A Holy Nation Essays - Books Of Samuel, Samuel, Saul, Eli

A Holy Nation Essays - Books Of Samuel, Samuel, Saul, Eli A Holy Nation A Holy Nation After creating the world, a paradise for human kind, God is forced to banish Adam and Eve because they disobey His orders to not eat fruit from the tree of wisdom. This results ultimately in the fall of man to earth. Immediately from the beginning of his time on Earth, man chooses not to follow the path set before him by God but instead spreads evil throughout the world. Therefore, the inherent problem humans face is the pressure to judge between good and evil, the need to aspire to be like God. God's first solution to this problem was to flood the world killing everyone, but those on Noah's arch. God realizes, however, that this is not an answer to the problem that humans are, and decides upon a second solution, that being the Holy Nation of Israel. God creates Israel, so that the Holy Nation and its history can serve as a guiding-light to the world. Israel is therefore an example in which the world can look upon and learn from. A pivotal character within the great history of Israel, is the Holy Nation's first king, King Saul. Saul epitomizes the problematic human being, and his character fully illustrates human pride, the need to rise up and be like God in judging what is right and wrong. This pride is ultimately the central source of all other sins. The rule of Saul over the people of Israel is a major turning point for the Holy Nation, for it marks the end of a line of Judges and begins a line of Kings. Saul is anointed king of Israel due to the sin of the people of Israel. The citizens of Israel, notice not only that Samuel, the Judge, was growing old, but also that his sons, whom he appointed to succeed him as Judge, did not follow their father's ways but were intent on their own profit, taking bribes, and perverting the course of justice(8:3). As a result the people demanded a king be appointed to rule over them, even after they were given a solemn warning of the future king's tyranny (8:10-8:18). Because the Israelites reject the order of Judges, they thereby reject God's word that He will save them, and have, as a result, lost faith in God. God states to Samuel, Listen to the people and all that they are saying; they have not rejected you, it is I whom they have rejected, I whom they will not have be their King(8:7). In sp ite of His people's sin against Him, however, God finds a king to rule over Israel, and chooses Saul. In the beginning Saul is a strong and humble leader to his people. When is uncle questions him about Samuel's remarks, Saul replies, 'He told us that the donkeys had been found'... but he did not repeat what Samuel had said about his being king(10:16). He does not tell his uncle that he is to become king of Israel because he is not overconfident and prideful in his position as ruler over God's chosen ones. Moreover, Saul becomes very zealous and effective leader when he chooses to [take] a pair of oxen, cut them in pieces, and [send] messenger with the pieces all through Israel to proclaim that the same would be done to the oxen of any man who did not follow [Samuel and himself] to battle(11:5). Saul's first acts and first successes as king prove not only that he possesses the qualities of a good leader, but also reinforces in the mind of the people that he is God's chosen. Saul's first victories against the nation's enemies cause great joy and excitement amongst the Israelites. During this moment of rejoicing, Samuel gives a warning to the people of Israel that is more directed towards Saul himself. Samuel states, If you will revere the Lord and give true and loyal service, if you do not rebel against his commands, and if you and the king who reigns over you are faithful to the Lord you God, well and good, but if you do not obey the Lord, and if you rebel against his commands, then his hands will be against you

Article Review Poisoned Water essays

Article Review Poisoned Water essays 1. In this particular case, it is not simply enough for the factory owner to state that he cannot afford to operate an economically sound factory. It is not only his economic future, or indeed his legal future, that is at stakeit is also the rights of the individuals whose lives may be affected by his environmentally and economically irresponsible behavior. Furthermore, clean water is a scarce resource. Unlike sunlight, it is not naturally renewable. By tainting this resource, the individual impedes the economic development of others. For instance, if I cannot go to work because I am sickened by the pollution from the factory, my own economic health One useful economic model to deploy when examining the irresponsible behavior of the factory owner might be to posit the Classical model of economics, as suggested by Adam Smith, which in fact does not propose an entirely hands off' relationship between government and industry. For instance, if a monopoly develops, the government, in this economic model, the government free to step in and break down the monopoly, to recreate a free economy where competitors can generate a healthy economic stasis of supply and demand. Here, the government must step in and assert that a healthy environment must be created for the general welfare as well as the economic stasis of all afflicted members of the community who are not privy to access to other sources of clean water. 2. Allocating the property rights to those who use the river as their primary source of clean water would generate an allocatively effective outcome because those individuals would have a personal and economic interest in keeping the water clean. At present, the current possessor of the rights to the water does not have such self-in ...

Business forms Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Business forms - Research Paper Example In order to perform a succinct selection of the business form, consideration of taxes, legal plus accounting issues will be vital. Sole proprietorship This is a business organization owned by a single person who is responsible for entire operations of the business. Advantages and disadvantages A sole proprietor is responsible for various decisions that affect the business. He is accountable for the business because he conducts all transactions. Any operations such as sales are possible through the authority of the owner. In sole proprietorship, the owner of the business enjoys exemption of taxes such as corporate tax (Goldman & Sigismond, 2011). Those starting a new business enjoy the presence of few trade requirements. Legal costs are considerable, hence, making it easier to run the business. A sole proprietor benefits from the profits acquired because he has not formed a partnership. Sole proprietorship has limitations where the owner is responsible for debts and other roles of the business. In case of losses, the owner suffers alone with no one to share the loss. Sole proprietorship is liable to various risks that associates workers conduct within the business. Financial statements for sole proprietorship The cash flows statement provides a description of money movement within a time frame. It indicates the amount at the commencement and termination of the period. The statement of changes in equity for the owner relates income statement and the balance sheet by indicating the increases or decreases of the capital (Goldman & Sigismond, 2011). A balance sheet depicts finances of the sole proprietor by including assets plus liabilities and capital. The financial performance document displays earnings for a known timeframe and depicts the net income of the owner for the period indicated. Tax, legal plus accounting implications A sole proprietor faces challenges when dealing with accounting issues, for example, it is exhausting to handle records of various operat ions without making errors. It consumes time to scrutinize both purchases and sales in different documents. For sole proprietorship, taxation is similar to other business forms where it occurs in income-tax rates. Improper accounting may lead to tax complexities. Sole proprietorship does not have protection enjoyed by other companies. The owner becomes responsible for various issues that result from operations (Goldman & Sigismond, 2011). Partnership Advantages plus disadvantages This is a form of business ownership in which people come together and form a business based on their interests. It involves two or several people who implement a business idea after careful planning. Persons intending to start a partnership find it suitable because they can raise funds easily (Pride et al., 2011). Partnership can grow tremendously because people can share ideas to enhance its improvement. Partnership attracts various people with intentions of commencing businesses because partners can shar e loses plus profits that arise from business operations. Although it is advantageous, the business form has some limitations such as sharing of profits plus losses. All partners become accountable for the conduct of the entire fraternity. There is a possibility of benefits being limited by taxes or returns. The lifespan for a partnership can be short because members may choose to leave for other endeavors (Pride et al., 2011). Financial documents for partnership Partnership utilizes the common statements such as balance sheets, cash flows, income and owner’s equity statements (Pride et al., 2011). This is similar to sole proprietorshi

Family Health Assessment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Family Health Assessment - Research Paper Example Moreover, the family stated that they have not been experiencing any history of diseases like cancer or diabetes. Another issue that the family addressed concerning this function is that none of them engages in drug and substance abuse. The family believed that this is the main reason that they have not been suffering from any chronic diseases. The second function was about nutrition and the data gathered indicated that the family could normally afford to take a balance diet meal on a daily basis. Looking on their faces, they were health and this indicated that it was true on what they were saying. The family also stated that every member addresses the recommendations made by health experts by taking the necessary cups of water on a daily basis. On this issue, they approximated that each member takes between five to seven cups of clean water on a daily basis. Apart from water, the family also recorded taking other forms of fluids like tea and fruit juices. The fluids and water are of significance importance in assisting on normal body functioning and digestion. In respect to sleep/rest, the family indicated that it had problems in achieving the recommendable sleep/rest pattern. The parents stated they sleep for about four to five hours. This is because they spend most of their times trying to meet daily needs. The children also stated they sleep between six to seven hours as they spend most of their time working on school assignments. It was evident that the family lacks enough time rest. This has resulted to some members to find difficulties in sleeping at night. On the function of elimination, data gathered indicated that the family members differed on the number of times that they eliminated waste substances from their body. In the family of six members, two of them stated that they eliminated the waste substances two times on a daily basis. The other four indicated that they

