University of Ottawa

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems

Assignment #3

Group #22
Last Name First Name Student Number

Diaz Paredes Daniela 300126507

Dowling Lilli 300105387

Guirguis George 300174455

Nielsen Amelia 300210087

Zagallai Shahd 300174444

Zhou May May 300147238

ADM 2372, Management Information Systems [P]

Dr. Alhassan Ohiomah

March 8, 2022
Question #1: What is a CRM?
Customer relationship management is a customer-focused and customer-driven
organizational strategy. Organizations evaluate customers requirements for products and services
to be able to provide high-quality services in return. It is important to highlight that CRM is not a
technology but it is a customer way of thinking and acting. Additionally, organizations have
shifted from conducting traditional business transactions to managing customer relationships. In
other words, organizations have recognized that the success of a business depends on managing
customer relationships.
To add on, the CRM process begins with marketing efforts, where the organization
solicits prospects from a target population to a potential customer. A certain amount of this target
population will become customers and then repeated customers. The organization has to segment
its repeated customers into low-value and high-value. The overall goal here is to maximize the
lifetime value of a customer. As well, over time all organizations lose a certain amount of
customers, a process called customer churn. The optimal result of the organization’s CRM is to
maximize the number of high-value customers and minimize customer churn.

Question #2: Why is CRM so important to any organization?

As the concept of CRM englobes a large section of how organizations treat their
customers it is important for them to use CRM to their advantage. The CRM is directed to
students and the three large categories of CRM are Marketing, Sales and Services. Within the
applicable range of these, here are some ways organizations can use the three above-mentioned
sections to their advantage. Let us take a university as our example. With marketing in mind, it is
important for the University to be publicly encouraging to the students and to market their
relationship with students. In times of victories in sports events, to University hosted galas, etc. it
is important for the university to market it. The publicity will attract many and the
encouragement from the University strengthens the relationship with the students as they feel the
support. Within the concept of sales, it is important for the university to ease the selling process.
Though the selling process involves signing documents and many other steps, it is important for
the organization (University) to make the least of a headache as possible and to make the steps
easy for the customer (students) to be involved in the process. Finally comes the Service aspect
which is, in this domain, the largest catalyzer to the relationship students have with the
university. The service aspect is imperative when coming to students because some students are
exchange students, some moved away from their family and it is important to make them feel
welcomed. A service for a new student would be a campus tour, a tour of the nearby common
areas such as the downtown area or the surrounding available social activities. It is important for
the University to personalize every student's experience or it will feel robotic and governmental.
Something as simple as a teacher getting to know everyone’s name can largely change the
experience a student can have as one outlook shows the student that the University cares about
them and another outlook shows the student that the University simply cares about the tuition
check.

Question #3: How can the University of Ottawa use operational CRM and analytical CRM
to strengthen its relationship with its students?
The University of Ottawa can use operational CRM and analytical CRM in many ways to
help strengthen their relationships with students. Operational CRM is a system used for the
organization to interact with customers directly with technologies and applications (email, FAQ,
Loyalty Programs, etc.) (Ohiomah, 2022b). Analytical CRM is a system that provides business
intelligence tools to analyze customer data (Ohiomah, 2022b). These CRM systems can be used
in many ways and it's important to use them to implement efficiency and effectiveness. These
systems can be overwhelming to customers or students if done incorrectly and it is important to
find the right amount for each system.
The university should use operational CRM to contact, inform and teach their students
because it is one of the most efficient and effective ways to do so. There are two different CRM
systems that the University of Ottawa can use to strengthen its relationship with its students
which are Customer-Touch CRM systems and Customer-Facing CRM systems. By using
Customer-Touch CRM systems, the university can inform its students about opportunities,
events, and important information. Those styles of communication can be through email, social
media, or even in the classroom. By using Customer-Touch CRM systems, it will help the
university remind their students on specific days and keep them in touch with the university. An
example of the University of Ottawa using this system is by emailing or using any other type of
communication to inform their students on what is going to happen with online and in-person
classes. Another CRM system is Customer-Facing CRM systems, the University of Ottawa can
use this system when consulting their students. When consulting students, having a file already
created with all the information needed is key and helps the consultant consult their student’s
information and help them through their problems. Having a file set up when consulting a
student will make the student feel more comfortable, important and feel like the university is
there to help them. By using these two CRM systems, it will strengthen the relationship between
the university and its students because it will keep them informed about important information. It
will also help with interacting with students to keep them interested in the university and their
studies.
The university should implement analytical CRM to strengthen its relationship with its
students because it can help their students go through the right path with their education. The
University of Ottawa can use analytical CRM to collect data on the students, for example, seeing
what courses should be offered in the summer so students can catch up with their studies. This
will help the university to cater to its students’ needs and help the students tremendously. The
second example of the University of Ottawa is to collect data on grades for every course and
compare the different professors’ sections. With all this collected data, it will help the university
implement and teach the professor to take a different approach with their students. The last
example of the University of Ottawa using analytical CRM is forming different groups of
students with the same grades, course load, classes, and degrees/faculty. By forming different
groups, the University of Ottawa can use Operational CRM to cater to those students by sending
them personalized emails, newsletters, and much other important information.

