Customer Relationship Management Software from a Startup Perspective
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Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
School of Business |
Master's thesis
Author
Date
2019
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Information and Service Management (ISM)
Language
en
Pages
85 + 7
Series
Abstract
Selecting and implementing a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software for a startup company is a challenging task, mainly due to the variety of software and service providers in the market. Additionally, as opposed to more mature companies, a startup company poses differing requirements towards the software e.g. in terms of desired features and certain software characteristics. This thesis takes a startup perspective and attempts to categorize CRM software, discuss its use areas and the benefits in these areas, explore implementation and software selection guidelines and compare selected software to clarify the offering. Additionally, it explores CRM usage in Finnish startups in terms of most popular software, perceptions of benefits, preference order of CRM characteristics and barriers of adoption by conducting a mixed questionnaire among Finnish startups in different incubators and startup hubs. The results show that startups in Finland are highly receptive to utilizing CRM systems in their operations, as approximately two thirds of the responding companies had a CRM system in use. They also clearly identify the benefits of using one. Furthermore, the findings include a list of CRM characteristics organized by their importance according to the startups, which can be utilized not only as a benchmark of focus points during software selection, but also as a guideline for the service providers in their software development. As a conclusion, the extensive literature review and the questionnaire findings are drawn together to construct a recommended CRM software selection and implementation guideline from a startup perspective.Description
Thesis advisor
Hekkala, RiittaKeywords
customer relationship management, CRM, CRM software, software selection, startups
