Customer Relationship Management

I have been asked to provide a briefing note for a new starter. Below is a summary of information that will be given to the new starter so that they have a chance to gain some understanding of the organization and what we do and how we operate. ; An Introduction to the organization: At Accent we have been providing high quality social housing for rent and sale for over 40 years, and we remain firmly committed to providing our residents with the excellent homes and top quality services they have a right to expect.

We currently win and manage over 20,500 homes across the country, which over 34,000 residents call home. Our residents’ services are provided by five local contact centers, these are based in Bradford, Burley, Kimberley, Middlebrow’s and Petrography. We also administer award winning employment, training, vocational and business support projects which support our residents and their communities.

The purpose and goals of the organization:

• Making a Difference….
• Improving homes.
• Communities and lives and we achieve that by: Deliver excellent, locally agreed services Provide high quality homes to live in.

Support our residents to sustain their homes and communities Be an ambitious and successful business. Our values Our core values – respectful, creative and dependable – sum up exactly what we stand for. They are relevant to every market we work In. Wherever possible, everyone we work with (including our suppliers and contractors), has similar values.

Respectful

We want to become a trusted advocate of the individual and the community. ; We build our business around the customer, and motivate our people to get the right results for our customers and partners. In making decisions we always take onto account our customers’ views and put ourselves in their position. ; we welcome and encourage involvement in decision-making processes by our customers and partners. We will be ‘easy to do business with.

Creative

We want our people to be passionate and enthusiastic about their work and the vision we have set out, and we give clear direction to support this. ; We respect and value our people’s contributions to the success of the organization. We encourage and reward creative ideas that help to continually improve our services and bring In new business. We also take steps to help our people and customers life their potential. ; Above all, we aim to develop a culture that permits people to take risks and learn from their mistakes. We have built our business over 40 years and utilize our experience and heritage. We have a strong financial track record and our people are knowledgeable and professional in their work. We are aware of risk but not averse to risk.

We have developed highly effective mechanisms to manage risk that enable us to take advantage of opportunity without Jeopardizing our solidity. We are aware of our impact as a business on the environment and are working towards minimizing this impact. ;We are committed to quality and customer service excellence. We strive to be a dependable business partner and an organization our customers can trust and rely on. Services that we offer at Accent: Social Housing, Sheltered Accommodation, Supported Housing, Training, and vocational and business support projects. Our main customer group Our main customers are external people on a low income or who need extra support and are looking for somewhere to live.

PESTLE Analysis – (Please see appendix la below) Political Introduction of affordable rents and the impact of the welfare reforms The TTS abolished in 2012 and adjustments too new regulatory regime under the HOC The impact of the Localism Act in reforming social housing Economic Supported People funding no longer ring-fenced and being subjected to severe cuts but some Local Authorities.

Significant areas of local unemployment House price vulnerability of home ownership in charging economic conditions Social Ageing population Social and financial exclusion Competition with other providers Technological CIT Systems Communication ; access to services Welfare reform Legal Court Process Increase focus on tackling fraud and tenancy abuse Abolition of he TTS Environmental Fuel Poverty Green Agenda Local Authorities faced with deficient stock, failing neighborhoods may look to work in partnership Below I have given a more in-depth analysis of 4 of these external factors and I have highlighted their impact on the business activities within Accent and what we are as we face:- Direct Housing Payments Universal Credit ; Benefits cap Spare room subsidy (Bedroom Tax) Our Responses:- Ensure affected tenants are supported through access to welfare benefits advice – Extra Care ; Assist affected tenants to apply for discretionary payments ; Make revision for tenants affected by the spare room subsidy to downsize their home to mitigate the effect of the subsidy Ageing Population The issues that we face:- Changing needs of customer base Lack of suitable stock Opportunity to ensure service and stock Enhanced support needs The Responses:- Partnership with Burley Borough County Council to research future needs of local population ; Broaden access to aids and adaptations CIT Systems

The issues that we face:

• Systems require modernization Lack of CRM capability Lack of customer profile information

The Responses:

• Purchase and implement a fit for purpose Housing Management System in refreshed interactive website offering access to services ; profiling exercise to populate CRM Court Process

The issues that we face:

•  Length of time cases are at court Reluctance to grants decree Counter claims

The Responses:

• Make use of Local agents (Solicitors)
• Improve arrears recovery process
• Carry out customer
• Update processes to ensure potential for counter claim is reduced

Organization chart – Please see appendix

In a business as large and diverse as Accent Group, there are many different Jobs. Its structure is complex, so to help individuals within the business understand their roles and responsibilities; Accent has a set of Business Principles that demonstrate its commitment to operating ethically and responsibly.

Below I have outlined 4 different functions within the structure of Accents organization.

1. Marketing – by understanding customer needs, the marketing function can inform the overall business strategy and ensure that the Accent image and brand reflect its mission statement.
2. Procurement – is the acquisition of goods and/or services at the best possible price. Within Accent this function secures cost effective repair contracts and establishes long term partners to ensure business continuity.
3. Finance – to manage the flow of money across the business. Finance managers produce financial and management accounts not only to ensure legal compliance but also to contribute to the strategic decision-making process by forecasting financial performance. Budgets enable Operations to have the resources to carry out processes.
4. Human Resources (HRS) – This includes planning and forecasting staff requirements and managing recruitment and selection. The HRS team ensures that managers apply HRS policies and procedures consistently across the business. The development of staff is a key priority within the Accent business. Without the right people, Operations may not be able to achieve targets.

Following way:

1. Finance works alongside HRS to make sure that staffing/recruitment are at the right level for the business and at the same time delivering this within the budget.
2. Marketing works alongside Finance to make sure the company is working with the same brand image, promoting the company and delivering this within the budget. HRS works alongside Marketing to make sure Job description, Job adverts get full coverage and that the brand image is filtered through into the advertisements. Culture of Accent The Culture of Accents organization is a Regulated Organization (Task Culture). Accent is a private, non-profit making organization that provide low-cost “social housing” for people in need of a home. Any trading surplus is used to maintain existing housing and to help finance new homes. Although independent they are regulated by the Housing Cooperation and commonly receive public funding. Ways in which the culture can affect Accents operations if funding is reduced or taken away this will have an effect on the operations also how we are externally regulated. Read also when delivering a briefing volume and rate are classified

Below is a description of several ways HRS activities support Accent and helps meet its goals and business objectives

1. Recruitment and Selection. The HRS function offers technical assistance, such as writing Job descriptions, classifying workers into proper departments and assigning a fair rate of pay. HRS department also screens applicant pools and only recommend qualified candidates for interviews. Without HRS support, managers would have to perform all staffing activities and manage their employees’ performance for reaching goals.
2. Employee Development. The HRS function provides staff with adequate opportunities for learning, including workers are placed on a path to making a bigger contribution to the organization.
3. Performance Management. The HRS function offers data that management can use to make decisions about employees. For example, management can review the latest results of an employee survey and decide what changes to implement in the workplace in response to employee concerns. Without such a decision-science approach to the working notations for employees, management will miss an important chance to improve how talent is managed. Happy workers help an organization achieve its goals. Below are 3 ways in which HRS professionals support line managers within Accent To streamline the hiring process and improve the selection of qualified applicants. Ensure that we have the right people in the right place and in the right time.

Recruiters also examine processes for filling vacancies such as communication with line managers, assessing the accuracy and usefulness of Job descriptions and whether pre-employment assessments are really helpful in identifying solid antedates. Assist screening, interviewing, conducting reference check and to the eventual placement of candidates within various positions within the group. Assist with the communication of employment offers and remuneration structures to new employees. Create and maintain database of candidates/ applicants with potential. Arrange and conduct employee induction which including office access and company information.

It was mentioned that CRM focuses on retaining current customers rather than attracting new ones. Its development and endorsement lead to the development of Key Account Management (KAM). This is the most appropriate strategy for the company according to the relations with customers. This paragraph will show why managers have to consider implementing KAM in their organization and what are its pros and cons, according to the theories of the most famous authors in this field This is a new trend in strategic management which suggests an establishment of specific influence strategies for each key customer.

Key account management is a natural development of the strategy for guiding the business towards managing the customers’ relations. The level of service which the enterprise offers is an indicator for the detention of the current clients, as well as for acquiring new. The higher level of services provided to key clients helps in expanding the demand, stimulating sales, increasing the volumes of revenue and profit. That is how the relations with customers become a core marketing objective of the organization (Diller, 1996: 49). There are many reasons for focusing on the KAM.

The clients tend to centralise their purchases. Some companies give the transactions with certain customers to one sales manager. This increases the volume of contracts, and accelerates the process of their conclusion and realisation. The cooperation between the seller and the customer is more efficient when the communication between them is executed by only one sales officer. Key Account Management offers wonderful opportunities for the creation of new commercial channels by establishing specialised purchasing centers (Wolf, 1994: 198).

The vertical marketing integration is a precondition for the development of KAM. In the vertical integration one of the participants in economic life takes part or all of the functions of another participant and thus limiting or removing him from certain activities with key clients. Tree strategic approaches to vertical integration have been approved: corporate, administrative and contract (Pride and Ferrell, 1989: 305) . The contract approach is the most used tool for vertical integration in KAM.

It works in various forms- voluntary contractual links between retailers under the auspices of wholesalers, the cooperation of retailers, franchise agreements for a specific integration in a particular area (Kotler, 1993: 408, 458). These newly formed structures carry out the work with key clients. However, that excessive integration could have negative effects on the organization, like functioning clumsiness and inflexible management. That is why the optimal level of integration must be taken into account when working with key accounts.

The management team can carry out the construction of initial relationships with key clients in several ways. The first one is formulation of joint objectives. This can be achieved when both parties undertake joint actions for attaining pre- formulated mutually beneficial results. Providing support is another thing which management should do, in order to establish initial relations with key accounts. The company should guarantee good working conditions (financial, material, and organizational) for its partners.

Establishing two- ways communication is a crucial part in KAM. It includes mutual Information for favourable conditions and threats through the exchange of reports about the behaviour of competitors, overviews of the concluded transactions and references for complaints. When working with key clients, as in any interaction between two parties, there is a collision of interests, and conflicts may arise. Most often conflicts within a partnership arise when the objectives of one party do not coincide with those of the other.

The management team of the company should be aware of some other reasons which might cause conflicts, such as the formulation of different objectives, setting of targets which do not take into account market restrictions, formulation of objectives in case of insufficient communication. That is why efforts must be aimed at balancing the benefits, in order to reach total growth of economic and market indicators. The efforts of each individual party are aimed at achievement of the common objectives, which in turn helps buyers and sellers to reach their personal objectives (Pride and Ferrell, 1989: 312)

Marketing excellence suggests that relations with key customers should not be confined only to the conclusion of a transaction, but they must be focused on building, consolidation and management of those relations. The further development of relationship marketing when working with the key clients leads to the marketing of co-operation, which is based not only on the exchange of products against money, the information against behaviour, but also of sharing feelings (understanding and sympathy).

Different guidelines about the services of customers are at the base of these relations. Key Account Management strategy- stages The KAM strategy consists of tree main stages: Pre-sales services; Services during the conclusion and realization of the transaction; After-sales services. The development of KAM, however, also undergoes several stages. The managers have to analyse each one of them very carefully and decide whether the company will meet the requirements for adopting this system.