National Strategy for Homeland Security Research Paper

National Strategy for Homeland Security - Research Paper Example Anything that presents a threat, whether it is a person or a hurricane, will have no choice but to answer to the Department of Homeland Security before it touches the civilians of America. The Department of Homeland Security was former president George Bush’s response to the attacks of September 11, 2001. The idea behind the DHS was to ensure homeland security and to help prevent further attacks on the United States by outside forces, regardless of where these forces came from or what they consisted of. The official statement that contained the mission of DHS is as follows: â€Å"The mission of the Office will be to develop and coordinate the implementation of a comprehensive national strategy to secure the United States from terrorist threats or attacks. The Office will coordinate the executive branchs efforts to detect, prepare for, prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from terrorist attacks within the United States (Department of Homeland Security, 2002).† There are five main responsibilities of the Department of Homeland Security. The first and foremost task is to guard the nation against terrorism. Securing the borders of the country and enforcing immigration laws immediately follow, as these involve keeping out people that could potentially be seeking to initiate terrorism on the country. Improving the readiness for, response to, and recovery from natural disasters make up the missions for the aspect of the department that deals with natural disasters that shake up the everyday lives of citizens. Finally, maturing and unifying the department, which helps to provide the best care for the nation by prompting unity within the department itself. The law enforcement agencies that have been acquired through the creation of the Department of Homeland Security are many, over twenty, and vary in duties and responsibilities.

