In today's challenging economy and competitive business world, it takes a lot to satisfy your customer and much more to retain him and make him loyal. Loyalty is critical for success. Give your customers good reasons to stay or your competitors will give them good reasons to leave.Using the right CRM strategy and program will facilitate your employees to provide an outstanding customer experience, exceed their customers’ expectations and always keep your customers in the spotlight. CRM is not just a software package; CRM is a board level vision and strategy. CRM is a concept which includes a variety of core technologies. Real Estate Express... There is More in CRM to Discover

1. Issue 2
1 CEO Message
2 Are CRM Platforms
Real Estate Express®
Real Estate Express
(REE)®: THERE’S MORE IN CRM TO DISCOVER
8 Integration with
N-Process™: The
Process Builder
9 REE® Work Flow
10 Why Microsoft CRM?
10 CRM and Content
Management
11 The Value of Vertical
solutions CEO Message: How Loyal Are Your Customers?
11 Asset’s “Prefab”
Vertical CRM Solutions
In today’s challenging Using the right CRM strategy and program
12 Palm Hills Develop- economy and will facilitate your employees to provide an
ments testimonials competitive business outstanding customer experience, exceed their
world, it takes a lot to customers’ expectations and always keep your
13 Gartner Research: satisfy your customer customers in the spotlight.
Are CRM Platforms and much more to
Best for End-to-End
Customer Business retain him and make CRM is not just a software package; CRM is a
Processes? him loyal. board level vision and strategy. CRM is a concept
which includes a variety of core technologies.
Loyalty is critical
for success. Give your customers good reasons Each industry has its unique and complex needs.
to stay, or your competitors will give them Pre-Packaged, Line of business (LOB) applications
good reasons to leave. Customer retention and let you skip the lengthy development process.
loyalty drive profits. It’s far less expensive to But because most commercial platforms are by
cultivate your existing customer base and sell nature one-size-fits-all solutions, they almost
more services to them than it is to seek new never fit the way your company does business.
customers. Most surveys across industries show
that keeping one existing customer is five to What you need is a powerful, flexible and
seven times more profitable than attracting one extensible CRM solution upon which is a fully
new customer. integrated specialized Line of business (LOB)
application.
The Real Estate sector is one of these industries
that have been affected by the economy Loyalty will then drive customers back to you
downturn and the price cuts associated. again even if you don’t have the best product or
Moreover, in today’s competitive Real Estate service.
market, you can’t afford to let sales opportunities
slip through the cracks. And you can’t afford the That would definitely keep him loyal.
loss of a loyal customer.
Essam El Badry
CEO
Asset Technology Group
Featuring research from

2. 2
Real Estate Express® (REE)®:
Real Estate Express® (REE)® is a comprehensive Therefore, it is important to manage property
solution for Sales & Customer Relationship and units and help sales people track the history,
Management, built on Microsoft Dynamics CRM. It information and activities of the business
combines a set of powerful tools specifically tailored property that is managed. Moreover, REE®
for the Real Estate business to optimize performance manages all of the details of your Real Estate
and increase customer satisfaction. At the same property data like companies, regions, stages,
time, its flexibility and extensibility make it the right categories, banks and branches, which brings all
choice for organizations that seek productivity vital information directly to your repository at
and empowerment. your fingertips.
Sales Management Module: Customer & Account Management:
Sales module is the heart of the Real Estate REE® helps you manage and track complex
Solution; it provides insight into the sales relationships, using customizable workflow rules
pipeline, including the ability to track types of and selling methodologies to help ensure that
opportunities, close ratios, revenue forecasts and opportunities are tracked and closed consistently
other important sales information. This data is and efficiently. Moreover, REE® is an efficient
available at an individual and departmental level customer satisfaction monitoring tool that keeps
so that performance can be measured throughout you up-to-date with customers through availing
the organization. quick response to their requirements, complaints
and providing latest information of property and
Property & unit Management: unit prices. In addition, it is essential to provide
The Real Estate sector is a variable market, since your employees with an effective customer
land and construction prices are not fixed. This management system that responds to their
creates a challenge to track the changes that customers’ needs and keeps records of your
follow market fluctuations. Adding to that is customers’ history and activities to employ in
the nature of the frequently changing customer your sales cycle.
demands and requirements that create another
challenge to track all the customer modifications
and their effect over prices and delivery time.
Figure 1: Property & Unit Management
Source: Asset Gulf