Question #4: Provide 3 reasons why having knowledge of the students is critical for the
University of Ottawa.
For the University of Ottawa, having knowledge of the students is critical for customer
relationship management (CRM) to improve their marketing, sales and services.
A. Reason 1: Acquiring new customers- For the University of Ottawa having knowledge of
the students is critical for soliciting prospective students, a step in the CRM process. For
example, if the university has knowledge about the most frequent high school’s that
current students come from, they can set up seminars and implement personal marketing
strategies at the high schools. Furthermore from personal experience, this happened at my
high school where the university held an information session to attract students to apply.
B. Reason 2: Retain existing customers- “The customer is king!” Having knowledge of the
students is also important to understand their needs and wants for the university
(Analytical CRM). Many students either will apply to the university but won’t accept a
letter of offer, transfer, or drop-out which would affect the maximization of profits for the
university. Since a typical dissatisfied customer tells 8-10 people, if the university had no
knowledge about the student's wants and needs, it would harm their reputation.
Furthermore, having knowledge of student needs would provide the university with
strategies to increase and keep their customers (students), such as incentives like
competitive scholarships, mental health and guidance services. For example, the
university faced backlash for the words and actions of a professor who read slurs in the
classroom, it is important for the university to understand how it affects students to create
an appropriate response.
C. Reason 3: Grow relationships with existing customers- For the university it is
important to grow relationships with their existing students by using knowledge. Using
information about their students allows them to develop customization for their
customers to feel unique. For example, for first year students, it is often a huge transition
from high school to university and many students feel overwhelmed. With this
knowledge, the university can implement services to aid the student’s and create a
memorable first year experience.
Question #5: What are the challenges in implementing CRM in the University?
● University-wide integration of the CRM system (especially if incorrectly done); initial
investment/cost of CRM system is high
○ Implementation of CRM systems can be an expensive and lengthy process, which
would pose a challenge, particularly if it is not carefully planned or an
inappropriate/not ideal solution is selected.
● Selecting the wrong/a system for the university’s needs
○ As will be explained in the following section, each CRM vendor and system
offers different options and selecting a system that is best suited for the
university’s needs/application is very important in ensuring the implementation
goes smoothly and is actually effective. Selecting the wrong system would be
very costly in terms of time and money, so it’s important to spend time
understanding the university’s specific requirements for the selection process.
Some things to consider are how user-friendly the system/technology is, how the
system interacts with existing technology within the university, will this system
expand and grow as the school develops, etc..
● Training all university employees/members of the university
○ Ensuring all employees understand and are on the same page of what CRM is and
what it’s implementation will add to the university’s everyday processes. This will
be time-consuming and there will likely be members of the university that don’t
understand the point of introducing it into the school. As previously established,
for the success of the CRM strategy to be fully realized, its critical that everyone
involved is well-versed in the system and how it’s used, and ensuring that
everyone adopts this strategy/technology (even those not initially in favor of it)
would be a time-consuming, costly, and even energy-depleting process.
● Protecting customer privacy/ensuring students and members of the university understand
which data is and isn’t going to be collected
○ Upon the implementation of CRM, a lot of data will be collected regarding the
members of the university and it’s important (and ethically/legally appropriate)
that everyone involved understands the circumstances under which their data will
be collected, and also that they can opt out of the system if they desire. The
“invasion of privacy” mindset towards data collection is not uncommon, so it may
also be a challenge approaching this topic in a way that explains the benefits
offered by CRM implementation without dismissing their concerns.
Question #6: Identify 2 major CRM vendors and discuss the similarities and differences
between their CRM offerings.
Two major CRM vendors are Oracle Siebel CRM and Salesforce CRM. To start,
according to Savaram (2021), Siebel was a vendor that was “prominent in the niche of selling
electronic business software.” Vatsa (2021) explained that Oracle Corporation bought Siebel and
thus, became Oracle Siebel CRM. And Vatsa further clarified that Oracle Siebel is “a complete
package of customer relationship management solutions,” (Vatsa, 2021). On the other hand,
Savaram (2021) described Salesforce as “a cloud computing and social enterprise
software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider.” Additionally, Hale (2022) argued that Salesforce “is
practically ubiquitous with customer relationship management systems.” And Hale further
reasoned that Salesforce “has led the industry for decades,” (Hale, 2022). Therefore, two major
CRM vendors are Oracle Siebel CRM and Salesforce CRM.
On the one hand, Oracle Siebel CRM and Salesforce CRM have several similarities. For
instance, they offer operational and analytical CRM and serve the same types of customers.
Additionally, they provide similar customer support and operating system compatibility.
First, these vendors provide operational CRM in sales, services, and marketing. For
example, Thompson (n.d.). reported that Salesforce has a “Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and
Marketing Cloud.” Similarly, Phaujdar (2021) pointed out that Oracle Siebel helps businesses
