Authors: Sjöberg, Amelie 880410 Wallgren, Christopher 890131   Background: Due to the current competitive climate, it is of major importance for firms to distinguish and differentiate their products compared to the competitors. To achieve that, the firms need to offer a product that the customers want. Firms can integrate with external sources and receive valuable information regarding references and needs. Customer relationship management (CRM) have become a tool firm commonly use in order to receive this information. CRM is a much discussed topic among researchers, and the researchers argue that it is of major importance to identify CRM activities that generates profitability and successful performance to the firm   Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate the impact of customer relationship management (CRM) on product innovation in Scandinavian firms.   Method: The survey generated 61 responses from service and manufacturing firms operating on the Scandinavian market (Sweden, Norway and Denmark). The surveys were accessible through Keysruvey.com in April 2013 and generated a response rate of 14% Conclusion: The major conclusion of this research is that all Hypotheses were supported, which indicates that customer involvement, information sharing and long-term partnership has a positive impact on product innovation.

Detta examensarbete behandlar ämnena molnteknik och IT-stöd för kundarbetet i nystartade företag och har främst utförts åt en extern beställare, företaget Approdites AB. Företaget önskade information och rekommendationer gällande potentiella tjänster för IT-stöd som de skulle kunna använda sig av i sitt arbeta med kunderna. Examensarbetet resulterar i dels en akademisk rapport bestående av bland annat teori, metod och tidigare forskning, dels en rapport/förundersökning innehållande rekommendationer om tjänster, samt riktlinjer åt företaget gällande de aktuella områdena. De båda rapporterna syftar till att förse företaget Approdites med relevant information om områdena i stort, samt ge förslag på tjänster som kan passa deras verksamhet. I den akademiska rapporten redogörs för hur grunden till rapporten med teori, metoder och andra viktiga områden lades.

Due to the constant change of technology, companies’ battle to win customers becomes more and more intense. Maintaining customers and building long-term relationships is becoming more and more important and the customer relationship management (CRM) concept has evolved as a strategy rather than just a technological system. With an efficient CRM strategy and CRM system the company can learn which customers to keep, put more focus on and develop further relationship with and which ones to cut loose (Mendoza et al., 2006).    Sales and sales management are often critical personnel in an organization, because they are in charge of selling goods and services that generate the revenues and cash flows that support the firms’ existence (Wagner & Zubey, 2007). This thesis focuses on how an organization can motivate stakeholders of the CRM system, within the sales department, to improve the usage, taking in consideration critical success factors (CSFs). To develop an understanding of the barriers that might influence the use of the CRM system and the CSFs that have been considered to motivate the stakeholders of the system, a case study was made at Strålfors Svenska AB. Interviews were held with the sales managers and the sales personnel to learn about the expectations of the CRM system use and about the actual use.   The results have lead us to the following conclusions; for the CRM system to be successful and to motivate the CRM stakeholders, the following factors are critical; top management involvement, clear communication of goals and objectives, integration between departments in the organization, sales staff commitment and involvement, education, feedback and evaluation.

Nowadays, market situation has moved from the mass marketing towards the era of customized marketing. To keep abreast of technological development, new approach should substitute for the traditional business models. The issue that CRM as a tool to create values for customers in developing countries has become much more attractive. The purpose of this dissertation is to figure out how to create values for the customers in the operating process of enterprise. This study is built on a model of CRM process and performance, which helps the company to create values for customers. The authors use case study to conduct this research, and data collection through the semi-structured interview.   Some findings are obtained: strategic goals and customer orientation are critical for a CRM project. The small firms’ success is derived from the effective customer orientation and meeting customer needs. CRM process contained firm resources, management of customer relationships, customer-company exchange process and people-related components. The tangible performance of successful CRM process is to increase company profits through enhancing customer behaviors. Managing relationships with customers is beneficial for the company. If a company focuses on trust, commitment, and communication between company and the customers, their relationship performance will be boost up. It will achieve the customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, customer retention. Furthermore, customer satisfaction has direct relationship with customer values, and is the chief purpose of any business and is associated with the business success.

An increasingly globalized market is leading to hard competition among manufacturing companies, which means that they are forced to become more customer focused to survive in the market. A Customer Relationship Management system is a system that will be of assistance to help companies succeed in building long term relationships with their customers. Best of Breed and ERP-based are two types of CRM systems. The study has focused on analyzing and examine the need for CRM systems at manufacturing companies. Our question formulation has been: • What need do businesses want to satisfy with a Best of Breed-based and ERP-based CRM system?• Are there any differences in the use of Best of Breed-based and ERP-based CRM system? In this study, we have chosen to carry out interviews and quantitative surveys with manufacturing companies to get their view of CRM-systems. We also chose to conduct detailed interviews with system vendors in two different perspectives to see how they perceive the need for companies to use CRM systems. The study shows that over half of the interviewed companies use a CRM system today, and between them it is an almost even distribution between those who use an ERP-based and a Best of Breed CRM system. Companies that use an ERP-based CRM system believe that integration is the main criterion for the selection of CRM, while those with Best of Breed believe that the functionality and usability of the system is the most important. The main use for the system is management of contact information and sales support. According to the system vendors, it is important for their customers that the CRM system supports the sales, market and customer service process. It is also equally important that it provides good functionality and is user friendly. A company that have used both types of CRM systems mentioned that the advantage they see with an ERP-based CRM is primarily the degree of integration with the company's other systems, and that you only need to enter information into a system at one time.Just over forty percent of the interviewed companies that currently not use a CRM system are planning to make an investment in the next four of five years.

