Abstract
The advent of digital revolution has changed the traditional way of manging businesses with a focus on better customer relationship management using sophisticated management software. From customer loyalty to demanding customers, companies and organisations have upgraded their standard business processes through transformation and re-engineering for productivity improvement. This study examines the interface between technology and service operations with an emphasis on business process re-engineering model for variables that have impact on the adoption of electronic Customer Relationship Management (eCRM) systems used in the medical device industry in South Africa. This research uses the qualitative method for technology acceptance model, McKensey, SWOT and PESTEL analysis as well as the quantitative research method to statistically measure data collected from the interviews and questionnaires. Descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis were used to assess the relationship and the degree of significance between research variables that were tested reliable and valid. Results showed that critical success factors that enable successful eCRM implementation involve management and employee commitment, IT infrastructure, User acceptance, business process redesign, project champion, change management and training. Research findings showed that 78.80% of the business performance behaviour is explained by all research variables namely the human factor 1, human factor 2, user-interface and usability, standard operating procedure and the training variables. Furthermore, only the human factor 2 and the standard operations procedure variables have a positive and significant relationship with the organisational performance. However, the ANOVA statistics showed that the contribution of all these variables at once remains significant for a successful implementation of the eCRM application system in the medical device industry. Although, it is an obligation for businesses to become fully digitalised to deliver quality and on-time services, observations showed that 65% of such project implementation fails because of no commitment from the top management, no employee or end-user’s contribution on the decisionmaking process, lack of team collaboration, no “As-Is” business procedures, constant training requirements, continuous system updates as well as the eCRM system limitations. However, the use of smart technologies is currently a “must” that companies have to adopt since customer experience is growing at a high speed. Based on the above-mentioned results, this study has built up a business process re-engineering model that will guide organisations in coping with the difficult process of new management software implementation while decreasing cost implications and thus ensure customer satisfaction as well as business efficiency.
M.Tech. (Operations Management)