalty schemes

• Customer clubs

• Social bonding

• Personalization – Customer’s perception of how personally they were treated.

• Customization – Ability of a company to adopt its marketing mix to the needs of thecustomer.

• Cross-selling – Also called bundling (can be greatly enhanced through the use of data

mining to determine which items to bundle).

• Up-selling

• Managing migration of customers

• Converting transactional customers to relational customers

• Providing and attaining intimacy with the customer

Choose a company that you know fairly well. This can be your place of employment, a family

business, or a company that you have a relationship with as a repeat customer. You are to

assume the role of a CRM consultant and write a paper explaining how you believe thiscompany can increase its customer retention.

Paper Outline – Please use headings to separate the sections of this paper. Paper must be

between 5-7 single-spaced, typed pages.

I. Background and your history with the company you chose





II. Current situation – in this section, explain what you believe is their current retention

strategy and why you think it could be better.

III. Recommended Retention Strategy – THIS IS the MEAT of your paper. Be clear and

integrate the CRM concepts from this course. SUPPORT your strategy. SELL IT!

IV. Required Resources – in order to make this strategy successful, identify what

resources would be needed to make it happen. Resources can be financial, people,

technology, processes.

V. Key Performance Indicators – what indicators would you recommend the company use

to determine whether your strategy is working or not. Why would these be the best

indicators to use?

VI. Appendix – References, Exhibits, Bibliography

This project assignment is due no later than Monday, April 18th by midnight. Send your paper

to me via Blackboard EMAIL as a Microsoft Word document.

Show me everything you’ve learned so far in this course. Be sure to use critical thinking skills

and integrate as many concepts as you can from the text and all the material covered in the

slides.

This is a professional, research report so it must be clear, concise, and error free, i.e. no

misspellings or grammatical errors. Use page numbers, headers, sub-headings, tables, and BE

SURE to use footnotes to cite references within your paper. You can be as creative as you’d

like, but you MUST give credit where it is due. Within the paper, you must cite your source for

an idea or concept at the end of the sentence where the idea is mentioned. Otherwise, it is

considered PLAGIARISM!

Paper should be single spaced, Arial font, and a 12 point font size. Number your pages. Have

a title page. Have a REFERENCES PAGE at the end.





Option #2 – CRM Technology (worth 130 points)

The goal of this assignment is to familiarize you with the participants of the CRM Ecosystem

and apply what you’ve learned so far about CRM. Assume you have just been selected to

participate on a board that will evaluate CRM software providers for your company’s CRM

strategy. You are to become the resident CRM expert on your two assigned CRM providers,

which you will choose from the following list of CRM providers:

List of CRM Providers

http://www.rightnow.com/

http://yankeegroup.com/

http://www.salesforce.com/

http://www.act.com/

http://accenture.com/

http://www.ascendix.com/

http://www.astutesolutions.com/

http://www.oracle.com/siebel/index.html/

http://www.teradata.com/

http://www.acxiom.com/

http://www.unica.com/

http://crm.cas-software.com/

http://www.vovici.com/

http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/

http://bearingpoint.com/

http://www.amdocs.com/

http://chordiant.com/







http://www.act.com/

http://www.act.com/








































http://www.act.com/








product/service(s). Who was the customer of the provider? How did the customer that

bought the product or service, use it? What benefits did the customer reap?

IV. Your Learning Experience. – Explain three (3) things you learned from this project about

CRM that you did not know before. Be very specific. Each experience should be one

paragraph with 3-4 complete sentences. What did you take away?

PROVIDER #2 - Name Follow same outline above.

This project assignment is due no later than Monday, April 18th by midnight. Send your paper

to me via Blackboard EMAIL as a Microsoft Word document.

Show me everything you’ve learned so far in this course. Be sure to use critical thinking skills

and integrate as many concepts as you can from the text and all the material covered in the

slides.

This is a professional, research report so it must be clear, concise, and error free, i.e. no

misspellings or grammatical errors. Use page numbers, headers, sub-headings, tables, and BE

SURE to use footnotes to cite references within your paper. You can be as creative as you’d

like, but you MUST give credit where it is due. Within the paper, you must cite your source for

an idea or concept at the end of the sentence where the idea is mentioned. Otherwise, it is

considered PLAGIARISM!

Paper should be single spaced, Arial font, and a 12 point font size. Number your pages. Have

a title page. Have a REFERENCES PAGE at the end.