Effects Of Implementing CRM Systems

Effects Of Implementing CRM Systems Effects Of Implementing CRM Systems And Its Strategic Issues In An Organisation Introduction Definition Of CRM: Any organisation will profit from adopting a definition of what CRM means in strategic terms for their business and ensuring that this definition is used in a regular manner all the way through their organization. One of the most important definitions of a CRM has been given by Davenport et al. (2001), stating that CRM systems are â€Å"all the tools, technologies and procedures to control, manage and improve or facilitate sales, support and related interactions with customers, and business partners throughout the enterprise†. According with Siebel, (one of the mayor players in the CRM market) â€Å"CRM is an integrated approach to identifying, acquiring, and retaining customers. By enabling companies to deal with and coordinate customer interactions across several channels, departments, lines of business, and geographies, CRM helps organizations maximize the value of every customer interaction and drive superior corporate performance.† Another concept about CRM, provided by John Wiley, author of the book â€Å"CRM unplugged†, is â€Å"CRM is not about technology, its about attracting and serving clients in more attractive ways†. Introduction: Many organisations in recent years identified the importance to become friendlier with the customers facing with increased worldwide competition. Therefore Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has risen to the agenda of many organisational strategies. Customer Relationship Management systems can be viewed as information systems meant to enable organisations to realise a customer focus. An increasing number of organisations are adopting CRM yet surveys are beginning to highlight the potential risks. Although CRM systems are proving an extremely popular choice for implementation. It is obvious that there is still a need for further observed studies of CRM but, only a few are available. Now a day in the business market, management finds that customers are the central part of a business and that a companys success depends on effectively managing relationships with them. So, one of the initial goals that management has its employees to achieve is based on a saying such as â€Å"the customers are always right,† â€Å"do whatever it takes to deliver your promise† or something similar. All objectives are decided to one crucial goal that is to make customers satisfy because they are the ones who keep the business run. Not too long ago, many companies did not consider this an important factor and often uncared for their customers with the result that many of these customers did not come back. Frequently, these objectives become constraints for businesses and their employees when they do not have suitable tools, equipment, or methods to achieve this goal. Now a day, technology provides to the businesses with systems that can help companies track customers comm unications with the firms and allow the firms employees to rapidly get back all the data about the customers. This idea is known as a customer relationship management (CRM) system and if used correctly, could improve an organisations ability to achieve the ultimate goal of retaining customers and so gain a strategic improvement over its competitors. (Gefen, D. 2002) CRM can be interpreted as a process of digitizing a staffs knowledge about his or her customers. This is because in a usual business process, customer relation staff would normally be required to remember their clients requirements, behaviours, tastes, preferences, etc. In real meaning, CRM focuses on building long-standing and sustainable customer relationships that adds value for both the customer and the organisation. (Daft, 2003). CRM system is frequently incorporated with other decision support systems across all functional areas, such as (ERP) Enterprise Recourse Planning system, (EIS) Executive Information Systems, (SCM) Supply Chain Management System, and Product Life-Cycle Management Systems. By doing so, organizations can produce better management information in terms of planning, acquiring, and controlling across all channels and thus have greater products and services that direct to larger revenues and larger profits. CRM systems can also assist organizations increase their abilities to interact with their customers. This not only leads to improved quality but will improve the speed response to customers needs (Anderson, 2006). By itself, CRM makes a required tool for business because it distinguishes an organization from its competitors with the knowledge resources about product ideas and the ability to identify and find solutions to customers issues. CRM can cut down the distance between customers and the organization, contributing to organizational success through customer loyalty, greater service, better data gathering, and organizational learning. Some have argued that customer satisfaction and loyalty is a science; however, Phelon (2004) takes it up a level by saying that â€Å"customer leverage is an art.† CRM Classification: Operational CRM: Operational CRM is also called front office CRM which involves the areas where the customers meet directly and this type of interactions is called as touchpoints. A touchpoint is of two types, one is inbound e.g., a call to an organisations customer support hotline and the other is outbound e.g., an in-person sales call or an e-mail support. Operational CRM enables communications to and from customers but this doesnt mean useful service. (Dyche 2001). The benefits of Operational CRM are: It delivers personalised and well-organized marketing, sales and service through multi-channel collaboration. It also enables a 360 degree view of your customer while you are interacting with them. The people who are included in sales and service can access complete history of all the customer interaction with the company, regardless of the touch point. Analytical CRM: Analytical CRM is also called as back office or strategic CRM which involves the customer actions that takes place in front office. Analytical CRM needs technology that total customer data and provide analysis of the customer data to progress managerial decision making and actions. Analytical CRM involves large amounts of cross-functional information and this information is stored on a data warehouse. The analytical CRM is based on the technologies such as warehousing and data mining. In this, the customer database should be accessible from all the departments like marketing, sales and customer service. Analytical CRM forms the foundation for planning and evaluation of marketing campaigns and assists cross selling and up selling functionalities. (Adrian Payne 2005). Collaborative CRM: Collaborative CRM is said to be an approach to the CRM in which there are many departments such as sales, marketing, and technical support share the data which they collect from interactions with the customers. For example we can say customer feedback is a main aspect for customer satisfaction and loyalty since the customer feedback gathered from a technical support department could inform marketing staff about the products and services that might be great help to the customers. The point of collaboration is to improve the quality of customer service which results in increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. Source: Handbook of CRM: achieving excellence in customer managementBy Adrian Payne (2005). Benefits Of CRM: A right CRM implementation can benefit to the organisations as well as to the customers. CRM is a next wave of computer aided marketing because it is a way of doing business. Below are the some of the benefits that a CRM or Customer Relationship Management system can bring. Peck et al. (1999) A major benefit from the Customer Relationship Management can be the development of strong relationships with the ongoing customers which can lead to: Improved sales through better timing due to anticipating needs based on past trends. Organisation can identify needs of the customers more effectively by understanding specific customer requirements. Cross- selling and up-selling of other services and products by highlighting and telling alternatives or enhancements. Organisations can identify the customers who are profitable and who are not profitable to the company. Finally this could lead to: The improved customer satisfaction and retention, showing that the organisation is having good reputation in the market place. Increased value from the customers and reduced cost associated with supporting and servicing them, growing the overall efficiency. Enhanced profitability by focusing on the most profitable customers so that the organisation ca more concentrates on the unprofitable customers dealing them with the more cost effective ways. Some other benefits which are mean to the organisations are: Shared or distributed data: Now a days companies realize that customer relationships are very important on many levels, they begin to understand the need for data sharing throughout the organisation. A CRM system is an enabler for making informed decisions and follow-up on all the levels. Cost reduction: The strong point in the CRM is making customers as their business partner and not just a subject. Because customers are doing their own order entry and are empowered to find the information they need to make a decision, less order entry and customer staff is needed. Better customer service: The information related to the interactions to the customers is centralised, so the customer support department can really benefit from this because they have all the information they needed at their fingertips. No need to ask the customer for infinity times and no need to estimate. And mostly the customer can do this on their own because the CRM system is more and more able to expect the need of the customer. The experience got to the customer is greatly enhanced. Increased customer satisfaction: If the customer feels that he is the most important part of the team instead of just a topic for marketing and sales, customer service is better and the needs are predictable. There is no question of customers are dissatisfied with the product or service. Better customer retention: If a Customer Relationship Management system can help to fascinate customers then it can be said that this will increase customer loyalty, and the customers will come back to buy again and again which produce customer retention. More repeat business: If the customers are pleased then we can repeat business. Initially customers are in a doubt of mind, if the service is good and if the customer is pleased he turns into loyal advocate to the business. Purpose Of The Study: The purpose of the study is to understand the CRM application strategies and their successful implementation to bring about maximum customer satisfaction. By doing so, we hope to make Customer Relationship Management applications more useful to the customers. Research Questions: With reference to the above stated research problem, â€Å"what are the factors effecting for a successful CRM implementation†? The following research questions have been posed to conduct the study to realize the purpose. What are the benefits obtained to the customers from the CRM implementation? What are the challenges for implementing Customer Relationship Management? What are the factors that help in successful implementation of CRM? And What are the risks involved in implementing CRM in the organisation? Design/Methodology/Approach: Thus, this dissertation deals with CRM introduction and effects of implementing CRM systems in an organisation in order to give an insight into the current issues and status of the technology. The literature review will analyze, examine and explore the benefits and problems involved in implementing CRM systems. Structure Of The Dissertation: Chapter 1: Introduction And Research Rationale This part gives a brief introduction about the purpose of the thesis. It also details the rationale for doing the thesis and validity of the research. This part also states the aims and objectives of the research to be done. Chapter 2: Literature Review This part covers the literature on the CRM issues and its functions using journals articles. The existing function will be presented and the information regarding the subject will be outlined and analysed from the academic literature available. Analysis: This part analyses the data collected i.e. CRM implementation problems with an overview of the different departments. The current system will be critically reviewed and the effectiveness of the system will be evaluated. Each of the problems research issues is analyzed, interpreted, and the detailed findings are presented Chapter 3:Research Methododlogy: This part covers the process of research to be done and the research approach. It implies the selection of the method on how the research is to be done and the methodological consideration of the data collection, sample collection and the data analysis Chapter 4: Data Analysis And Critical Discussion: This part provides a summary of the findings and conclusions of the research objective and issues, discusses the contribution of the research findings to the literature and theory, reviews the implications of the findings, discusses the limitations of the research, and concludes with suggested direction for future research Chapter 2 Literature Review Background: CRM: An overview CRM: Customer Relationship Management is a process that manages the interactions between the organisations and its customers. In other words Customer Relationship Management can be defined as a Management process that looks to maximise the profits, to shareholders by developing and implementing the strategies to build the relationships of trust with high value customers and to create a sustainable differential advantage. (Newell, 2000) In the current situation of business world there are many hand held devices and websites where the consumers trying to interact with the companies. There are some examples like direct marketing, call centres, advertising, and retail stores and also at home. At every interaction customer has an impact on the company and the brand name. The main objective of customer relationship management is to better understand the customer needs and also maintain long term relationship with those customers. CRM systems allow businesses to build relationships with customers. Organisational thinking must be changed to meet the objectives of CRM. Firms believe they exist simply to produce a product or deliver a service. But the firms need to be customer centric. (Clemons 2000). Even there are many definitions of CMR by different authors, the main idea behind the CRM concept it is the use of tools to document and maintain a relationship between the costumer and the company, incrementing the satisfaction of the costumer and creating loyalty to the company: it has been proven by many companies that is more profitable to maintain a customer in the long term rather that single sale customers. Customer Relationship Management is a method designed to collect information related to customers, to collect the features of customers, and to apply those qualities in definite marketing activities (Swift, 2001). CRM is not a new method. Actually, CRM has continuously existed from the past. On the other hand, CRM has recently become the focus of attention. The backgrounds are as follows (Ahn, 2001): Source: http://www.jscgroup.com/crm-call-centre-solutions.html