Identifying and Ranking the Factors Affecting Electronic Customer Relationship Management Infrastructure in Small and Medium Enterprises

Identifying and Ranking the Factors Affecting Electronic Customer Relationship Management Infrastructure in Small and Medium Enterprises Majid Esmaeilpour 1 & Fateme Razavi Dashti 2 Abstract Information technology has dramatically changed business processes. Customer Relationship Management has emerged as the ultimate goal of customer retention s role and customer relationship management is the newest paradigm in the world of electronic customer relationship management. This study identifies factors affecting electronic customer relationship management systems infrastructure in small and medium enterprises and deals with their ranking. This study is applied regarding its purpose and descriptivenavigated with respect to data collection. Our population includes managers, business and IT experts in SMEs in Booshehr province. A simple random sampling method was used and the sample size is approximately 180 and research data was collected through a questionnaire. Validity of data was collected through content validity and its reliability was reviewed and approved by Cronbach's alpha. The collected data was analyzed using factor analysis (exploratory), and finally, 7 factors were identified and a suitable name was chosen for them based on the content of the questions. These factors include culture, management, technology, staffing, structure, processes and strategies. W. Kendall test was used to rank the factors. The results showed that the most and least important elements are culture and the strategy. 1 Corresponding author, Assistant Professor, Marketing Management, Persian Gulf University, Bushehr, Iran. majidesmailpour@yahoo.com 2 M.A, Executive Management, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bushehr, Iran. fatemeh_razavi_oriflame@yahoo.com 1

Keywords: customer relationship, customer relationship management, electronic customer relationship management, customer relationship management infrastructure, small and medium companies. 1. Introduction With the increasing pace of change in business in recent decades, as a result of globalization, changes in technology, increased innovation, reduced product life cycle and continuous fade of time and place intervals in IT space, organizations have encountered with markets which their unique feature is the intense competition. So organizations should be forward-looking for survival and persistence in the market, and continue their activity according to the market and up to date knowledge and harmonize themselves with continuous changes (Farzaneh, 2006). In the customer-orientation era, value of the customer is a strategic weapon in attracting and keeping customers. For this reason, many companies in order to eliminate the weakness associated customer relationship are planning on the process of implementing customer relationship management (CRM) systems (Khanlari, 2006). Customer relationship management contains technology management, processes, information resources and manpower in a company in order to build an environment which can create a comprehensive view of its customers. Customer relationship management is shift to the consumer economy in which customers are the main factor in companies. In this economy, CRM helps companies understand which customer has the value of acquiring, which of holding, which are strategic customer, which are profitable and which can be neglected (Abedin, 2006). Now time has changed a lot over the past two decades, one of the most important factors that brought these changes is constant changes in technology and the information technology revolution (Mendoza et al., 2007). Implementation and deployment of E-CRM systems also put many benefit in front of organizations. But according to various reports these projects are high risk, so that Gartner reported that the success rate of these systems is less than 30% and it is difficult to justify the costs of implementation. (Rigby et el., 2002). Due to the tendency of companies approach customer relationship management, it seems necessary to re-make mechanisms that can support the implementation of a successful E-CRM. Performing E-CRM projects are associated with high-risk. In fact, many of the failures are because of incorrect identifying and incorrect determination of importance of factors affecting their implementation (Bulusu & Paracha, 2001). Therefore, it is necessary to adopt appropriate measures before implementing these systems to implement them so as to obtain their benefits. In this way, it is of great importance to identify and determine the factors that help managers of small and medium companies in the successful implementation of this system. Keramati et al. (2009) have tried to identify and prioritize risk factors of implementing the project of customer relationship management in Iran and identified 25 risk factors and then categorized these risk factors, presented a 2

