CRM, ERP Need To Pull Together

The integration of front office CRM (customer relationship management) and back office ERP (enterprise resource planning) will create a new business architecture for an enterprise, which places the customer at the center.

This was the consensus of representatives from both ERP and CRM software vendors at a panel discussion at the DCI's Customer Relationship Management Conference and Exposition, here today.

The integration of ERP and CRM creates a new business "universe" in an enterprise, where the most important aspect is serving the customer, said speakers.

"ERP is from Mars, CRM is from Venus," said Monica Nester, senior vice president, marketing & business development for Annuncio Software, a marketing automation software vendor from Mountain View, Calif.

However they must work together to properly serve the end users, she said, and facilitate the next step: Web-enabled applications.

"Vendors and partners must learn their customers (business) priorities and key processes," she said.

ERP vendors stressed their strong suit, which is supplying large amounts of information to end users with all-encompassing software offerings.

"We will be providing the backbone information that can only come from an integrated offering," said Eric Carrasquilla, product marketing manager for The Baan Company, of Santa Clara, Calif.

Carrasquilla agreed that Internet-enabled applications are the wave of the future for both CRM and ERP alike.

"Customers want to be the center of the universe, not only during working hours but twenty-four hours a day," he said.

Other ERP vendors questioned the return on investment of CRM applications as they stand today.

CRM wants to deliver higher revenues and more efficiency for a business, but this is "still largely unproved," said Cary Fulbright, director, product management for SAP, in Palo Alto, Calif.

"The ultimate goal for ERP and CRM applications is to retain customers with superior knowledge and data," said Fulbright.

Extensive CRM applications are planned by SAP, but haven't yet been delivered. The Baan Company has some front office CRM capabilities, which it obtained with its purchases of Aurum Software in 1997.

But that increased functionality came at a price, the company said.

"Integration (when we bought Aurum) was a nightmare in the beginning," said Carrasquilla. "But because people were saying and feeling that ERP was 'dead', it became the next logical area of growth for us."