3. 3
Figure 2: Reservation Management
Source: Asset Gulf
reservation Management: Contract details vary from project to another and
The Sales Process is one of the vital ingredients from unit to another inside the same enterprise.
in any successful business, and monitoring it to REE® fetches the appropriate contract template
ensure that it is on-track is one of the elements and fills the contract details based on customer
of success. Moreover, one of the Sales Process information and project/unit details.
components is the Reservation aspect.
REE® offers a comprehensive automated Payment and installments management:
reservation cycle solution that tracks and REE® helps in handling contract payments,
monitors unit reservation, payment details, discounts, payment types, and maintenance
and reservation cancellation. data. In addition, the system tracks installment
payments details like amount, check number,
Contract Management: bank, and date and allows for full flexibility for
Generally contracts are confidential documents modifying any individual installment details
for customers and for vendors too, especially as needed.
in the Real Estate sector, this is because all
important information needs to be captured REE® also allows the rescheduling of an
for legal references. REE® assists Contract installment.
specialists in having a complete view of
their customer’s history like reservation Marketing Management Module:
payments, remaining values, ways of payments, Plan marketing
installments and attaches any required contract campaign And now communication
amendments, contract cancellation. And this strategy based with customers is made
helps in monitoring the contracting process on budgets easy with the new REE®
until final transaction takes place and the deal and expenses, SMS Feature
is closed. Furthermore, one of the benefits promotion
of the solution is the powerful auditing and codes, target
tracking for customers’ history and activities, products, marketing collateral and more. Create
which also includes history of units’ price lists, and manage lists for specific campaigns or for
transaction history for reservation and contract future use by any campaign. Create lists using
stage for every customer. existing customer information or importing
contact information from various sources into a

4. 4
Figure 3: Contract Management
Source: Asset Gulf
Figure 4: Payment and Installments management
Source: Asset Gulf
single repository. View campaign performance Service scheduling and Management
reports; assess campaign success based on Module:
opportunities, cost versus payoff, and other Manage service appointments and resource
criteria; and analyze marketing results. allocation across your service sites and
locations with a single calendar view of service
professionals, tools, resources and facilities.

5. 5
Contact Center Support: mechanism. In addition, REE® offers automated
All employees are now able to have critical generation of correspondence with the customer,
customer information at their fingertips and like letters or faxes during different phases of
be able to assist customers through the proper the process.
communication channels and achieve a true 360
degree view of the customer and visibility across executive reports:
the entire organization for all roles. Executive reports are the full spectrum of sales
reports for analysis like unit availability, prices
unit & Pool Construction Status tracking: and areas, reservation and contracts reports,
One of the key benefits of REE® is the ability to cancellation reports and many more. These
track unit construction status day by day, view reports are important to maintain and use for
photos of each unit and update the photos as the filtering of data elements like stage, category,
unit construction progress and send unit status unit, date range, seller, etc… before running the
to customers by email; or send notification when reports to get the right and specific information.
certain progress is achieved. This is very helpful Also, REE® offers highly secured access rights
to monitor if the construction process is on based on roles to protect sensitive information.
course or delayed, and at the same time maintain
mutual communication with the customer of his Advanced Search
unit’s progress in the construction cycle. One of the great features in the Real Estate
solution is the ability to search and find
Customer requests Management: CRM data based on complex filter criteria. In
Customer requests are changeable throughout particular, the Advanced Find feature lets users
the sales process in the Real Estate business, create their own queries and then save those
therefore, it is noteworthy to manage these queries for later re-use.
requests through a system that tracks these
requests progress and detects any latency
associated with the escalations and reminders
Figure 5: Unit & Pool Construction Status tracking
Source: Asset Gulf

6. 6
Figure 6: Marketing dashboard
Source: Asset Gulf
Figure 7: Status Report Pie Chart
Source: Asset Gulf

7. 7
Figure 8: Sales Report
Source: Asset Gulf
Workflow and Business Process Automation
Asset Technology® has a long track record
Each organization has its own specific of implementing integrated systems such
and unique needs. In a customer-centric as Business Intelligence solutions, internet
organization, it’s even better to build your Portals and enterprise integration modules.
business automation workflows on top of a Additionally, Asset Technology’s own
CRM platform, not any other corporate software workflow platform, N-Process™, provides
platform. This new trend definitely urges the an excellent web-based tool for building
customers to revisit the way they should customizable business process automation
evaluate a CRM implementation arm. It is no solutions. Therefore, while implementing a
longer enough for CRM software consultants to complex CRM system, Asset Technology®
“know the system”. They should now be experts chooses to use all those features and
in Business Process Automation too! capabilities to enrich the solution offering.
Source: Asset Gulf
ree(r): Boost Your Business
Performance to the Peak