framework of Customer Relationship Management project. Motameni and Jafari (2009) examined the factors affecting Customer Relationship Management in the Hospitality industry of Iran using Gartner model. Seyed Javadein et al. (2007) introduced organizational strategic factors, culture, staff, technology, processes for organizations in Iran in order to implement customer relationship management. However, some researchers have been done on CRM within or out of the country but just a few researches were about E-CRM and also these researches have discussed the factors affecting infrastructures of E-CRM rarely. Thus the main issue in this study is what the factors affecting the infrastructure for electronic customer relationship management activities in SMEs are? First we review the research literature, and we discuss the methodology of the study and finally conclusions and recommendations are presented. 2. Literature Review Different definitions of CRM and E-CRM have been proposed by academic people and business man s (Zablah et al., 2004). While many of these definitions are similar, but yet there is no agreed upon appropriate definition of what it means. Disagreement over the meaning of customer relationship management lead to different actions (e.g., customer database, customer contact centers, sales force automation and e-commerce), entitled customer relationship management (Lemmon et al, 2002). Today, customer relationship management is a top priority of the investment. With the increasing importance of Internet in business life, many companies see and use it as an opportunity to reduce customer service costs and strengthen relationships with client. E-CRM has been accepted by many organizations so that with improve in level of customer satisfaction, their loyalty will be increased. 2.1. Electronic Customer Relationship Management Kotorov (2002) considers e-crm as an application of IT and communication technology to communicate quickly and effectively with customers. E-CRM will improve and increase communication between the company and customers by creating and enhancing customer relationships through new technology. E-CRM is a combination of hardware, software, applications and management liabilities. E-CRM software creates a profile and history of each contact of organization with their customers. E-CRM is the customer relationship management with use of technology. The technology particularly is defined as webbased technologies. Thus, E-CRM is a subcategory of communicative e-marketing which improve strength and abilities of its own using web-based technologies. E-CRM is divided into several types, which we refer to them below: 3

1 - Virtual Customer Relationship Management: Channels which companies communicate with their customers through them are increasing daily. One of the main reasons for the increasing popularity of electronic customer relationship management is that digital channels provide the chance to create a unique and positive experience for customers. Through virtual customer relationship management, companies can create convergence between physical and virtual channels. 2 - Mobile Customer Relationship Management: Another division of e-crm is mobile Customer Relationship Management. Mobile Customer Relationship Management is used as a medium of service delivery to customers to develop communication with clients, acquire and retain customers, support marketing processes, sales or service using wireless networks (mobile). In other words, mobile customer relationship management is a one way or interactive way of communication which does marketing activities, sales, and customer service via mobile phone and for creation and support of customer relationship. 2.2. Model Of Electronic Customer Relationship Management Readiness E-CRM readiness Model was presented by Jutla et al. (2001). This model provides a comprehensive framework for evaluating customer-orientation, so that businesses can use it to assess readiness for e-crm. Knowledge management, trust and technology are identified as enabling keys in e-crm. The model shows how the value of client is obtained from partners, community, and government and business beneficiaries. It seems that knowledge management is the most important among all these entities. Payne and Frow in 2006 during a seminar together with experienced professionals in the field of customer relationship management and information technology defined special inter-task processes for customer relationship management which includes: 1 Strategy development 2 Value creation 3- Merging the channel 4 - performance evaluation data management. According to this point of view these researchers presented a model for customer relations that have 2 main dimensions which contain 4 key elements of CRM performance and 5 inter-task processes of CRM that is shown in figure below (Seyed Javadein et al., 2007): 4