Access 11/07/09 The relationship with customers is newly recognized as a key point to solidify competitive power of a company; As companies procure large volumes of data related to customers, they can perform customer management more easily and efficiently using data warehousing, data mining, and other information technologies; and The Web has opened up a new medium for business and marketing, and we can express customer actions in online into data. In other words, the scope of data to analyze behaviors of customers is extended, and the environment for one-to-one marketing has been enhanced. Importance Of Crm: The main task of Customer Relationship management is to gather information about the customers. And then the data is used to help the customer service transactions by using the information needed to solve the issues or concern readily available to those dealing with the customers. If the customer is satisfied then there will be more profitable business and more resources available to the support staff. Moreover Customer relationship Management is a great help to the management for a future way of a company. As mentioned, Customer relationship management need more data to work and these includes the customer name, address, date of transactions, pending and finished transactions, issues and complaints, status of order, shipping and fulfilment dates, account information and many more. This information is important for the support staff to the customers for providing the answer that they needs to solve the issue without having to wait for a long time and not going to other departments. Moreover the customer service representative will also be able to see the previous concerns of the customer. (Lynette Ryals; Adrian Payne 2001) This is a great assist especially if the customer is calling about the same issue since the customer will not have to say again the story all over again. This takes less time to solve the issue causing higher productivity of the support staff. Customer Relationship Management system is also important for the management because it gives the information like customer satisfaction and efficiency of service by the help desk people. This system is also important for the companys future course of act, whether it involves phasing out one of the products on the shelve or making adjustments to one of the goods sold. The information provided by Customer Relationship Management systems is also invaluable to marketing and advertising people, as they will be able to identify which ideas will works and which do not. Integration of CRM systems in an organisation is very important and this is not an easy task as it seems. Most companies fail to integrate CRM systems that need to share the information for it to be effective. A CRM system also helps in expanding your businesses. Because CRM systems are able to handle huge amount of data, this systems help you in coping with the increased numbers of customers and their data. By installing a CRM systems and if the CRM systems are utilized properly it can be sure that the business will be successful and your customers are lot more satisfied than before. (Adrian Payne; Pennie Frow 2003) There are many reasons why Customer Relationship Management is important to the organisations and some of the reasons are given below: One of CRMs most important strength is that it organises and collects data of the customers and with this data one can analyze for the future opportunities for example by using the CRM data you can analyze the needs based to the customers such as what the customers needs but they arent buying. By using this information you can develop a sales strategy that will offer services in an attractive way even in cheaply difficult times. This includes package of new goods or services or products offering to the customers in an attractive price or with some incentives. The other reason for the importance of CRM systems is every customer is important for the business but some of the customers are more worth than the others. By allocating the sales efforts accordingly, we can produce more profits per sales hour and also we can increase more sales. The CRM systems contain the tools for analyzing the customers so that we can classify the customers according to the sales. For example by using the CRM tools we can see which position are most profitable and which customers are expected to buy them. Customer satisfaction is very important in the CRM systems because customer satisfaction involves two ideas: one is to keep the promises to the customers and the other is to meet their confirmed needs. For example if you promise to contact a customer on Tuesday and do not get back to him until Thursday, you not only reached the customer expectations but the company had delicately shows how much you value that customer. Similarly, CRM can be used to make sure that the company is meeting the customer expectations as fully as possible. This involves professional handling of after-sales contacts such as service calls, resolving customer issues or offering the customer the right product at right price. At last, CRM is used to work the companys sales and customer support representatives smarter because of the improved information at their finger tips which is used to maximize revenue. http://www.insidecrm.com/features/crm-important-recession-082508/ Access 21/08/09 The Role Of Internet And Website In CRM: The evolution of internet as changed the opportunity of building a customer relationship. The important thing is the search engine, it made easier to the customers to find online merchants and communicate with them. These merchants are then offering customers more efficient ways of ordering and receiving products and services. And also, the internet simplified bidirectional communication, for the first time offering a better way for consumers to communicate personal information to the merchant. By using the internet or website a customer needed to send only a application through cyberspace, which results in short delivery time, improved accuracy, and quite often a higher positive awareness. (Jill Dychà © 2001) Internet users realised that not having to go out of their way to buy what they want, and the simple is the process which results in customer satisfaction. In fact web offered customers options they hadnt had with other delivery channels such as: 24-hour access Up-to-the-minute information for example stock levels, product features and prices The ability to research a product or merchant during a shopping trip Online customer support Online self-service Personalized content In the past it takes lot of time to select a product for the customers but now by using the web version, the customer enters a key in his favourite search engine, which returns the web sites for several catalog window treatment firms. He chooses a company which contains a lot of options and prices. Before purchasing, he even browses more than a company of other window-ware web sites for additional prices and options finally placing his order in less than an hour. From this it clearly states that the web has made doing business easier than ever. Source: (The CRM handbook: a business guide to Customer Relationship Management: August 2001, Addison-Wesley). For Example The Loyalty Programs: Companies in almost every industry are trying to use customer information to deal with the relationships. The creation of loyalty programs is one example. The airline industry gives the best examples of present initiatives. The Airline industry introduced the concept of loyalty cards long before anyone talked about CRM. It launched its advantage program in the year 1981 the term frequent flyer was introduced and loyalty marketing was changed forever. In earlier days of the airlines loyalty programs, American and United and the others who soon followed tracked little more than flight miles customer could accumulate for free award flights. Over the years as they have captured more and more knowledge about their millions of customers, the airlines have adopted the fundamental rules of CRM: Get hold of individual information about customers. Recognize what different customers are worth. Treat different customers differently. And this has done in an excellent fashion with the creation of valuable perks for the best customers. Crm Technology: Technology: The word Technology is used differently by different people and gives different meaning. The role and impact of Technology in ones personal and professional life is ever growing. Technology is used to meet the humans need rather than just understanding the workings of the natural world, which is the aim of science. Technology involves planned way of doing things where it covers intended and unintended interactions between people and the products. CRM Technology: Customer Relationship Management is a combination of processes, people and technology that is used to understand an organisations customers. CRM is an integrated approach to manage relationships with the customers. Customer Relationship Management technology supports the main processes of customer relationship management so the organisations can understand or analyze or track its contact with the customers. CRM technology enables enterprises to collect, handle large amount of data relating to the customers, carrying out strategies based on this information. The techniques used by the Customer Relationship Management have been always around and made it possible for organisations and companies to apply the tools to number of customers at a time. There are some technologies used by the Customer Relationship Management are Database Technology, Interactivity and the Mass customization Technology. Database Technology: It is the ability to analyze and plan large amounts of data besides to the storage capacity. Interactivity: The interaction between the customers and the organisation using the websites, call centers, and any other means using internet or telecommunications. Mass Customization Technology: It is a computerized standardization enables company to break services or products into modules or templates. The all technologies together make possible for an organisation to connect in the activities of Customer Relationship Management. Different Types Of CRM Systems: CRM systems can be described as a technology based business management tool which is used to develop and control the knowledge to look after, maintain, and strengthen the relationships with the customers. The main functions of the CRM systems are to effectively segment customers, maintain long term relationships with the profitable customers, establish how to handle unprofitable customers, and modify market contributions and promotional efforts. There are different types of Customer Relationship Management systems depending on the requirements for different levels of integration on the needs of the business. Some of the CRM systems are Sales systems, Call center and trouble ticketing and marketing systems. Sales Systems: This system includes all the systems that provide sales people, channels or customers themselves orders for new services. The main systems in the sales systems are sales force automation, point of sales and channel management systems. Call Center And Trouble Ticketing: This systems are the most challenging to integrate because of the more interfaces and more critical than any other systems. The main complicated issue is the timing and level of integration. Marketing Systems: This system is the easiest system in all the different types of CRM systems. It is a system of high performance, flexible platform that one can use to perform targeted personalised e-marketing using web or e-mail. The marketing system includes support for the content targeting, up-sell and cross sell capabilities, advertisements and testing, e-mail campaigns. Difference Between Transaction Customers And Relationship Customers: There is a lot of difference between the customers for example there are customers who are most profitable and at the same time there are customers who are not so profitable. A company focuses on those customers who are profitable and help in the growth of the revenue. The main idea that a company have a profitable relationship with all the customers and the targeting customers with a different product or service is already in action in most of the financial services such as banking, insurance, credit cards etc. At the same time it is less recognized in many other businesses sectors like manufacturing. Clemons (2000) There is one method to identify the group of customers by the concept of distinguishing between transaction and relationship customers. Transaction customers are very much unpredictable and have very little loyalty, other than that related to obtaining the best price. Whereas Relationship customers are far more possible for loyalty as they are regularly prepared to pay a premium price for a range of consistent goods or services. (Newell 2000). Once Relationship customers are recruited than they are less possible to defect, provided they go on to receive quality service and products. Relationship customers are also more cost effective than new customers because they are already well-known with, and need far less guidance to buy the companys products or services. Peck et al. (1999) are among those who argue that for many organisations it would be beneficial to distinguish between the two types of customers and focus on relationship customers. He also suggests organisations to concentrate on the Relationship customers because they are the most profitable to the organisation. According to Newell (2000) there are likely three different types of relationship customers and they are: the top, middle and lower groups. The first group that is the top group (top 10 percent) are the customers who are with excellent loyalty and of high profitability for the organisation. CRM is required to retain and propose them the best possible services and products in order to avoid them defecting to other competitors. Middle group customers (next 40-50 percent) are those delivering good profits and they are the customers who are possible for future growth and loyalty. The middle group of customers are the main probably giving some of their business to competitors. The main idea is to use CRM to target the middle group customers efficiently because they are the greatest source of probable growth. The last group is Lower group relational customers (bottom 40-50 percent) are slightly profitable to the organisations. In these some of them may have potential for growth but the cos t and efforts involved in targeting such customers, effect the effectiveness of servicing existing relational customers in the remaining groups (Top and Middle groups). CRM should consider this group seriously and identify this group for the response required. Transactional customers add either nothing or have a poor effect on profitability. The agreement therefore is that CRM needs to identify transactional customers to assist organisations respond correctly. CRM Functions: CRM system supports all the stages of the interaction with the customers from order through delivery to after-sales service. CRM also covers the online ordering, e-mail, knowledge bases that can be used to generate customer profiles, and to personalize service, the generation of automatic response to e-mail, and automatic help. Rowley (2002). She also distinguishes the list of functions that might apply in a CRM application: E-commerce Channel automation software Guided sell Effects Of Implementing CRM Systems Effects Of Implementing CRM Systems Effects Of Implementing CRM Systems And Its Strategic Issues In An Organisation Introduction Definition Of CRM: Any organisation will profit from adopting a definition of what CRM means in strategic terms for their business and ensuring that this definition is used in a regular manner all the way through their organization. One of the most important definitions of a CRM has been given by Davenport et al. (2001), stating that CRM systems are â€Å"all the tools, technologies and procedures to control, manage and improve or facilitate sales, support and related interactions with customers, and business partners throughout the enterprise†. According with Siebel, (one of the mayor players in the CRM market) â€Å"CRM is an integrated approach to identifying, acquiring, and retaining customers. By enabling companies to deal with and coordinate customer interactions across several channels, departments, lines of business, and geographies, CRM helps organizations maximize the value of every customer interaction and drive superior corporate performance.