Customer Relationship Management (CRM) 3rd-Party Platform

A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) 3rd-Party Platform is a customer management platform that enables the creation of a CRM system (for CRM tasks).

• Context:
  • It can (often) include analytics and reporting features to track customer interactions and derive insights for business decisions.
  • It can (often) provide customizable options to tailor the CRM system to specific business needs and processes.
  • It can (often) include features for marketing automation and lead management to streamline and enhance marketing efforts.
  • It can (often) incorporate social CRM features to manage and analyze customer interactions on social media platforms.
  • It can (often) offer a range of pricing models to cater to businesses of different sizes and requirements.
  • It can (often) integrate data analysis, communication channels, customer information, and other business systems and applications for seamless data flow and enhanced functionality.
  • It can support compile data from a range of different communication channels, including a company's website, telephone, email, live chat, marketing materials, and social media.
  • It can (often) provide a 360-degree view of customer interactions, helping businesses to better understand and cater to their target audiences.
  • It can enable companies to automate and optimize workflows, track customer interactions, and offer personalized customer experiences across multiple platforms.
  • It can assist businesses in identifying and engaging with the right customers, improving customer interaction, and tracking progress across the customer journey.
  • It can emphasize data security and privacy, especially in cloud-based solutions, to protect sensitive customer information.
  • It can increase team productivity by providing improved visibility and streamlined processes.
  • It can be beneficial for marketing teams by enabling multichannel marketing campaigns and providing insights into brand reputation and market through customized dashboards of data analysis.
  • It can empower sales teams by offering insights into customer needs and automating sales execution with contextual prompts for a personalized experience.
  • It can enhance customer service by providing agents with the tools for personalized service and optimizing resources based on real-time service trends.
  • It can range from being a Cloud-based CRM Platform to being an On-Premise CRM Platform.
  • It can range from being a Web Browser UI-based CRM Platform to being a Mobile UI-based CRM Platform, allowing remote access and management of customer relationships.
  • …
• Example(s):
  • Salesforce CRM,
  • Hubspot CRM,
  • Zoho CRM,
  • Oracle CRM,
  • Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM,
  • Act! CRM,
  • Base CRM,
  • Capsule (CRM),
  • Dynamics CRM,
  • Epesi CRM,
  • Nutshell CRM,
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), which focuses on managing business operations and integrating core business processes, without the emphasis on customer interactions and relationship management.
  • a Supply Chain Management (SCM), which is designed to optimize supply chain operations and logistics management but lacks the ability to manage customer relationships or track customer interactions.
  • a Database Management System (DBMS), which focuses on data storage and database operations but does not offer tools for managing customer relationships or performing CRM tasks.
  • a Customer Feedback Management (CFM) 3rd-Party Platform, which is primarily focused on collecting customer feedback and measuring customer satisfaction, without managing customer interactions across the entire customer journey.
  • a Customer Data Management (CDM) System, which organizes and maintains customer data but lacks the workflow management, sales tracking, and marketing automation features of a CRM system.
  • an Accounting System, which manages financial records and bookkeeping but does not facilitate customer interactions or provide relationship management tools.
  • a Customer Data Management Platform, which specializes in managing customer data for insights and segmentation, without providing tools for tracking customer interactions or facilitating sales and marketing workflows.
  • a Vendor Relationship Management (VRM) Platform, which is designed to manage relationships with vendors or suppliers rather than managing customer relationships.
  • a Human Resources Management System (HRMS), which focuses on managing employee data and human resources processes without supporting customer relationship tasks.
  • a Marketing Automation Platform, which helps businesses manage and automate marketing campaigns but does not provide sales management, customer service, or contact management functionalities central to CRM.
  • a Content Management System (CMS), which manages digital content and websites but does not offer the relationship tracking, customer engagement, or sales process management features of a CRM system.
  • Conversational AI Platforms, which provide AI-driven conversations and natural language understanding, but does not offer workflow management, sales tracking, or customer data management functionalities typically found in a CRM system.
• See: BI System, Customer, Customer DMP, Sales Force Automation, Lead Management System, Contact Management System, Data Analysis, Marketing Automation, Sales Force Automation, Social CRM, Mobile CRM, Data Processing Platform, Data Warehouse Technology, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System Accounting System, Corporate Social Responsibility, Customer Value Model.

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References

2023a

• (Wikipedia, 2023) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_relationship_management Retrieved:2023-1-8.
  • Customer relationship management (CRM) is a process in which a business or other organization administers its interactions with customers, typically using data analysis to study large amounts of information. CRM systems compile data from a range of different communication channels, including a company's website, telephone, email, live chat, marketing materials and more recently, social media. They allow businesses to learn more about their target audiences and how to best cater for their needs, thus retaining customers and driving sales growth. CRM may be used with past, present or potential customers. The concepts, procedures, and rules that a corporation follows when communicating with its consumers are referred to as CRM. This complete connection covers direct contact with customers, such as sales and service-related operations, forecasting, and the analysis of consumer patterns and behaviors, from the perspective of the company. According to Gartner, the global CRM market size is estimated at $69 billion in 2020.