Project management, CRM Change management, CRM International SAMANM Journal of Marketing and Management Organization readiness to perform CRM Strategy development process Empowering processes Creating value Merging channels Management Involvement and commitment of staff Performance evaluation Figure 1: Model of Electronic Customer Relationship Management readiness 2.3. Small And Medium Enterprises Extensive texts related to small and medium enterprises (SME) have led to different definitions of this type of units based on age structure, demographic, cultural and development of the country. Comparative analysis of these types of businesses in different countries shows their structural similarities too. However, a same definition cannot be offered. Some important indicators commonly used in definition of SMEs include: number of employees, assets, total assets, sales volume and production capacity (Ghasemi and Elmi moqadam, 2009). Statistical Center of Iran, classifies companies according to number of employees which contains businesses with 1 to 9 workers, 10 to 49 workers, 50 to 99 workers, and more than 100 workers. According to statistical Center of Iran, only businesses with fewer than 50 employees are regarded as SMEs and other businesses are considered as large industrial businesses (Statistical Center of Iran, 2008). Meanwhile, according to the division of companies by the Statistical Center of Iran, number of SMEs in Bushehr province in the year 2013, have reported to be 706 companies. 2.4. Electronic Customer Relationship Management in SMEs In SMEs, customer relationship management can act as a central stimulant toward success with improving the inherent direction of marketing and focus on customers in these companies. SMEs tend to make use of existing technologies such as email and spreadsheet software. However, these companies perform a form of 5

E-CRM using these simple technologies which is not less important than the big companies. The practical benefits of CRM can be more in clever marketing, more communication in personalization, enhance customer service, improvement of customer loyalty, frugality in marketing, more selling and profitability. Strategic nature of e-crm in SMEs is composed of two key areas: customer relationship and customer information management. Lack of strategic coherence in E-CRM and SMEs, the potential challenges caused by less facing and inherent resource limitations are the major challenges of E-CRM in SMEs. Many researchers now have found the defect in the E-CRM, and consequently, a lack of trust as a major obstacle to this problem. However, when E-CRM is implemented properly, one of the main advantages is improved relations and personalization of exchanges. From this perspective, building trust through E-CRM and consequently creating loyalty is still possible in SMEs (Harygan et al, 2011). Ramsey et al (2004) express that if a SME wants to benefit from all the advantages of an e-business initiative, it must take strategic approaches towards the adoption and implementation of such initiatives. Other researchers agree that the cultural change by modernization of employee attitudes toward management relations for E-CRM is essential. 2.5. Experimental Background In the field of customer relationship management a lot of researches have been done in and out of the country but about E-CRM a few researches are available which we mention some of them here. Omidvaran (2006) in his research with library studies and subject literature review, have found six factors "knowledge management, personnel, master management, technology, personalization of service and integration in organization systems" as important factors in the implementation of customer relationship management. Farzaneh (2006) propounds seven factors of twenty-nine indicators in preparation for the implementation of customer relationship management, as local for enterprises in Iran. Seyed Javadein et al. (2007) have considered factors below for organizations in Iran in order to implement customer relationship management: customers, corporate strategy, culture, staff, technology, process. Keraamati et al. (2009) have identified and prioritized risk factors of implementing the project of customer relationship management. They have identified 25 factors risk factors based on research literature review and then have presented a framework for customer relationship management project risk factors by classification of these factors. Dehmardeh et al. (2010) have identified and ranked the influential factors in the implementation of customer relationship management system in a company engaged in Telecommunications Company in Sistan Balochestan province. In this study, cultural factors, technological, strategic and structural factors for implementing process of customer relationship management system were identified and ranked in Telecom Company in Sistan Baluchestan province. Salarzehy and Amiri (2011) have examined the factors affecting the implementation of customer relationship management in insurance companies. The results of the analysis indicated that four factors of focus on main and key customers, attention to knowledge management, organization of business 6