† Another concept about CRM, provided by John Wiley, author of the book â€Å"CRM unplugged†, is â€Å"CRM is not about technology, its about attracting and serving clients in more attractive ways†. Introduction: Many organisations in recent years identified the importance to become friendlier with the customers facing with increased worldwide competition. Therefore Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has risen to the agenda of many organisational strategies. Customer Relationship Management systems can be viewed as information systems meant to enable organisations to realise a customer focus. An increasing number of organisations are adopting CRM yet surveys are beginning to highlight the potential risks. Although CRM systems are proving an extremely popular choice for implementation. It is obvious that there is still a need for further observed studies of CRM but, only a few are available. Now a day in the business market, management finds that customers are the central part of a business and that a companys success depends on effectively managing relationships with them. So, one of the initial goals that management has its employees to achieve is based on a saying such as â€Å"the customers are always right,† â€Å"do whatever it takes to deliver your promise† or something similar. All objectives are decided to one crucial goal that is to make customers satisfy because they are the ones who keep the business run. Not too long ago, many companies did not consider this an important factor and often uncared for their customers with the result that many of these customers did not come back. Frequently, these objectives become constraints for businesses and their employees when they do not have suitable tools, equipment, or methods to achieve this goal. Now a day, technology provides to the businesses with systems that can help companies track customers comm unications with the firms and allow the firms employees to rapidly get back all the data about the customers. This idea is known as a customer relationship management (CRM) system and if used correctly, could improve an organisations ability to achieve the ultimate goal of retaining customers and so gain a strategic improvement over its competitors. (Gefen, D. 2002) CRM can be interpreted as a process of digitizing a staffs knowledge about his or her customers. This is because in a usual business process, customer relation staff would normally be required to remember their clients requirements, behaviours, tastes, preferences, etc. In real meaning, CRM focuses on building long-standing and sustainable customer relationships that adds value for both the customer and the organisation. (Daft, 2003). CRM system is frequently incorporated with other decision support systems across all functional areas, such as (ERP) Enterprise Recourse Planning system, (EIS) Executive Information Systems, (SCM) Supply Chain Management System, and Product Life-Cycle Management Systems. By doing so, organizations can produce better management information in terms of planning, acquiring, and controlling across all channels and thus have greater products and services that direct to larger revenues and larger profits. CRM systems can also assist organizations increase their abilities to interact with their customers. This not only leads to improved quality but will improve the speed response to customers needs (Anderson, 2006). By itself, CRM makes a required tool for business because it distinguishes an organization from its competitors with the knowledge resources about product ideas and the ability to identify and find solutions to customers issues. CRM can cut down the distance between customers and the organization, contributing to organizational success through customer loyalty, greater service, better data gathering, and organizational learning. Some have argued that customer satisfaction and loyalty is a science; however, Phelon (2004) takes it up a level by saying that â€Å"customer leverage is an art.† CRM Classification: Operational CRM: Operational CRM is also called front office CRM which involves the areas where the customers meet directly and this type of interactions is called as touchpoints. A touchpoint is of two types, one is inbound e.g., a call to an organisations customer support hotline and the other is outbound e.g., an in-person sales call or an e-mail support. Operational CRM enables communications to and from customers but this doesnt mean useful service. (Dyche 2001). The benefits of Operational CRM are: It delivers personalised and well-organized marketing, sales and service through multi-channel collaboration. It also enables a 360 degree view of your customer while you are interacting with them. The people who are included in sales and service can access complete history of all the customer interaction with the company, regardless of the touch point. Analytical CRM: Analytical CRM is also called as back office or strategic CRM which involves the customer actions that takes place in front office. Analytical CRM needs technology that total customer data and provide analysis of the customer data to progress managerial decision making and actions. Analytical CRM involves large amounts of cross-functional information and this information is stored on a data warehouse. The analytical CRM is based on the technologies such as warehousing and data mining. In this, the customer database should be accessible from all the departments like marketing, sales and customer service. Analytical CRM forms the foundation for planning and evaluation of marketing campaigns and assists cross selling and up selling functionalities. (Adrian Payne 2005). Collaborative CRM: Collaborative CRM is said to be an approach to the CRM in which there are many departments such as sales, marketing, and technical support share the data which they collect from interactions with the customers. For example we can say customer feedback is a main aspect for customer satisfaction and loyalty since the customer feedback gathered from a technical support department could inform marketing staff about the products and services that might be great help to the customers. The point of collaboration is to improve the quality of customer service which results in increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. Source: Handbook of CRM: achieving excellence in customer managementBy Adrian Payne (2005). Benefits Of CRM: A right CRM implementation can benefit to the organisations as well as to the customers. CRM is a next wave of computer aided marketing because it is a way of doing business. Below are the some of the benefits that a CRM or Customer Relationship Management system can bring. Peck et al. (1999) A major benefit from the Customer Relationship Management can be the development of strong relationships with the ongoing customers which can lead to: Improved sales through better timing due to anticipating needs based on past trends. Organisation can identify needs of the customers more effectively by understanding specific customer requirements. Cross- selling and up-selling of other services and products by highlighting and telling alternatives or enhancements. Organisations can identify the customers who are profitable and who are not profitable to the company. Finally this could lead to: The improved customer satisfaction and retention, showing that the organisation is having good reputation in the market place. Increased value from the customers and reduced cost associated with supporting and servicing them, growing the overall efficiency. Enhanced profitability by focusing on the most profitable customers so that the organisation ca more concentrates on the unprofitable customers dealing them with the more cost effective ways. Some other benefits which are mean to the organisations are: Shared or distributed data: Now a days companies realize that customer relationships are very important on many levels, they begin to understand the need for data sharing throughout the organisation. A CRM system is an enabler for making informed decisions and follow-up on all the levels. Cost reduction: The strong point in the CRM is making customers as their business partner and not just a subject. Because customers are doing their own order entry and are empowered to find the information they need to make a decision, less order entry and customer staff is needed. Better customer service: The information related to the interactions to the customers is centralised, so the customer support department can really benefit from this because they have all the information they needed at their fingertips. No need to ask the customer for infinity times and no need to estimate. And mostly the customer can do this on their own because the CRM system is more and more able to expect the need of the customer. The experience got to the customer is greatly enhanced. Increased customer satisfaction: If the customer feels that he is the most important part of the team instead of just a topic for marketing and sales, customer service is better and the needs are predictable. There is no question of customers are dissatisfied with the product or service. Better customer retention: If a Customer Relationship Management system can help to fascinate customers then it can be said that this will increase customer loyalty, and the customers will come back to buy again and again which produce customer retention. More repeat business: If the customers are pleased then we can repeat business. Initially customers are in a doubt of mind, if the service is good and if the customer is pleased he turns into loyal advocate to the business. Purpose Of The Study: The purpose of the study is to understand the CRM application strategies and their successful implementation to bring about maximum customer satisfaction. By doing so, we hope to make Customer Relationship Management applications more useful to the customers. Research Questions: With reference to the above stated research problem, â€Å"what are the factors effecting for a successful CRM implementation†? The following research questions have been posed to conduct the study to realize the purpose. What are the benefits obtained to the customers from the CRM implementation? What are the challenges for implementing Customer Relationship Management? What are the factors that help in successful implementation of CRM? And What are the risks involved in implementing CRM in the organisation? Design/Methodology/Approach: Thus, this dissertation deals with CRM introduction and effects of implementing CRM systems in an organisation in order to give an insight into the current issues and status of the technology. The literature review will analyze, examine and explore the benefits and problems involved in implementing CRM systems. Structure Of The Dissertation: Chapter 1: Introduction And Research Rationale This part gives a brief introduction about the purpose of the thesis. It also details the rationale for doing the thesis and validity of the research. This part also states the aims and objectives of the research to be done. Chapter 2: Literature Review This part covers the literature on the CRM issues and its functions using journals articles. The existing function will be presented and the information regarding the subject will be outlined and analysed from the academic literature available. Analysis: This part analyses the data collected i.e. CRM implementation problems with an overview of the different departments. The current system will be critically reviewed and the effectiveness of the system will be evaluated. Each of the problems research issues is analyzed, interpreted, and the detailed findings are presented Chapter 3:Research Methododlogy: This part covers the process of research to be done and the research approach. It implies the selection of the method on how the research is to be done and the methodological consideration of the data collection, sample collection and the data analysis Chapter 4: Data Analysis And Critical Discussion: This part provides a summary of the findings and conclusions of the research objective and issues, discusses the contribution of the research findings to the literature and theory, reviews the implications of the findings, discusses the limitations of the research, and concludes with suggested direction for future research Chapter 2 Literature Review Background: CRM: An overview CRM: Customer Relationship Management is a process that manages the interactions between the organisations and its customers. In other words Customer Relationship Management can be defined as a Management process that looks to maximise the profits, to shareholders by developing and implementing the strategies to build the relationships of trust with high value customers and to create a sustainable differential advantage. (Newell, 2000) In the current situation of business world there are many hand held devices and websites where the consumers trying to interact with the companies. There are some examples like direct marketing, call centres, advertising, and retail stores and also at home. At every interaction customer has an impact on the company and the brand name. The main objective of customer relationship management is to better understand the customer needs and also maintain long term relationship with those customers. CRM systems allow businesses to build relationships with customers. Organisational thinking must be changed to meet the objectives of CRM. Firms believe they exist simply to produce a product or deliver a service. But the firms need to be customer centric. (Clemons 2000). Even there are many definitions of CMR by different authors, the main idea behind the CRM concept it is the use of tools to document and maintain a relationship between the costumer and the company, incrementing the satisfaction of the costumer and creating loyalty to the company: it has been proven by many companies that is more profitable to maintain a customer in the long term rather that single sale customers. Customer Relationship Management is a method designed to collect information related to customers, to collect the features of customers, and to apply those qualities in definite marketing activities (Swift, 2001). CRM is not a new method. Actually, CRM has continuously existed from the past. On the other hand, CRM has recently become the focus of attention. The backgrounds are as follows (Ahn, 2001): Source: http://www.jscgroup.com/crm-call-centre-solutions.html