8. 8
Integration with N-Process™: The Process Builder
N-Process; a web-based, fully graphical Some of the notable features of N-Process™ include:
workflow builder (that uses Microsoft Work Flow
foundation) is now tightly integrated with MS • Design Forms with InfoPath and import into
CRM Dynamics. N-Process
N-Process allows users to build and modify • Drag and drop interface
complex business processes without adding a
single line of code, and possibly without any • Ready-made templates for most commonly
prior programming knowledge either. The tool is used workflow steps
web-based, so everything is centrally stored and
controlled on the server. It uses a very familiar • Ability to set properties for each workflow step
drag-and-drop design paradigm, thus significantly
shortening the learning curve. • Assigning a user to each step (integrated with
Active Directory)
With a library of pre-built common steps, users
can jump-start in building their own processes • Custom Variables (multiple fields grouped into
in no time. Building forms requires no additional one field)
training since N-Process uses the good Microsoft
Office old InfoPath form builder. • Support for Arrays
Although seldom needed, the builder provides a • Send-Email Activity
“source code tab” which allows advanced users to add
very specific actions and custom code components. • Event-Based automatic workflow Firing
And most importantly, N-Process provides the
• Scan & Attach document during the
capability to build and export full workflows.
processing of a WF
N-Process also includes comprehensive reporting
All in all, it was found that in practical situations,
and auditing modules, in addition to the ability to
using N-Process can save up to 70% of the time and
create custom reports.
TCO of the BPM system, due to its advanced features
which cater for easy form creation and integration,
graphical workflow building and the ability to
perform most tasks without the need for developers.
Source: Asset Gulf
Figure 9: WF Builder
Source: Asset Gulf

9. 9
REE® Work Flow
Using Asset Technology’s monster N-Process
builder, REE® Solution can automate internal
business processes by creating workflows to
carry out routine tasks that involve daily business
operations. These processes can be designed to
ensure that the right information gets to the right
people at the right time, and help participants Microsoft Dynamics CrM and SharePoint
keep track of the steps they have to take to
complete their work. Your managers can define, Integrating your CRM implementation with the
automate and enforce specific business rules, company’s internal and external portals adds endless
policies and procedures. benefits to the overall solution. Managers will be
able to view and analyze dashboards with a click
Workflow in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is of a button. Moreover, external access to your CRM
now based on Windows Workflow Foundation, features will be available to your customers online
the same workflow engine used by Microsoft through social computing technologies.
Office and Microsoft SharePoint. Workflow is also
accessed directly from within the CRM client, and Integrating Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 and the
rules can be addressed across applications. Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2007
will provide the user with a comprehensive CRM
Authorized users or administrators can create tool and several added powerful features such
their own Workflow by using the Workflow wizard as the Document Management capabilities that
without any development efforts, assigning the CRM lacks where users can view, open and
appropriate security roles; publishing rules to the connect to the Microsoft CRM live records and
community or to specific individuals or teams. documents from inside the SharePoint Portal.
Source: Asset Gulf
Figure 10: REE Architecture
Source: Asset Gulf