processes and benefiting from modern and up to date technology in the successful implementation of customer relationship management are effective in insurance companies. Ozgener and Iraz (2006) have examined and analyzed the factors affecting the implementation of customer relationship management in small and medium enterprises in tourism industry of Turkey. The results showed that the infrastructure factors of communication, distribution, business dynamics, customer relations and quality, innovation on are effective on implementing customer relationship management. Also, insufficient funding, poor communication, lack of top management commitment to CRM are the most important barriers to effective implementation of CRM in small and medium enterprises in tourism industry. In the research by Harker and Egan (2006) the most important success factors in the implementation of customer relationship management systems were discussed. According to this study the commitment of senior management and finance were identified as the most influential factors. Almotayry (2009) in his study was seeking to provide a framework for the implementation of customer relationship management. He identified success factors of implementation of customer relationship management in terms of three key factors of personnel, processes and technology. Sivaraks et al. (2010) have tried to investigate the outcomes of electronic communication management systems implementation with clients in the banking industry in Thailand. This research is divided into two parts. First part is based on a qualified research to define the E-CRM and the second part uses a quantified method to determine the relationship between CRM implementation and its outcomes from customers prospective. Outcomes were determined of the 13 factors by the subject literature review and by factor analysis were classified into three categories: information, convenience, and communication channels. Siriprasoetsin et al. (2011) have investigated and analyzed the factors affecting customer relationship management in academic libraries in Thailand. Their results showed that the most important factors affecting customer relationship management include: 1) Knowledge and understanding of managers and employees about customer relationship management, 2) organizational culture and communication 3) Client Management 4) Customer Relationship Management supporting technology 5) servicing channel. 7

Table 1: Review of research abstract in CRM and E-CRM Research abstract year Author row In his study noticed 10 factors in the successful implementation of Customer Relationship Management which can be listed as follows: measurable business goals, the match between business and IT activities, top management support, organizational structure appropriate to the objectives defined, minimization of the rate of change system, use of experienced consultants, dynamic learning and collaboration of consumers in designing solutions, investing in education and upgrading customers skills, using the scheduling in system implementation, measurement, monitoring and following-up activities. They presented a framework for implementing Customer Relationship Management in Iranian organizations. In this context, Iran Air (Homa) was the case study. He presented a Model in order to implement customer relationship management. In this conceptual model Obstacles in implementing the conceptual model of customer relationship management in the Saderat e Iran bank have been identified and their dimensions are determined. The barriers are divided to five categories of technical, managerial, cultural, economic and structural complexity. The relationship between customer satisfaction and customer relationship management applications in Parsian electronic trading company Corp and also the relationship between qualities of services provided by the organization have been evaluated. In his research was seeking to discuss the key factors in the success of customer relationship management strategy. In this study, 13 main factors and 55 indicators of these factors were identified and ranked under three main factors of personnel, processes and technology. The research seeks to design a model to evaluate the performance of customer relationship management. The results show that customer relationship management performance should be assessed through the four components of organizational performance, customer, process and infrastructure factors. Gartner model is used to investigate the factors affecting customer relationship management in hotel industry in Iran and found that among the factors of knowledge management, using technology, system integration in organization, personalization of services, personnel, and senior management, senior management agent has the highest average and is in the first place of importance. Considering the different concepts of customer relationship management, they have proposed a Process-oriented framework to examine the relationship 2001 2004 2005 2006 2007 2009 2009 2010 Maknov Haji zamanali Najkar Khalili shojaei et el. Mendoza et el. Kim Kim & Motameni and Jafari Keraamati et el. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 8

between resources of customer relationship management, customer relationship management capabilities and organizational performance. Results also show that companies that have improved their processing capabilities, show better organizational performance. 3. Research Methodology This research with respect to target is applicative and in terms of data collection methods is descriptivenavigated survey. Statistical population for this research includes whole top and medium range managers and SMEs experts in Bushehr province. The number of statistic samples is determined to have 175 samples according to total amount of infinite Kookran statistical sample formula with the error level of 7% and confidence error level of 95% and adaption ratio of 50 %. Simple random sampling was used for data collection. We mentioned above: sample size is 175. The data for this study was collected through a researcher designed questionnaire in visiting mode. The questionnaire consisted of 64 items on which Likert scale was used in. In the scope part of the research in order to edit and design the questionnaire, past works were studied and some semi-organized interviews were done with some of university professors and a large number of managers and experts of active SMEs in Bushehr province. In the study, 200 questionnaires were randomly distributed among the population and 194 questionnaires were collected. Through collected questionnaires, 14 questionnaires had some defects that were set aside for the exploratory factor analysis and finally a total number of 180 questionnaires were used for data analysis. To assess the validity of research tool firstly the lavsheh formal content validity method was used. The ratio of obtained content validity in this research was 75% and since the minimum amount of content validity for 15 evaluators or referees should be 49% (according to content of laavsheh table) so the content validity of this research is in an appropriate level. In order to evaluate the reliability of research questionnaire the chronbach alpha or inner stability method was used so that the data was transformed by SPSS20 software after collection of all questionnaires from the statistical population and the alpha chronbach coefficient calculated for whole questionnaires in this study was 94% which is a high amount and shows that the reliability of research tool is in an appropriate level. For the analysis of the survey data, exploratory factor analysis method and W. Kendall rank test was used. 4. Results The following tables show the demographic variables which are analyzed by collection of 180 questionnaires. 9