with “services, sales, and marketing.” These operational CRM likenesses are meaningful, as they
provide the basis of a CRM vendor's function. In other words, Ohiomah (2022b) communicated
that operational CRM “supports traditional TPS for day-to-day front office operations and
systems and deals directly with customers.” Ohiomah further explained that customer-facing
CRM systems are “used by an organization’s employees to interact directly with customers,”
(Ohiomah, 2022b). Moreover, there are three types of customer-facing operational CRM. First,
sales systems “manage all the steps in a sales transaction,” (Ohiomah, 2022b). Second,
marketing systems, “enable marketers to identify and target their best customers,” (Ohiomah,
2022b). Finally, service systems “automate service requests, complaints, product returns, and
requests for information,” (Ohiomah, 2022b). Specifically, Oracle Siebel’s service system
includes a call center, and Salesforce’s service system includes call scripting. Ohiomah (2022b)
stated that a call center is “used by customer service representatives (CSRs) to answer customer
inquiries and respond to problems through different touchpoints.” And Ohiomah continued to
explain that call scripting “accesses organizational databases and tracks similar issues and
automatically generates details to CSR who relays them to the customer,” (Ohiomah, 2022b).
Thus, these two vendors are similar, as they provide operational CRM in sales, marketing, and
services.
Likewise, both of these vendors offer analytical CRM. Ohiomah (2022b) explained that
analytical CRM “supports back-office operations and analysis and systems,” and “provides
business intelligence (BI) tools to analyze customer data.” For example, Vatsa (2021) highlighted
that Siebel CRM offers BI applications and argued that Oracle Siebel has “the best business
intelligence.” Comparably, Phaujdar (2021) explained that Salesforce has “Einstein Analytics,”
which “allows you to unlock Service Insights and Complicated Sales with Business
Intelligence.” Thus, these two vendors are similar, as they offer analytical CRM.
In addition, Oracle Siebel CRM and Salesforce CRM serve the same types of customers.
For instance, Savaram (2021) noted that these two CRM vendors serve “small businesses, large
enterprises, and medium businesses.” Thus, both of these vendors serve the same types of
customers.
Finally, Oracle Siebel CRM and Salesforce CRM offer similar customer support and
operating system/mobile compatibility. To illustrate, Savaram (2021) asserted that both of these
vendors provide “email, phone, training, and ticket customer support services.” Also, Agarwal
(2020) stated they are also compatible with “iOS, Windows, and Android.” Thus, Oracle Siebel
CRM and Salesforce CRM have similar support services and operating system compatibility.
Despite the similarities between Oracle Siebel CRM and Salesforce CRM, these two
vendors have their differences. For instance, they have different market positions, workflows,
features, and support other languages.
First, these two vendors have different market positions. For example, Thompson (n.d.).
noted that “Salesforce’s core CRM offering is exclusively cloud-based,” whereas Siebel is
“on-premise.” Ohiomah (2022a) explained that cloud computing is “computing resources
accessible through the internet.” And, on-premise is when “the organization uses its own IT
infrastructure,” (Ohiomah, 2022a). However, cloud-based systems usually have more benefits.
To illustrate, Thompson (n.d.). stressed benefits of a cloud-based system include “accessing data
remotely, integrating with web services, and product support.” Consequently, Oracle Siebel
eventually created Oracle On-Demand. Moreover, tCognition (2022) reported that “Oracle Siebel
On-Demand promises ultimate scalability within a cloud platform.” Yet, Vatsa (2021) argued that
“Siebel CRM needs to accommodate its position in the cloud market to achieve greater success,”
since Salesforce is only cloud-based, which is “one of the most positive contributions to
Salesforce.” Thus, traditionally, these two vendors have different market positions. However,
Oracle Siebel is likely headed in the same direction as Salesforce, as cloud-based systems
increase in demand.
Secondly, the workflows between these two vendors are different. For instance, Vatsa
(2021) reported that Siebel’s CRM “keeps on updating its software and makes sure that it is
enough to support its customers.” Salesforce’s workflow “is limited in that sense,” (Vatsa, 2021).
Furthermore, tCognition (2022) expressed that Siebel’s workflow is “not easy to use,” however,
their processes are the “most robust business process engine.” Conversely, Salesforce’s workflow
is “very easy to use,” but “not quite as robust as Siebel’s workflow tools,” (tCognition, 2022).
Thus, the workflows between these two vendors are different.
Thirdly, though these vendors offer similar features, Salesforce CRM has the most. For
instance, according to Savaram (2021), Oracle Siebels features include “sales, quote and order
capture, enterprise marketing suite, contact center and service, self-service and e-billing, sales
analytics, and partner/channel management.” Salesforces features include “account/contact
management, opportunity management/score, lead management, sales data, file sync, file
sharing, sales forecasting, contact manager, real-time visibility, dashboards, and visual
workflow,” (Savaram, 2021). Thus, these two vendors are different, as Salesforce offers more
features than Oracle Siebel.
Finally, Salesforce CRM supports more languages than Oracle Siebel CRM. To illustrate,
Savaram (2021) emphasized that Oracle Siebel mainly supports the Chinese language. On the
other hand, Salesforce supports many languages such as “Chinese, French, Italian, Portuguese,
Spanish, Dutch, and Swedish,” (Savaram, 2021). Thus, these two vendors are different, as
Salesforce supports more languages than Oracle Siebel.
In conclusion, two major CRM vendors are Oracle Siebel CRM and Salesforce CRM.
These two vendors are similar, as they both offer operational and analytical CRM and serve the
same type of customers. And, they both provide comparable customer support services and
operating system compatibility. However, they differ as they have different market positions,
workflows, features, and support languages.