10. 10
Why Microsoft CRM?
After much experience with many other CRM • Outlook interface: “Microsoft Dynamics
platforms, Asset® Technology Group took the decision CRM for Microsoft Office Outlook” enables
to build its own vertical solutions on top of Microsoft access to the same data as the Microsoft CRM
Dynamics CRM platform. The reasons behind this 4.0 but through the Microsoft Office Outlook.
strategic shift can be summarized in several points: This smart convergence uses the familiarity
of Office Outlook to relieve the user from any
• Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): Microsoft inconvenience. In addition, the user can access
solutions always provide a rich set of widely- the data offline. This helps users who require
used development tools and languages, offline support while travelling or working
which facilitates the customization and without worrying about the synchronization
integration process, and lowers the cost of process which is handled by the system.
professional services.
• Business intelligence features: Microsoft is
• Comprehensive Platform: Microsoft’s offering new business intelligence (BI) features
platform provides a comprehensive set of for its Dynamics CRM. It leverages Microsoft’s
features that are adequate to cover almost existing (BI) tools in SQL Server and its Office
any business scenario. functionality for use in the CRM application. With
this tool set, you can always use the predictive
• Visual interface: The already-familiar interface analytical features to predict how likely a sales
and the unified visual terminology make it easier lead would close. It also offers new cross-sell
for both implementers and users to master the and up-sell potential, analyzing the potential for
tool in no time. Anyone who can use Microsoft a buyer to purchase other goods as well, based
Outlook can use Dynamics CRM. on its past purchase history. The (BI) made the
reporting easier and better visualization of data.
• integration: Microsoft CRM platform
seamlessly integrates with a complete suite Source: Asset Gulf
of other powerful Microsoft servers and tools
that are essential for any successful CRM
implementation. Examples include SharePoint
and Microsoft BI Analysis/reporting tools.
CRM and Content Management
Content is a pivotal element in many CRM Therefore, if you are thinking about integrating
systems. Content Management is a central pillar CRM implementations with Content Management
and main competency for Asset Technology®. solutions in the enterprise, Asset Technology®
Asset® has built an integration layer between will definitely be a top choice for you.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM and its own suite of
Source: Asset Gulf
products, such as the Jupiter ECM™, Jupiter
Document Management™ and N-Process™
workflow builder, which exceeds the value of any
other solution offered in the market.

11. 11
The Value of Vertical Solutions
The new wave of CRM implementation specialists
comprises an important part of the CRM The major competency Asset® is known
evolution in 2010. Throughout the past few for is its strong vertical focus. With strong
years, focus was on the technology and platform presence in the most challenging verticals
features, and consequently on the implementer’s in the local and regional markets, Asset®
capabilities and expertise with regard to the has proven to be a reliable vision partner to
specific platform in question. Today, customers over 200 organizations spanning multiple
are getting more mature and are evaluating an verticals such as Telco, government, banking,
implementation firm based on how well they financial, commercial, industrial and oil. Each
understand the customer’s own vertical. This of these sectors is internally represented
vertical specific knowledge can be the thin line within the company by a committee
that separates successful implementations from spanning the business and delivery forces.
disastrous ones. Thus, the company maintains strong focus on
each sector, and manages to build specific
Source: Asset Gulf vertical experience, which in turn reflects on
the value the company presents to its new
customers within those verticals.
Asset’s “Prefab” Vertical CRM Solutions
• It will help the customer build their own
The company’s vision is to build ready CRM
custom solution by providing a “model
offerings that are tailored for specific industry
implementation” that speaks the same
verticals. The combination of technologies
industry language as the customer
Asset® uses, and its long history of experience
in variant vertical industries, allows it to build
In addition to those benefits, such prebuilt
such ready-made “prefab” CRM solutions that the
vertical solutions are provided to the customer
customers can further modify on their own. This
along with adequate tools and training to modify
approach provides the customer with a multitude
their solution on their own, without having to
of benefits. Here are a few examples:
go back to the implementation firm or hiring
an outside consultant. This is achieved through
• Customers will leverage the industry vertical’s
the concept of “composites” and visual process
best practices and industry-specific needs that
builders, where users can modify their own
are already built into the vertical solution
business processes without having to write code
• Using prefabs will significantly shorten the or carry out software development tasks.
development and implementation lifecycle, Source: Asset Gulf
and therefore maximize ROI by minimizing
implementation and customization times
and efforts

12. 12
Palm Hills Developments testimonials
“Defining an
appropriate
language for the
marketing and sales
communications
was a key towards
attaining my
overall business
vision which is “the
customer bliss”.
Palm Hills Developments (PHD) is a leading real Customer satisfaction is not enough. We need to
estate company in the Egyptian market, primarily exceed their expectations and give them more
developing high-end, integrated residential real than they anticipate.
estate and resort projects.
With Asset Technology’s developed solution
Presently PHD posses one of the largest land “REE®” & “Microsoft Dynamics CRM” not
banks in the country and is rapidly growing into a only was I able to view a full spectrum of my
regional player. business through extensive reports and analysis,
but also helped in keeping in touch regularly
“Our evaluation to any solution provider is based with our customers, making a personal contact
on two important factors: deep knowledge of the with them and focusing on how to always act in
product offered and profound understanding of their best interest.
the industry that this solution serves.
This achieved the exact kind of successful long
We chose Asset Technology for its ability to term relationship we strive for when working with
fulfill both aspects. Asset Team has been able any of our customers.”
to provide us with the best-of-both worlds, the
extensive knowledge of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Yaseen Mansour
technology and broad experience in the Real President
Estate Business processes and flow, which has Palm Hills Development
added huge value to our business scheme.
I would have no hesitation in recommending
the solution combination of REE® and Microsoft
Dynamics CRM to other industry users.”
Hisham Salah
VP Technology
Palm Hills Development
Please visit www.assettechnology.com
to find out more
about our products and services.