The organization must thoroughly study each stage, in order to avoid any mistakes which will jeopardise the whole process. Only after the management team is confident that they have enough information, technical, financial, marketing, analytical and human power, the system implementation can start. The first stage of KAM development is the preparatory stage. The basic aim of the management at this point is to determine which the key clients are. Their purchasing power is the determining factor. After they are targeted, the company must point out the necessary resources to draw them in.

In the next, so called Early stage, the company focuses all of its efforts in order to obtain favourable opportunities for a possible co-operation, and promote themselves in front of their potential partners. The main task here is to forecast expected results from these established relations with key clients. The Middle stage is the next step which the company takes in KAM implementation. The relations between both parties are strengthening, and the communication becomes more frequent. The partners are seeking guidelines for profitable joint work.

Basically the KAM strategies are formed during this middle stage. They determine the guidelines and means for the implementation of this co-operation. During the Mature stage, the partnership between these two parties is already established, and there is a constant exchange of information and know-how. Both parties gain benefits from this process. A KAM plan is developed to support this partnership. The Integrated stage is the last one in this KAM establishment process. Both parties appear as one on the market, benefiting from the synergetic effect caused by their co-operation.

Ultimately this effect is limited to the economic and market results from the joint activity, such as sales, income, profit, market share, market growth and competitive power. The qualifications and skills of the KAM specialists are crucial when working with key clients. They must have not only abilities to settle sales transactions, but also analytic, strategic, planning, organizational and individual skills. The creation of new foundations when working with key clients, helps for the better satisfaction of their need, and gathers direct information for the development of further co-operation between both parties.

A specialized KAM system is created, containing adequate and timely information about the development of sales plans and consumer- loyalty programs. The information about key clients allows better organization of the actions which the company performs, satisfying the customers in the best possible way and builds lasting and mutually beneficial partnership. Conclusion In the current situation of decreased consumption, it is increasingly important for managers and traders in the company, to have timely and systematic information on the interactions with their clients.

Managers, led by this necessity, are aimed at the Customer Relationship Management system, which becomes more and more popular over time. But hoping that the implementation of this system will solve all the problems with customer relations is groundless. The basic reason is that the software is just a tool which optimises the process and systemises data. The real questions, such as: which processes should be optimised and what information should be systematised, remain a responsibility of the management team. Often CRM systems give partial answers to these questions, especially if they are designed for specific industry.

That is why managers have to consider are there any implantations of the software in other business, before deciding whether to implement it in their organization. This of course, is a good reference, but does not mean that the problems with customers will be resolved, even with the selection of the most appropriate information system. Customer relationship management systems provide an opportunity to systematize data about customer relationships and guarantees traceability of the process of quantitative and qualitative indicators.

This is an incredible relief for the management body of the company, because on the basis of this information and by the control mechanisms, they may take on reasoned decisions for the initiatives of the company regarding its customers, as well as to control the performance of the staff which works with clients. Two areas remain a responsibility of management, and thus are outside of this system: decisions on policies and objectives, as well as analysis of the results and making decisions for the adjustment of the operations.

In order to develop an effective and successful CRM model which will improve the relations with customers, and thus to increase sales, managers must have clear answers and solutions not only about the type of this system, but about the processes and the ways of decision making which remain outside of it. This usually requires a broader understanding of marketing and trading activity of the firm, but without doing this, the possibility of having a CRM system while the relations with customers remain at the same level is quite large, and the efforts and resources invested in this project would have gone in vain.

Research Project on Application & Management of Information System in Punjab National Bank IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF MASTER’S DEGREE IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION INDRAPRASTHA UNIVERSITY (2008-2010) Submitted by: Pratik Jain — 0781563908 Northern India Engineering College (N. I. E. C), Delhi Under the valuable guidance of: Mrs. Shaveta Kumar (Faculty, N. I. E. C) Subject: Information System Management Course Code: MS-205 Submitted on: 30 17 November, 2009 Acknowledgement

This formal piece of acknowledgement is an attempt to express the feeling of gratitude towards people who helped me in successful completion of research project. I would like to express my deep gratitude to Mr. B. D Sharma (branch manager, PNB), for his constant co-operation. He was always there with his competent guidance and valuable suggestion throughout the pursuance of this research project. Special thanks to Mrs. Shaveta Kumar, my internal coordinator who guided me to work honestly and to give valuable suggestion for improving my work.

Above all no words can express my feelings to my parents, friends all those persons who supported me during my project. I would also like to thank almighty God for his blessings showered on me during the completion of project report. INDEX | | | | | |S. NO |Sub Topic |Topic Name |Page Number | | |S.

NO | | | |1. |Acknowledgement |2 | |2. |COMPANY PROFILE | | | |1. |Origin – Punjab National Bank |4 | | |2. |Profile |5 | | |3. Vision and Mission |6 | | |4. |Financial Performance Comparison |7 | |3. |INFORMATION SYSTEM IN PNB | | | |1. |History of Information System in PNB |8 | | | |1. 2000- The Beginning | | | | |1. b 2001-2003- Long Term Strategy | | | | |1. c 2004-2007- Growth | | | | |1. d 2008- Rural Initiative | | | | |1. 2009- 100% CBS Implementation | | | |2. |Other Banking Applications |12 | | | |2. a Straight to Processing (STP) | | | | |2. b Depository Setup | | | | |2. Bank Mate & EDI | | | |3. |PNB IT Setup |13 | | | |3. a Systems | | | | |3. b Network Design | | | | |3. Storage, WAN & Connectivity | | | | |3. d Security Systems | | | | |3. e Hardware & Software Resources | | | |4. |Organizations Other Computing Resource |15 | | | |4. Payroll TPS | | | | |4. b Online Assistance | | | | |4. c Account Opening – MIS | | | | |4. d SPNS, RTGS & Mobile Alert Service | | |4. IMPACT OF INFORMATION SYSTEM | | | |1. |Finacle’s Impact |16 | | |2. |Impact on Employees, Customers |17 | |5. |Available Alternatives |18 | |6. |Conclusion |19 | |7. Suggestion |20 | |8. |References |21 | Company Profile – Punjab National Bank Origin Established in 1895 at Lahore, undivided India, Punjab National Bank (PNB) has the distinction of being the first Indian bank to have been started solely with Indian capital.

The bank was nationalized in July 1969 along with 13 other banks. From its modest beginning, the bank has grown in size and stature to become a front-line banking institution in India at present. |[p|A professionally managed bank with a successful track record of over 110 years. | |ic| | |] | | |[p|Largest branch network in India – 4668 Offices including 432 Extension Counters spread throughout the country. |ic| | |] | | |[p|Strategic business area covers the large Indo-Gangetic belt and the metropolitan centers. | |ic| | |] | | |[p|Ranked as 248th biggest bank in the world by Bankers Almanac, London. |ic| | |] | | |[p|Strong correspondent banking relationships with more than 217 international banks of the world. | |ic| | |] | | |[p|More than 50 renowned international banks maintain their Rupee Accounts with PNB. |ic| | |] | | |[p|Well equipped dealing rooms; 20 different foreign currency accounts are maintained at major centers all over the globe. | |ic| | |] | | Profile

With its presence virtually in all the important centers of the country, Punjab National Bank offers a wide variety of banking services which include corporate and personal banking, industrial finance, agricultural finance, financing of trade and international banking. Among the clients of the Bank are Indian conglomerates, medium and small industrial units, exporters, non-resident Indians and multinational companies. The large presence and vast resource base have helped the Bank to build strong links with trade and industry.

With over 38 million satisfied customers and 4668 offices, PNB has continued to retain its leadership position among the nationalized banks. The bank enjoys strong fundamentals, large franchise value and good brand image. Besides being ranked as one of India’s top service brands, PNB has remained fully committed to its guiding principles of sound and prudent banking. Apart from offering banking products, the bank has also entered the credit card & debit card business; bullion business; life and non-life insurance business; Gold coins & asset managementsbusiness,setc.

Since its humble beginning in 1895 with the distinction of being the first Indian bank to have been started with Indian capital, PNB has achieved significant growth in business which at the end of March 2009 amounted to Rs 3,64,463 crore. Today, with assets of more than Rs 2,46,900 crore, PNB is ranked as the 3rd largest bank in the country (after SBI and ICICI Bank) and has the 2nd largest network of branches (including three overseas offices).

PNB has always looked at technology as a key facilitator to provide better customer service and ensured that its ‘IT strategy’ follows the ‘Business strategy’ so as to arrive at “Best Fit”. The bank has made rapid strides in this direction. Along with the achievement of 100% branch computerization, one of the major achievements of the Bank is covering all the branches of the Bank under Core Banking Solution (CBS), thus covering 100% of its business and providing ‘Anytime Anywhere’ banking facility to all customers including customers of more than 2000 rural branches.

The bank has also been offering Internet banking services to the customers of CBS branches like booking of tickets, payment of bills of utilities, purchase of airline tickets etc. Towards developing a cost effective alternative channels of delivery, the bank with more than 2150 ATMs has the largest ATM network amongst Nationalized Banks. With the help of advanced technology, the Bank has been a frontrunner in the industry so far as the initiatives for Financial Inclusion is concerned. With its policy of inclusive growth in the Indo-Gangetic belt.

The Bank has launched a drive for biometric smart card based technology enabled Financial Inclusion with the help of Business Correspondents/Business Facilitators (BC/BF) so as to reach out to the last mile customer. The BC/BF will address the outreach issue while technology will provide cost effective and transparent services. The Bank has started several innovative initiatives for marginal groups like rickshaw pullers, vegetable vendors, dairy farmers, construction workers, etc. The Bank has already achieved 100% financial inclusion in 21,408svillages.

Backed by strong domestic performance, the bank is planning to realize its global aspirations. In order to increase its international presence, the Bank continues its selective foray in international markets with presence in Hongkong, Dubai, Kazakhstan, UK, Shanghai, Singapore, Kabul and Norway. A second branch in Hongkong at Kowloon was opened in the first week of April’09. Bank is also in the process of establishing its presence in China, Bhutan, DIFC Dubai, Canada and Singapore. The bank also has a joint venture with Everest Bank Ltd. EBL), Nepal. Under the long term vision, Bank proposes to start its operation in Fiji Island, Australia and Indonesia. Bank continues with its goal to become a household brand with global expertise. Amongst Top 1000 Banks in the World, ‘The Banker’ listed PNB at 250th place. Further, PNB is at the 1166th position among 48 Indian firms making it to a list of the world’s biggest companiesscompiledsbysthesUSsmagazines‘Forbes’. Punjab National Bank continues to maintain its frontline position in the Indian banking industry.

In particular, the bank has retained its NUMBER ONE position among the nationalized banks in terms of number of branches, Deposit, Advances, total Business, operating and net profit in the year 2008-09. The impressive operational and financial performance has been brought about by Bank’s focus on customer based business with thrust on SME, Agriculture, more inclusive approach to banking; better asset liability management; improved margin management, thrust on recovery and increased efficiency in core operations of the Bank. Vision and Mission Vision To be a Leading Global Bank with Pan India footprints and become a household brand in the Indo-Gangetic Plains providing entire range of financial products and services sssssssunder one roof” Mission “Banking for the unbanked” Performance Comparison over the years [pic] During the FY 2008-09, the bank achieved a net profit of Rs 3,091 crore, maintaining its number ONE position amongst nationalized banks. Bank has a strong capital base with capital adequacy ratio at 14. 03% as on March’09. As on March’09, the Bank has the Gross and Net NPA ratio of 1. 77% and 0. 17% respectively.

