Adoption of CRM initiatives among the small and medium enterprises an analysis of factors and its impact on organizational characteristics

Abstract

Small and Medium enterprises in India are over 3 million in number producing over 8000 items assume special significance for their role as a creator of large scale employment opportunities apart from contributing considerably to regional development and industrial production newlineexports The ebusiness technologies such as Customer Relationship Management or Enterprise Resource Planning are radical technologies that are transforming business models and processes resulting in the disruption of old industries and the creation of new ones It is seen that firms that newlineadopt radical technologies tend to be more successful The Indian SMEs must embrace technology by upgrading in their business operations to sustain and enhance their competitiveness to face the onslaught of products from multinational enterprises The key to survival for many SMEs is the ability to exploit new technology such as CRM to improve productivity and cost efficiency and generate new sales The research on CRM within the academic literature has primarily focused on installation issues such as gaining sponsor support IT infrastructure and training rather than on factors that influence when how and why firms adopt CRM and similar information technology In India the adoption of CRM is about 15 to 25 as per a few estimates made by CRM vendors newline