13. 13
research from gartner
Are CRM Platforms Best for End-to-End Customer
Business Processes?
There is a growing need within enterprises to ANALYSiS
determine which system platform to choose An ERP suite is usually considered the main
for their end-to-end CrM processes. An technology platform for planning the use of back-
inappropriately chosen platform for end-to- office enterprise resources to meet customer
end customer business processes will require demand, and to report financial results to various
extensive and costly customizations. constituents. Additionally, ERP platforms are
viewed as supporting products, employees, orders
Key Findings
or financial-centric functions across
• End-to-end customer business processes may the enterprise.
vary by industry. In service-centric industries,
CRM, not ERP, is best-suited for the end-to- In contrast, CRM applications have been designed
end customer business process of onboarding. to focus on customer-centric needs spanning
For product-centric business processes, ERP is the enterprise, and they have better front-end
sometimes the better fit. acceptance. The major ERP vendors have evolved
from an ERP customer base to offering CRM and
• The focus of the process in an ERP system business intelligence functionality as part of their
is the financial, employee or product record, suites (for example, Oracle and SAP). The result
while the focus of the process in a CRM is that users need to reconsider where to design
system is the customer record. their customer-focused business processes. In
turn, application leaders must determine when
recommendations enterprises should use an ERP system as the
• Map end-to-end customer business processes platform for designing their end-to-end customer
exhaustively before considering any interactions versus using a CRM system, which
technology to help you support the design or could be an independent CRM system, a system
management of these processes. from a best-of-breed CRM provider or a CRM
system from their ERP vendor.
• Take a holistic look at the capabilities that a
business process management system (BPMS) In this research, we identify the pros and cons
offers for supporting customer end-to-end of using a CRM or ERP platform for managing
business processes, before using a BPMS for end-to-end customer business processes. Then,
process mapping. we present an approach that enterprises can use
for determining the suitability of a CRM or an ERP
• Consider CRM platforms for supporting the platform for their end-to-end customer processes.
design of end-to-end business processes that
are focused on the customer or a service. At first glance, many enterprises rule out the
viability of ERP suites as a place where end-
• Leverage your ERP platform for supporting to-end customer business processes can be
the design of your end-to-end business designed. This is because some enterprises
processes centered on product and product contend that only CRM platforms can support
life cycle management. customer processes. With most service-centric
processes, many of the process points are
• Use a custom business process management supported from within the CRM suite. This makes
(BPM)-enabled solution (for example, as part CRM a likely contender as the starting point
of a business process platform) for supporting for designing end-to-end customer business
your end-to-end business processes, if you processes, and for integrating processes to other
want to separate from a CRM or ERP components and platforms, as needed.
platform vendor. However, ERP systems offer relevant and
viable capabilities.