During the FY 2008-09, its’ ratio of priority sector credit to adjusted net bank credit at 41. 53% & agriculture credit to adjusted net bank credit at 19. 72% was also higher than the respective national goals of 40% & 18%. Information System in PNB History of Information System at PNB 2000 – The Beginning In March 2000, the penetration and use of IT was not very high at PNB. PNB was relying on manual processes to collect, store, and analyze business data. Its retail branches were not connected and it was difficult for management to understand business drivers and impediments.

This situation made it difficult for PNB to provide optimum customer service and resulted in lost opportunities. Manual operations were also costly to support. The bank used seven different software, which ran on 13 different flavors of UNIX, on standalone PCs. The 500-odd branches were not networked and only 35 percent of the bank’s business was computerized. The overall expertise in IT among users was low. The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) issued a directive to the bank to computerize at least 70 percent of its business by December 2000.

This prompted the bank to work out a strategy to tackle the daunting task in the short period of time. At that time there were various factors which caused a barrier in implementing an Information System for centralized banking. These weaknesses were:- • Different Unix OS used in different branches. • Different standalone financial applications on PCs at different branches. • Lack of interoperability due to disparity in systems. • Limited expertise on the software packages currently deployed. • Most branches did not have a proper LAN in place.

PNB hired a consultant and devised a two-pronged plan of action. The plan comprised: • A short term goal – To meet the CVC deadline of 70 percent computerization. • A long term goal – To create a dependable core banking infrastructure and build a nationwide network to connect different branches to the core infrastructure. PNB chose a product from a company called Nelito. It was a DOS-based, ‘Partial Branch Automation’ application. Standalone versions were chosen since there weren’t LANs in place, and deployment of LANs at branches would take so long that the CVC deadline couldn’t be met.

The interface was simple in design, and thus easy for the bank personnel to use. The bank requested CVC for an extension of the deadline and was granted time till March 2001. By March 2001, 70. 60 percent of the bank’s business was computerized. 2001-2003 – The Long Term Strategy In the long-term, PNB wanted a technology that would consolidate all its business resources and sustain the bank’s future growth. It also wanted to create its own network, which would play a vital role in its success. Three consultants were appointed to review technology options for long-term adoption.

The verdict of the consultants was to deploy a centralized core banking architecture. On 30 March 2001, the bank used the services of Infosys for the deployment of Finacle. A core team was selected, which would be the heart of the project. Infosys trained 200-odd personnel from a core team over six months. The core team modified and customized the package according to its specific needs. As the time passed besides making a mark in terms of revenues, the bank— among the few technology-savvy PSUs—set up examples for other banks, especially PSUs in early of this decade.

Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), a division of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), presented PNB with the award for excellence in banking technology in 2002. This was quite an achievement considering that the technology transformation started only two-and-a-half years back at PNB. In March 2000, the bank had only 36 percent of its businesses covered on computers, as against 84 percent in 2002. PNB purchased servers, security infrastructure, and storage equipment and decided to house it in its own central data center in New Delhi.

A lot of infrastructure from Cisco has been used to build the data center. In April 2002 the bank rolled-out Finacle in 7 branches as a pilot venture. This was done because the bank had seven different application packages, and it wanted to ensure smooth migration of the data into Finacle. By mid May 2002, all data from other software was successfully migrated into Finacle and by end of year, the number of locations has increased to 12. As far as the centralized core banking system is concerned, PNB has a data centre at the corporate office and all these 12 centers have an extension to that data.

This system enables an individual having an account in any of our branches to conduct transactions/operate the account from any of these 12 branches. 2004-2007 – The Growth Stage In 2004, India’s National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) nominated Punjab National Bank (PNB) as the best user of technology in its sector. The bank continued to spread the technology to more of its branches and centers. The adoption of Core Banking Solution not only ensured standardization of products, but also enabled quick launch of the new and innovative financial products ensuring sufficient lead time to market it.

The core banking solution offered seamless platform for integrating various such initiatives and also reduces the cost of transaction, thereby offering financial products at an affordable cost. On May 27,2004 Punjab National Bank (PNB) has introduced Loans and Advances Data Desk for Evaluations and Reports, (LADDER), a computerized management information system for rationalization of returns, asset classification and provisioning, credit monitoring and NPA management. The implementation of the system comprised two modules. The first module would require branches to capture data on borrowal accounts as a | |one-time activity with transaction updates at periodic intervals. | |  | |The second module for implementation of the software envisages collection of information on the loan accounts from the stage of receipt of | |application to disbursement of sanctioned loans. | | |With the implementation of this system, manual collation of a large number of loan-related returns become redundant and branch staff | |concentrated on business development and objective monitoring of asset quality. | 2008 – Rural Initiative Infosys Technologies Ltd (Infosys) and Punjab National Bank (PNB) in 2008 announced that PNB has chosen Finacle from Infosys to power its core banking initiative for rural banking deploying Finacle across PNB’s six Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) covering 1300 branches.

Punjab National Bank took lead in business excellence and commitment to customers by providing core banking coverage to its 4850 service outlets. Due to the remoteness of rural branch locations, there were issues such as connectivity of branches for operational ease, centralization of data, and enhancement of customer service as well as innovation in banking products. Moreover, all this is needed at a substantially lower cost for RRBs as their operations were relatively less complex. Finacle from Infosys recognized this need of RRBs and adapted its industry leading core banking solution to suit the requirements of these institutions.

PNB management selected this platform to transform and standardize the operations of its RRBs. A majority of Indian banks were already ahead in terms of adoption of new age technology. Extending the benefits of technology to RRBs helped sponsor banks in not just priority sector lending but also present an additional business avenue with tremendous potential. Finacle enabled RRBs to better manage audit processes, adhere to statutory compliance, enhance internal MIS requirements and offer customers competitive services on par with commercial banks. 2009 – 100% CBS Implementation

In Feb, 2009 India’s second largest public sector bank, announced that it has completed 100 per cent core banking implementation at its 4604 branches and extension counters through the FinacleaUniversalaBankingaSolutionafromaInfosys. The bank implemented industry-leading Finacle CBS across its operations running a flexible and scalable database platform from Oracle and innovative and cost-effective Sun SPARC enterprise serversafromaSunaMicrosystems. Finacle has enabled the bank to consolidate and centralize its operations, improving branch efficiency and productivity per employee.

Consolidation has also resulted in reduction of revenue leakage and cost, while increasing ease of technical support and maintenance at branches. The solution’s scalability has also enabled the bank’s scalability to be the best in the countryawithatheanumberaofapeakatransactionsaata3. 5amillion. Further, the bank has covered all the branches under CBS platform including extension counters. As a result, 38 million PNB’s customers are enjoying the facility of “one bank – one account”. In addition, the bank has intended to build a data center capable of handling business of 6000 branches and 1 lakh terminals.

The bank was awarded “IBM green award” for adopting environment friendly technology for data warehouse implementation during the year. Other Banking Applications The banking major also introduced a number of value added services like ATMs, Tele-banking, SMS banking, mobile banking and Internet banking, remote access facility through its website, etc. under a license from RBI to launch Internet banking. The bank also enabled customers to avail of the Straight to Processing (STP) facility. The biggest advantage of STP is that if a person with an account in Delhi deposits a cheque in Chennai, his account in Delhi gets updated the same day.

PNB’s team has also customized this package to suit the typical requirements of a public sector bank. “As PNB handles huge number of government accounts—public provident fund, deposit of income tax, deposit of different duties and treasury payments, PNB had to customize it and also built a module for government businesses into this package. The bank also has a depository set-up (to store dematerialized share certificates) at its corporate office in New Delhi and another in Mumbai. Customers owning shares and bonds can deposit them at these depositories after which the hard copies are destroyed.

The bank, on the other hand, keeps a digital copy of all these documents. Thus, one does not have to bother about the loss of paper, or a signature that does not match and so on. Customers can now instruct the bank at any point of time to transfer these securities. Another very interesting development with PNB is its contract with Indian Railways. It is putting up an ATM machine at the New Delhi station’s reservation office, which is going to be a interface between the Railways’ server and the bank’s server.

Once this is functional, customers can collect their tickets from the ATM machine and the payment can be made using credit or debit cards. Once this is successful and the interface is done, the bank plans to enable all their ATMs across the country on this platform. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is another technology initiative that the bank has taken up. It has entered into an agreement with the Customs department wherein the Customs’ server is connected with the bank’s corporate office server, which is further connected to several branches of PNB and also to importers.

Thus, whatever duties are required to be deposited with the Customs department can be debited from the importer’s (read customer’s) account automatically. The pilot project for this has already been carried out and the bank plans to introduce this service soon. The PSU has also introduced bilingual software known as Bank-mate. With the help of this software one can generate reports in Hindi and also can get his/her passbook in Hindi. This is already in operation at around various branches and PNB is also getting orders for this package from other banks. PNB’s IT Setup

PNB also has a number of applications running on its network like any other Financial Institution. The bank has standardized all its platforms on UNIX operating system and RDBMS on Oracle. Other OS like Microsoft’s windows 2000/ XP are also enabled in centers. As far as the hardware platform is concerned, PNB has Sun Microsystems’ Web servers at the data centre. Apart from this, they are also using Compaq, IBM and Xeon servers. At some locations, the bank is still using DOS machines to run some of their ATMs. Systems Before deploying the core banking architecture, PNB used servers which were NT-based, from IBM, and from other vendors.

The bank conducted benchmarking tests for Finacle on various server platforms. And it was satisfied with the performance of Sun’s hardware on Solaris. Sun’s Fire servers, Solaris OS, and Oracle’s RDBMS are now in use. Network design Cisco has tied up with PNB to evolve the network design and implement a nationwide network backbone to connect all its offices. Cisco will assist the bank in understanding and implementing the various technologies associated with the project. The converged network infrastructure allowed PNB to standardize the applications and software needed to provide the banking services.

The various branches are connected to the data center using new-world routing and switching technologies. Storage systems The bank has followed RBI’s storage requirement guidelines. Provisions have been made to store transaction data for around 10 years. In some cases, data is stored permanently. Around 164 Sun enterprise class servers are used in DAS architecture. The total capacity is of multiple TBs. The Sun hardware uses an in-built storage management tool. Later look over a storage management application from VERITAS. WAN and connectivity 101 branches of the bank were on a WAN in 2000.

The bank put 500-odd branches on the WAN in 2002, and in three years the WAN had 2000-odd branches. The bank tried a number of connectivity options. 802. 11b wireless connectivity was installed in five branches to begin with. The bank then explored the option of leased lines and used connectivity from MTNL and BSNL. It also used Bharti’s leased line between Mumbai and Delhi. The bank also used Reliance Infocomm’s fiber optic backbone along with the leased lines in locations where the optic fiber does not reach. PNB had appointed HCL Com-net to carry out 24×7 monitoring of the countrywide network.

There’s a live link between HCL and PNB’s IT head office. The network is monitored remotely and can also be viewed at the bank’s IT facility, where a separate monitoring system is used. Security Systems Security was especially important because the bank could afford no compromise. The security architecture had to be robust, reliable, and scalable to meet current and future needs. Cisco was chosen as the service provider who could meet these stringent requirements. The bank uses a range of security products like Firewalls and IDSs from Cisco for its security needs in its LANs and WAN.

