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CRM ERP Soup

Tuesday, July 27th, 2004 at 6:08 AM Category: Meryl's Notes Blog No comments

I’ve been busy researching the world of CRM (customer relationship management) and ERP (enterprise resource planning). Honestly, I think these names are poorly selected as they do more than what their names imply.

Ironically, while I was writing this, I went to IntelligentERP… or what it was formerly known as. It’s known known as Intelligent Application because “…hardly just ‘enterprise resource planning,’ or ERP. In fact, ERP providers have themselves broadened out their portfolios of packaged applications so much so that you rarely hear the term ‘ERP’ anymore. And so, we are changing the name of this Intelligent Enterprise Web Community away from the ERP acronym and toward the more inclusive – and really more important – term, ‘applications.’”

The term ASP (application services provider) is also used, but it is too broad and often applies to the ERP companies. See this article.

CRM, simply put, helps an business organize and manage customer relationships. ERP, which has a terrible name as it has little to do with planning… as a matter of fact, it’s not a resource application where you assign resources to a project or anything of the sort. Originally, ERP integrated the components of a business including planning, manufacturing, sales, and marketing. As more companies entered the ERP zone, it grew to include inventory control, order tracking, finance, human resources, and customer service.

No wonder someone asked me if a product was CRM or ERP. They do have overlapping features and the identified product was both CRM and ERP.

In terms of the big six give or take, those companies are PeopleSoft, SAP, Oracle, Baan, JD Edwards, and Lawson. Each has its strengths and weaknesses and when shopping for the right product, look at the size of the company’s needs not the “name” of the product.

Many small- and medium-sized (SMB) companies are investing in one of these big sixes, which is way more than they needed. Paul worked for a small company that bought one of the big applications because it got all these great deals. Well, guess what, the company got hit with huge bills later. It didn’t need a lot of the features the application offered.

There are products for the SMB including NetSuite, Salesforce, RightNow, Salesnet, and Siebel OnDemand.

Shopping for the right software shouldn’t be time-consuming because it is not just about technology, but also about people and processes. In fact, this article indicates technology is the least important of the three with the other two making up 80 percent of CRM.

Sites for CRM / ERP information:

DestinationCRM
CRM2Day
CRM Directory
CRM Toolbox
CRM Daily
CRM Community
SearchCRM
ASPnews
ASPstreet