CRM

CRM is defined as aligning business strategy, corporate culture and organization, customer information, and supporting information technology so that all customer interactions promote a mutually beneficial relationship between each customer and the enterprise. Primarily, customer relationship management is a business strategy, but it is a business strategy enabled by advances in technology. Widespread implementation of customer information, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, sales force automation, and integrated point-of-sale systems have made customer information readily available in large volumes. Reduced costs and higher levels of performance for database management platforms enable us to gain access to this customer information and gain new insights into our customers and their behavior through a variety of analysis methods. Advances in contact management technology and supporting infrastructure allow us to take advantage of this information in increasingly cost-effective and innovative ways. Perhaps most significant, the Internet provides a completely new way for an enterprise to interact with its customer-the electronic channel, or the e-channel. With consumers buying everything from groceries to automobiles on the Internet and businesses beginning to shift their purchasing activities to industry-oriented virtual market spaces, the characteristics of customer interaction are forever changed.

The difference between CRM and R/3 is R/3 is an integration of different application suits; it has its own architecture and way of functioning. Coming to CRM it is all about maintaining the relationship with a customer. It is supposed to enhance the profit of the company or organization since the ultimate goal of any company is profit. Therefore CRM is one step ahead for their goal achievements.
Whereas SAP R/3 is a 3 tier based on client or server based application. One layer is presentation layer i.e Client which interfaces with the end user. Second layer is application layer for all business-specific requirements i.e program, and third is database which contains all information and records about the system, including transactional and configuration data. SAP R/3 has been developed in its own language called ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming).

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. It is a strategy used to learn more about customers' needs and behaviors in order to develop stronger relationships with them. After all, good customer relationships are at the heart of business success. There are many technological components to CRM, but thinking about CRM in primarily technological terms is a mistake. The more useful way to think about CRM is as a process that will help bring together lots of pieces of information about customers, sales, marketing effectiveness, responsiveness and market trends.

Yes, it is possible to implement CRM with SAP 4.0B.

Business Process Management or BPM is the practice of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of any organization by automating the organization's business processes. BPM used to be also known as Business Process Reengineering (BPR). Many companies have business processes that are unique to its business model. Since these processes tend to evolve over time as the business reacts to market conditions, the BPM solution you choose must be easily adaptable to the new conditions and requirements and continue to be a perfect fit for the company. In order to use BPM effectively, organizations must stop focusing exclusively on data and data management, and adopt a process-oriented approach that makes no distinction between work done by a human and a computer. The idea of BPM is to bring processes, people and information together. Dynamic infrastructure requires separation of flows, business rules and services. Identifying the business processes is relatively easy. Breaking down the barriers between business areas, and finding owners for the processes is difficult. BPM not only involves managing business processes within the enterprise but also involves real-time integration of the processes of a company with those of its suppliers, business partners, and customers. BPM involves looking at automation horizontally instead of vertically. Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) is essential for measurement of BPM impact. Examples of BPM tasks that an organization performs that should be automated include: 
         1. Expense Reports Travel Requests.
         2. Purchase Orders Human Resource Management.
         3. New Accounts and Credit Authorizations Sales Orders. 
         4. Project Management Software Change Management.
The following example illustrates the power of BPM: 
         When a B2B partner needs some inventory, he can log into the web site and order required inventory. An email will be generated and sent to the supervisor responsible for the partner's inventory. The supervisor can click on the link in the email, login to the site and approve the inventory. The partner will be notified of the allocation and the inventory will be shipped.

SAP has two Internet Sales Products such as Online Store (R/3) and Internet Sales (CRM). But both use ITS as the web interface.

The operational side of the CRM equation consists of "customer facing" applications integrated across the front, back, and mobile offices which includes sales automation (SA), enterprise marketing automation (EMA), customer service/support, and miscellaneous components.

The CRM software contains Sales Force Automation: Contact Management, Contact Management Software Stores, Tracks and Manages contacts, Leads of an enterprise. Lead Management in which enterprise Lead management software enables an organization to manage, track and forecast sales leads. Also helps understand and improve conversion rates. e-CRM or Web based CRM which is self service CRM, Self service CRM (e CRM) software enables web based customer interaction, automation of email, call logs, web site analytics, campaign management. Survey Management Software which automates an enterprise Electronic Survey, Polls, Questionnaires and enables understand customer preferences. Customer Service such as call center software, help desk software and coming to Partner Relationship Management which has contract management software, contract management software enables as enterprise to create, track and manage partnerships, contracts, agreements such as upside software, current software, di-carta, I many, and distribution management software.

The operational side of the CRM equation consists of "customer facing" applications integrated across the front, back, and mobile offices which includes sales automation (SA), enterprise marketing automation (EMA), customer service/support, and miscellaneous components.