female male Less than 30 31-40 More than 40 diploma Associate Bachelors Higher than M.Sc. or B.Sc. Less than 5 years 5-10 years 10-15 years 15-20 years More than 20 years International SAMANM Journal of Marketing and Management Table 2: Frequency distribution of the answerers based on their personal and demographic features gender Age Education level Work experience frequency 15 165 37 123 20 12 26 127 15 19 36 54 40 31 percent 8 92 21 63 11 6 14 71 9 11 20 30 22 17 First, in order to identify the latent variables in a set of questions, in this study, exploratory factor analysis method and the weighted average method and the rotated factor matrix using statistical SPSS20 software was used. In order to know whether the research data are suitable for factor analysis or not, we used the two following tests: 1 - KMO test 2 - Bartlett test Table 3: KMO indicator and Bartlett's test indicator amounts KMO indicator Bartlett's indicator Probability amount 0.787 5948.066 0.000 As you can see KMO indicator has been equal to 0.787. So we can conclude that the factor analysis can be done for these items and reduce the research data to a number of infrastructural and elementary factors. Also the result of Bartlett test (5948.066) is meaningful in error level (0.01). The table 4 illustrates that the available variables can change to some other factors and these factors express and covers what percentage of our noticed variance and shows he validity of the questions. With calculation 10

of primary factors matrix it was specified that 7 factors have the essential value more than 1 which have covered 63.194 percent of total variance of variables. In other words totally based on Kizer criterion in this study 7 factors can be built from total number of 50 items and reduce them to these 7 factors with special conceptual spaces that researcher will do. Also the share for factors to specify the variance of 50 items is different and lowering. It means that the first factor has the highest share (27.005 percent with the eigenvalue of 13.503) and the seventh factor has the lowest share (3.052 percent with the eigenvalue of 1.526) in specification of variance for all 50 items. Table 4: variance indicator specified by every factor in rotated matrix of questionnaire factors components Initial Eigen values %variance Variance of Cumulative % 1 13.503 27.005 27.005 2 4.774 9.548 36.553 3 3.013 6.026 42.579 4 2.426 4.852 47.431 5 2.002 4.004 51.435 6 1.661 3.322 54.756 7 1.526 3.052 63.194 The table 5 shows each factor, related items and their factor bar. So in the exploratory analysis process of this research 7 factors can be determined. In order to name each factor the common features of the factor should be noticed. Table 5: the specified infrastructures (factors) related to CRM system Identified factor and variance process 27.005 Items Extra ction The E-CRM causes the improvement in activities in order to increase the additional value 0.456 The internet communications cause simplification in market knowledge rise 0.551 The internet communications with customer cause simplification in improvement of customer service 0.775 The internet communications cause increasing the sales and trading 0.557 11