Access 11/07/09 The relationship with customers is newly recognized as a key point to solidify competitive power of a company; As companies procure large volumes of data related to customers, they can perform customer management more easily and efficiently using data warehousing, data mining, and other information technologies; and The Web has opened up a new medium for business and marketing, and we can express customer actions in online into data. In other words, the scope of data to analyze behaviors of customers is extended, and the environment for one-to-one marketing has been enhanced. Importance Of Crm: The main task of Customer Relationship management is to gather information about the customers. And then the data is used to help the customer service transactions by using the information needed to solve the issues or concern readily available to those dealing with the customers. If the customer is satisfied then there will be more profitable business and more resources available to the support staff. Moreover Customer relationship Management is a great help to the management for a future way of a company. As mentioned, Customer relationship management need more data to work and these includes the customer name, address, date of transactions, pending and finished transactions, issues and complaints, status of order, shipping and fulfilment dates, account information and many more. This information is important for the support staff to the customers for providing the answer that they needs to solve the issue without having to wait for a long time and not going to other departments. Moreover the customer service representative will also be able to see the previous concerns of the customer. (Lynette Ryals; Adrian Payne 2001) This is a great assist especially if the customer is calling about the same issue since the customer will not have to say again the story all over again. This takes less time to solve the issue causing higher productivity of the support staff. Customer Relationship Management system is also important for the management because it gives the information like customer satisfaction and efficiency of service by the help desk people. This system is also important for the companys future course of act, whether it involves phasing out one of the products on the shelve or making adjustments to one of the goods sold. The information provided by Customer Relationship Management systems is also invaluable to marketing and advertising people, as they will be able to identify which ideas will works and which do not. Integration of CRM systems in an organisation is very important and this is not an easy task as it seems. Most companies fail to integrate CRM systems that need to share the information for it to be effective. A CRM system also helps in expanding your businesses. Because CRM systems are able to handle huge amount of data, this systems help you in coping with the increased numbers of customers and their data. By installing a CRM systems and if the CRM systems are utilized properly it can be sure that the business will be successful and your customers are lot more satisfied than before. (Adrian Payne; Pennie Frow 2003) There are many reasons why Customer Relationship Management is important to the organisations and some of the reasons are given below: One of CRMs most important strength is that it organises and collects data of the customers and with this data one can analyze for the future opportunities for example by using the CRM data you can analyze the needs based to the customers such as what the customers needs but they arent buying. By using this information you can develop a sales strategy that will offer services in an attractive way even in cheaply difficult times. This includes package of new goods or services or products offering to the customers in an attractive price or with some incentives. The other reason for the importance of CRM systems is every customer is important for the business but some of the customers are more worth than the others. By allocating the sales efforts accordingly, we can produce more profits per sales hour and also we can increase more sales. The CRM systems contain the tools for analyzing the customers so that we can classify the customers according to the sales. For example by using the CRM tools we can see which position are most profitable and which customers are expected to buy them. Customer satisfaction is very important in the CRM systems because customer satisfaction involves two ideas: one is to keep the promises to the customers and the other is to meet their confirmed needs. For example if you promise to contact a customer on Tuesday and do not get back to him until Thursday, you not only reached the customer expectations but the company had delicately shows how much you value that customer. Similarly, CRM can be used to make sure that the company is meeting the customer expectations as fully as possible. This involves professional handling of after-sales contacts such as service calls, resolving customer issues or offering the customer the right product at right price. At last, CRM is used to work the companys sales and customer support representatives smarter because of the improved information at their finger tips which is used to maximize revenue. http://www.insidecrm.com/features/crm-important-recession-082508/ Access 21/08/09 The Role Of Internet And Website In CRM: The evolution of internet as changed the opportunity of building a customer relationship. The important thing is the search engine, it made easier to the customers to find online merchants and communicate with them. These merchants are then offering customers more efficient ways of ordering and receiving products and services. And also, the internet simplified bidirectional communication, for the first time offering a better way for consumers to communicate personal information to the merchant. By using the internet or website a customer needed to send only a application through cyberspace, which results in short delivery time, improved accuracy, and quite often a higher positive awareness. (Jill Dychà © 2001) Internet users realised that not having to go out of their way to buy what they want, and the simple is the process which results in customer satisfaction. In fact web offered customers options they hadnt had with other delivery channels such as: 24-hour access Up-to-the-minute information for example stock levels, product features and prices The ability to research a product or merchant during a shopping trip Online customer support Online self-service Personalized content In the past it takes lot of time to select a product for the customers but now by using the web version, the customer enters a key in his favourite search engine, which returns the web sites for several catalog window treatment firms. He chooses a company which contains a lot of options and prices. Before purchasing, he even browses more than a company of other window-ware web sites for additional prices and options finally placing his order in less than an hour. From this it clearly states that the web has made doing business easier than ever. Source: (The CRM handbook: a business guide to Customer Relationship Management: August 2001, Addison-Wesley). For Example The Loyalty Programs: Companies in almost every industry are trying to use customer information to deal with the relationships. The creation of loyalty programs is one example. The airline industry gives the best examples of present initiatives. The Airline industry introduced the concept of loyalty cards long before anyone talked about CRM. It launched its advantage program in the year 1981 the term frequent flyer was introduced and loyalty marketing was changed forever. In earlier days of the airlines loyalty programs, American and United and the others who soon followed tracked little more than flight miles customer could accumulate for free award flights. Over the years as they have captured more and more knowledge about their millions of customers, the airlines have adopted the fundamental rules of CRM: Get hold of individual information about customers. Recognize what different customers are worth. Treat different customers differently. And this has done in an excellent fashion with the creation of valuable perks for the best customers. Crm Technology: Technology: The word Technology is used differently by different people and gives different meaning. The role and impact of Technology in ones personal and professional life is ever growing. Technology is used to meet the humans need rather than just understanding the workings of the natural world, which is the aim of science. Technology involves planned way of doing things where it covers intended and unintended interactions between people and the products. CRM Technology: Customer Relationship Management is a combination of processes, people and technology that is used to understand an organisations customers. CRM is an integrated approach to manage relationships with the customers. Customer Relationship Management technology supports the main processes of customer relationship management so the organisations can understand or analyze or track its contact with the customers. CRM technology enables enterprises to collect, handle large amount of data relating to the customers, carrying out strategies based on this information. The techniques used by the Customer Relationship Management have been always around and made it possible for organisations and companies to apply the tools to number of customers at a time. There are some technologies used by the Customer Relationship Management are Database Technology, Interactivity and the Mass customization Technology. Database Technology: It is the ability to analyze and plan large amounts of data besides to the storage capacity. Interactivity: The interaction between the customers and the organisation using the websites, call centers, and any other means using internet or telecommunications. Mass Customization Technology: It is a computerized standardization enables company to break services or products into modules or templates. The all technologies together make possible for an organisation to connect in the activities of Customer Relationship Management. Different Types Of CRM Systems: CRM systems can be described as a technology based business management tool which is used to develop and control the knowledge to look after, maintain, and strengthen the relationships with the customers. The main functions of the CRM systems are to effectively segment customers, maintain long term relationships with the profitable customers, establish how to handle unprofitable customers, and modify market contributions and promotional efforts. There are different types of Customer Relationship Management systems depending on the requirements for different levels of integration on the needs of the business. Some of the CRM systems are Sales systems, Call center and trouble ticketing and marketing systems. Sales Systems: This system includes all the systems that provide sales people, channels or customers themselves orders for new services. The main systems in the sales systems are sales force automation, point of sales and channel management systems. Call Center And Trouble Ticketing: This systems are the most challenging to integrate because of the more interfaces and more critical than any other systems. The main complicated issue is the timing and level of integration. Marketing Systems: This system is the easiest system in all the different types of CRM systems. It is a system of high performance, flexible platform that one can use to perform targeted personalised e-marketing using web or e-mail. The marketing system includes support for the content targeting, up-sell and cross sell capabilities, advertisements and testing, e-mail campaigns. Difference Between Transaction Customers And Relationship Customers: There is a lot of difference between the customers for example there are customers who are most profitable and at the same time there are customers who are not so profitable. A company focuses on those customers who are profitable and help in the growth of the revenue. The main idea that a company have a profitable relationship with all the customers and the targeting customers with a different product or service is already in action in most of the financial services such as banking, insurance, credit cards etc. At the same time it is less recognized in many other businesses sectors like manufacturing. Clemons (2000) There is one method to identify the group of customers by the concept of distinguishing between transaction and relationship customers. Transaction customers are very much unpredictable and have very little loyalty, other than that related to obtaining the best price. Whereas Relationship customers are far more possible for loyalty as they are regularly prepared to pay a premium price for a range of consistent goods or services. (Newell 2000). Once Relationship customers are recruited than they are less possible to defect, provided they go on to receive quality service and products. Relationship customers are also more cost effective than new customers because they are already well-known with, and need far less guidance to buy the companys products or services. Peck et al. (1999) are among those who argue that for many organisations it would be beneficial to distinguish between the two types of customers and focus on relationship customers. He also suggests organisations to concentrate on the Relationship customers because they are the most profitable to the organisation. According to Newell (2000) there are likely three different types of relationship customers and they are: the top, middle and lower groups. The first group that is the top group (top 10 percent) are the customers who are with excellent loyalty and of high profitability for the organisation. CRM is required to retain and propose them the best possible services and products in order to avoid them defecting to other competitors. Middle group customers (next 40-50 percent) are those delivering good profits and they are the customers who are possible for future growth and loyalty. The middle group of customers are the main probably giving some of their business to competitors. The main idea is to use CRM to target the middle group customers efficiently because they are the greatest source of probable growth. The last group is Lower group relational customers (bottom 40-50 percent) are slightly profitable to the organisations. In these some of them may have potential for growth but the cos t and efforts involved in targeting such customers, effect the effectiveness of servicing existing relational customers in the remaining groups (Top and Middle groups). CRM should consider this group seriously and identify this group for the response required. Transactional customers add either nothing or have a poor effect on profitability. The agreement therefore is that CRM needs to identify transactional customers to assist organisations respond correctly. CRM Functions: CRM system supports all the stages of the interaction with the customers from order through delivery to after-sales service. CRM also covers the online ordering, e-mail, knowledge bases that can be used to generate customer profiles, and to personalize service, the generation of automatic response to e-mail, and automatic help. Rowley (2002). She also distinguishes the list of functions that might apply in a CRM application: E-commerce Channel automation software Guided sell

