Customer relations management in small technical consultant companies

Sammanfattning: This master thesis was prompted by the overall interest in Customer relations management (CRM) that has been growing since the last decade. Most of the articles and reports in the early stage were mainly about the concepts, technologies and implementation at mid size or large companies with tangible products. Lesser studies have been conducted in small technical consultant companies which are privately owned and are also growing strong in Sweden. In order to analyse if CRM in the small technical consultant companies, the empirical study is designed as explorative and qualitative. The study process of this research is designed from the study of the integration parts of CRM which including some CRM theories, various CRM architectures, CRM processes and some success factor measurements of the companies. Following by theorical frame of reference and the explanation of selective metodology used in the research as the attempt to answer research questions. Our findings from the research group have shown that these small technical consultant companies are not fully aware of the CRM theories or technologies. Nevertheless, they actually practice customer relations concept to great extents, but with limited resources spent in CRM tools or external support. Some interesting measurements are included with the limitation in the available data during research. Further research analysis reveals that some of their customers are aware of CRM concept in general, and have used CRM technology. However, they do not expect their suppliers to practice CRM. It is rather than business strategy and choice instead. In our study, the minor change in CRM practicing in sale process in one pilot company has shown some positive feedback from the customers. It also shows a trend that CRM could generate positive return on investment after longer period of time. As this research is rather exploratory,therefore a further study in fully CRM deployment in this segment is recommended in order to present identify CRM impact in dept.