Recently, a tool called BI (business intelligence) has come to be used for customer analysis. What effects can we expect from utilizing BI for CRM?
A: BI is a generic term for a business software (system) that enables advanced and multifunctional analysis. BI vendors are now proposing them as an essential analysis tool for enabling CRM. For systems that collect data from inside and outside the company and analyzes them for business the decision making, softwares such as Data Warehouse, Data Mining Technology, and On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) which conduct visualizations and reportings by looking at the multidimensional warehouse are popular.
By using analytical graphs and charts with portal functions and report tools on the web, the person in charge of the site or the top management is able to evaluate and give instruction. Even when customer history is accumulated, just applying the conventional RFM method (customer purchase frequency, recency, purchase history) to measure a good customer cannot expect effect.
For these reasons, demand for BI gets higher in the field of CRM. BI will be required as an optimal CRM solution when companies have finished collecting customer data by "accumulation" and are thinking of "utilizing" as the next step. Please refer to the examples of utilizing concept of BI defined by the IBM Japan and Onyx Japan Co., Ltd. listed below.