Trade Facilitation Essay -- International Trade, WTO

International trade plays crucial role in the development of any country. And Trade facilitation can be define as a procedure to make international trade possible in a best and efficient way. In which transaction cost of trade is minimum and goods transfer from one country to other in shortest time. According to WTO, â€Å"Trade facilitation is defined as a procedure and controls for the movement of the good from one country to another can be reduce cost and burden. And also find the efficient flow of goods†. According to Kommerskollegium (2008), Trade Facilitation can be define as â€Å"a reduction in trade complexities and cost of trade transaction process and insuring that all these activities take place in an efficient, transparent and predictable manner†. According to Kommerskollegium (2008), International Trade is a key driver of economic growth. Trade facilitation reduces compliance cost, enhance government controls and capabilities and it is not achievable witho ut Political determination and international efforts. The author also explains Trade Facilitation as â€Å"a mixture of Harmonisation of applicable rules and regulation, standardization of information and requirements, simplification of administrative and commercial formalities, procedure and documents and transparency of the whole process†. It can be done by government regulation and controls, business efficiency, improved transportation, advancement of the information and communication technologies, and efficient and easy payment procedure. Custom play a central role but all border agencies should also involve in this procedure in an effective manners. It’s also an argument in support of trade facilitation that why developed nation are focusing on trade facilitation. If we go ... .... According to OECD (2005), World Bank estimated average time required for custom clearance through sea cargo in Africa is 10.1 days and only 2.1 days in OECD which shows the difference between trade efficiency of Africa and trade efficiency of OECD. According to OECD (2005), custom clearance time can be reduced by increasing the cooperation among the international border agencies and custom authorities of trading countries. ADB (2003) refers to indicate that Bangladesh could earn 30 percent more in results of its exports if port inefficiencies are removed OECD (2005). According to World Bank (2004a), if Procedure of Custom clearance improves in Ethiopia then average productivity level of the firms in Ethiopia will increase by 18 percent (OECD 2005). Furthermore, In Nigeria cost of import is as high as 45 percent due to inefficient custom clearance procedure.

Crocs Competencies

1. What are Crocs core competences * First of all, the most important competence of Crocs is its highly responsive supply chain. Much of the supply chain’s design idea comes from the initiate product’s technological peculiarity – rubber (croslite) shoe. Comparing to regular shoes these ones were made by injection molding, which allows fast and relatively cheap production. To use such an advantage for increasing the company’s competitiveness, the whole supply hain should be designed accordingly. * Second competence is the ability to delay the decision. As all the shoes are mad from the same homogeneous mixture of ingredients, â€Å"compound† that can be dyed at any stage before the production, that feature allowed to apply the â€Å"delayed decision†. By that Crocs could make the decision about the final product’s colors at the late stage, reflecting to the market’s response, therefore reducing the risk of bad estimation and overstocks as a result. * In-house operation By moving most of its operation from third parties to in-house Crocs achieved the control over all the activities involved to production and distribution, assuring that the whole supply chain has the same vector of interests. With in-house all the processes becomes transparent so the lags, delays and problems can be noticed and solved in order to optimize the speed of the whole chain’s respond to the demand changes. * The Global presence. Pushing the brand to all the global markets same time and shortly after the local success, the company not only achieved the status of the â€Å"original† rubber shoe brand and the advantage of the economy on scale, and tax optimization; but also to gained the ability to leverage on the global seasonality. Such factor allows the company to reduce to minimum the risks of bad estimation of the future demand. If the product is successful on south market, Crocs would produce more for same season at Northern market. If not successful and overproduced at South – same goods can be sent to North to clear the stock. The above mentioned four core competences provide Crocs a critical competitive advantage at the market.

puritanism and Romantism essays

puritanism and Romantism essays Puritan moral teachings in American Romanticism Abstract: Under the influence of American Puritanism, American Romanticism favors Christian moral teachings. Puritan notions as self-restraint, sin and salvation weigh greatly and serve as Romantic authors ¡Ã‚ ¯ moral measurement. Taken as a specific example, American leading Romantic Nathaniel Hawthorn can illustrate this impact explicitly. Special emphasis will be put on his novel the Scarlet Letter. A brief biographical introduction about the author can help to know where his Puritan thinking pattern comes from. In his masterpiece the Scarlet Letter, Hawthorn shows his belief in original sin and redeem through professions and painful life, which is obviously from Puritan sources. Other works are also to be mentioned in a combined effort with former text to strengthen the central ideal. Keywords: Puritanism, Romanticism, moral teachings, self, sin, salvation, Nathaniel Hawthorn, the Scarlet Letter 1.1. Source and characteristics of American Romanticism. Early in the nineteenth century, the attitudes of America ¡Ã‚ ¯s writers were shaped by their New World environment and an array of ideas inherited from the romantic traditions of Europe. A new American Romantic was pluralistic; yet it frequently shared certain general characteristics: moral enthusiasm, faith in the value of individualism and intuitive perception, and a presumption that the natural world was a source of goodness and man ¡Ã‚ ¯s societies a source of corruption. (ÃŽÃŽÂ °ÃƒË†ÃƒÅ 199054) 1.2. American Puritanism moral teachings that have influenced American Romanticism. Puritan doctrine taught that all men are totally depraved and require constant self-examination to see that they are sinners and unworthy of God's Grace. Because man had broken the Covenant of Works when Adam had eaten from the Tree of Knowledge, God offered a new covenant to Abraham's people who held that election to Heave...