2023b

• (Wikipedia, 2023) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_relationship_management#Components Retrieved:2023-1-8.
  • The main components of CRM are building and managing customer relationships through marketing, observing relationships as they mature through distinct phases, managing these relationships at each stage and recognizing that the distribution of the value of a relationship to the firm is not homogeneous. When building and managing customer relationships through marketing, firms might benefit from using a variety of tools to help organizational design, incentive schemes, customer structures, and more to optimize the reach of their marketing campaigns. Through the acknowledgment of the distinct phases of CRM, businesses will be able to benefit from seeing the interaction of multiple relationships as connected transactions. The final factor of CRM highlights the importance of CRM through accounting for the profitability of customer relationships. Through studying the particular spending habits of customers, a firm may be able to dedicate different resources and amounts of attention to different types of consumers.

    Relational Intelligence, which is the awareness of the variety of relationships a customer can have with a firm and the ability of the firm to reinforce or change those connections, is an important component to the main phases of CRM. Companies may be good at capturing demographic data, such as gender, age, income, and education, and connecting them with purchasing information to categorize customers into profitability tiers, but this is only a firm's industrial view of customer relationships. A lack in relational intelligence is a sign that firms still see customers as resources that can be used for up-sell or cross-sell opportunities, rather than people looking for interesting and personalized interactions.

    CRM systems include:

    • Data warehouse technology, used to aggregate transaction information, to merge the information with CRM products, and to provide key performance indicators.
    • Opportunity management which helps the company to manage unpredictable growth and demand, and implement a good forecasting model to integrate sales history with sales projections.
    • CRM systems that track and measure marketing campaigns over multiple networks, tracking customer analysis by customer clicks and sales.
    • Some CRM software is available as a software as a service (SaaS), delivered via the internet and accessed via a web browser instead of being installed on a local computer. Businesses using the software do not purchase it, but typically pay a recurring subscription fee to the software vendor.
    • For small businesses a CRM system may consist of a contact management system that integrates emails, documents, jobs, faxes, and scheduling for individual accounts. CRM systems available for specific markets (legal, finance) frequently focus on event management and relationship tracking as opposed to financial return on investment (ROI).
    • CRM systems for eCommerce, focused on marketing automation tasks, like cart rescue, re-engage users with email, personalization.
    • Customer-centric relationship management (CCRM) is a nascent sub-discipline that focuses on customer preferences instead of customer leverage. CCRM aims to add value by engaging customers in individual, interactive relationships.
    • Systems for non-profit and membership-based organizations help track constituents, fundraising, sponsors' demographics, membership levels, membership directories, volunteering and communication with individuals.
    • CRM not only indicates to technology and strategy but also indicates to an integrated approach which includes employees knowledge, organizational culture to embrace the CRM philosophy.

2023d

• (Wikipedia, 2023) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_CRM_systems#General Retrieved:2023-1-8.
  • Only stable releases are mentioned.

