MIS Chapter 8: Strengthening Business to Business Relationships via supply chain and Customer Relationship Management

Supply Chain

- a collection of companies and processes moving a product

- suppliers of raw materials and intermediate components

- final production

- delivery to the customer

upstream

- from sources of raw materials

downstream

- flow to customers

B2B Electronic Commerce

- 90% of all EC in the US

- involve proprietary information

- before the internet: Electronic Data Interchange

- data passes automatically

- exceptions are set aside and managed

- companies also use extranets

Benefits of Supply Chain

- having products when you need it

- Vendor-Managed Inventory: offloading responsibility to the supplier

Problems to avoid with Supply Chain

- excessive inventories

- inaccurate information

- inaccurate capacity plans

- missed productions schedules

Just-In-Time Production (JIT)

- pioneered by Toyota

- keeping inventory is costly

- parts and materials arrive when needed for optimization

- investment in storage space and inventory is minimized

- used extensively by computer manufacturers to avoid component absolescence

Vendor-Managed Inventory

- suppliers manage inventory based on stablished service levels

- suppliers monitor stock levels and sales data

- cost savings

- minimize stock-out situations

- accurate forecasts

- reduced errors

Bullwhip Effect

- cascading effect upstream hen order quantities increase significantly

- integrated business processes help mitigate the effect

- can be accomplished by using Supply Chain Management Software

Supply Chain Visibility

- track products as they move through the supply chain

Supply chain analytics

- KPI's for sourcing, planning, production, and distribution

Customer Relationship Management

- organizations work hard to attract and retain customers

- comparison shopping is typical, competitors are only a click away

Customer Relationship Management: Downstream Information Flow

- create and maintain customer loyalty

- monitor and analyze factors driving customer satisfaction

- attract potential customers

- portray a positive corporate image

Operational CRM: Sales Force Automation

- order processing and tracking

- account and contact management

- customer history; preferences

Operational CRM: Customer Service and Support

- Traditional "help desk" services

- multiple communication channels (blogs, facebook, email)

Operational CRM: Enterprise Marketing Management

- ensure right messages are sent to the right people through the right channels

- analyze effectiveness of campaigns

Analytical CRM

Customized Marketing

- up-selling, cross selling

- retaining and reactivating customers

Key technologies used to create a predictive model

- data mining

- decision support systems

Analysis of Customer Behavior and Perceptions

- past buying patterns

- when might they be ready to buy again?

- who looks like our customer but is not?