All data transactions between its routers and switches are encrypted. It has appointed Ramco Systems as the security integrator. The security integrator is responsible for the complete security infrastructure and is answerable for any security breach or lapse. The bank appointed security administrators. VeriSign provided the necessary Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to the bank for secure transactions. Software Resources PNB is using various software’s for its operational activities for its smooth and efficient running, the Software used by PNB include:- ¬ Microsoft office 2003 Acrobat Reader ¬ Bank-mate ¬ Attack Filters: – Spyware, Trojan, VoIP etc. ¬ Protocols: – IP, VLAN, DNS, HTTP, FTP, TCP, TELNET, UTP etc. ¬ Operating System’s:- UNIX, Solaris, Windows NT, 2000 Server, XP etc.. ¬ Databases: – MS Access, MS SQL, Oracle, FoxPro. Hardware Resources To fulfill the requirement and as per compatibility with software these hardware are used:- ¬ HCL, IBM etc Desktops, ¬ Printer ¬ NT Based servers from IBM, ¬ Sun’s hardware for Solaris, ¬ Network Cards. ¬ Routers, Scanners etc… Organizations Other Computing Resources Payroll Transaction Processing System

Payroll TPS, which is a typical accounting transaction processing system found in PNB. A payroll system keeps track of the money paid to employees. The master file is composed of discrete pieces of information (such as a name, address, or employee number) called data elements. Data are keyed into the system, updating the data elements. The elements on the master file are combined in different ways to create reports of interest to management and government agencies and to send paychecks to employees. Management notices the record of the employee’s efficiency to work and may declare added bonus or other incentive.

This report is checked and approved by the branch manager after which cheque is issued to the employee. Online Assistance PNB provides its customers online assistance by providing i-banking, online complaints, providing them information about various products and services. These complaints and assistance are processed by customer care services executive. Account Opening In account opening the MIS is used, every information about the customer is recorded like their name, address, account, type of account, account information, their sample signature, these helps in Identification of customer instantly and creating a database at faster rate.

This includes the filling of KYC and AC forms. SPNS (Shared Payment Network System) Swadhan, the first SPNS launched in Mumbai by IBA. The banks that participate on this network could issue the cards to customers for transacting on networks. RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) RTGS System is a payment settlement system that minimizes the credit risk in the prevalent cheque clearing system. Under RTGS the funds are settled on a near real time basis across Banks in different locations.

Bank offers this immediate electronic fund transfer facility to RTGS enabled bank branches across through the country its designated RTGS enabled locations. Mobile Alert Service The clients now have the facility to subscribe to Mobile Alert Service for receiving alerts on registered mobile phone numbers instantly after the funds are pooled. Impact of Information Systems An information system is there to empower its users. A database simply provides data, but an information system is all about providing the best information the user needs to do their task more effectively.

It also takes into account that different users doing their own specific tasks may need to see their information presented in differing ways. The benefits of an information system follow when the user can quickly access, understand and respond correctly to that information. The implementation of Information Systems in PNB and other financial institutions had a vast impact on the Employees (the way they work), Customers, The industry & Government. The system provides information on the past, present and project future and on relevant events inside and outside the organization. Finacle’s Impact

Finacle core banking solution is a comprehensive, integrated yet modular business solution that effectively addresses the strategic and day-to-day challenges faced by banks. It is highly parameterizable providing that much-needed flexibility to adapt to a dynamic environment. The solution has an integrated CRM module enabling banks to offer a rich and differentiated value proposition to customers. The layered Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), STP capabilities, web-enabled technology and 24 X 7 operations ensure multi-channel, multi-country and multi-currency implementations.

The functionality-rich modules in the solution provide banks with a varied palette of features to continuously innovate on their product and service offerings. With Finacle core banking solution, banks can meet the challenges of managing change, competition, compliance and customer demands effectively. • Differentiated Product Spread Finacle core banking solution offers an unlimited palette of features for banks to design and deploy products for varying market segments.

The product bundling capabilities of the solution offers a wide range of possibilities for banks to create products with innovative features. The facilities provided for differential pricing, channel rules and customization through Finacle Studio – the scripting engine, empower banks to continuously innovate and extend their suite of products, across segments. • Agile Operations The Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) enables the IT team at the bank to effect changes without touching the base code, ensuring lesser vendor dependency and faster adaptability to changing business conditions. Robust Cross-sell Framework The CIF and CRM capabilities in Finacle offer a unified view of the customer across the entire solution and across multiple back-end applications, enabling the bank to view the customer from a completely informed angle. This empowers banks to effectively manage customer relationships and aggressively explore cross-sell opportunities. • Increased Operational Efficiencies and Productivity Finacle core banking solution supports business events automation and process orchestration, thus eliminating manual tasks and reducing process time.

The elimination of error and data redundancies also results in increased branch productivity. Straight through Processing (STP) abilities enhance reduction in turnaround and processing time, increasing output and enabling speedy completion of tasks. The multilingual web-based single repository of information enables remotely located bankers to collaborate and transact seamlessly. Impact on Employees Information System serves employees with user friendliness, easy storage and access of data, removal of redundancies, fastening up of the processes and providing up of multiple views at same time.

In beginning the issues were mostly cultural. Most staffers were used to working in a manual environment, and some had worked in standalone environments. In the new networked environment, personnel at the node/counter didn’t actually ‘see’ the transactions updating in the various account books. This gave rise to a number of queries and suggestions from personnel. It took around six-eight months for the personnel to felt that the environment ‘change’ had done them good, and they were used to working on the systems. Other Available Alternatives

The Indian banking sector is slowly coming of age and hand grooming this sector is the banking solution market, which has carved a name for itself in the global arena. Not to forget the pro-active government reforms that are helping the Indian banking market reach greater heights and adding glitz and glamour to Indian economy as a whole. Other then Finacle from Infosys there are various available alternatives for which the banking industry and financial institutions can opt. These are:- • Office Accounting Professional 2009 • SAP ERP Financials • Tally 9: Financial Accounting and Inventory Management Software • Flexcube – ‘i-flex solutions’ Hyperion Financial Management – System 9 While in past i-flex solutions’ flagship product Flexcube has been rated the #1 banking product in the world by UK based IBS, an independent banking solutions rating vendor, but Infosys Technologies’’ Finacle doesn’t took long enough to overtake Flexcube. But now a day’s SAP ERP programmes are giving a tough competition to Finacle. Conclusion A management information system is a system or process that provides the information necessary to manage an organization effectively. MIS and the information it generates are generally considered essential components of prudent and reasonable business decisions.

This report starts with the Punjab National Bank with overview of PNB followed by history of information system and the steps taken by PNB to be effective in banking industry by using information’s technology. Information Technology (IT) innovations in the last few years have changed the landscape of banks in India. Today, IT seems to be the prime mover of all banking transactions. Electronic and Information Technology together are bringing a swift change in the way banks operate, especially offering better delivery channels and customers’ friendly services.

Anywhere banking, telebanking, mobile banking, net banking, automated teller machine(ATMs), credit cards, debit cards, smart cards, call centers, CRM, data warehousing have totally transformed the banking industry. Today almost all the major banks in India like ICICI Bank, UTI Bank, Citibank, Standard Chartered Bank, ABN Amro, SBI and PNB are offering online services to their customers. ATMs have emerged as the most favored channel for offering banking services to the customers in the world.

One of the biggest benefits that the bank has derived out of IT has been the tremendous saving on recruitment front—the bank has not recruited more staff even while the business and work pressures have gone up five times. Consequently, PNB’s profitability has also increased. To train users the bank has set up more than 15 computer training labs across the country. It explains all the TPS how the transactions are made by the bank, using of these TPS from the new events such as account opening, new allowances etc… to the routine work including cash and payments record, updating of records, payroll and the processing of the complaints.

These TPS holds all the activities from the manager and employees to the customers. The report discuses the inbound and the outbound logistics and relate all the processes of TPS used in the bank with the Information System is enabling the bank to provide the quality and satisfactory services to their customers. Suggestions The bank is using information system efficiently and it has increased the customer satisfaction, efficiency, data storage, fast data retrieval. But to improve more and regarding future success of PNB here are the some suggestions. The bank must update Hardware to get maximum performance from Information Systems in order to allow the IS to procure the least amount of system resources it requires for functioning. ¬ The bank should update all their software, networks etc to keep information system up to date for competitive edge, customer satisfaction. ¬ Steps should be taken to increase the safety & to avoid the unethical practices like phishing. ¬ Need for improved training for using Information Technology and tools to employees. ¬ Intra firm communication should be improved.

References Websites:- http://www. networkmagazineindia. com/200305/tech4. shtml http://www. expresscomputeronline. com/20021202/banks7. shtml http://www. business-standard. com/india/news/pnb-to-implement-loan-data-software/151819/ http://www. financialexpress. com/news/pnb-in-networking-pact-with-cisco/64296/ http://www. pnbindia. com/ http://netpnb. com/ Books:- PNB Vision 2007-2008 Zonal Training Centre Guide. ———————– (The name you can bank upon) All Banks Average Punjab National Bank (Performance Chart) (Amount in Rs Crore)

Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) vs. Enterprise Resource System (ERP) a Comparative Paper. Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP), also referred to as the traditional management system, was generated from the MRP or the Material Requirement Systems. Companies have utilized this system for well over 25 years. In its primary set up, the MRP stores data related to inventory control and production planning. The system is widespread with the use of one its system with the largest market share, the SAP system is the primary base system for over 60 percent of multinational companies.

Many companies have been influenced by ERP over the years, including both small and medium size businesses; it is the core of their information processing landscape. Benefits of the ERP Systems: * Improvement to the quality and efficiency of a firm * Improvements to Customer Service and Manufacturing outputs. * Upper Level Management can benefit with critical decision making information * Firms become more alert after incorporating the ERP systems. Supply Chain Management Systems (SCM) captures the relationship between a firm and its database of suppliers.

The processes allows for records of production, sales of goods and services, delivery of goods. With this process, a firm can improve on lead times, production values and on-time deliveries of goods and services. Strategies are put in place to allow companies to document inventory control data, along with financial resources require to produce quality goods and provide services in an efficient manner. As a collaborative process, SCM depicts activities where sales of products or goods and services are closely linked with consumers.

The solution derived from the process allows customers and vendors to connect inventories, order distribution and order production. The processes are distributed between partners who collaborate on different aspect of supply chain management including logistics, order fulfillment. Supply Chain management’s core premise ensures that its distribution channels are reflected cohesively amongst its members. Succinct inventory needs and cost control are among the substantial benefits of SCM.

Results are improved profit margins and efficient environmentally friendly transportation. Benefits of SCM System: * Improvement in Firm / Vendor relationships resulting in opportunities to cut cost through a volume discount. * Improved Collaboration by developing reports to effectively progress goods and services from supplier to distributor. * Improvement in cycle times which allows raw materials to be made available to your firm needs them in order to keep the production flow moving. Improvement in Conflict resolution; opportunity to better cope with issues on all sides of the production spectrum allows you to be proactive in your responses to problems as oppose to being blindsided by them. Customer Relationship Management (CRM), in its core element, sync up customers and vendors which ensures that goods and services are ultimately delivered to customers efficiently and in a timely manner. This process can only be embarked upon after the sales group closes if you will the sale; said process integrates sales, customer support, and supply chain management and customer relationship in order to enlarge the operation.