Dell–

A Face Lift

D e l l C o m p u t e r s

1 D e l l W a y , R o u n d R o c k , T X

1 - 8 0 0 - 2 2 2 - d e l l

4 / 1 9 / 2 0 1 1

Marco Fiorentino

A strong proposition to fix the profits and image of one of

the most important technology companies in America.



Fiorentino - Dell: A Face Lift | 1

Background

Dell is an American multinational information technology corporation based in RoundRock, Texas. It is one of the largest technological companies in the world, employingmore than 103,300 people worldwide. Dell is right now listed #38 on the Fortune 500

ranks. It was founded on November 4 1984 by Michael Dell. As of 2011, Dellcomputers scored revenues of US$ 61.49 billion. Dell fabricates Desktops, Servers,Notebooks, Netbooks, Peripherals, Scanners, Smart Phones and Printers. Dell alsosells Televisions, Smart phones and storage from other manufacturers. Dell’s major issue was the customer service, years ago. However, with technology, newimplementations of software and a good training of the Customer Servicedepartment, allowed Dell to be more professional and reduce the rates of churn fromdissatisfied customers.

My personal story with Dell started long ago, and after enjoying the benefits of myfifth computer, I could say that I’m a happy customer. To my point of view, Dell gives

a good product for a decent price. Computers don’t have a long lasting lifespan,because with the advent of technology, the systems are required to be changedevery six to twelve months. The minimum lifespan of a computer nowadays hasdropped from two years to nine months, and Dell has taken that into consideration.Dell’s computers last much more than two years, if they are taken care of properly,and since they are mostly always upgradeable, the parts are inexpensive enough tothe point where the consumer can replace the entire computer for a couple hundreddollars. They have a lot to modify, though; and that process will take time, money,planning and patience.

Current Situation

At these precise moments, Dell has been playing around with technology a little bit.They have released an Android tablet computer, and upgraded some of their desktop models. Dell released an Android-based phone in the UK and the US in amode of “tasting the waters” still without enough success. Neither the Dell’s logo nor the slogan is as merely popular as HP’s nor Apple, but then again, Dell is not the topmanufacturer of computers, and it’s # 38 on the Fortune 500 list. Hewlett-Packard is#10 and Apple is 56, on the F500 list of 2010. In the list of the largest technologicalcompanies in the world, Dell ranks #8. Dell’s issue is that, in order to maintain the ir 18.3% of market share, they lower the price of their products, while shipping its

customer service programs to El Salvador and India, and killing all the stores since2008. Dell has a particular type of selling: DTC or Direct To Customer (1), which ismade directly through it’s webpage.

Dell has saved millions by directing customers towards it’s only way of selling,making shipping most of the times free as part of their hook to promote their businesses. Dell has more tricks under its sleeves and proves this whenever thecustomer clicks to start customizing their computer, by offering different parts for alower cost, covering the needs and expectations of the customer, without putting itsnumbers at risk.

Dells parts is another section where they sell the parts and replacement parts, a partfrom refurbished parts that they recover from returned computers. The use of




marketing at Dell is quite basic, because they only advertise when they havesomething “new” to offer. In this case, the Inspiron Duo, a netbook/tablet PC hasbeen its last technological adventure. This computer has allowed them to selldecently during the first weeks, but lately has shown mixed reviews, and sheer disappointment by a sector of their customers.

The reason why Dell hasn’t been able to rocket its numbers over passing its rivalshas been due to the lack of physical presence in the world and proposition after thecustomer left the online store. Most of the computer manufacturers have a flagshipstore, where they buy, sell and even exhibit their new products and technologicaladvancements. Dell has none. On January 30th 2008, Dell closed all its shoppingmall kiosks (approximately 140), with the excuse of going for retail stores. OnFebruary 14, 2008 Dell closed its flagship in Texas, lying off all of its employees.This generated the obvious problem of bad word of mouth, because the employeeshad been played around with their one and only source of income, and the fact thatthey lost their place in the eyes of the people: something that’s virtual isn’t really

present in people’s minds. That being said, Apple’s strategy, in example, has been toshow itself always inside or around an Apple store. The Apple logo is absolutelyeverywhere and it’s highly recognizable by almost everyone. Dell isn’t so lucky.