Strategy 9.548 Senior Manageme nt 6.026 Technolog y 4.852 Upgrading the product quality and services of organization by internet communications are simpler Determination of Measurable goals and orienting trade processes and its efficiency in effective operating of this system There exists the possibility of reviewing and re-engineering processes in marketing and sales as well as service and support 0.579 0.520 0.671 This company is a leader in technology 0.668 Our company has some of the online business now 0.708 Company management seeks to expand the use of the individual from ITC 0.611 Management has a high commitment to strategies of internet business now and in the 0.627 future Communication with the client causes rise in company's overall profitability 0.581 Creating value for customers is considered as one of the important strategies of the organization Human resources management and customer relationship management strategy should be consistent Customer value, dictates the use of electronic communication technologies to the organization Insufficient funding and initial setup costs influence implementing electronic customer relationship management system Support and commitment of senior management, is one of requirements of customer relationship management implementation Commitment of senior management is one of requirements of customer relationship management implementation Use of experienced consultants, is one of factors affecting the company in the implementation of electronic customer relationship management Senior management must have sufficient expertise in the management of electronic communication with the customer Senior management should have sufficient experience in the management of electronic communication with the customer 0.599 0.461 0.564 0.668 0.522 0.471 0.642 0.667 0.661 Activities of company are done targeting on the client 0.564 The company makes every effort to keep customer s information secure 0.338 Authority should make maximum effort to do his promises to customers 0.556 Internet communication such as email has a key position for the organization 0.523 We actively use Internet communications to build relationships with our customers 0.833 Our overall relationship with customers has improved due to internet communication 0.783 12

Manpowe r 4.004 Structure 3.322 Culture 3.052 Organization uses required technology for providing comprehensive customer 0.733 database in order to keep the customer data Integration technology helps to implement successful customer relationship 0.677 management Our company uses sales automation in his sale section 0.426 Satisfaction of employees in the organization should be suitable to attract customers 0.542 Staff readiness to effective in better electronic customer relationship management implementing Organization experts are factors of the successful implementation of customer relationship management system in organization Attention to educational needs of staff in accordance with up to date technology is one of organizational goals in order to implement such on a customer relationship management Staff Involvement to adapt with new technology and new needs and at every time is necessary The performance evaluation is done to measure loyalty and customer satisfaction continuously Measuring, monitoring and controlling electronic customer relationship management systems must be done in organizations continuously 0.470 0.547 0.389 0.597 0.454 0.538 Customer communication by means of internet can enhance customer loyalty 0.506 Customer information has a central role in our decisions 0.523 The company has always been respected the standard approach to dealing with 0.477 customers Necessary infrastructure for the implementation of customer relationship management 0.781 is provided. Tasks and activities are done in working groups which indicate the decentralized nature of the company 0.654 Employees of the company follow a formal process in their own Internet business 0.520 Internal integration and horizontal communication between units are very effective in the company's relationships with customers and fully running system 0.573 The organization has a database for storing customer s information 0.619 Organization should have variability culture in terms of culture 0.436 Organization and employee s commitment are in direction of customer culture 0.818 Culture of collaboration within the organization must have a growing trend 0.613 13

Figure 2: naming the exploratory factors of study According to figure 2, 7 identified factors from following research are: culture, structure, staffing, technology, senior management, strategy and process. In order to rank identified factors W. Kendall rank test can be used. This test checks the mean values by comparing the rank s means among the variables. The test value varies from zero to one. Where values close to zero indicate less agreement and values close to one indicate a more consensus of respondents over the variables. The table below shows the test statistics. Since the test level equals to 0.000 and is smaller than 0.50, therefore, it can be said that to be a ranking of 7 factors are different from each other. Table 6: Test statistics Kendall's W N 180 Kendall's W 0.312 Chi-Square 337/049 df 6 Asymp. Sig. 0.000 14

