Management of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Technological Attributes in Brazil: A B2B Relationship in the Software-Media Development Sector

Abstract

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) represents a technological application based on the philosophy of Relationship Marketing and it recommends the interaction with high value consumers. Relating CRM to new social technologies, CRM 2.0 or social CRM deals with the relationship between companies and customers using online platforms such as blogs, RSS, forums and social network sites, among other facilities. Through a comparative study based on qualitative indicators, this article draws a relationship between CRM theory and practice. In two high technology organizations it was identified that, although the indicators are appropriate to the business practices, their usage and understanding are oriented by the nature of businesses and by the company characteristics. Empirical results show that technology structure, data collection and analysis tools and interactive sales tools favor CRM. In this paper, four variables are treated theoretically and empirically: Information Technology; Information tools, where the Database and the Storage of Debugged Data are included; Data Mining; and, the Sales Force Automation Facilities.