As I mentioned before, Dell needs to keep the prices low, because that’s their hook.Dell doesn’t have sleek designs or technological advancement. Dell doesn’t have abranded MP3 player, as Apple has Ipod. If Dell start raising their prices, the churnrate starts to become higher by the second. Price is not only the most interestingthing that Dell has nowadays, but also, the only one. Most of the customers from Dellare transactional, not relational, and Dell doesn’t really do much in order to retain thecustomers who are thinking about getting an HP.

That has to change.

Recommended Retention Strategy

I have identified in the last paragraphs of the previous section, which the thing that ismissing from Dell’s business life is retaining the customer due majorly to a lack of bonding propositions. The customer comes to Dell, because they want a decentcomputer that could have the ability to solve the customer’s problems. Dell’s primaryhook is the price, and the convenience of free shipping, a part from the assemble-to-

order mass customization (Buttle, 196) of their selected product. Right after thecomputer gets to the hand of the consumer, unless the customer has bought aservice plan, Dell doesn’t interact with the customer at all. The only thing that mightbe doing is sending brochures through mail, promoting other products on which thecustomer might be interested on buying, but the issue is the following: if they pickDell is because of the price, not because of the style or performance. If it was for thestyle or performance, the customer would probably pick something better. However,most of Dell’s clients are usually those of low to mid income. This presents aproblem, because a customer with these characteristics perhaps might demandmore responses from the company.

That’s why Dell has to change the way that they interact with its customers.




My proposed “4P” strategy will be a combination of some strategies alreadymentioned on the textbook.

1. Priming InnovationThis part of the plan is about fast and sharp investigation, product technology

and design innovation. This is where negotiation and alliances with topcompanies and developers comes into sheer utility and outstandingimportance. You cannot “re-sell old news” in the technology business, youhave to keep innovating every four months. This would be not the primarymarketing strategy, but what the strategy is going to be based on. You cannotmarket something that people already knows that exist. This is key to get theinstrumental commitment of the customers (Buttle, 277).

a. Microsoft bondingWindows 7 has been a great technological advantage for Dell, and hasequaled Apple’s iOS, however, it needs to be more hardware friendly.

The windows based laptops have low reliability on their batteries,because they last an average of three hours, five hours less than thoseof Apple. The issue relies on that, since Apple builds its own hardware,they have control of each and every single model that they build.Microsoft cannot hold account of how many brands with differenttechnical specs have their system, and the computer manufacturersare the ones who have to come close to make things work better,snappier and more reliable. New collaboration software might beneeded in order for Dell to collect information (requiring always user authorization, first) in order to see what Windows and Dell are missingin general.

b. Designer huntingIn order to market a product properly, looks are the thing that defines itbest. Apple has contracted a British designer for every single“isomething” that they place on the market. Dell should have moresleek designs, better quality looks and less greasy keyboards. Theydon’t even need a team of designers they need a renowned one, themore famous, the better.

c. GadgetingDell has a tablet PC (Dell Streak) and has also a mobile phone. Dellsells someone else’s mp3 players on their website. How about Dell’s?Every single computer company has or had one at that time, and eventhough they are not really needed now, Dell needs to get a flagshipproduct, something that people will remember Dell for right away. For example, Apple = iPod, Microsoft = Office.

d. Technology and design improvementI know that I seem to repeat myself, but this is the part where Dellshould base its aid for the new marketing campaign. In the technologybusiness, you cannot “re-sell old news”, you need to sell something

new every four months. Products that offer better solutions to problemscreate more value for customers (Buttle, 197). That’s why a team of




technicians should work with a team of designers (what Dell has rightnow, plus a lead celebrity style designer), to try to refurbish what Dellalready has: products that had change slightly over time, but need areal face-lift.

2. Preparing and trainingThis is the real overhaul planning. Preparing and training has the power of prepping the deployment of the new campaign in order to sell Dell to thepublic. Marketing not a single product but all of them properly, giving thebrand the identity that deserves and the possibility of really making a strongmark on the technology market.

a. Preparingi. Store locations: the idea is to set a Dell store at every big scale

shopping mall in America, like Apple. This would mean that Dellwould start with 50 stores (one per each state) and move up to

300 in the first five years.

ii. Openings: I have noticed that the Apple stores open and peoplesimply get rewards for it. For everyone that actually shows up tothe opening of a store, Dell should give a $25 gift card just for showing up. The stores should also promote local artists, likebands, writers, sportsmen or celebrities, pointing Dell’s image toappeal more traditional and closer to their local public throughtheir store. Plus, the association of the memory of meeting alocal celebrity, would also come close to the phrase “oh, we met[Insert name of Celebrity here] at the Dell store!” This wouldimply by a fallacy and thus, a psychological effect that Dellwould be “glorious by association.”

iii. EventsDuring the year, Dell should be more active with the companypublic events during the year, this would actually make thecompany’s name circulate more often from mouth to mouth,consolidating the brand.

