Introduction
Business involves a number of complicated processes and relationships, among which the issues of enterprise marketing and customer relations are crucial. In the modern era of technological development, the concepts of enterprise marketing automation and eCustomer relationship management (eCRM) acquire greater importance due to the attempts of the majority of business entities to adopt these concepts in their performance. Therefore, the topic of the proposed research is the development of enterprise marketing automation and eCRM in the modern business environment.
Background and Problem Statement
The background to the proposed research topic is rather interesting as after the age of paperwork involved in accounting and management, society nowadays tries the transition to the electronic and automated means of controlling the performance of its business entities. The Internet is viewed as the major tool of automated business activities, and online transactions are currently becoming a common phenomena for the business world. However, the problem with enterprise marketing automation and eCRM is in ensuring and increasing the efficiency of the online business operations. Therefore, the problem of this research is to study enterprise marketing automation and eCRM and finding out the potential ways to increase their efficiency in business.
Literature Review
The topic of the proposed research enjoys considerable attention from scholars and specialists. Scholars like Diorio (2001), Gentle (2002), and Jelassi (2005) consider the main issues of enterprise marketing automation and eCustomer relationship management in their works. In more detail, Diorio (2001) studies the advantages the online business operations have (pp. 16 – 19), considers the role of online marketplaces for business development (pp. 25 – 27), and inquires about the major tool of controlling the online business operations and assessing their effectiveness (pp. 112 – 115).
Dyche (2002) takes her time to define the eCustomer relationship management (eCRM) as “the infrastructure that enables the delineation of and increase in customer value” (p. 4), and considers the importance of eCRM for business entities, development of their market shares and customer bases. The topic of eCRM is further developed by Gentle (2002), who addresses the practical side of the CRM implementation in any particular firm. Among the areas of eCRM Gentle (2002) addresses are the purposes of launching eCRM projects (p. 36), assessing the companies’ needs and abilities to properly implement (pp. 49 – 51), developing specific and appropriate strategies, timeframes, and budgets for eCRM projects implementation (pp. 75 – 79).
The topic of enterprise marketing automation and eCRM automation is also considered by Goldenberg (2002), whose work might be considered a comprehensive account of eCRM as a business phenomenon. Goldenberg (2002) considers the essence of eCRM, gives working definitions of the phenomenon (pp. 5 – 13), presents detailed accounts on eCRM strategy development, technological and software applications compatible with eCRM (p. 45), and finally comes to the issues of eCRM automation and eCRM connection to E-commerce. Finally, Jelassi (2005) takes his time to analyze the main terms used in studying enterprise marketing automation and eCRM automation (pp. 8 – 9), consider the development of e-business as such, and exemplify his argument with specific case studies (pp. 41 – 42).
Research Actuality
Drawing from the above data, the actuality of the research proposed becomes evident as numerous scholars have touched upon the issues of enterprise marketing automation and eCRM in their works in general and in detail, but there is an evident lack of research works considering the ways in which enterprise marketing automation and eCRM efficiency can be monitored, controlled, and improved in case of necessity. Therefore, the proposed research will aim at filing in this gap in scholarly knowledge and providing more research directions for further work in the area of enterprise marketing automation and eCRM.
Research Questions and Objectives
To be successful, any scholarly research requires a proper structure and clearly stated research questions, research objectives, and methodological approach. The research questions of the proposed work will include the following points (these might be modified in the course of research work):
- What is the current rate of efficiency of the enterprise marketing automation and eCRM policies? (measured in accordance with the prior developed scale)
- How can the efficiency of enterprise marketing automation and eCRM policies be monitored and controlled?
- How can the efficiency of enterprise marketing automation and eCRM policies be improved in case of necessity?
The objectives of the proposed research will include answering the research question, analyzing the information retrieved in the course of research, and making respective conclusions and recommendations on handling enterprise marketing automation and eCRM policies.
Methodological Approach
The proposed research will implement the combination of the qualitative and quantitative research to allow equally successful dealing with numeric data and factual information with all its possible implications. More specifically, the research will adopt the questionnaire survey technique and the practice of documentation review for the comprehensive account on enterprise marketing automation and eCRM in the modern business.
Conclusions
Thus, the proposed research will aim at finding out the ways to monitor, control, and increase the effectiveness of enterprise marketing automation and eCRM. For this, the research will resort to reviewing the previous research on the topic, develop the proper structure involving research actuality, questions and objectives, and methodology.
Works Cited
Diorio, S. Beyond “e”: 12 ways technology is transforming sales and marketing strategy. McGraw-Hill Professional, 2001. Print.
Dyche, J., The CRM Handbook: a business guide to customer relationship management. Addison-Wesley, 2002. Print.
Gentle, M. The CRM Project Management Handbook. Kogan Page, 2002. Print.
Goldenberg, B. CRM Automation. Prentice Hall PTR, 2002. Print.
Jelassi, T., and Enders A. Strategies for e-Business: Concepts and Cases. Prentice Hall, 2005. Print.