14. 14
Often, enterprises assume that because a core customer processes are linked to the processes of
ERP platform covers these multiple functional the business, and these processes are dominant
domains (financial, manufacturing, projects, in this product-centric scenario, and are closely
supply chain management and HR) within a coupled with customer interactions. This is distinct
business that it is the most likely setting to from service-centric scenarios — for example, in a
design broader customer end-to-end business banking environment, where customer interactions
processes focused on customer service and occur over many channels, and are decoupled from
support. For this reason, we look further at the core banking processes of the business.
pros and cons of using ERP or CRM platforms
as the foundation for managing end-to-end ERP also delivers cost advantages (and process
customer business processes. integrity) to an enterprise over a fragmented
business portfolio. ERP platforms help to
1.0 Pros and Cons of erP as the Platform synchronize information across end-to-end
for end-to-end Customer Business Processes processes, and decrease the costs of ensuring
Gartner has observed that with some enterprises using process integrity. For these reasons, enterprises
ERP systems, there is a strong preference to remain often want to use the ERP platform for their new
centralized on a core ERP for end-to-end business functional requirements to ensure reconciliation
processes, including for CRM functions. This is, in across all data sets and ERP modules.
some cases, related to the nature of the business.
At the same time, because an overly customized ERP
For some enterprises, competitive differentiation suite can be more expensive to upgrade (as not all
is primarily focused on products and price. Service customizations may be ported over by migration or
differentiation is often a secondary focus, such upgrade utilities), enterprises sometimes prefer to
as in the manufacturing industry. For example, in keep customizations at a minimum and leverage ERP
discrete manufacturing organizations, where most for their core functional coverage areas (financials,
of the customer interactions are with product design inventory, etc), rather than necessarily customize it
engineers or salespersons, there are limited channels for more specialized customer process support.
for customer interactions. In many such cases, the
business is product-centric in that all processes In Table 1, we explore the pros and cons of using
are focused on manufactured goods, or the order ERP as the platform for end-to-end customer
process for those goods. Here, the most important business processes (see Note 1).
Table 1. Pros and Cons of Using ERP Platforms
Pros Cons
Higher degree of interoperability with Depth and breadth of CRM functionality of a
existing ERP modules, and the potential of best-of-breed or dedicated CRM suite provides
greater out-of-the-box integration. more capabilities.
Enables enterprises to coordinate with non- Reporting and analytics could be more
CRM functions, and provides this analysis complicated, as ERP and its extensions are
in a different light. assumed to be transaction-oriented, with a data
model designed for transactional support, not
for customer-focused processes.
For product-centric scenarios, strong The high degree of integration in the ERP suite
coupling of customer interactions, with (focused primarily on financial records and
core business processes supported by ERP, products, not the customer record) may not
leading to customer process management provide the specific functionality needed for
more aligned with core business processes. supporting CRM processes. Achieving such
customized views could be quite costly.
Strong focus on product-based, end-to-end Requires more-expensive and extensive
business processes. customizations to support customer processes
across multiple instances of the ERP suite.
Source: Gartner (March 2009)

15. 15
Note 1
exception to erP Adoption
Often, with this ERP approach, it becomes challenging for the enterprise to focus on customer experiences
and interactions removed from a product-centric or order-centric perspective. Similarly, the CRM
functionality provided within the ERP suite may not offer the depth and breadth of functionality required
by the enterprise to engage in an effective CRM strategy. At times, reporting and analytics can be more
complicated under this approach, as well as ERP. Its extensions are assumed to be transaction-oriented. As
such, the data model is designed for transactional support, not for customer-focused processes. Although
a CRM data model may also need to address a similar challenge (deeper versus more broad business
intelligence capabilities), it is not necessarily focused on financial records as ERP is. Instead, it is designed
with customer-centricity in mind. For more-complex or more-sophisticated reporting needs, users of ERP
or CRM platforms need to consider a more comprehensive business intelligence strategy.
2.0 Pros and Cons of CrM as the vendors to support their customer service and sales
Platform for end-to-end Customer support needs. In some cases, this is because users
Business Processes want more depth and functionality to support their
Gartner has observed that many enterprises customer processes, which their ERP vendors do not
that select CRM platforms for their end-to-end deliver. In scenarios involving a multiple-instance
customer business processes tend to be more ERP, often one of the challenges for organizations
focused on providing differentiated services is how best to create a common, global customer,
for enriching customer experiences. They end-to-end business process. Here, the option of a
do not necessarily have a product-based or CRM platform is also attractive as a way to avoid
manufacturing-centric approach (focused on upgrades or consolidation of instances within
operations efficiency) to their processes, which the ERP platform to support customer processes
ERP is more capable of providing. globally. Under such scenarios, enterprises could
consider extending every instance of their ERP suites
In other cases, enterprises with core ERP platforms to support CRM functions, but they would need
opt for an independent CRM platform, best-of- heavy customizations to accomplish this.
breed provider, or a CRM platform from their ERP
Table 2. Pros and Cons of Using CRM Platforms
Pros Cons
More depth and functionality across sales, Lack of strong links to financial records or
marketing service in direct support of customer product records.
end-to-end business processes than ERP.
Greater ability to support customer value Requires further integration with other components
analyses. In scenarios involving multiple of the ERP suite for certain processes (for example,
ERP instances requiring a common, global HR, financials, supply chain management processes
end-to-end customer process, an ability to for physical good shipments).
support this need with lower costs.
Does not require an ERP suite to be overly Does not offer strong focus for product-based
customized to support customer-centric, end-to-end business processes.
end-to-end business processes.
Strong focus on customer end-to-end Process integrity across the enterprise process
business processes, to the extent of the is more limited, with functionality largely
CRM platform. focused only on the customer-specific view, not
on broader financial processes or transactions.
Source: Gartner (March 2009)

