Title: Unbundling and delivering CRM applications as e-services: a case study in customer segmentation

Authors: Pedro R. Falcone Sampaio, Yong He

Addresses: School of Informatics, University of Manchester, PO Box 88, Sackville Street, Manchester M60 1QD, UK. ' Technology Support Department, Guangdong Mobile Communications (China Mobile), No. 53A, Xibianmenneidajie, Xuanwuqu, Beijing 100053, China

Abstract: The development of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) capabilities by incrementally sourcing and combining |best of breed| services from different providers is a key lever for reducing the implementation risks and costs linked to CRM projects. Central to a |best of breed| and incremental CRM implementation strategy is the decomposition or |unbundling| of CRM functionality into a portfolio of services that can be sourced from the application service providers and/or developed internally in the client organisation. This paper proposes an unbundling approach for disintegrating enterprise applications into e-services, addressing IT issues and methodological steps relating to the disintegration of CRM applications into self-contained e-services and developing the service blueprint to deliver the e-service. In particular, the paper conducts a walk through the unbundling process, describing a case study to illustrate the unbundling of customer segmentation functionality towards packaging and delivering the functionality as an on-demand e-service.

Keywords: unbundling; decomposition; customer relationship management; CRM applications; CRM implementation; e-services; electronic services; application services provider; ASP model; business process modelling; on-demand services; customer segmentation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTM.2006.010053

International Journal of Services Technology and Management, 2006 Vol.7 No.3, pp.297 - 319

Published online: 09 Jun 2006 *

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