When considering vendor technologies for customer relationship management, the past often is prologue. Identifying consumer preferences, measuring the effectiveness of marketing spend and correlating sales with budget forecasts are among the enterprise resource planning functions that long have depended on combing through customer-generated data to improve creation and delivery of products and services.
The efficiencies that come from doing so at speed are what is driving spend among vendors in applying artificial intelligence in CRM systemsOpens a new window and among users in search of the competitive advantage offered by leveraging data insights in ERP.
The tech-led race to embrace ever greater flows of the information needed to fuel their AI engines is leading CRM vendors and the ERP users they service to the Internet of ThingsOpens a new window , the network of machine-to-machine connectivity underpinned by advances in mobile communications.
Providing Context
From the shopping mall to the shop floor, and at virtually all points where sensors can be placed and devices are present, tying data generated by the IoT into core ERP functions provides the context necessary for greater accuracy in processes monitored and initiated by AI-enabled CRM systems.
Akin to the radio frequency identification (RFID) tracking technologies first patented in the 1980s, the most advanced CRM platforms initiate end-to-end production, delivery and reporting when the pushes they generate from customer data mined with AI are converted to sales.
Already at work in industries such as healthcare, where patients receive prompts in response to signals from wearable devices, and in utilities, where sensors enable preventive maintenance that lessens service disruptions, IoT-enabled CRM functions are set for a boost when the 5G mobile communications standard is rolled out in developed markets.
According to technology consultancy Gartner, the number of connected devices will exceed 20 billion when the replacement for 4G starts rollout in 2020. In tandem with the predicted rise enabled by the ability of 5Gs to accommodate low-frequency communication, the use cases for applying IoT in CRM promise to expand rapidly as the new standard gains traction.
Omnichannel Strategies
This is the context for vendors when they view IoT technology as an avenue for engagement within the omnichannel strategies that their CRM platforms and applications create and facilitate.
Predicated on delivering a uniformity of experience across device interfaces to the customer and returning a holistic view of the customer to the enterprise, the approach predicts behaviors from analysis of the data generated through touch points both before and after the sale.
By plotting more points on the customer journey with the help of the IoT products, companies can simultaneously hone their offerings and improve their products and services, increase operational efficiency and boost customer satisfaction in the process.
Having applied RFID technology in retail with chip-maker Intel, hardware providers IBM and Hewlett Packard and devices from Philips, German ERP giant SAP is implementing machine-to-machine mobile communications to drive transformation in both retail and factory environments.
Developed in conjunction with among 2,100 partner companies at its 15 Co-Innovation Labs around the world, SAP’s Future Retail Center and Future Factory suites employ data from connected devices to drive machine learning and big data analytics for decision-oriented process automation, including initiating the manufacture of goods and the replenishment of stocks on store shelves.
Personalized Environment
In the Future Retail Center, retailers can use data put through SAP’s Hybris commerce platform to create a personalized environment for shoppers, with IoT sensors that connect with smartphones to track customer browsing habits and push product information and sales incentives, such as coupons delivered on their phones, when they approach products they’ve browsed online.
In the Future Factory, streaming data in real time from machines into SAP’s Leonardo innovation software for microservices improves operations and maintenance, while reducing time-to-value in project planning and implementation.
Both Hybris and Leonardo feature interoperability with AI technologies such as machine learning, natural language processing and augmented reality that improve product and service development and delivery using customer data.
Vendor platforms and services account for part of a global IoT spending trend the sheer size of which attests to the potential for device data in CRM. US-based trade publisher IDC expects IoT investment to reach $772bn this year, up 15% from 2017.
CRM in the Cloud
Data center projects ranked highly in interviews conducted by analysts at the firm 451 Research with 575 mainly American companies, more than one-third with turnover exceeding US$1 billion, about their 2018 IoT initiatives.
Such is the anticipated growth of IoT-generated data, according to the US-based research house, the cloud is where companies are looking to store and process data loads, including for CRMOpens a new window , as they gear up for the launch of 5G and its threat to overwhelm captive infrastructures.
Salesforce, the global leader in CRM software and service delivery, is guiding companies to the cloud as a vehicle for integrating information about customer habits and preferences into sales processes and ERP.
In October, the San Francisco-based company launched IoT Explorer, a services suite that contextualizes device-generated data with elements including touch-point histories, and delivers that information to users of the Salesforce CRM platform when events occur to prompt rules-based actions in the enterprise.
Use cases are both predictive and proactive, with contextualized data on status and life-cycle from connected devices providing avenues for service improvements and expansion of revenues from new orders, upgrades and repairs.
Among the Salesforce customers that participated in IoT Explorer’s development are Emerson of the US and France’s Schneider Electric, which manufacture industrial hardware and process-control systems that use machine-to-machine technology in their products and operations.
Mix-and-Match Applications
ERP provider Oracle forecasts the value generated by IoT platforms will reach $14.4trn in 2022, led by revenues derived from improvements in customer experience. The Silicon Valley-based vendor applies data from connected devices to cloud-delivered applications that aid in managing machines, production, fleets and workforces. Oracle’s IoT Cloud aggregates and analyzes data on asset location, status and performance and delivers it to core ERP and field service applications.
Contextualized device data also gets funnelled into its CX Cloud Suite of applications specifically aimed at the customer experience, covering marketing, sales, price generation, commerce, service and social functions, and with as-a-service performance monitoring.
In keeping with an approach that sees IoT as technology with applications across the spectrum of an enterprise, customers can mix and match the applications to tailor use cases and meet business needs.
Unstructured Communications
Findings from the 451 Research study suggest that surveillance and security share priority with meeting challenges to IT infrastructure related to IoT implementation. Given IoT’s utility in creating continuous customer experiences, respondents say that moving forward from those projects companies will invest in the application of increased analytics to device data flows.
In addition to packets of information from connected machines, this includes marrying information decoded with AI from unstructured communications such as voice and text, where rules-based applications can be less accurate than those based solely on machine data.
Beyond simply adapting advanced technology to traditional processes, efforts by vendors to direct the flows of information from connected devices into platform offerings and cloud applications provides a foundation for forward-looking development of CRM systems, software and services.
As data drives AI, drawing more of it into those engines is central to enterprise efficiency and a faster return on investment in systems for monitoring production and performance.