The CRM system incorporates data collections in specific databases; in most CRM program, the primary role of each functional session is first and foremost customer driven with sales, marketing and customer service emphasize. The goal is to target the customers with the best attributes to build long term efficient relationships. The key element in the CRM system is providing a function that helps business streamline their processes as it relates to taking care of their customer. Benefits of CRM System: * Allows the collection of data tht can be shared within the company. Improvement in Customer Service. * Improvement in your company’s marketing strategies. Comparative Analysis Supply Chain integration though fundamental, can be difficult to implement. The ultimate goal is to effectively change the nature of the relationships between vendors and buyers from a traditional perspective to a non-traditional one. Comparatively, when implementing SCM, firms must take in to consideration the impact of the human side of the equation whereas, CRM though relationship based, affects all aspect of supply chain and directly influence performance.

More than likely, the base setup such as the information and technology systems needed to implement the supply chain system will be readily available and can be executed almost immediately. Even with all this in place, there are instances where a number of supply chain and customer relationships initiatives fail due to lack of communication or clear and concise expectations from all parties involved. The customer relationship aspect is usually assumed by managers of a firm, and thus tries to merge the SCM and CRM, the result of said merger often end up being one the most difficult part of the integration.

Maintaining a decent relationship between the customer and vendors/supplier makes for a succinct SCM and CRM; integrating the two is critical to developing trust and essential to the success of the firm. Trust building is essential in developing a relationship between the SCM and CRM; however, it’s an ongoing process that must be managed on a continual basis otherwise it can be loss leaving the firm vulnerable. Like supply chain management, customer relationship management is a critical contributor to a firms survival, incorporating three integral components, organizational, strategic and cultural factors in order to succeed.

However, unlike SCM, Customer relationships management further breaks down these components to further impact its implementation. On the organizational level, the firm takes a look at integration, commitment and system readiness and moreover, on the strategic issues, the firm considers vision planning and customer based cultured. Lastly, the 3rd component added to the mix for a successful implementation is the cultural foundation which consists of networking and human interaction. All of these components and sub-parts combine with comprehensive customer knowledge, contributes to a successful CRM implementation.

This method “emphasizes the importance of continuously identifying and satisfying customers’ ever-changing needs by the facilitation of appropriate organizational structure and management approaches” (Stefanou et al. 2003). By comparison in their approach, the CRM unlike the SCM, establishes long-term relationships, combine with customer knowledge and in most cases a customer-based-focus along with a determined strategy. By impressive results, the long-term relation aspect of the CRM is fundamental and essential for the implementation. This notion is closely related to an awareness of the positive correlation between customer retention and a company’s profitability” (Reichheld et al. , 2000). By the same token both SCM and CRM lays claim to customer information playing a significant role in their implementation and ultimately their success. In order to provide superb customer service, there is a certain amount of research that goes into becoming familiar with the target market and by extension the customer base within those markets.

According to Winer, 2001, constructing a comprehensive customer information profile or database is the foundation for any CRM implementations. This method is also essential in the foundation of a SCM implementation. While the CRM primary approach is customer-centered and looks to building long-term interaction with customers, the SCM tends to center its approach on process management and project initiatives in order to satisfy their customer needs. The ISO 9000 is a tool implemented to evaluate processes of a supplier through grading and registering.

This tool helps suppliers and vendors keep track of their systematic process and enable them to stay in line with standard practices. Alternative Approaches to SCM and CRM: In trying to perfect standard processes, there are alternative tools to the SCM and CRM system, which in turn contributes to improving products in order to meet customer needs. These tools or approaches can generally be used in conjunction with SCM and CRM or individually. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) also known as ‘house of quality’ allows engineers and marketers to communicate effectively (Hauser and Clausing 1988).

Another alternative approach is the Computer-aided design (CAD), which aids in the design process. (Meredith 1987). Design of experiment (DOE) coordinates off-line functions which allow inputs to product and processes to be configured effectively for optimum customer satisfaction (Foster 2010). Though there are more design approaches, one primary one worth mentioning is the Designs for manufacture (DFM). This approach is formulated to assist in the improvement of manufacture for products (AIAG 2008).

The aforementioned approaches are not intended to be all-inclusive; the intention is to highlight a collection of tools use to improve quality and provide insights to the differences between SCM and CRM and the traditional operational system. Diverse Approaches Processing information can vary by cultural and social standings. These attributes allows managers to solve problems and process information differently. In some early research statistics shows that supply chain has significant correlation to marketing and logistics.

From a research perspective, the supply chain field has essentially been a proponent for diverse management derivatives. Though research shows that there’s very little differences in traditional and supply chain practices; however, the gap in the differences in process between the SCM and CRM has close in the last few years. Executive Summary The relationship between software systems that impact value chain management varied in all aspects of its functions; traditionally, the Enterprise Resource planning systems (ERP) system is engineered to streamline business processes and connects their information and work flow.

Similarly, the Supply Chain Management Systems incorporates activities between a firm and it’s vendors and by so doing, it too connects their information and work flow. The Customer Relationship Management System focuses on the customer interaction with emphasis on sales, customer service, and marketing, The management of the supply chain systems can be challenging in every aspect; it requires constant supervision of suppliers back to the point-of-origin and all goods/services out to the point-of-consumption might prove to be even more challenging.

The key understanding is that managing these relationships could lead to power in the supply chain industry including the supplier network which could provide opportunities to improve profits significantly. Ultimately, supply chain management is about establishing and managing relationships, in managing these relationships, a link is formed thereby establishing the customer relationship management process and the end result is a structure relationship between customers and suppliers. Studies show that “the structure of activities within and between companies is a critical cornerstone of creating unique and superior supply chain performance.

The study allows for business processes if linked, increase in potential profitability while managing individual functions could lead to an effective management system. Study also shows that optimizing the product flow can be realized if a direct approach to business is implemented. Though the focus of this paper is the relationship between the supply chain management system and the customer relationship management system, the Global Supply Chain Forum has also recognized other management processes; accordingly they are: * Customer Service Management * Order Fulfillment * Supplier Relationship Management Return Management * Demand Management * Manufacturing Flow Management These highly capable processes, have all been established and integrated into the supply chain management process, they all also have strategic and operational sub-processes. In order to examine how the process is implemented, the strategic sub-process provides the structure while the operational sub-process allows you to implement with detailed step-by-step instructions; and furthermore, the strategic process is essential in integrating all departments in the supply chain process providing day-to-day functions operationally.

Much like the supply chain management system, the customer relationship system provides structure; however, the focus is primarily on the relationships between the customers and the firm. This system provides key components on developing and maintain the relationships with could lead to long-term success. With most supply chain organization, decision on which customer base to target base on market analysis, these customers eventually becomes key target points for the firm’s business mission. Similarly, most of these decisions are made and put in place by a leadership team of the firm.

The successful integration of the management systems across key components of the supply chain process will ultimately leads to a successful firm. Both the supply chain management and customer relationship management systems are successful when valuable resources are used proficiently. Research shows that when activities within a firm are implemented throughout the eight supply chain management process using cross-functional teams, the result is cross-functional relationships with customers and supplier. References Financial Decision Making for Managers: Volume 1, 2011 * Supply Chain Management Vs. Customer Relationship Management – htt://www. smallbusiness. chron. com/supply-chain-management-vs-customer-relationship-management. chron. com * Managing relationships in the Supply Chain http://scm. ncsu. edu/scm-articles/article/managing-relationships-in-the-supply-chain * Studying the Customer Relationship Management: A Case Study at Persian Technology Firm. An Executive Summary of Supply Chain Management: Processes, Partnerships, Performance * Douglas M. Lambert

Akhilesh Nair Deepesh Chatterjee Mithun Vishnu Nikhil Kumar OPEN SOURCE ERP PROS and CONS Contents Introduction3 Commercial and Open Source ERP Software6 Open Source ERP Solution Pros8 Open Source ERP Solution Cons10 Open Source ERP Success Story11 Company Overview11 Issue At Hand11 The Solution11 Results12 The Bottom Line12 Top Open Source ERP Applications to Look Out for13 ?Goodness of Open Source ERP Packages13 ?Open Source ERP Packages13 ?Java-Based Open Source Finance Apps13 ?Latest Developments13 ?GnuCash: The Ultimate Free Open Source Accounting Software14

Introduction Open source ERP is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software system whose source code is made publicly available. The open source model allows companies to access the ERP system’s code and customize it using their own IT department instead of paying extra for vendor customization services and licensing, as is typically the case with closed source programs. Open source ERP can be particularly attractive to small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) that want to upgrade or customize their ERP systems without paying large licensing and support fees.

Open source brings an alternative which addresses many of the key problems of both custom and commercial enterprise software. It begins by offering the user a freely available code base as a starting point. The user can try it for free to see if it meets his needs. There is no risk of upfront licensing fees for software that may not work. If no modifications are required, open source software can be implemented with the same rapid time-to-market as commercial packages.

If customizations are required, the user has a head start with an existing code base. Furthermore, he can leverage the expertise of both in-house and open source community developers. An open source project brings with it the domain knowledge and business requirements of many contributing organizations, significantly reducing the specification risk typical of custom software. Open source communities also offer user-developers collaborative help in developing and debugging of his software. The net result is better software in less time.

Longer term, open source offers the user the control of custom software and the external resources previously available only with commercial software. With the source code in hand, the user can decide on future support and upgrades. There is no one to “discontinue” the software for him. At the same time, because the software shares the common roots with open source, he can obtain support and upgrades from the open source community or purchase professional-quality support from a range of vendors in the community.

Thus, the risks of becoming “stranded” due to the loss of vendor support or key employees are significantly reduced with open source. Selection of ERP system Ease/Speed of Implementation There exist a sentiment that implementation takes too long. It is hard to state whether proprietary or open source ERP systems are faster and easier to implement. On one hand, open source solutions are, in general, believed to be less user-friendly. On the other hand, ERP vendors (or their partners) implement proprietary ERPs, so there is no clear need for them to make ERP systems easy to install.

However, it can be stated that if the ERP system is easier to implement then it would be possible for the ERP vendor to sell more licenses, since it can be assumed that there is a lack of implementing consultants. Moreover, ease and speed of implementation does not depend only on the graphical user interface and number of settings one needs to select from but mainly on the amount of required customizations. Further development does not depend only programmer’s speed of writing code but also on requirements collection, their analysis and correct understanding Price

Unless the company has the capabilities to implement an open source ERP system and program all the necessary customizations, open source ERP is not really for free. Consultants for open source ERP systems may charge significantly more than e. g. consultants for MS EPR systems, since there are rather only a few of them. On the other hand, an open source ERP system can be a perfect solution for a starting company, which has no established business processes – the company can adapt to the system, i. e. it does not require customization, so consultants need to be hired only to install the system.

Another advantage is that an open source ERP system can be adjusted directly to the intended business processes in case at least one of the employees has a good computer science background Vendor Support Though this criterion seems to be more important for proprietary ERP systems, since it is customers of proprietary ERP systems, who are locked in with the vendors but on the other hand, they have security that the support exists. In the open source world, this criterion can be interpreted as having a large enough community, which could support the organization implementing a particular open source ERP system.

Reliability Vendors providing proprietary ERP systems try to achieve as high reliability as possible but community using an open source ERP system might be able to find errors faster, since it is larger in numbers and each of them tries to make sense of code. While in proprietary ERP system vendor organization, it is always the same people looking into the code, so it is much harder for them to spot a mistake, especially in the code, which was written by them. Ease of Use It is unclear whether proprietary or open source ERP systems are easier to use.