Systems	Creator	Last Stable Version	Release Date	License	Implementation language(s)	Server Operating System	Database backend	First Release Date
Act! CRM	Pat Sullivan and Mike Muhney	22.1	June 2020	Proprietary or SaaS	C#, .NET	Windows, Web, iOS, Android	MS SQL	1987
Adempiere	Jorg Janke	3.9.3	December 2019	GPLv2	Java	Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac		2006
Base CRM	Base CRM	2016	2009	SaaS	Ruby on Rails, Python	Cloud Computing, iOS, Android, Windows Phone	MySQL	2009
Capsule (CRM)	Zestia Ltd.	2019	2009	SaaS	Java, Scala and JavaScript	Web, iOS, Android	MySQL	2009
CiviCRM	Dave Greenberg, Donald Lobo, Michal Mach	5.56	November 2022	AGPLv3	PHP 7.2+	Cross-platform	MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.0+	2004
Dolibarr	Rodolphe Quiedeville, Laurent Destailleur	13.0.3	June 2021	GPLv3 or SaaS	PHP 5.6.x, 7.x	Cross-platform	MySQL or PostgreSQL	2003
Dynamics CRM	Microsoft	Dynamics 365 9.1	July 2019	Proprietary or SaaS	.NET, ASP.NET	Windows	MS SQL	2003
Epesi CRM	Janusz Tylek & Karina Tylek	1.9.1	September 11 2022	MIT or SaaS	PHP 7.x	Cross-platform cloud-native	phpAdoDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL	2006
GNU Enterprise	FSF			GPLv3	Python	Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, Windows	Firebird/Interbase, MySQL, MaxDB, MS ADO (MS SQL-Server/MS Access), Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQLite, SQLite3, CSV files,DBF files (DBase, XBase etc.), INI style configuration files	2003
Group-Office	Intermesh BV	6.4.178	October 2020	AGPLv3, SaaS and proprietary	PHP/JavaScript	Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac OS	MySQL	2003
HubSpot CRM Free	HubSpot	N/A	N/A	SaaS	Java	Cloud computing	HBase	2014
Neolane	Adobe	v6	2012	Proprietary or SaaS	C++, JavaScript	Windows, Linux	MS SQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL	2001
Nutshell CRM	Nutshell CRM	2017	2017	SaaS	PHP	Web, iOS, Android	MySQL	2010
Oracle Advertising and Customer Experience (CX)	Oracle Corporation	2021	Sept 2021	Proprietary or SaaS	Java, PL/SQL, C/C++, Python	Cloud computing	Oracle Database	2011
Pega CRM	Chordiant	?	?	Proprietary	?	Windows, Linux, Mac, web browser	?	?
Pipedrive	Pipedrive	2018	2018	SaaS	JavaScript, PHP	Web, iOS, Android	MySQL	2011
Pivotal CRM	Aptean	6.6	January 2019	Proprietary	.NET	Windows	MS SQL, Oracle	1996
Really Simple Systems	Really Simple Systems	2016	2006	SaaS	VBScript, JavaScript, ASP	Cloud Computing	MySQL	2006
SageCRM	Sage Group	Sage CRM 2019 R1	February 2019	Proprietary or SaaS	ASP.NET, ASP	Windows	MS SQL, ORACLE, DB2	1981
Salesbox CRM	Salesbox CRM	2019	2019	SaaS	JS, React	Web, iOS, Android	PostgreSQL	2014
Salesforce.com	Marc Benioff	Winter '21	June 2019	Proprietary	APEX (Proprietary Language Java-like)	Cloud Computing	Proprietary	1999
SAP CRM	SAP SE	7.0 EHP4 SP11	2018	Proprietary	ABAP	Windows, Linux, Unix	SAP HANA, MS SQL, Oracle	2000
SAP Cloud for Customer	SAP SE	1811	2018	Proprietary	ABAP	Linux	SAP HANA	2009
Snapforce CRM	Snapforce CRM	2016	2013	SaaS	PHP	Cloud Computing	MySQL	2011
Streak	Aleem Mawani, Omar Ismail			Proprietary	Java	Windows, Mac	Google App Engine	2012
SugarCRM	John Roberts, Clint Oram, Jacob Taylor	9.0.1	June 2019	Proprietary or SaaS	PHP	Cross-platform	MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2, and Oracle (IBM DB2 and Oracle only available for Sugar Enterprise edition)	2004
SuiteCRM	SalesAgility	8.0.4	March 2022	AGPLv3	PHP	Cross-platform	MariaDB, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server	2013
SuperOffice CRM	SuperOffice	7.5	2014	Proprietary	C++,C# and ASP.NET	Windows	SQL Server	1990
OnlyOffice	Ascensio System SIA	10.5.1	December 2019	GPLv3, SaaS	ASP.NET	Windows	Microsoft SQL Server, Amazon Server	2010
Tryton	Tryton	5.6	May 2020	GPLv3	Python, JavaScript	Cross-platform	PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite	2008
WORKetc	Daniel Barnett	v4.0	2013	SaaS	C#, .NET	Windows	Microsoft SQL Server, Amazon Server	2009
Zoho CRM	Zoho CRM	Zoho CRM 2018	2018	SaaS	Java	Cloud Computing, Cross Platform	Proprietary	1999

2023d

• (OpenAI, 2023a) ⇒ chat.openai.com
  • Q: What is the difference between a CRM application package and an instance of a CRM application operating at a specific organization?
  • A: A CRM (customer relationship management) application package is a software program or suite of programs designed to help businesses manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle. This can include features such as tracking customer interactions, managing customer accounts and contact information, and analyzing customer data to identify trends and patterns.

    An instance of a CRM application operating at a specific organization refers to the specific implementation and use of a CRM application by that organization. This might include customizing the application to meet the specific needs and processes of the organization, integrating the application with other systems and tools, and training employees on how to use the application. Essentially, an instance of a CRM application is the unique way in which a particular organization uses a CRM application package to support its customer relationship management efforts.

2023e

• (OpenAI, 2023b) ⇒ chat.openai.com
  • Q: what are some examples of CRM platforms?
  • A: There are many customer relationship management (CRM) platforms available. Some examples include:
    • Salesforce: a cloud-based CRM platform that offers a wide range of tools for sales, customer service, and marketing.
    • Zoho CRM: a comprehensive CRM platform that includes tools for sales, marketing, and customer support.
    • HubSpot CRM: a free CRM platform that includes tools for contact management, deal management, and email marketing.
    • Microsoft Dynamics CRM: a CRM platform that integrates with other Microsoft products and offers tools for sales, customer service, and marketing.
    • SugarCRM: a flexible CRM platform that can be customized to fit the needs of various businesses.
    • Freshsales: a CRM platform designed for small and medium-sized businesses, with a focus on sales and customer management.
    • Nutshell: a CRM platform that is specifically designed for small businesses and includes tools for sales, marketing, and customer support.

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