References

Agarwal, C. (2020, March 17). Siebel CRM vs Salesforce CRM Comparison Between. Techila.
Retrieved from https://techilaservices.com/blog/salesforce-vs-siebel/

Hale, J. (2022, January 28). Salesforce Review. Business News Daily. Retrieved from
https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7840-best-crm-software-small-business.html

Ohiomah, A. (2022a). Week 6 - Cloud Computing [PDF lecture slides]. Retrieved from
https://uottawa.brightspace.com/d2l/le/content/276898/viewContent/4366762/View

Ohiomah, A. (2022b). Week 7 - CRM [PDF lecture slides]. Retrieved from

https://uottawa.brightspace.com/d2l/le/content/276898/viewContent/4387028/View

Phaujdar, A. (2021, September 6). Salesforce CRM: 11 Critical Features and Benefits. Hevo.
Retrieved from https://hevodata.com/learn/salesforce-crm/

Savaram, R. (2021, October 19). Salesforce VS Siebel CRM’S. Mind Majix. Retrieved from
https://mindmajix.com/salesforce-vs-siebel

tCognition. (2022, January 8). Comparing Oracle Siebel CRM VS Salesforce. Retrieved from
https://tcognition.com/comparing-oracle-siebel-crm-vs-salesforce/
 Thompson, C. (n.d.). CRM comparison: Salesforce vs. Oracle CX Cloud and Siebel. Mason
Frank. Retrieved from
https://www.masonfrank.com/insights/crm-comparison-salesforce-vs-oracle

Vatsa, P. (2021, September 7). What is Siebel CRM - A Complete Beginners Tutorial. Mind
Majix. Retrieved from https://mindmajix.com/what-is-siebel-crm

Personal Ethics Statement Concerning Telfer School Assignments

Group Assignment:
By signing this Statement, I am attesting to the fact that I have reviewed not only my own work,
but the work of my colleagues, in its entirety.

I attest to the fact that my own work in this project meets all of the rules of quotation and
referencing in use at the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa, as well as
adheres to the fraud policies as outlined in the Academic Regulations in the University’s
Undergraduate Studies Calendar Academic Fraud Webpage.

To the best of my knowledge, I also believe that each of my group colleagues has also met the
rules of quotation and referencing aforementioned in this Statement.

I understand that if my group assignment is submitted without a signed copy of this Personal
Ethics Statement from each group member, it will be interpreted by the Telfer School that the
missing student(s) signature is confirmation of non-participation of the aforementioned
student(s) in the required work.

Lilli Dowling 2022-03-06

Signature Date

Dowling, Lilli 300105387

Last Name, First Name Student Number

Amelia Nielsen 2022-03-08

Signature Date

Amelia, Nielsen 300210087

Last Name, First Name Student Number

Daniela Diaz 2022-03-08

Signature Date

Daniela Diaz 300126507

M.Z 2022-03-08
Signature Date

Zhou, May May 300147238

Last Name, First Name Student Number

Shahd Zagallai 2022-03-08

Signature Date

Zagallai, Shahd 300147777

Last Name, First Name Student Number

George Guirguis 2022-03-08

Signature Date

George Guirguis 300174455

Last Name, First Name Student Number