On one hand, ERP system vendors try to achieve competitive advantage providing ERP systems that are easier to use. On the other hand, open source solutions are, in general, believed to be less user-friendly [51, 52]. But the community of users (with programming skills) is likely to improve the system to the level that is more-or-less acceptable for most of the users. Customization Proprietary ERP systems are often programmed in vendor-specific languages. Companies can be sure that vendors (or their partners) will customize and set up their ERP systems.

But it also means that they are locked to the vendor (or its partners). Since open source ERP systems are programmed in widely known programming languages, there is a greater pool of potential programmers, who can do it. Openness of code is not a domain of OSS ERPs anymore. E. g. MS Dynamics AX allows users to change a significant percentage of the code. Integration Customers are often searching for means of integration of their systems/data. Many proprietary ERP systems inherently allow for usage of data warehouses.

It is possible that there fewer proprietary than open source ERP systems, which allow for communication to other systems through API. On the other hand, this communication can be solved even by less standard means (through customization). Organizational Fit Existing ERP systems try to focus on business processes, however it can be suggested that they do not explicitly describe the business processes that are supported. Besides that, ERP systems are not easily adjustable to changes in business processes. Unfortunately, it seems that this is a problem of both open source and proprietary ERP systems.

Flexibility Flexibility is required because of rapidly changing environment, which is likely to lead to new business models, which need to be supported without disturbing the end-users and on-going business. This requires an ERP system to have a robust architecture, which would allow for these requirements. Many existing proprietary ERP systems arose from MRP systems through small iterations. So systems, which were created more recently and do not carry this burden, are more likely to be more flexible, which could be the case ith open source ERP systems. Training First, it can be said that the amount of training required depends on the ERP systems –how self-explanatory it is and how many functions it offers. Secondly, users of proprietary ERP systems are more-or-less dependent on the vendor or partner’s related to the specific ERP system. On the other hand, users of open source ERP systems may have a hard time to find a consultancy company offering training for a particular system. Latest Technologies

There is no reason why proprietary ERP systems should be better in using latest technology but it is mostly vendors of proprietary ERP systems, who claim that their competitive advance (over other (regardless whether open source or proprietary) ERP systems) is usage of latest technology. Proprietary vendors may promote them more but similar solutions may exist in the open source world. OpenERP is a full suite of business software, including the following modules: Accounting: Record your operations in a few clicks and manage all your financial activities in one place.

Application Builder:  The OpenERP application builder lets you customize every module of OpenERP directly from the web interface without any development required. CRM: Track leads and opportunities customized your sales cycle, controls statistics and forecasts and marketing campaign automation to improve your sales performance. Human Resources:  The module is for personnel information management, leave, time tracking, attendance‚ expenses, payroll, periodic evaluations and recruitment. Invoicing: Create and supervise your entire supplier and customer invoices.

Manufacturing: Plan and control your supply chain through different applications in the Manufacturing module. Marketing: Marketing campaigns can help you automate email and email sending, qualify leads and encourage customers to contact the right department. Point of Sale: The OpenERP touch screen point of sale allows you to manage your shop sales. It’s fully web-based so you don’t need to install or deploy any software. Project Management: Keep track and manage your projects using tasks for short term project execution or plan phases for long term planning.

Purchase: Create and track your purchase orders, manage your suppliers’ info, control your products reception process and check suppliers’ invoices. Warehouse Management: An inventory management system to easily manage complex needs: tracking stocks of suppliers/customers, full traceability, accounting links, and more. OpenERP supports multi-warehouse management based on hierarchical location structure. Because OpenERP is open source and backed by a large community, you can take advantage of more than 700 OpenERP modules on the OpenERP Apps website.

These applications extend functionality of the ERP software and provide more business apps for things like manufacturing, localization, project management and more. The other benefit to users is that you do not need to use all the business apps. You can choose only the modules that you need for your business from the suite (e. g. just CRM or CRM and invoicing). This keeps your OpenERP tidy and less overwhelming if you do not need all the business apps. You can add additional modules (at no cost) as you need them. Architecture

Compiere and ERP5 are two of the top notch open source ERP systems that are widely accepted and implemented. The architecture of an Open Source ERP can be explained using the structured architectural design of compere and a comparison with ERP5. ERP5 offers powerful ERP solution for small businesses. ERP5 was originally developed as apparel industry solution for an organization with more than 300 employees on 5 internationally distributed sites. The special requirements of the apparel industry are mass customization of products and hence the need for handling unstructured and multimedia data.

Mass customization means that many variants of a product are possible. The original modules are now generalized as business templates. It has the exact features that include customer relationship management (CRM), production management (MRP), supply chain management (SCM), product design management (PDM), accounting, human resources and e-commerce. For the small businesses, ERP5 has an Express edition which integrates ERP, CRM and KM funtionality. ERP5 uses the open source Python based ZOPE (Z Object Publishing Environment) application server and content management framework as its foundation.

The web based Zope Management Interface is used as IDE for developing ERP5 modules. The application server also supports multiple languages, provides a security model, object persistence, and remote object access trough HTTP, XML-RPC and SOAP. ERP5 uses, extends or provides 5 important Zope components: Page Templates implement the web user interface and presentation logic. Workflows are used for the development of various types of decision workflows ERP5Form49 is used for web form development.

XMLObjects add synchronization capabilities and autonomous activity (timed, pre- and postcondition triggers) to ERP5- Zope objects. The synchronization of distributed sites is carried out through XML export and import and also supports unreliable communication channels, which are allowed to fail. The duplication of reporting data to a relational database allows simple SQL querying. Compiere is uniquely designed to avoid the duplication of information and the need for synchronization. The design of Compiere allows customization of the application done easily.

Modules in compiere include CRM, Quote to Cash, Requisition-to-Pay, Partner Relations Management, Warehouse, Supply Chain Management, Performance Analysis, Double-entry Book-keeping, Work-flow-Management and Web Store. Compiere’s architecture uses a fat Java Client (Java Webstart). The accounting engine is on the application server (JBOSS J2EE container). Thin Web clients are used for web store and some CRM functionality. There is also a beta thin client serving all forms, but it needs further work to be equivalent to the fat client.

The used application server supports clustering. No cluster installation is documented. Emails can be sent and files can be attached to documents. Compiere has a built-in reporting engine. A Sourceforge side project provides Jasper Report77 integration. CSV export and import of data is provided by the commercially available migration tool. Other interfaces can be developed in Java using the briefly (Javadoc) documented APIs (application programming interfaces). The database abstraction layer is SQL-centric which was initially developed for Oracle.

Commercial and Open Source ERP Software Pricing: – Most open source software is freely distributed with no up-front licensing fees. Further savings come from ease of deployment, training and integration. Companies that implement open source ERP solutions often report a 50% savings over proprietary systems. With free systematic open source ERP training methodology like SOSE! Site you can own your software for no cost. Commercial ERP is an expensive package and suitable only for bigger corporations.

The prices do vary significantly but according to the size of the company and volume of business. In any cases they have been found to be extremely costly irrespective of the quantum in which they are purchased. These packages are not subject to flexibility and molding. Their usage modalities are rarely liberal and cause troubles when they are modified. Hence the deployments also turn out to be costly and inconvenient due to the procedures involved, in the future. Another major allegation against the package is that they consist of lot of hidden costs.

Flexibility: – When you compare commercial and open source ERP, commercial systems are not flexible in nature. They let business with no other choice but to change their way of business. However when it comes to open source ERP everything was decided by the code . Therefore companies can do the necessary modifications in code and without much support from the vendor. Another advantage of open source is that it does not interfere with the regular schedule of the company during the implementation stage. This is a major difference between commercial and open source ERP applications.

You should use business software for your needs, you should not change the way of your business to fit into software needs. Duration:- When you study commercial and open source ERP,The time allotted for implementing open source ERP is very less when compared with commercial ERP. The innumerable number of complexions in commercial ERP calls for longer time p. It consumes a lot of time not only during implementation but in every stage of ERP process due to the nature of work involved. With use of SITE ERP implementation methodology you can reduce time required for open source ERP to the minimum.

Dependence: – When it comes to the question of relying on the vendor the open source ERP owners enjoys a considerable edge than the commercial ERP. Since open source are license free users having full freedom for taking care of needs by themselves. The productivity is also high in open source ERP systems and the failure rates are very low. Results: – Success rate of open source ERP are considerably more compare to proprietary ERP software’s. Read open source ERP success stories for more details. Training: – Lots of training is required for using commercial ERP.

It calls for lots of investments in terms of time and money. If they don’t give the necessary impetus the results will be poor. Similarly validity of training sessions designed and handled exclusively by the ERP vendor is also debatable. On the other hand Open Source ERP does not require much training. The results are also bound to be effective because the user gets to learn through the process of self training. The company need not spend much on training and makes a minimal utilization of the resources. This is another way of reducing the level of dependence on the ERP vendor.

You can get free online ERP training with SOSE!. Security: – On comparing commercial and open source ERP applications, Commercial ERP systems are less secure. They are by and large prone to the traps and pitfalls of hackers. Even though open source ERP makes everything transparent and available in the public domain it bring into the notice of user whenever something goes wrong. Visibility: – Few end users change the underlying code of an open source application. But when the need arises, open source provides access to the code to make changes to suit each distributor’s unique business needs.

Open source customers enjoy a refreshing level of transparency from their vendors around activities such as bug reporting and fixing and road map planning. Longevity: – Virtually any ERP solution will work well when initially deployed, but time is the true test of every ERP solution and vendor. Unforeseen opportunities will likely drive changes to a business’ objectives and necessitate changes to its ERP solution. Independently, a vendor’s commitment to supporting a solution could change over time. An open source solution with a flexible foundation addresses today’s needs and safeguards the solution’s future.

Because the user has the source code, a solution can never be bought or merged out of existence, meaning the investment lasts as long as needed. Independent services for ERP implementation support is also available for free with open source ERP. | Conclusion: – Functionality is the top consideration when reviewing ERP solutions, but it should be closely linked with evaluating open source and proprietary options. The demonstrable benefits of open source products reach deep into a company’s infrastructure. You can evaluate and select business ERP software which give functionality you need.

The differences between commercial and open source ERP show the Edge enjoyed by open source ERP players. And independent free ERP trainer likes SOSE! Will help open source ERP to reach people. Open Source ERP Solution Pros * Negligible Investment and Maintenance Costs – Open source ERP solutions hold a big pro in the fact that there are no huge un-front licensing fees, pre-sales cost associated with them, thus, the initial cost of an Open Source ERP solution is usually far less than a comparable proprietary program. There’s minimal dependency on the ERP vendor in most cases.

In a study done by Meta Group, where it surveyed 63 companies – including small, medium and large enterprises in a range of industries – it was found that the average cost of implementation of ERP was $15 million, with the highest as $300 million and lowest as $400,000. Commercial ERP also has pre-sales cost associated with them. * Widely customizable – Open Source ERP solutions are highly customizable allowing for companies to mold them to meet specific business process requirements. It is possible because it comes with two versions of code; the compiled version and the un-compiled version.

