Enterprise resource planning is a process through which companies, mostly manufacturing companies, integrate and manages the integral parts of their businesses. The system integrates the most important aspects of doing business such as planning, control, inventory, sales, marketing and human resources among others. This integration helps organizations to streamline their systems, processes and information across all managerial levels. Therefore, the main role of enterprise resources planning is to synchronize the most important elements at an organization with the purpose of increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of organizational functions.
On the other hand, a customer relationship management refers to all the practices, technologies and strategies that a company uses for customer management. Customer management involves analyzing customer interactions and handling of customer information. The main role of a CRM is to improve business relationship with the prospect customers, which in turn leads to customer satisfaction and finally customer retention thus improving sales growth.
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Both ERP and CRM play an important role in managing value chains. To start with, ERP combines the information from each department into one integrated system that has a common database. This manages value chains in that it facilitates timely customer service. On the other hand, CRM enhances the relationship between the organization and the customers which also facilitates fast and timely delivery of products and services to the customers.
The Coca Cola Company uses both ERP and CRM in the course of its operations. This has led to a tremendous increase in their sales, also enabling the company to establish its brand name over and across borders. ERP helps the management at Coca Cola to identify errors that otherwise may have acted as a drawback on its production cycle. This improves quality assurance because it ensures that Coca Cola products are consistently safe for its consumers. On the other hand, CRM improves customer service by ensuring they get the best products and services at all times.
However, there are challenges facing companies that implement these two technologies. One of these challenges is information overload because of integrated information system which combines information from all departments. Secondly, there is the risk of customer’s security because in most cases they use credit cards. Their deposit information remains in the system long enough to be compromised. For this reason, organizations need to establish a secure system that protects its information from hackers.