As can be seen from Table below VII factor (culture) with an average rank of 34.5 has the highest priority and the second factor (strategy) with a grade average of 12.2 has the lowest priority of respondents. As mentioned previously W. Kendall rank test can be used in order to rank identified factors. This test checks out the mean values with comparison of rank averages among the variables. The test value varies from zero to one, so that values close to zero indicate less agreement and values close to one indicate a more consensus of respondents over to the variables. Table 7: Table of factors ranks Factor number Factor Average rank Rank 1 Process 3/41 6 2 Strategy 2/12 7 3 Senior management 5/19 2 4 Technology 4/98 3 5 Staffing 3/51 4 6 Structure 3/44 5 7 Culture 5/34 1 5. Conclusions and Recommendations Almost all research activities are crafted to achieve specific results and explain the Executive and applicative solutions. The study also aims to identify and rank E-CRM infrastructure activities in SMEs in Bushehr province. In this study, seven factors were identified that were influential on E-CRM system in SMEs in Bushehr province. After reviewing the contents of questions located on any of the factors, a name was chosen for it. In this section we compare the results of this study with other researcher s results and finally will give some recommends with respect to every factor. Process: the first factor has been identified by factor analysis in the field of E-CRM is the process. Approximately 27 % of the infrastructure changes are explained by agent process. In fact, the process perspective includes views which believe that the relationship between the buyer - seller develops over time 15

(for example, it is known and revolute with the life cycle). They define the CRM as a major level process which include different sub-processes such as creating customer knowledge and identification of potential customers that in this study we emphasize the activities that will cause continuous improvement in additional value and also on reviewing and re-engineering processes in marketing, sale and service and support sections. In the same studies, Srivastava et al. (1999), Abedin (2006), Farzaneh (2006), Parvatiyar and Sheth (2000) have noticed Customer relationship management as a process. Using products and services processes that will enhance and facilitate improvement in customer service through internet communications with the customers are some recommendations presented in this part. Strategy: The second factor that was identified in this study is the strategy. Approximately 9.5 % of the infrastructure changes are explained by this factor. Customer Relationship Management is defined as a business strategy that aims to achieve long-term competitive advantage through optimal distribution of customer value and to obtain the business value simultaneously. Kellen (2002), Knox et al. (2003) introduce Customer relationship management as a business strategy and Ryals (2003), Thompson (2002), Croteau and Li (2003) know Customer relationship management as a customer-orientation strategy which increases customers' satisfaction and loyalty through the customized service to meet each their needs. Parvatiyar and Sheth (2000), Brown and Galysz (2002); Lindgreen et al. (2006) argue that the main goal of customer relationship management is creating value and it is considered as one of the preconditions of a marketing strategy. Mendoza (2007) believes that there should be enough attention to create enough synergy between the various communication channels and how to integrate them. In this research, proposals including creating internet business strategies, focus on creating value for the customer as one of the key strategies of the organization, consistency of human resource management strategy and customer relationship management and attention to customer value as the basis for decisions in using electronic communication technology. Senior Management: The third identified factor in this study is the Senior Management that included 6/026 percentage of change in infrastructure. In projects which need redesigning work processes and creating major changes in organization such as CRM projects, senior manager s support has a key role in success of project so that many of CRM projects fail because of insufficient support from senior managers of organization. Similarly, many researchers such as Willson et al. (2002), Chalmta (2006) mentioned the failure due to insufficient support of managers. Based on the results of this study, support and commitment of senior management, using experienced consultants, allocating sufficient funds for initial start-up costs, improving the expertise and experience of senior management and ultimately senior management s effort to come off the promises to customers in implementation of Electronic customer relationship management are among factors affecting the success or failure of the implementation of this system. 16

