Running Head: CMR AT MINITEX

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CRM at Minitex

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. It is a strategy used to learn more
about customers' needs and behaviors in order to develop stronger relationships with them. It
plays an important role in understanding customers needs by gathering the information about the
customers that helps in marketing and selling the companys products. With an effective
Customer Relationship Management strategy, an organization can increase revenues by
providing better services and selling products effectively what the customers want. CRM is the
key to better customer services. Through CRM, it is possible to discover new customers and
retain the existing ones. For it to function effectively, it is of importance for the organization to
understand about their customers, their needs and develop a strategy to meet those needs.
Therefore, an organization must look at how the information can be saved and how useful it can
be. (Wailgum, 2007)
Minitex is a company that sells its products which mainly centered through finance and
insurance. These 2 divisions are administered by 4 systems namely marketing, insurance, finance
and CFO. (Reddy, 2015) George Degas is the director of sales at Minitex. Harold Blufmen is the
VP of insurance division and Mariella Hopkins head of the finance division. It consists of the
administration system that works on the billing and payments of the customers, a General
Management system that keeps track of the customers are the two back-end systems for the
insurance division. (McKeen, 2008)

The main Problems at Minitex are:

Unprofessional Sales Calls to same customers because the data in Minitex is not
centralized, so as the Sales people cannot keep track of customer information with current

Running Head: CMR AT MINITEX

systems.

Mariella Hopkins, VP of the finance who is IT enthusiast is open to collaboration with

other department do not want to compromise existing systems.

Another drawback is its divisions have specialized system terminology. (Reddy, 2015)

Figure 1: CRM relationship and Management (Mckeen, 2008)

Aspects for Flow of Information in Minitex

The Customer Contacts System: The Customer Contacts system was created recently
by Degas's boss, Jon Bettman. This system gives sales people a better way to keep track

Running Head: CMR AT MINITEX

of customer information. This system schedules, sales call on a periodic basis and
provides mechanisms for generating and tracking new leads and it also forms the basis on
which the marketing department pays the sales peoples commissions. Real- time
information on sales by product, salesperson, and region gives Bettman and his team
excellent feedback on how well their centralized marketing strategies are performing. For
purposes of invoicing and servicing the accounts, the Customer Contacts system also
feeds data into the insurance and financing divisions systems after sales are made.

The Management Business Center System: Mariella Hopkins the VP of financing, and
her division funded the development of a management business center application. This
system acts as an online customer self-service system. By this system, customers can
obtain statements and online financing and often can get credit approved instantly.
Customer service representatives use the same basic system, with to track customer
transactions and to provide customer support as needed.

The Credit Administration System: Minitex is using a Credit administration system

which was developed 20 years ago. Harold Blumfen, VP of insurance is a major profit
maker at Minitex, he and his division uses a credit administration system to track
customer billings and payments.

The General Management System: Minitex uses a general management system to keep
track of which products a customer has bought and what services the customer is entitled
to. Both Credit Administration System and General Management System fundamentally
back end systems. (McKeen, 2008)

Running Head: CMR AT MINITEX

Discussion Questions

1. Explain how it is possible for someone at Minitex to call a customer and not know
(a) that this is a customer and (b) that this is the third time this week that they had
been called.
With Minitexs systems, both of these seem easy to accomplish. With the
divisions not sharing the same system, they may not have the most updated information
when one person is looking up information. This would explain why an employee may
call and not know that they are calling a customer. This is especially true, because some
of the employees track their own information to their own records, thus not updating the
systems. It is possible to not know that a customer has been contacted three times,
because the employees use their own memory to keep track of who they have called.
2. Outline the steps that Bettman must take in order to implement CRM at Minitex. In
your plan, be sure to include people, processes, and technology.
To start this process of implementing CRM, Bettman needs to get everyone on the
same page. He also needs to take leadership of his department, making final decisions
based on evidence of the best choice for the entire department, whether or not everyone
agrees. Bettman needs to get with Harold Blumfen and Mariella Hopkins and create unity
between the two departments of things such as terminology, explaining that both
divisions need to collaborate. The next step would be to get a handle on the current
system, until they can obtain a new system. This needs to start by making sure that all
information is input into the system, ensuring all employees have the most accurate and
up-to-date information.

Running Head: CMR AT MINITEX

This will prevent blunders, and can be a major example to put in Degas's business
case petitioning for a new IT system. Degas, meanwhile, will be working on his business
case to give to IT, explaining that a new centralized system is needed. The system needs
to be able to have a customer interface, but functionality for both divisions to input
information and receive the information output related to their department. He can show
the difference of customer interaction with less and more information flow. Degas needs
to get Bettman to network with IT in the request for the new system, having the main
boss involved will give it more importance. Finally, with leadership and CRM at Minitex,
the department will be back on track. (McKeen, 2008)

Running Head: CMR AT MINITEX

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References

McKeen, J. D., & Smith, H. (2008). IT strategy: Issues and Practices (2 nd Ed)
Reddy, A. (2015, February 12). Crm at Minitrex. Retrieved March 30, 2015, from
http://www.papercamp.com/essay/147554/Crm-At-Minitrex

Wailgum, T. (2007, March 6). CRM Definition and Solutions. Retrieved March 30, 2015, from
http://www.cio.com/article/2439505/customer-relationship-management/crm-definitionand-solutions.html