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Future Enterprise- Customer Support Systems
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| Written by David Hunter Tow |
Customer or Consumer Support Systems- CSS, are designed to enhance business-customer relations by supporting consumer decision-making.
There is increasing pressure on enterprises to provide support for CSS as a Customer Demand Chain process designed to channel the flow of information between businesses and consumers; similar in manner to the operation of Vendor Supply Chains. This will generate new business opportunities and strengthen the relationship between businesses and their customers.
A limited level of customer support is provided by current enterprise systems such as CRM,Procurement and Supply- incorporating customer feedback sub-systems. But comparative multi-vendor, multi-product information is generally not credibly available from an individual supplier marketing the value of its own brand.
A third party marketplace for consumer information is already well established, creating increased market power to pressure vendors to disclose detailed product data specifications. This repository of product and service performance information draws on the present huge database of independent evaluation, research and customer feedback data.
The enabling technology to integrate this independent repository within an enterprise DSS architecture will be based on the emerging web service/SOA focus of business. This allows product and process data to be posted dynamically across the web, which can then be collected and collated in realtime by other businesses, including intermediary agents, to drive enterprise customer support decision systems.
This will involve a degree of customisation to support individual consumer requirements. Intermediate agents will be needed to aggregate, filter and summarise the required information. These tasks are already performed by many specialists and consultants in most industries, acting for business consumers. These cover the assessment of travel and hospitality packages, financial and payment services such as credit and mortgage payments, media channel streaming, computer and communication services, motor vehicle component customisation, green energy options and architectural and design services.
Future Trends
The trend towards greater consumer control will require the development of enterprise CSS and supporting demand management systems- DMS, complementing current vendor supply chain infrastructure. CSS will also need to be fully integrated with Web 2.0 applications, including customer social network strategies, by all enterprises that hope to remain competitive in the future.
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