CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

Transcription

1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background Why Customer Relationship Management is very important? Customer is the most important thing that keeps a company alive. Without customers, a company can t live because a company can t sell its products or services, in that case then there s no revenue for the company. That s why it is important for a company to acquire more new customers and also to prevent the current customers from leaving the company, and this can be achieved with developing a Customer Relationship Management inside the company. Companies that had developed CRM would have a better understanding about their customers and each customer s needs (Danardatu, 2003). This is important because customers also have tendency to not just doing transaction, but they also wanted for twoway relationship with companies and expected that companies would give them extra service without the sense of expensiveness (Danardatu, 2003). Companies also need to realize that retaining their current customer is much more important than acquiring new customers, because fact says that the cost for acquiring new customer could be 10 times of the cost for retaining the current customer (Danardatu, 2003). Due to this high costs, companies should be able to make their customers not just satisfied but also loyal to the company itself. With loyal customers, companies will gain benefit from repurchase of the product or service, increased in 1

2 2 volume or frequency of purchase and also word of mouth marketing from the loyal customer into other people. CRM is a very broad term; it is ranged from the management of the relationship with customers until the software and hardware that will help companies to conduct their CRM strategy. There s no guarantee for companies that had implement CRM tools will have a successful CRM implementation and they will be able to maintain the relationship with the customers perfectly. Companies should realize that a CRM tool is only a tool, which is to help the real CRM strategy. CRM implementation can only be successful if companies have a clear business strategy about how are they going to conduct their CRM strategy. If companies have a clear business strategy and able to stick with the strategy that they had developed, than the CRM tools can be used to conduct the CRM strategy more efficient and effectively. One of the examples of CRM tools is CRM software, which automates many of the needs of Marketing, Sales and Support users, such as Telephony, or the ability to conduct phone calls and manage call data, and tools to capture, share and manage automated alerts on lead data as it passes through the sales pipeline. CRM software helps organizations achieve their customer relations goals by measuring key performance indicators collected by the CRM software about customer lifecycle behavior. PT Sarana Putra Makmur (SPM) is a system integrator company in Indonesia and had been established since The customers of SPM has increased in number and each customer also wanted to be treated specially by the company, that s why SPM realize that their current CRM system could no longer handle the sophistication of the relationship.

3 3 The current CRM system at SPM can be assumed as manual system, all customer data and information are stored manually either in paper or computer files. This kind of system will cause inefficiency in finding customer details because it is time consuming. That s why SPM needs to develop an automatic computer based CRM system which uses database instead of files that will help them to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their client relationship management activity. The new system should use database so that data and information can be searched easily. The new system also need to be accessible from anywhere and anytime as long as the customers and employees of SPM are connected to the internet, so the system will be web-based. Based on the explanation mentioned above, the author decided to write down the field project into this thesis entitled Developing web-based Call Center application at PT. Sarana Putra Makmur 1.2 Scope The scope of the thesis will cover about the analysis of the CRM problem in PT. Sarana Putra Makmur and then create the solution which is used to solve the problem. After the solution is created, then the application will be developed, starting from the interface development and then application programming. After the application is completed, then the new application or system is finally ready to be implemented at PT. Sarana Putra Makmur.

4 4 The working workflow diagram is shown below: Figure 1.1 Diagram of Working Workflow The development of the application will use PHP Programming Language, because PHP is a scripting language for web based applications, means to run PHP it doesn t need any compilation, PHP is free, and PHP is server side script, means the workload to run PHP is on the server not on the client. The application will use MySQL as the database, because MySQL is free, easy to use, secure, fast, scalable, multi-platform and able to connect with various programming languages. As the basic web application language, I will use HTML. To design the web interface, I will use CSS and as the client-side scripting language, I will use JavaScript. To run the application I will use Apache as the web server, because Apache is free, more secure, and Apache is multi-platform.

