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Experience from Attempts to Implement an e-CRM System in an e-Commerce Micro Enterprise

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Digital Transformation (PLAIS EuroSymposium 2021)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ((LNBIP,volume 429))

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Abstract

The main goal of the study was to explore the process of e-CRM implementation in order to indicate the basic mistakes the e-commerce micro enterprise made, which led to the failure of the e-CRM system implementation. A literature review provides the background for presenting the results of own research performed for an e-commerce micro enterprise. The empirical research involved a case study with a direct unstructured interview with the company’s CEO and Digital manager. The research has shown that the investigated micro enterprise made its mistakes twice and took shortcuts, assuming that it was enough to install the software and start using it for the CRM system to function perfectly in the organization. A detailed pre-implementation analysis was not performed either. The implementation conditions and all its costs were not identified, which is indicated in the literature as one of the critical success factors in IT implementations in small business. Neither did the company foresee the technical problems of the demo version of the software and the hidden initial costs, which turned out to be extremely high. There was also a lack of good communication between the implementation company and the employees, which is considered one of the success factors of an IT project.

The main conclusion is that the company cannot learn from its own mistakes; neither does it understand what mistakes have been made. At the same time, it expects a wide functionality supporting, however, relatively complex customer service processes and the full intuitiveness of the system.

The study also provided detailed information about the desired features of e-CRM software for an e-commerce micro enterprise and the desired functionality.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Business Informatics and Controlling, UTP University of Science and Technology, Bydgoszcz, Poland

    Arkadiusz Januszewski & Kinga Krupcała

Authors
  1. Arkadiusz Januszewski
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  2. Kinga Krupcała
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Correspondence to Arkadiusz Januszewski .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Gdansk, Sopot, Poland

    Stanisław Wrycza

  2. University of Gdansk, Sopot, Poland

    Jacek Maślankowski

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Januszewski, A., Krupcała, K. (2021). Experience from Attempts to Implement an e-CRM System in an e-Commerce Micro Enterprise. In: Wrycza, S., Maślankowski, J. (eds) Digital Transformation. PLAIS EuroSymposium 2021. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 429. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85893-3_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85893-3_3

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