Technology: Technology is the fourth factor identified which causes 4/852 percentage of the infrastructure changes. Although the advent of customer relationship management technology has led the relationship management to the early issues of marketing and academic researches, but few marketers today (if not any) that consider this concept only as a tool. In fact, one of general view in the subject literature is that "Customer relationship management is more than technology." In a similar study, Paynh and ferro (2006), Sin et al. (2005) emphasized this factor. Conducted research are prove that the infrastructure that can be effective on technology factor in SMEs include: strengthening internet communication continuously, enhancing required technology for providing comprehensive customer database in order to keep the customer information, use of automation in various sectors and attention to integration of technology in order to successful implementation of customer relationship management. Manpower: The fifth factor that was identified in this study is the operating personnel. Personnel are the bridge between the customer and the organization so that 4/004 percentage of the infrastructure changes is identified by this agent. Before the implementation of customer relationship management system it is necessary to answer all of the uncertainties, concerns and questions of the staff about customer relationship management and its importance and they have to be trained in this field. Cooper (2008), Lindgrin et al. (2006), Chalmta (2006), Loria and Obeng (2005), emphasized the human factor in the successful implementation of customer relationship management systems and Payne and Frow (2006) have mentioned on the necessity cooperation of the staff and management of human resources as one of the four subprocesses to implement customer relationship management in the organization. In this research in addition to staff satisfaction in organization as a basis for customer attraction, staff training and using skilled and expert man power in direct relations with customers and also employees collaboration in decisions related to CRM implementation are emphasized and periodic conferences and meetings between staff and managers in the field of electronic customer relationship management is recommended. Structure: The sixth factor which was identified in this study is the structure that 3/322 percentage of the infrastructure changes is identified by this agent. Appropriate organizational structure for the implementation of customer relationship management is a structure that facilitates customer-oriented collaborations between employees of different sectors by providing enter-functional communications. In other studies Yim (2004), Willson et al. (2002) noted the effectiveness of this agent in CRM process. Trying to orient the defined and standard procedures in relation with customers, setting necessary arrangements for preparing required infrastructures to implementation of CRM, using internet business related structures in a formal and integrated inter-organizational process and creating horizontal relations between units are recommendations for the Structure factor according to this study. 17

Culture: The seventh factor which was identified in this study is cultural that 3/052 percentage of the infrastructure changes is identified by this agent. From the first step of the project, the organizational culture requirements should to be provided. Customer-oriented culture is a prerequisite for obtaining qualified information of customer and the creation and distribution of knowledge made by customer and origin of ideas of change and improvement in organization's processes. Researchers such as Almoshry and Zayri (2000), Willson et al. (2002), Raman (2006), Ryalz and Knox (2001), King and Burgess (2008), Rigby et al. (2002) argue that the implementation of customer relationship management system is not possible without change in organizational product-based or process-based culture from culture to customer-oriented culture. Proposed infrastructure that can be effective on medium and small company s culture include strengthening flexibility and changeability culture in companies, organization and employee s commitment in direction of customerorientation culture and strengthening the culture collaboration and participation in the organization. References Abedin, Babak (2006). Design of E-Business website, content management framework of aviation organization of country in E-management with customer through investigating visitor s behaviors, MS Thesis, Tehran University. Almashari, M. and Zairi, M (2000). The Effective Application of SAP R/3: A Proposed Model of Best Practice, Logistics Information Management, Vol. 13, pp.156-156. Almotairi, M. (2009). A Framework for Successful CRM Implementation, European and Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems 2009, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Izmir. Brown, S.A. and Gulycz, M. (2002), Performance-driven CRM. In Lind green, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 35, No. 1, pp.57-71. Bulusu, A. and Paracha, B. (2001). Is Your Customer Relationship Management Effective, Customer Advisor Zone, 12(3), pp. 19-35. Chalmeta, R. (2006). Methodology for Customer Relationship Management, Journal of Systems and Software, Vol. 79, Issue 7, pp. 1015 1024. Croteau, A. M., and Li, P. (2003). Critical Success Factors of CRM Technological Initiatives, Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 21-34. Dahmardeh, Nazar,Shahraki, AR and Lakzayi, Mahmoud (2010). Identification and ranking the most influential factors in the implementation of customer relationship management (CRM), Journal of Industrial Management, Islamic Azad University of Sanandaj, Fifth Year, No. 11. Farzaneh, M. (2006). Presenting a model to measure readiness of organization for customer relationship management, master's thesis, University of Allameh Tabatabai, Iran. 18

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