Lojalitetsprogram är en slags medlemsklubb där medlemmar får ta del av olika belöningar ochförmåner. Programmen kan vara ett bra hjälpmedel för företag att skaffa lojala, återkommandekunder, men det kan även vara kostsamt vid okunskap. Huvuduppgiften med programmen är attskapa en relation med gästen för att få den att återkomma, då det visat sig att lojala kunder ökarlönsamheten. Det har även visat sig att en CRM-strategi kan underlätta skapandet avkundlojalitet och lönsamhet.Syftet med uppsatsen var att redogöra och diskutera vad som påverkar ett lojalitetsprogramslönsamhet.Uppsatsen grundades i fem vetenskapliga artiklar som granskades, bearbetades ochsammanfattades utifrån uppsatsens syfte. Resultatet tog upp vikten av kundlojalitet för att skapalönsamhet inom hospitalitybranschen samt lojalitetsprogrammens effektivitet. Från artiklarnaframkom det att lojalitetsprogrammets utformning och belöningssystem hade stor betydelse förom en gäst blir lojal eller inte. Relationen som utvecklades mellan företag och gäst var även deten betydelsefull del i skapandet av lojalitet. Senare diskuterades huruvida lojalitetsprogram varen säker väg till kundlojalitet eller inte utifrån de olika faktorerna som tidigare nämndes.Sammanfattningsvis var en välstrukturerad CRM-strategi med kunskap om programmetsstruktur, belöningssystem och gemenskap viktigt vid skapandet av ett effektivt och lönsamtlojalitetsprogram. / B-uppsatser

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BT is a global company within the lift truck industry. The main office is located in Mjölby. In Europe all sales and service activities are carried out by fully owned sales companies. I North America, BT RAYMOND develop and distribute trucks under a different brand. For the rest of the world BT works together with a distributor network, most of them are fully independent others BT has a small ownership in. BT is today own by TOYOTA material handling. This report is a study about BT’s possibilities to start an Electronic Commerce sales channel. At the beginning BT will most likely aim for a pilot project for Electronic Commerce for the Division Hand Trucks. The main reason is that the hand pallet truck is well suited for the web since it is rather standardized. This study can be an embryo for BT Europe to reach new customers who may discover BT’s products on-line. The goal for the future is to cover these customers in a better way and the Internet and Electronic Commerce could be one way of doing just that. We are not proposing a turnkey solution to BT. Instead this report aims to increase the knowledge within BT itself in this area. In addition we also try to highlight a number of important areas BT needs to address before an official launch of E-Commerce. Since a new on-line sales channel would impose major changes within BT we have also chosen to analyse important factors during a possible implementation phase. Together with our project company we have also decided to explore the CRM perspective with a new channel on the web. There seems to be possibilities for BT to improve their methods in this area and E-Commerce may be one tool to use. The authors focus on four important areas in this thesis. These are, Price, Sales and Marketing, Design of EC portal and Logistics. We also show several theoretical models like Key factors during a project process, Business Process Reeingineering and the Six-step model. The authors also discuss different forms of data collection methods. One key element of this report is the results of the questionnaire given to key people working for BT in Europe. There are also interviews from another company (SECTRA) about organisational change which can give the readers other perspectives in this area. At the end of this report (chapter 11) the readers could study our recommendations for BT in the event they will go through with implementing an E-Commerce channel. Those recommendations are summarized in both a long term and a short term perspective