There are a few reasons to do customizations, which are; functionality needed for core competencies, your front or back office systems require the customizations, you want more or less fields, or you have regulatory requirements that require the customization. So, if you need customizations, then by all means you must have them with a clear eye on the who’s who of the support of customizations and financials needed. But, commercial ERP does not provide an easy and inexpensive customization of the ERP software to fit the business model changes whatsoever. Flexibility – Open source ERP gives lots of freedom like free redistribution, freedom to access and modify the source code and freedom for the end user to use it for any purpose they wish to. GPL licensing of Open Source Software enables developer community to rapidly contribute to the software development and enhance features. * Total Cost of Ownership – TCO of Open Source ERP solution may be less given the option of virtually free operating systems (Linux)and databases (MySQL) and potentially lower maintenance fees. Independent Integrations – Open Source ERP solutions typically have a wide range of integration formats so that they are employable well with other software components. * Ease of Training – Open source ERP packages come with complete licenses, comprehensive documentation and user manuals, helping the users to learn and understand their usage. No special trainings or consultants may be hired. * Ease with implementation – The implementation can also be carried out separately without disturbing the regular operation of the business.

Also, with open source ERP, the customers can do any sort of experimentations even while in production without losing the base or 100% availability. * Shorter implementation timings -The open source ERP packages require considerably shorter implementation time, which is another big positive aspect whereas in case of commercial ERPs , even six months are considered to be short period for implementation * Reduced or no Dependency on ERP Vendor – As the open source ERP packages have proper documentation and user manuals, there is no or reduced dependency on ERP vendor to come and fix the issue.

A good programmer can handle the issue in considerably less time. * High Accuracy and Quality – The productivity and accuracy is high in the case of open source ERP systems. Also, the failure rates are often discovered to be on the lower side in comparison to commercial ERP packages. All open software has strong user community which is also very responsive and very knowledgeable. * Open source testing – The open source users in the process of development are able to thoroughly test and 99% of the bugs are reported and highly secure.

Except a very few, most of the commercial ERP systems are tested to a decent extent, but still are many security flaws, traps, pitfalls and loop holes, which can be easily harnessed by the hackers. * Handling security – With the ever evolving nature of technology, security has become a problem of the past. And, there are many open source security applications on the market today which can be easily used with open-source ERP, which include; Nessus, Snort, Nagios, SpamAssassin, ClamAV, Open SSL, OpenSSH, Nmap, Ossec HIDS, and Wireshark.

Open Source ERP Solution Cons * Risk of over-customization – Delivering customized codes could prove troublesome for some organizations just in case you get into over-done customization and you can’t get out of it. Too many customizations can be a definite issue. * Difficulty in finding implementation and support resources – Open Source ERP solutions also calls for the best and finest programmers of open source ERP solutions on the code. This may be difficult and may cause higher support costs at times. Compatibility Issues with Proprietary Packages – Some of the open source ERP packages are incompatible with the proprietary products of certain corporations like Microsoft, Oracle, or IBM etc (sometime due to variation in platform used for implementation). * Lack of Dedicated Support from a Specific Vendor – Despite all of the benefits of open source ERP packages, the fear of the failure of open source ERP package during crucial stages of a project is considerable driving forces for commercial ERPs where vendors provide dedicate support in lieu of big bucks on licensing costs. Unstructured approach to issue resolution – There are no proper defined product roadmaps and time line as most of the enhancements and bug fixes are done by freelancers and independent consulting companies and developers based on their requirements. * Devoid of feature- richness – Proprietary software are feature-lade and have more features that are not found in the case of open source ERP packages mostly and may be cited helpful by commercial ERP vendors as a tool of ease and productivity. Open Source ERP Success Story

Open source ERP has had its own share of successful implementations. There is no better argument for the use of an ERP solution than a testimonial by and organization which has used the system and reaped benefits from what the software has to offer. Let us take a look at a successful implementation that happened at a Danish pharmaceutical firm named Pharma Nord. The implementation was done by a firm by the name Compiere Company Overview Denmark-based Pharma Nord is one of Europe’s largest manufacturers of preventive dietary supplements and herbal remedies.

The 500-person company, founded in 1981, develops, manufactures and markets scientifically well-founded dietary supplements, herbal remedies and medical drugs with optimal bio-availability. Pharma Nord’s products are available in 50 countries throughout Europe, Asia and North America. Issue At Hand Due to market success with its initial line of dietary supplements, Pharma Nord was continually expanding its product line and markets served. Growth in the regulated pharmaceutical industry, however, requires precise inventory management to address business and regulatory complexity.

Pharma Nord’s ERP solution requirements extended well beyond the standard set of distribution and accounting functionality that performs at a global scale. They viewed the selection of an ERP solution as having a 15-20 year life. For a solution to succeed for more than 15 years, product licensing, ease of customization and confidence in the vendor were as important as out-of-the-box functionality The Solution Pharma Nord uses Compiere to manage its sales orders, invoicing, cash collections, purchasing and accounting for its sales subsidiaries and also to manage receipts and shipments in its warehouses.

Pharma Nord liked what they saw in the earliest versions of Compiere in 2001. Using knowledge gained at a Compiere training class, Jacob Pedersen, Compiere Project Manager, completed an initial Compiere deployment in early 2002 focused on a single subsidiary. “We did it on the basis that we would probably find things that need to change along the way. And we have. It’s been with us, it’s been upgraded and we’ve changed quite a few things. We’ve been able to migrate to new versions of Compiere all the way from 2002 and now we’re here at 2008. I find that quite impressive. Before selecting an ERP solution, Pharma Nord assessed a number of offerings, notably Compiere and Navision. Midway through the evaluation, Navision was acquired by Microsoft. A few months later, the Linux version of Navision was discontinued. These events were eyeopening for Pharma Nord’s information technology and executive teams. The result was an even stronger requirement for the kind of open source licensing offered by Compiere to ensure Pharma Nord’s long-term ERP success. Services from the Compiere Partner Network and Compiere helped Pharma Nord succeed.

For example, the 2001 version of Compiere lacked support for tracking lot/batch numbers and expiry dates—essential functionality for the pharmaceutical industry. Pharma Nord’s sponsorship accelerated the development of this general use functionality. “We wrote the specification of exactly what the software should be able to do and it was developed by the Compiere team. ” – Pedersen Results Seven years after initial deployment, Pharma Nord is still going strong with Compiere. Their database has grown over the years as they’ve added business partners, products and transactions.

Having transaction history available for analysis and reporting is a nice benefit from using a single product continuously over time. “What’s great about Compiere is that everything is stored at the most detailed level,” explained Pedersen. “So whenever you need to do reporting, you have a number of dimensions to work with. You can combine each product, different sizes, and different countries. All of those will be dimensions. Since you can report and group on these dimensions, you can get the answer you’re looking for by grouping and merging these data afterwards. With its sales and distribution operations productive with Compiere, Pedersen is looking toward the future: “Pharma Nord is also a manufacturing company. We manufacture all of our products ourselves. We know that Compiere is also working on manufacturing capabilities. ” The Bottom Line Several unbelievably productive, efficient and highly secure open source ERP packages are not yet well recognized in the market, most of the customers are still prepared to shell out big bucks on custom commercial ERP packages.

This might be due to the credibility that the big ERP producing organizations like SAP and Oracle. In times that are proving increasingly tough for organizations the world over; organizations are taking measures to tighten their operations and keeping stock of each and every penny that is spent; open source ERP packages provide a very robust and cost effective alternative for midsize companies who might not have a big budget allocated to cover their IT requirements. Even the large corporations can cut maintenance costs by making use of these brilliant packages.

However, lack of support from a particular vendor is something that the open source ERP packages badly lack, and compatibility issues with other custom third party apps are one of their biggest turn-offs. Open source ERP scores higher than commercial ERP on many aspects. Yet, commercial ERP still have major share in ERP markets. This is because open source products are quite new and people are a bit conservative about choosing ERP software, because if implemented ERP software does not work, then there is serious business trouble.

The first adopters of open source ERP were in Latin America, Europe, and Asian countries because of economic reasons. Now, open source ERP is gaining popularity even in US markets and one day, it will be able to challenge the domination of commercial ERP in ERP markets of USA Top Open Source ERP Applications to Look Out for The finance applications, especially the custom ERPs, can be extremely costly and burn big holes in the pockets of business owners, and as such the demand for open source apps in the field of finance has been increasing dramatically.

So, let us take a look at the top open source finance applications * Goodness of Open Source ERP Packages Not only do the open source finance packages come totally free of cost, but they are also not dependant on a particular platform. However, the proprietary programs work well on only specific platforms, as they’re designed only for specific needs. As such, even after paying a lot of money on licenses, the proprietary financial packages don’t allow you to work with all platforms and require additional licenses based upon the number of machines on which, the software is used.

On the contrary, the open source packages can be used on as many systems as needed, and they work well on all open source platforms like FreeBSD, UNIX, Linux, Solaris etc. * Open Source ERP Packages To cater to the needs of small business owners, countless open source finance packages were developed, such as Adempiere (an ERP Business Suite), GnuCash (a double-entry book-keeping system), ERP5 (a Zope/Python based ERP solution), and the likes of them.

Turning the focus towards other popular open source ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) packages, Compiere, an ERP solution that automates processes like accounting, managing sales orders, inventory, and supply chain is also quite popular, while packages like Grisbi, a single-entry and KMyMoney — a double-entry book-keeping program, have also gained significant levels of popularity. * FriFinans is yet another impressive open source finance application that offers facilities like taking orders, generating invoices, ordering products and doing a lot more.

It is still under final stages of development, and isn’t tested completely yet, but even at this stage it looks quite promising. * Java-Based Open Source Finance Apps jFin, JGnash (double-entry book-keeping), JQuantLib (Quantitative Finance API framework), and JStock (stock market software) are some of the popular Java-based open source finance packages that have become extremely popular these days. * Latest Developments

Looking at the latest developments, n21 eBusiness Suite, a web-based ERP/CRM package is quite a powerful open source finance package that has emerged in the market, while Mifos — Microfinance Institution management software, Openbravo, and OpenERP have also been recently developed and gained high popularity soon enough. TurboCASH is a popular double-entry book-keeping for Windows environment, while GnuCash is a treat for Linux/Unix/FreeBSD lovers.

HomeBank is an open source application for personal use, and Marketceterais an open source trading platform for those who’re interested in stock trading, but don’t want to spend any money on using paid tools. Note: All Linux financial tools are not necessarily free — there are some proprietary packages that require licenses, and don’t come under the GNU/GPL free distribution license, but majority of Linux/UNIX based finance packages are totally free for personal and commercial usage. GnuCash: The Ultimate Free Open Source Accounting Software Primarily coded in C, GnuCash is a free open source accounting software, and happens to be a part of the GNU Project. It runs on platforms such as OpenBSD, Solaris, UNIX, Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, and the likes of them. Looking at the features of GnuCash, you’ll discover that the package allows you to perform double-entry bookkeeping, maintenance of Stock/Mutual Fund Portfolios, Scheduled Transactions, and Mortgage and Loan Repayment Druid.

It also offers support to HBCI and Multi-Currency Transaction Handling. GnuCash also comes with Transaction-Import Matching Support, OFX, QIF Import facilities, Small Business Accounting Features and even Multi-User SQL Support, making it an extensive open source finance application. What’s more, GnuCash can also export data to TXF format and can be used in tandem with the tax preparation programs with great ease. You can virtually perform all kinds of finance related tasks with the help of GnuCash.

OUTLINE CONTENT| PAGES| introduction| 2| Question 1 (9 degrees of method)| 3-6| Question 2| 7-9| conclusion| 10| Appendix and reference| 11-13| Introduction Sushi King first opened in 1995, pioneering a new era of Japanese cuisine in Malaysia with our unique ‘Kaiten Sushi’ or ‘Revolving Sushi’ with quick service restaurant concept. Offering range of Japanese cuisine where everyone can enjoy it t really affordable price. With the nice environment that they have , they are really gaining quickly popularity to become the favorite among locals foreigners taste.

