ECRM Technical
Overview
An eCRM system must be designed to be accessible. It should provide broad
access to customers through a variety of touch points -- Web self-help,
e-mail, Web forms, chat, VoIP, fax, phone, wireless, and face-to-face
contact, and to users through a variety of client systems -- cell phones
and personal digital assistants (PDAs). The eCRM system needs to support
integration with customer interactions taking place in Web-based media,
such as e-mail and Web forms, with those from traditional channels, such
as telephone. Given that managing customer interactions is fundamental
to eCRM, the system must have facilities to maintain a complete, organized
history of a customer's contacts with a company, regardless of the communication
channel used.
Today's state-if-the-art eCRM solutions feature a three-tier architecture,
to provide easy scalability, offer a high degree of flexibility, and to
simplify maintenance. The three tiers are:
- Presentation tier, which includes interfaces for various types
of access methods and client users (e.g., remote, wireless, portal,
offline for users and administrators).
- Business logic tier consisting of core application logic, objects
and services.
- Data tier, composed of a full-function database management
system (e.g., Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle).
An open architecture is key to allow solutions to be extended and integrated
with external systems at the client, business logic, or database level.
The Figure shows an overview of an eCRM system architecture.
|