16. 16
In Table 2, we explore some pros and cons • BPM can also be an environment used to create
for selecting a CRM platform for end-to-end a composite application that would be a different
customer business processes. view of a process that spans multiple technology
architectures, of which CRM or ERP and other
3.0 How Does BPM Affect the Selection major suites could be integral parts.
Between CrM and erP Suites?
An option outside the ERP and CRM platforms • On a simpler level, BPM can be just a model
also exists. This involves a custom application used for documenting processes on paper.
developed in a BPM environment where an
enterprise does not necessarily want to be indebted A business process platform can leverage BPM,
to a specific ERP or CRM vendor, and where but this is not a requirement (see Note 2).
enterprises feel they know their business processes A business process platform does not require
best, and are not looking to introduce new data application developers to design end-to-end
models. Rather, they are looking to leverage customer business processes, as in a development
service-oriented architecture to design a business environment, because users can create a
process and, where needed, extract information composite (or use a composite that a vendor
from ERP, CRM and other systems needed to has created).
support transactional processes for the business.
One drawback of this approach is that with a
A BPM solution has many prolific uses: BPM, enterprises need the ability to design
their end-to-end customer business processes
• A BPM solution can be considered a themselves, because BPM is a development
development environment for business environment. Unlike CRM or ERP platforms, there
processes spanning the enterprise. (It is are few recommended process flows or industry-
considered a build option where anything is specific process templates for organizations to
theoretically possible from a build scenario.) leverage. In Table 3, we summarize the pros and
A BPM solution is unlike the buy options that cons of selecting a custom BPM for end-to-end
ERP and CRM platforms represent. customer business processes.
Note 2
Business Process Platform
This approach enables enterprises to manage composite end-to-end customer business processes,
which may be supported by a number of business applications in one common environment. Rule
engines can automate these processes, enabling a high degree of consistency. At the same time,
many organizations do not necessarily want to create their end-to-end business processes in just
one vendor’s application, because it creates a high degree of dependence on a particular vendor.
With a custom application designed in a BPM environment, the components for designing the end-
to-end process enable a higher degree of decoupling from any specific ERP or CRM vendor.
Table 3. Pros and Cons for Using a Custom BPM Platform
Pros Cons
A build environment, where end-to-end Enterprises need the ability to design end-to-end
business processes can be built in a customer business processes without the same degree
composite or custom way. of process templates needed for CRM and ERP.
Decoupling from a specific business Costs of achieving this could be high, because
application vendor’s CRM or ERP platform. it is a remodeling of the enterprise application
structure.
Provides more-agile business processes for
the business.
Source: Gartner (March 2009)

17. 17
4.0 Determining the Suitability of a CrM, Although ERP plays a vital role in the
erP or BPM Platform Through Customer organization, its involvement in a process such as
end-to-end Processes customer onboarding can sometimes be limited,
Most business applications aim for process depending on the industry involved. Sometimes,
consistency, which then creates conflicts with enterprises refer to their back-office applications
sales, marketing and customer service users. For as ERP, although their actual ERP platform is
some customer processes, such as onboarding, used mostly for administrative functions. The
there are often many organizational groups extent of ERP usage and how it is referred to does
mobilized and applications used to support the vary by industry in many cases.
introduction of a new customer. Underpinning
this is a high degree of organizational Nevertheless, customer onboarding is a good
fragmentation around ownership of the end- example of an end-to-end customer business
to-end customer process, such as customer process, because it provides a customer-focused
onboarding. Few organizations have implemented view of how a system selection decision can
customer end-to-end business processes across be carried out. To understand how to segment
the enterprise with an aligned organizational the phases of an end-to-end customer business
structure in place. process, such as customer onboarding, it is useful
to employ the customer buying life cycle (see
Table 4 and Note 3).
Table 4. Customer Buying Life Cycle
Customer Buying/Onboarding Process Overview
Need/want recognition Establishing need fulfillment. Creating an
opportunity for a sale to take place.
Information search Once customers establish a need or want,
they seek information about the products or
service. Customers are looking for contextually
relevant answers.
Evaluating product or service Customers compare available choices, service
and price configuration.
Purchase The purchase transaction process.
Postpurchase Following the purchase, the ongoing customer
service and support processes.
Source: Gartner (March 2009)
Note 3
Customer Buying Process Life Cycle
The customer buying process life cycle is attributed to Philip Kotler, co-author with Kevin Lane
Keller of “Marketing Management,” Prentice Hall. Gartner has extended this model to focus on the
postpurchase phase. Adam Sarner, a research director at Gartner, presented “Social Networking and
the Future of CRM” at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, in Orlando, Florida, during October 2008.