Bakgrund: Intresset för studien och ämnesområdet väcktes genom en verklig händelse när vi tog kontakt med en optiker för en önskad synundersökning. Företaget, vilket för några år tillbaka implementerat ett CRM-system ansåg sig erbjuda stor kundfokus genom det införda systemet. Dock visade resultatet på motsatsen när vi vid ett flertal tillfällen försökte nå företaget utan framgång och även genom ett mindre trevligt bemötande när vi tog kontakt med företaget genom att besöka deras butik. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) har under det senaste årtiondet blivit ett allt mer omtalat och diskuterat ämne samt en allt mer populär och prioriterad investering för att förbättra sina kundrelationer och på så sätt öka sina inkomster och förbättra sina resultat. Dock visar tidigare forskning på en stor problematik angående implementeringsprocessen av systemet, att näst intill fyra av fem företag upplever ett stort missnöje och utebliva resultat. Syfte: Studien är inriktad mot att undersöka implementeringsprocessen av ett CRM- system i syfte att identifiera vilka delar i processen som är kritiska för att nå ett lyckat resultat. Vidare skall studien även ge svar på frågan om vilka faktorer som kan ses påverka utfallet och som därmed kan anses vara kritiska för att uppnå en lyckad implementering och ett lyckat resultat. Inom ramen för syftet kommer vi besvara följande frågor: Vilka aspekter i implementeringsprocessen kan ur ett teoretiskt samt empiriskt perspektiv beskrivas som kritiska? Om, och i så fall, på vilket sätt det föreligger likheter eller skillnader mellan de teoretiskt kritiska aspekterna och det empiriska resultatet? Om, och i så fall, hur kan gemensamma samband mellan aspekter och faktorer mellan i de i studien ingående företagens implementeringsprocesser urskiljas och beskrivas? Genomförande: Studien har en induktiv, hermeneutisk samt explorativ ansats där interna aspekter samt faktorer studeras inom ramen av små och medelstora svenska företag inom Linköpings kommun. Vidare har referensramen skapats genom litteraturstudier och empiriska data är erhållen genom kvalitativa intervjuer på fem olika företag. Resultat: Genom studiens resultat har vi, ur ett teoretiska samt ur ett empiriskt perspektiv, identifierat tre kritiska aspekter (människan, processen samt teknologin) samt tre kritiska faktorer (ledarskap, strategi och integration) inom implementeringsprocessen. Vidare har den empiriska undersökningen utöver dessa urskilt en ytterligare faktor, vilken är företagskulturen där tyngden ligger i medarbetarnas attityder, anpassning, samarbete samt viljan till förändring. Den mänskliga aspekten har även visat sig vara mycket kritisk, där den ur båda perspektiven beskrivs som avgörande för ett lyckat resultat. Studiens genomförande har även resulterat i iakttagelser av företagens olika definitioner och synen på användandet av systemet, alltså skiljer sig syftet vilket leder oss till ett utvärderingsdilemma när det gäller förväntade och lyckade resultat. Den varierande bilden av systemet gör en generell jämförelse missvisande och svårtolkad genom att företagen inte har klara syften med införandet och i många fall förväntar sig ett resultat vilket ej motsvarar deras egna insatser och arbete. Förväntar företagen sig ett visst resultat utan att tillföra de rätta resurserna kommer de säkerligen anse att resultatet inte blev det som förväntades och att införandet därmed blev ett misslyckande. Det handlar alltså om att företagen måste veta vad de vill uppnå och utforma ett klart syfte med sitt CRM-införande. Detta för att tillföra rätt resurser och uppnå ett lyckat resultat, vilket bör anses lyckat i jämförelse med ett realistiskt syfte samt i förhållande till de resurser som tillförts. Systemets komplexitet fordrar planering och insikt om en krävande implementeringsprocess. Den splittrade bilden av systemets användning samt syfte leder till en rad olika problem där den mänskliga aspekten spelar en avgörande roll. Dock kan en tydlig strategi som förmedlar syftet samt kraven på anpassning och förändring minska dessa mänskliga symptom och leda till ett lyckat resultat. / Tillägg på ämne/kurs: Även Magisteruppsats från internationella ekonomprogrammet

How much is a brand worth? Brand equity is a measurement that reflects brand valuation, and is built through a brand’s various products, actions and activities. According to the Consumer Based Brand Equity (CBBE) model, the epitome of equity is achieved when the brand and the people are in a relationship, when the brand resonates with people. Until a few years back, most of this relationship played out in real life, but the arrival of new media and social media in particular is changing this. Brands are migrating into the realm of social media where people are socialising like never before. People move to social media, and so to maintain a relationship with them brands need to be there too. However, how do they go about engaging with people in these relatively unchartered waters? Is there a formula, a strategy that fits all? This study examines how brands work to maintain relationships with people in social media through looking at Social CRM and strategies that encourage participation and involvement. It aims to see whether there are differences in how different brand types manage their relationship with fans on the largest and most extensive social networking site, Facebook. Brands satisfy consumer needs and these influence consumer purchase decisions. The brand types investigated correspond to the different levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as it is the most cited and respected categorisation available. This means that a wide variety of brand are eligible for the investigation as long as their primary use is to satisfy one of the needs described by Maslow. The investigation takes the shape of a content analysis of 20 brands from four need categories (physiological, safety, behavioural, and ego), accompanied by a case study of one of these brands to illustrate the points made based on the quantitative data. What the data showed was that brands in general primarily focus on content rather than contact and collaboration in their engagement plans. Content is least time intensive and also easily involves the 90 percent of people that are categorises as lurkers. Two-way communication is encouraged but it varies between brand types. Brands within the safety need category were most open to two-way communication and also used it for customer service purposes. Collaboration is encouraged in social media but it is still used very sparsely, physiological brands being the most open to collaboration. However, the collaboration is more often cause-related than brand product/service-related.