Nortel changes CRM tack

NEWS Unveiled at the company's ebusiness executive summit in San Diego, the Return on Relationship concept includes a suite of applications that will facilitate end-to-end integration of a company's customer relations infrastructure. According to Joe Davis, vice president and general manager of Nortel's ebusiness solutions unit, B2B will account for 90 per cent of internet transactions by 2003, but many companies do not have the necessary CRM (Customer Relationship Management) requirements in place. He said: "You have to learn how to do CRM, it's not just about call centres. The new economy has to move to a customer economy. It's about seamless integration of the supply chain system to CRM. It's about building a conversation with the customer, not just selling the product," he said. He said that many firms still focused on return on investment by expanding customer numbers, despite proof that customer retention made better economic sense. "We still see clients spending $45 attracting customers who might only spend $35 on a transaction and never make a repeat purchase. A market value of a company is based on their customer relationships not on how many people purchase their most profitable product. That product may not be profitable in five years," he said. However, the move towards fully integrated CRM was not all plain sailing according to Andre Fournier, vice president of computer firm Amdahl. Amdahl recently replaced up to 100 legacy applications with an integrated solution from Nortel. Fournier said implementing the new technology was the easy part: "The major issue was management, not the technology. It required a major mentality change. "Change does not always seem revolutionary at the time but you have to be confident it will succeed," he said.