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The customer buying life cycle shows the based on a customer-focused view against the
different phases that an end-to-end customer customer buying life cycle phases. We use this
business process spans, and how the process approach to determine the suitability of selecting
can be organized for further analysis. In an ERP or CRM platform.
telecommunications, for example, when a
customer is onboarded, there are different In enrolling the customer as a new opportunity
process owners at different parts of the process during customer onboarding, many applications
and at different customer buying life cycle are involved. ERP is largely being used only to
phases. In Table 5, we present details of how track ongoing profit or loss contributions to the
the customer onboarding process and related financial ledger accounts for the telecom unit
subphases take place across distinct platforms (such as wireless, cable, land line or Internet/
Table 5. Example of Customer Onboarding Process in Telecom Scenario
Customer Buying Need/Want information Search evaluating Product Purchase Postpurchase
Life Cycle Phase recognition or Service
Customer Process Subphase Customer Identification, Acquisition Product and Service Customer Service
and Enrollment Enablement
Application Process Owner
ERP Platform Vice President, Campaign Customer self-service Dynamic products Procurement Profit/loss
Finance, Supply marketing tool to portal and pricing of goods or contributions of
Chain Management, identify customer Knowledge management configurator replenishment various telecom
Operations segments for tool used for best Interactive voice of products services for
offers practices on customer recognition ordered customers
CRM Platform Vice President,
Customer master interaction by contact system for Customer order Logistics support
Customer Service/
database with center agents providing e-configurator for provisioning of
Sales/Marketing
customer and Customer profile data informational to help services or products
prospects data setup in CRM system insight on customer select Customer service
different products packages application
and services E-commerce for ongoing
Contact center CRM application customer life cycle
agent desktop to support management
Content management
software to online orders CRM feedback
system for sales and
support customer Customer management system
product information
interaction self-service tool for surveys and
for dynamic satisfaction scoring
products and by customers
pricing
Real-time
decisioning tool
for determining
next best
decision to take
with customers.
Billing/ Vice President, Telecom service Ongoing telecom
Transaction Billing/ and billing service billing to
Applications Transaction profile creation customers
Services
Other Vice President, Network Network Network
Applications Technology/ diagnostic tool to provisioning management
Network confirm service tools to applications to
Operations availability commence ensure availability of
or enhance services
customer’s
services
Source: Gartner (March 2009)

19. 19
DSL). There are more activities in the CRM As a best practice for most service-centric
platform and other application groups, which customer business processes, enterprises should
suggest that they would be likely considerations consider starting the design point of their end-
on where to define the customer end-to-end to-end processes from their CRM platform, and
business processes. integrate to other components and platforms
as needed. This is because with service-centric
We recommend using this form of process analysis (as opposed to product-centric) processes, most
to select which platform type to build customer of the process points are in the CRM suite.
processes. This approach also is helpful in isolating Notwithstanding this, true end-to-end customer
the underlying applications supporting the BPM will require integration across all major
subprocesses of the end-to-end customer business suites and applications, irrespective of which
process. This enables enterprises to see how many suite the organization selects for the customer-
stages of a process are in specific application centric process functionality.
groups. In some cases, one subprocess may be
minimal in overall importance; but, in other The most effective way to determine where
cases, a subprocess could be critical to the overall organizations should design their end-to-end
end-to-end business process. To mitigate against business processes is to consider different scenarios
this, enterprises can use appropriate comparative for customer processes. By using the customer
weighting for each subprocess component to see buying life cycle to first frame an end-to-end
which application type is the best to use as a customer business process (for example, customer
platform for managing the end-to-end customer onboarding), enterprises can highlight the subphases
business process. Thus, enterprises can use the and then map which components of the process
number of stages, and where needed, and a are taking place in CRM, ERP and other system
potential weighting of the subprocesses platforms. Enterprises should undertake this type of
together as critical inputs for deciding which analysis to determine the suitability of CRM or ERP
platform will best serve the end-to-end customer platforms for their specific end-to-end customer
business process. business process needs.
Gartner RAS Core Research Note G00164834, Isher Kaila,
2 March 2009

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