Implementing Knowledge-Enabled CRM Strategy in a Large Company 273Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without writtenBusiness Requirements
The biggest challenge to the KCRM projects was the determination of corporate-
wide business requirements and knowledge strategy. As there was lack of consensus on
defining business requirements and goals of every business unit, there was also lack of
consensus on defining data elements (e.g., good/bad customer) among business units
as every unit may have its own definition of data elements.
Stovepipe Structure
KM is a cross-divisional and cross-functional intricate endeavor. Plans to make
better use of knowledge, as a resource, must be built into the structure and culture of the
organization in the medium term. KCRM technology alone was not enough to create a
competitive advantage unless it has been coupled with the necessary organizational
transformation from silo-based to process-based structure, especially in the front-end
business operations, and capitalizing on the power of the intellectual assets of people
to improve the quality of delivered services while achieving better efficiency and
efficacy.
The organizational structure should reflect the needs for better management of
knowledge. A special business unit, or a cross-unit task force or team, needs also to be
established in order to foster the concept of KCRM in a formal and a holistic approach
through experimentation, documentation, sharing, and dissemination of knowledge
across different departments. This structural change will allow to improve performance
of initiative already in place and to promote new initiative that might be needed, such as
the establishment of an electronic library, yellow pages, knowledge maps, that can
facilitate the buying and selling of specific knowledge created by workers in different
departments within GTCOM.
Stovepipe or silo organizational structure hindered organizational learning among
business units, as the organization, as a whole, would not know what it does know. The
silo or stovepipe structure led to the fragmentation of activities among many depart-
ments, and resulted in the creation of physical and psychological walls separating
business functions, for example, information on mobile and fixed phones that appear to
be done independently on an ad hoc basis. The functional-based structure of GTCOM
was being overemphasized at the expense of knowledge sharing across departments
especially in customer services, which are cross-functional in nature.
The workflow of many processes of the CRM system was very slow and not smooth,
and streamlining work flow of fragmented processes is still unresolved in many areas.
Interdepartmental communication problems (cultural and technological) are still prevail-
ing under the multiple-silos structure.
Business Integration
Once they lacked a single information repository, companies have traditionally
spent large amounts of time and money writing integration programs to communicate
between disparate systems. A variety of technological options exist for the implemen-
tation of KCRM projects. The adopted hardware, software applications, and databases
for the KCRM initiative need to be compatible and operable with the existing legacy
systems. The chosen ICT infrastructure needs also to integrate well with other systems