1. Social

Organizing a rock festival in Texas with the collaborationof local companies, will put Dell in the mouth of students.A Dell-a-palooza, in collaboration with the University of Texas, would probably build more Texan pride, and thus,generate more word of mouth. The fact of getting closer to the college students, would allow Dell to get a better “look” than the “it’s only cheap.”

2. PhilanthropyWhen you donate, you should tell the press you do, soyou get more media attention, and word of mouth is

usually more positive. Some issues from the past has leftMichael Dell with a really bad reputation. Events like




donating computers to schools, hospitals and universitiesfor a small room name, will have a benefit in the future.Supporting the minor league teams is also another thingthat could be taken into advantage.

3. EnvironmentalMichael Dell has promised to eliminate PVC of their products, but hasn’t done that yet. We have to make surethan when it does, he should let the press know that hedid. Ethical concerns like this one generate value basedcommitments, and in some cases preference (Buttle,278).

iv. Dell’s Friends programThe Friends program would reward each costumer who hasbeen loyal to the company for 5 years or more (like me) with

discounts of %50 of their next computer purchase or a free fax-scan-printer. The Acquaintance program would be a spin-off from the Friends program, and would reward those who spendmore than $1500 with Dell-branded storage units (they can bemade by other manufacturer for Dell). This is an excellentexample of loyalty schemes (Buttle, 267).

v. Dell’s Resellers programIt’s true that with this implementation would create the Dellstores, but what about those who re-sell Dell computers, likeBest-Buy? Do they get benefits too? Yes. If the reseller is in theDell Partners Program, the customer will receive the samebenefits and products of the Acquaintance Program as if theybuy at the store or online.

vi. Branding sealingThe first thing that should change is the slogan “Yours is here.”On past editions, the slogan “You can tell it’s Dell,” seemed tobe made by a 5 year-old. The slogan should be one word: Pow!.With the new sleeker, sober designs imposed by the new hireddesigner and the clicks and tweaks form the new technician’s

team, Dell’s computers should be faster, snappier and havehigher quality specs. For roughly the same price. This willactually change the perspective of the customer, from thinking of Dell as “cheap” to think of Dell as “powerful.”

vii. Website UpgradeThe website needs an upgrade to HTML5. The design is okay,but it needs more flashiness. If you sell technology, you shouldhave the most futuristically effective website. A few lines of codeduring a few time will do.

viii. Sharper adsMore persuasive, more eye-candy. More money.




“better serve him.” This has allowed Dell to know whether or not the customer purchased a computer before or not, and how long was the last time that thecustomer purchased. It also has allowed Dell to send e-mail marketing andpromotions. The information and technology is there. There shouldn’t be anymodification to the CRM software other than the one for the new customer

service division the “friendly commando” which will need perhaps a screen or two.

Required Resources

The required resources will be a costly item for Dell, but if it definitely wants to makemuch more profits, the company will have to risk whatever is necessary to stop beingin the uncertainty situation that is now.

This is the list properly calculated for the first year:

US$ 200 million total investment. 500 new store employees 100 new store technicians US$ 25 million for marketing, advertising and promotion US$ 60 million for research on new technologies and design 50 new friendly commandos

Key Performance Indicators

The results will be seen prospectively in a range of a year. The Key PerformanceIndicators (Buttle, 281) will be measured by the following activities:

a. Raw customer retention rate in each segment

b. Sales-adjusted retention rate in each segment

c. Profit-adjusted retention rate in each customer segment

d. Share of wallet of the retained customer

e. Cost effectiveness of the customer retention tactics

The usage of these will give us the result, and hopefully is positive.



Works Cited

"Dell." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 19 Apr. 2011.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_Computer#Dell_kiosks>.

Buttle, Francis. Customer Relationship Management . Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2008.

Print

"Fortune Global 500." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 19 Apr. 2011.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortune_Global_500>.

MAR 4860 - Assignments

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