From a single outlet in Kuala Lumpur, we have grown to encompass over 70 (and counting) restaurants nationwide, distinguishing themselves as the largest sushi chain of restaurants in the country. The affordable price, efficiency of services from their restaurant had proved that they have the distinctive advantages, our specially equipped sushi-making machines and conveyor system showcasing quality sushi in a hygienic environment, as we offer quick and fresh food to suit today’s fast pace of life.

The unique experience of selecting from a variety of sushi dishes on the revolving conveyor belt at leisure has attracted a wide variety of customers from all walks of life, from Japanese tourists and expatriates to even those initially unfamiliar with Japanese cuisine. Today, we have expanded our expertise to include specialized catering services for a variety of events and functions. As they continue to grow, we set our sights on further regional and eventually international expansion. Come and indulge in the Sushi King experience today. Question 1

Based on your understanding of Services Management, please explain to the Regional General Manager of “Sushi King SDN BHD” the findings of your study on his company pertaining to the 9 methods (degrees) of classifying services 9 Methods (Degrees) Of Classifying Services Intangibility In Service Management, there are nine methods (degrees) of classifying services. This method helps the company to classifying the services according to the characteristics. The first degree of classifying services is degree of intangibility. In terms of degree of intangibility, all services can be placed on a continuum ranging from low to high intangibility.

For example, the higher the intangibility of Sushi King, the more difficulties customers experience when evaluating the offering. Intangibility can poses problems for the operating system since intangible things cannot be stored. Besides that, intangibility things are also difficult to standardize, making the quality much more dependent on the employee providing that particular service. Service also cannot be readily displayed or communicated. In Sushi King if the worker posses to high intangibility, it will be difficult for customer to experience on what they perceived for that services when evaluating the performance.

Customer Contact Required Customer contact required has one of the characteristics that is the fact that demand for the service is often instantaneous and cannot be stored and that a flaw in the service operating system will have an immediate, direct effect on the consumer. The interaction between the employee and the customer means that the service employees have to be both competent and communicative. Therefore it becomes even more important to select and train employees that fit these criteria in order to perform their jobs well as front office employee.

In sushi king, the interaction between employees and customer is very important as it will perform their ways of job very well in order for them to have both competent and communicative. Simultaneity This is not necessarily the same as the previous dimension. Production and consumption can occur simultaneously without the customer being present. Home banking and phone banking, for instance, allow the consumer to consume the service without face to face contact with the sushi king service provider. This is not necessary same as contact of customer required.

In order for sushi king to provide the best service to the customer, what they can do is they need to face to face with their customer in order to allow them consume the service, production and consumption still occur simultaneously. Besides that, with that customer can affect each other while employee might affect the outcomes. Heterogeneity Employee and customer are the source of heterogeneity. As a result, there will be more heterogeneity in high consumer contact organizations. . In order to perform really well, Sushi king need to standardizing the operating system might be away to reduce this homogeneity.

The implications are service delivery and customer satisfactions depend on employee and customer actions. For example, when employee serve customer in bad ways, it will affect the sushi king in names as it will gives bad pictures of sushi king. Perishability This dimension is of course closely related to the degree of intangibility and the degree of simultaneity. Means that the lower the goods component in the offering and the more consumption and production overlap, the higher the degree on perishability. As a consequence, these offerings cannot be stored.

Managing the operation system by means of capacity management thus becomes more complex. Capacity management itself will influence both the employees and the customers. For example, customers of Sushi King will experience shorter waiting times, while the employees will have to adapt to more flexibility. The implication of this dimension is it is difficult to synchronize supply and demand with services. Other than that, services cannot be returned or resold. Demand fluctuation over time Dimensions related of previous point, the more demand fluctuates the more capacity management becomes important.

The implication of this dimension is manager of Sushi King also faced with the challenge of continues fluctuation in demand, for instance. When the demand for the services is higher than the capacity management, the company effectively loses its chance to serve the customer. When the demand is less than the capacity, the company will loses revenue owing to unused resources. Since the capacity is a fixed component, the only viable option for the service manager is to find strategies that assist them to influence demand, strategies which can attract customers to voluntarily alter their demand.

Additionally, excess capacity or low demand will not only affect the company’s profit, but will also affect the quality of service that experienced by customers. Service customization Customization refers to the need and ability to alter the service in order to satisfy the individual customer’s particular preferences. In terms of degree of service customization, unlike goods which are mostly purchased ‘off the shelf’, services can be much more customized. This is especially true when there is a high degree of overlap between production and consumption.

For example, a meal at Sushi King, which is assembled from prepared items, is low in customization and served with little interaction occurring between the customer and the service providers. The implication of degree of customization is it will affect the ability to control the quality of the service being delivered and the perception of the service by the customer. Labor intensity Labor intensity can be defined as the ratio of labor cost to plant and equipment.

A firm whose product, or in this case of Sushi King service, it requires a high content of time and effort with comparatively little plant and equipment cost would be said to be labor intense. Customer interaction represents the degree to which the customer can intervene in the service process. Service direction: towards people or equipment Personal services like hotels and restaurants are more towards people while transportation are equipment. In sushi king they need to focus more in their service direction to people as it will be more important as people will give the perception towards their restaurants including their services.

Question 2 Prepare a short proposal to the Regional General Manager whether the “future Service Direction” of Sushi King SDN BHD should be towards people or equipment and how to achieve that. Service direction towards people or equipment is one of the classifying services that refer whether company wanted to focus towards people or equipment. Sushi king is restaurant, with that in what that I think, sushi king need to be more concern on people where they are actually providing foods and services to people.

For the future direction, sushi king need to be towards people because they are the one who consume what that sushi king had. In sushi king, they are required to prepare their worker with people oriented service in order to well perform in what that consumer wants and needs. Their worker also need to have different value and skills to really success fulfill customer needs. Sushi king future service directions is people so it related to customer relationship management (CRM). It is a widely model for managing a company’s interactions with the customers and services prospects.

It also involve using technology to organize, automate and synchronize business processes, principally services activities for instance, but also those for marketing, customer service and technical support. The overall goals of customer relationship management are to find, attract and win new customer, service and retain those the company already has and reduce the costs. Most of the companies nowadays are difficult of improving customer service in order to impact customer retention levels. Customer relationship management can be achieved through the raising customer satisfaction levels that require comprehensive systems approach.

There are several steps in building relationships of worker and customer. The first step is to setting a clear customer experience strategy. To establish a good strategy certain key practices are required. First one is staff at sushi king need to understand the overall organizations vision and mission, next, sushi king staff need to define customer organizations customer service direction as well as value and they need to ensure customer service is defined as a key responsibility for the business or department.

Second step is to selecting correct people in order for sushi king to be having just a good worker. When recruiting employees to provide customer service, the process often tends to concentrate more on functional expertise, technical competence and knowledge rather than interpersonal skills. However, lack of the right attitude can drastically impact client satisfaction levels. Research has in fact shown that attitude is the most important requirement like skills and functional expertise can be taught.

Therefore in selecting the right people, sushi king need to define the critical job requirements and develop scenario-based interviews/assessment centers to screen and select candidates. Sushi king needs to involve multiple team members in the hiring process and ensure evaluation is based on objective not based on subjective criteria. Third strategy is to developing, motivating and managing your people Even though you have hired the right people, there is still a need to orient them into the organization’s customer relationship culture and define key communication skills.

Therefore to build a customer relationship culture, it is important for sushi king to provide training in key areas required to deliver exceptional personal service as well as reinforce these skills using ongoing coaching and feedback. Sushi king also need to measure current performance levels and reward performance using a combination of monetary awards and non-monetary recognition. Other than that is establishing effective service delivery processes that provide the foundation for smoothing or inhibiting the material service element of the customer interaction.

Efficient service delivery systems appear transparent to the customer. The critical elements in ensuring a positive material customer experience are sushi king needs to mapping the service delivery processes and evaluating critical success points in the process. Sushi king also needs to defining service standards and objectives for these essential points and establishing service delivery procedures to optimize material service as well as sushi king can create service level agreements to smooth internal service delivery.

Next is building in continuous improvement, no matter how effective the service delivery processes, or well-trained the service deliverers, things go wrong. Products have faults. Customers get frustrated. Things slip through the cracks. The organizations that are built around managing the customer experience are able to resolve these issues effectively. In order for sushi king to recover effectively, it is necessary for sushi king to actively seek customer feedback and complaints as sushi king cannot improve if you don’t know what went wrong in the first place.

Sushi king also needs to train staff on how to handle customer complaints effectively using the correct mix of empathizing, apologizing and resolution as well as make sure that the real problem is solved, not just the symptoms. Sushi king also need to focus on proactive (prevention) as well as reactive (cure) problem solving. Lastly is ensuring managers are the key change-agents consultants, we observe that senior management often has the vision, intention and commitment to introduce a comprehensive customer relationship management system.

The make or break element is in involving middle management in the change process, and empowering them to be the key change-agents. To do this, it is important to sushi king to engage the management team early and often in the process and its involve management members in articulating the customer experience strategy. Sushi king also need to teach managers coaching skills so that they are able to articulate and reinforce the key personal service skills and use managers as facilitators when rolling out interpersonal skills training.

Rewarding managers on establishing, monitoring and updating service delivery processes as well as ensures managers are able to act as an example to their teams. As a conclusion, sushi king really need to build customer relationship in order to gives the best future service direction towards people. Conclusion For the current condition in sushi king, their service actually got little bit of lack in giving service to their customer. With a bit of improvement and innovation, I am sure that they really can come out with very good service quality that people may perceive. Reference http://www. sushi-king. com/

Strategic Value of Information Technology – CRM / Analytics Waze- Analytics Proposition 1. waze currently gathers the following data on its clients: GPS data – where users are and when, the application learns the users driving routes in order to give them the best personalized route to their destination. 2. We propose to add new data regarding user’s personal characteristics and consumer preferences. Once the system detects that the user has stopped in a spot of interest – shopping center, gas station etc. a short questionnaire will pop up.

This will include 2-4 questions regarding user characteristics and preferences relevant to specific place. In return to answering the questions user will receive points – user who gains a certain number of points will receive an e-coupon as an incentive to cooperate. For example – User stops at a specific shopping center and following questionnaire pops up: 1. Gender: Female / Male 2. Age group: 18-22 / 23-30 / 30-40 / 40-50 / over 50 3. What stores do you plan to shop at? A list of participating stores in the shopping center 4. A specific question regarding one of the stores chosen by user in Q3.

The final lists of questions will, of course, be devised by our marketing specialists. 3. Together with current user data regarding – time and place the additional demographic data and consumer preferences collected provide businesses with a unique set of valuable marketing information. Waze can collect the information and sell it to different businesses which will analyze it for their specific need. An example of how this data can be useful: “Paz” and their “Yellow” convenience stores might decide to purchase consumer data from waze.

Then they might find out that at a certain location between 2 to 4 PM a large amount of mothers of young children consistently stops at the competing “Delek” gas station across the street. Then “Paz” will decide to advertise via waze a diapers sale at “Yellow” at this location during these hours, thus attracting the mothers to fill their tanks at “Paz” and shop at “Yellow”. This way waze wins twice – first it gets paid for the data that they collect and then they get paid again for the focused advertising through their application.