Governing document of the United States Essay Example

Governing document of the United States Essay Example Governing document of the United States Paper Governing document of the United States Paper There is no right to healthcare, at least not in the sense that there is a right to freedom of speech or freedom of religion. It is not an enumerated â€Å"right† in the Constitution or in the Bill of Rights. However, the Supreme Court has held that the rights listed in those documents is not meant to be inclusive all rights and that other rights could exist and be added as time progresses. Furthermore, whether it is a listed right in the governing document of the United States, it is reasonable to assume that we have implied a right to healthcare for our citizens by creating ever-growing social programs to provide healthcare since the advent of Social Security. : And, as the last industrialized nation in the world that does not provide universal healthcare, it is the shame of a nation that a growing number of citizens do not have access to basic health necessities. Moreover, the right to healthcare should probably be viewed as a fundamental human right, as a necessary part of the freedom to live. The simple truth of the matter is that the American health care system is the best in the world. We have the technology and facilities and health care professionals needed to see that every man, woman and child in the country has access to healthcare. The problem appears to be in the distribution of these facilities and professionals and the cost of the technology.   And, the secondary consideration is how much health care is enough? At some point the determination must be made of how much healthcare people have a fundamental right to expect. This may, in fact, be a place where having access to the best medical care in the world is a drawback and not an advantage.   Where do we draw the line between what is necessary healthcare and what is luxury? For example, if an 84-year-old woman from a family that generally lives well into their 90s needs rotator cuff surgery, should she have as much of a right to the surgery as a 40-year-old man who needs the same surgery to do his job?   Should expensive treatments or experimental drugs be covered in a basic health plan that covers everyone in the nation? Or, should the health plan only cover the most basic needs, like immunizations and wellness checkups? The answer lies somewhere in between.   It is not financially feasible for the government to provide unlimited access to healthcare for all the citizens of the country. Other countries have tried and often find their more wealthy citizens seeking out health care in the United States rather than wait for access to the needed healthcare in their own country. The fine balance between capitalism and socialized medicine is a difficult one. The government must still encourage capitalism among drug companies and doctors as the competition leads to progress in medical care. However, the government must also control the rising costs of health care so that it can afford to provide universal health care. So, who gets to decide what coverage the average citizen is entitled to and where the limits apply?   Who decides what health care is necessary and what is frivolous? And, if we have socialized medicine, and some medical treatment is considered a luxury, would it not simply create and even more two-tiered for health care than already exists? If some health care is considered a luxury, is it not even more a case of the haves and have nots than currently faces Americans. And, does that mean we value the lives of young more than those of the old or the lives of the rich more than the lives of poor? The reality is that a commission of medical professionals such as though who currently determine what Medicare covers could be put in charge of determining what health care people have a right to. The only fair way to provide health care would be to provide each and every citizen with whatever health care they need. However, this kind of a requirement places a responsibility of the citizens that goes hand in hand with the rights. If there is a right to health care, an inherent responsibility to try to do everything we can to make our lives more comfortable, healthy and lengthy, then there is a universal responsibility to pay for the health. Countries which have universal health care pay taxes considerably higher than Americans are used to paying. In short, there may be an inherent right to healthcare, but if so, it comes with a deep responsibility to every taxpayer to work to fund the system. This is in many ways what is wrong with the current proposals in California and Illinois for healthcare for all citizens. The proposal seek to extend healthcare to the working poor, and the unworking poor, but make no provisions to be certain that those people pay a share of the expense. One way to deal with this might be a system similar to Switzerland’s where the country provides healthcare for everyone but there is a cost to each citizen. Those who do not pay their share face criminal charges and jail time.

Managers and Work Relationships - Incident Analysis, Diagnosis and Essay

Managers and Work Relationships - Incident Analysis, Diagnosis and Action Plan - Essay Example Several problems of people management can be mitigated easily; some are entirely outside our control and can only be restrained; however, you still have power over several aspects which influence your ‘people’ and hence it is your duty to make sure that your leadership and management are constructive. You can merely undervalue the effect which you personally have upon the efficiency and practices of your team. As the manager of a group, you have the power to punish, motivate or limit most factors of their working day, and this puts you in authority, and accountability. This essay will present an analysis of two incidences between managers and employees: (1) managing diversity and (2) workplace discrimination; a self-diagnosis and assessment of my own competency as a manager and as an employee; and an action plan based on the competencies identified in the first two sections. My approach to diversity started with an aggressive, insistent, and proactive action plan. I viewed diversity as an organization’s asset, a main concern of the management, and an actual business goal. Before one can successfully deal with diversity you should first have a highly diversified work force. Fundamental to the success of my approach was the organization’s accepting the requirements of the law. The organization aims to make sure that their employees are representative of the demographics of the community and that its personnel and management seem like the transforming nature of the enterprises they serve (Dubois 1993). The objective is to ‘motivate’ and not diversity management. To that objective, my approach deals with general changes to encourage each individual to provide their inputs to his/her best potential. Diversity management is a transformative practice and the focus has shifted from the superiority of affirmative action to the breadth of optimizing all organizational members (Armstrong 2000). My program for workforce

Narrative question Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Narrative question - Coursework Example This raised concern that there was a dark spirit in the sea and people no longer visited the sea. A certain scientist became curious, forgetting that it killed the cat; he wanted to know more about the lonely sea. He started his journey to the Dark Continent, to the abandoned sea. At his arrival, he was surprised at its beauty. There was this pleasant undulating landscape, the sea was quiet and very appealing to look at. The shores were clean and the breeze was cool. He decided to make a tent at the shore, so that he could spend his night there. The surrounding looked safe as everything was as clear as someone slashed the area around the shore to clear all the bushes and the trash. He looked like a King on His throne ruling His subjects when he got out of the tent to again take a look around from his ‘’palace’’. He then went back inside to sleep, and from the beginning, he enjoyed spending a night at the sea shore, in a tent. His dynasty remained peaceful a s he begun to slumber until the unthinkable happened! There was a loud bang, BWAAH! It was like as loud as thunder. The scientist woke up from his slumber and begun to shake like a chameleon on a twig. He woke up fast like lightening and he got shocked. His heart popped that, for a moment, he thought his heart would get off his chest. Looking outside the tent, he could not believe his eyes! ‘What a nightmare!’ he exclaimed. Whatever he could see before him could not exist anywhere in the world. It was so scary to be true. The ‘monster’ was so huge and walked with its salivating, mouth wide open towards the helpless scientist. The wideness of its mouth, made the scientist to remember for a moment where he had heard or read about such wide openness of a mouth. He thought quickly that he once read it from another story book about how wide the gates of hell will be when Jesus comes back. The scientist got paralyzed, he could not move an inch, and all he could w ish of was to wake up and find out it was just a nightmare. For a moment he assumed he was asleep and going through a nightmare. He thought that was the worse mare of all he had ever had before. He wished he never even made the decision to go to the Dark Continent. An ugly looking monster stood before the scientist, a cold chill ran down his spin and his legs could hardly support him. Alas! The ugly thing moved near him, took him by its hands. It was such a giant that the poor scientist felt like an ant; so helpless and defenseless. It was a man eating monster and the poor scientist’s dear life had come to an end. A made the biggest shout like a trumpet. Several people come from around and all witnessed this all. Alas! It was too late for them to help. The misery about the disappearance of people became unraveled and there were witnesses, even though people kept on wondering how what they saw is called. The people then decided to name the sea, ‘The Red Sea’ follo wing the fact that a lot of people had been lost in the same sea mysteriously. The name of the wondrous creature, though, remained unknown till date even though many people saw it. Until today I have never seen or heard about the monster again. May be it still lives in the sea or it