5 5 Table 1.1 The Scope of the Thesis Thesis will discuss about: Thesis will not discuss about: The development of the web based The development of a full CRM customer service/support application application for SPM Development of a sales force How to handle the request and/or automation complaint management at SPM Managing the marketing and sales How to store customer data into activity of SPM database How to conduct effective and efficient How the new system can be connected marketing campaign to the internet Managing follow-ups to customers Customers can see how complaints Guaranteeing the security of the data and/or requests are handled by SPM stored inside the database employees Creating sales pipeline Customers can post requests and/or Managing Cross-Selling complaints online Adaptive application, which can Documents can be uploaded into the identify customers habit system, and then downloaded by customers The new system is developed based on the information gathered and problem analyzed from SPM. Additional features of the system will be developed if it is considered necessary. The CRM product is divided into 2 categories: Sales Force Automation (SFA) and Customer Service/Support (CSS). SFA tools are designed to help sales organizations manage their sales processes. CSS tools are designed to help facilitate customer interactions with a help desk, call center or a service and support representatives. The system developed can be considered as CSS tools, since it is a Call Center application.

6 6 The diagram of the CRM product developed is shown below: Figure 1.2 Diagram of CRM Product The segmentation of CRM can be divided into 3: Operational CRM, Analytical CRM, and Collaborative CRM. Operational CRM is the customer-facing application of CRM-sales force automation, enterprise marketing automation, and front-office suites that encompass all of this simultaneously. Analytical CRM includes data marts or data warehouses that apply algorithms to dissect the data and present it in a form that is useful to the user. Collaborative CRM is a communication channels such as the Web or , voice applications or snail mail that reaches across customer touch points. The diagram of the system developed based on the CRM segmentation is shown below: Figure 1.3 Diagram of the CRM Segmentation

7 7 1.3 Aims and Benefits The aim of this thesis is to solve the CRM problem at SPM, which is handling customer requests and complaints. This thesis will help people to understand the problem inside SPM, and then the new system solution. This thesis will introduce people in how to analyze a problem and then create a solution. The main aim of this thesis is the development of a web based Call Center application to help SPM in handling requests and complaints about their product or services. The system will be able to record customer data, store documents, customer can create requests or complaints online and then customers can see how their requests or complaints handled by the SPM engineers. Finally this thesis will show people how the problem in SPM is solved with the development of a Call Center application. The benefit for CRM is to help companies to develop a new product or services based on the complete information of what the customer want, the market dynamics and the competitors with (Danardatu, 2003). The benefits of CRM for SPM: o Keep the existing customers o To reduce operational risks because customer s data is stored in one single system, in a database o Faster respond to customers o Increased efficiency due to automation in process o The system is connected to the internet The benefit that I will get is that I will learn about CRM which is something new for me. I will also learn about recognizing the problem in a real world, and try to analyze and then solve it. I will also learn to use MySQL and PHP Programming Language,

8 8 because the new system will be develop using PHP Programming Language and MySQL as the database. The benefit for Bina Nusantara Universisty is to enrich the knowledge about CRM and its applications. It is also beneficial for Bina Nusantara students for further reference about CRM and how to build a CRM application. 1.4 Structures The general description of the coverage of each chapter: Chapter 1 Introduction In this chapter I will discuss about the background of the problem, the reasons or motivation for choosing the problem, problem identification and definition of technical terminologies involved in the problem. After that I will discuss about the scope of the problem by putting the problem into its context, and then define what are discussed and what aren t discussed in this thesis. Then this chapter will also discuss about the aims and benefits of the solution for the company, myself and for Bina Nusantara University. Chapter 2 Theoretical Foundation In this chapter I will covers the theoretical foundation and frameworks which will be used or support the design of solution for the problem. In this section, the relevant theories is summarized and presented comprehensively and in accordance with the problem.

9 9 Chapter 3 Problem Analysis In this chapter I will aim at understanding the problem, and also contains the specification of research objects. In chapter 3 I will discuss about the problems in the current system including the stakeholders for the current system and the business process of the current system. Then I will also discuss about the analysis of the proposed system, including the stakeholders of the proposed system, the business process of the proposed system, the requirement analysis of the proposed system and the features of the proposed system. Chapter 4 Solution and Design This chapter discusses the steps of designing the solution for the problem. It will contain the web architecture of the proposed system, the Class Diagram of the proposed system, GUI design of the proposed system, the Use Case Diagram of the proposed system, the State Chart Diagram of the proposed system and the Database tables of the proposed system. Chapter 5 Conclusion and Recommendation Chapter 5 will be divided into 2 subchapter, conclusion and recommendation. The conclusion section contains the general conclusion of the results of implementing the solution. It summarized the most important findings. The recommendation subchapter contains suggestion, recommendation and advices which should be taken in order to better solve the problem. These recommendations will be addressed to whoever gets benefits from the results of implementing the solution.