The Impact of Customer Relationship Management Systems in Small Business Enterprises

• Author: Martin Wynn,Phillip Turner,Gary Duckworth,Amitave Banik
• Date: 01 November 2016
• Published date: 01 November 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/jsc.2100

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Strategic Change 25: 659–674 (2016)

Published online in Wiley Online Library

(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/jsc.2100

Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Strategic Change: Briengs in Entrepreneurial Finance

Strategic Change

DOI: 10.1002/jsc.2100

The Impact of Customer Relationship Management

Systems in Small Business Enterprises1

Martin Wynn

University of Gloucestershire, UK

Phillip Turner

TPG DisableAids, Hereford, UK

Amitave Banik

University of Gloucestershire, UK

Gary Duckworth

Ministry of Defence, UK

The implementation of new customer systems can be a major challenge for small

businesses, but they can deliver signicant benets when accompanied by

appropriate staff upskilling and associated process improvements.

Electronic customer relationship management (e‐CRM) systems have emerged as

a major component of information systems strategy in the last decade, as compa-

nies have realized the importance of integrating all customer‐facing systems as an

element of their business strategy, to manage and build stronger customer relations

(Chaey, 2014). Initially, e‐CRM adoption was largely restricted to the bigger

organizations that had the necessary resources to identify the opportunities, dene

the requirements, and implement new processes and technologies that were often

part of a broader e‐business strategy. More recently, however, an increasing number

of mid‐sized businesses have embarked upon e‐CRM projects, attracted by the

possibilities of growth and innovation in their customer‐related activities and

processes (Zi Davies Research, 2012). However, smaller businesses have been

more reluctant to invest in these new systems, deterred by the risks associated with

new investment, process change, and possible disruption of business operations.

It is small business enterprises (SBEs), dened by the European Union as having

between 10 and 49 sta and less than 10m euro annual turnover (El‐Gohary et al.,

2010), that are the focus of this research. ere is currently a general dearth of

literature and detailed case examples of e‐CRM implementations in companies of

this size, and this article aims to help redress this imbalance.

1 JEL classication codes: L80, M15, M31, O33.

e‐CRM systems are now being

deployed to increase turnover and

protability in small companies as

well as larger enterprises.

There are a number of different

objectives and business models

that underpin the use of this

technology.

There are no shortcuts in

implementing these systems –

sound management principles and

a balanced approach to change

must be pursued to ensure

successful project outcomes.

660 Martin Wynn, Phillip Turner, Amitave Banik, and Gary Duckworth

Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Strategic Change

DOI: 10.1002/jsc

Davydov (2001, p. 92) notes that the technology

challenge of e‐CRM is to ‘integrate the whole set of enter-

prise wide applications into a single, integrated information

network.’ Until recently, this may have dissuaded SBEs

from undertaking such projects. However, with most

SBEs now using their own website for marketing, the step

up to a full e‐CRM system is less daunting. e e‐CRM

concept in fact pre‐dates the widespread adoption of the

Internet by companies and organizations. It was originally

seen as ‘an integrated sales, marketing and service strategy

that… depends on co‐ordinated enterprise‐wide actions’

(Kalakota and Robinson, 2001, p. 172), but ‘this activity

has taken on an increased importance in many organisations

with the increasing use of the internet’ (Chen, 2001, p.115).

is article examines three case studies of e‐CRM deploy-

ment in SBEs in the Internet age. e ensuing literature

review establishes the theoretical framework for the case

study analysis, and there then follows a brief discussion of

the case study research method used in this study. is

section also provides an outline of the UK Knowledge

Transfer Partnership (KTP) scheme, which provides

nancial support for innovation and change projects such

as those discussed in this article (Wynn and Jones, 2006).

e ndings and analysis sections then discuss and assess

the e‐CRM projects in the three case study companies,

and distill from these cases the key strategic and opera-

tional issues that can guide other similarly sized compa-

nies in maximizing the benets of e‐CRM deployment.

In two of the case studies – at EnergistUK and TPG

DisableAids – the e‐CRM projects are seen as relative

successes, but in the third case study the e‐CRM project

was a factor in the ultimate collapse of the company and

its move into administration. is third company is thus

discussed using an alias – CXSS Ltd – as is its e‐CRM

software – CharityDonor (Table 1).

Theoretical framework

Over the past decade, a number of concepts and models

have been developed and applied to companies and orga-

nizations in an attempt to assess the impacts of e‐CRM.

Holland and Naude (2004) argued that marketing should

be viewed as an information‐handling problem due to the

central role of information technology within the market-

ing process. Technological advances have enabled innova-

tive organizations to make product and service

developments that provide distinctive benets to their

customers, and there have been a number of guides pub-

lished in recent years that have tried to pinpoint the key

actions needed by companies to successfully implement

e‐CRM (Chari, 2012; Epicor, 2014). ese advances,

however, can prove illusory, especially to SBEs, who may

be put under cost and service‐level pressures by bigger

partners in their extended supply chain. Indeed, there are

a number of documented e‐CRM failures in the existing

literature (King and Burgess, 2008).

It is thus critical for SBEs to understand and execute

a strategy that allows them to build an e‐CRM capability

that delivers benets across their supply chain. is can

be viewed as the alignment of business processes with

customer service strategies and techniques to build and

develop customer loyalty (Rigby et al., 2006). e link

between business strategy, business model, and related

tactics underscores the importance of clearly identifying

Table 1. e three SBE case studies

Company Industry sector Staff no. e‐CRM solution

EnergistUK Ltd Environmental compliance systems 40 Microsoft CRM software package

TPG DisableAids Ltd Equipment for the elderly and disabled 48 Bespoke web portal

CXSS Ltd Outsourced charity fund‐raising 35 CharityDonor software package