The world of high technologies and wider approaches and opportunities in comparison with previous times as many points to be admitted in the contemporary management buzz. This concerns the points of information provision for partners, suppliers, and customers, of course. This prospect underlines the fact of modern reality that information became more significant for people and more varied due to different technological decisions. Moreover, the managerial structure and development presuppose the elaboration of such branches within companies as Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Collaboration and Knowledge Management, and use of information systems for gaining better control over different departments or subsidiaries within a company. As it is seen in word practice, people cannot go without the innovations and use of modern technologies as well as approaches in the maintenance of business along with both human and technological resources.
In this respect, it is necessary to point out the vital role of CRM in the provision of more emphasis on market share in a definite field of activity. Customers became too valuable for companies on the whole. It is presupposed with the cruel and mostly aggressive policy in management provided by rivals in proper spheres of goods produced or services promotion as Laudon and Laudon (2009) note, global strategy and systems configuration tend to realize multiple problems considered with gaining contacts and feedbacks with customers. In this case, the authors tend to outline that IT technologies are valuable today within major companies, and the costs for purchasing, for instance, software and then for updating increase every time the progressive scientific thought proposes to people more competitive and innovative improvements for making business. It is concerned mainly with the promotion and advertisement of quality and price encouragement. Paul Greenberg (2004) comments on the importance of the CRM implementation in the business space in the following way, namely:
Whether a company uses CRM for greater cost efficiency or for-profit and revenue growth depends largely on the company’s competitive strategy. Many CRM initiatives fail simply because management teams have not aligned their CRM goals with their business strategy and the customer demands that support that strategy (31).
For a company, it is extremely significant to know the current situation of customers’ demands. It will then determine the rate of appropriate supply. This perspective can be overseen correctly when designing business plans for further years. In contemporary conditions, managers should see beyond the horizons due to the fast development of innovations so that to keep in touch with current or potential customers, in particular. Those methods and approaches which are popular and usable today may appear useless tomorrow, and this statement does not sound in a figurative sense anymore. Hours, minutes, and even seconds play a significant role in contemporary realities where everything, information, goods, services, etc., are delivered faster than people can imagine it. Thus, CRM and IT are important for the promotion of today’s business due to a mere transformation of communication ways between people. The producer-customer approach cannot be imagined today without technological innovations and adaptation of people’s relationships accordingly.
A company or, better to say, a corporation is considered to function as a well-consolidated structure or system. In this respect, the extent of employees and management team is necessary to admit. Collaboration management and provision of knowledge within the branches of a company are taken for granted in today’s business circles. For achieving higher than usually results provided by staff and employer. Should point out the significance of appropriate standards for the promotion of a safe and competitive work environment. Shilcock and Stutchfield (2003) provide a great clearance of the significance of good working conditions: “Good working conditions; this should really go without saying; all staff should expect and have a right to good working conditions, in terms of working time, health land safety and environmental conditions” (60).
Of course, employees should deserve a proper attitude from the side of an employer. If one is constantly take pains for making a company successful in that area where he/she works, then a person senior to this employee will have all intentions to encourage him/her. A prospect of good salaries and additional encouragement make people compete due to such stimulation. It is not a great secret that people go to work for the purpose of being well-grounded and in order to support families or relatives. Ideological background is secondary, as for me. Furthermore, employees should be supported by the governmental structures and initiatives to provide population health in the workplace, particularly. If a staff is satisfied with the provided by administration policy, then there is a ground to suppose that employees will stand for their work and company in the future promoting proper values and ideals of business etiquette for new employees. Moreover, it will make for an employer possibility to provide more aggressive policy within competitors considering a well-structured wholeness of a company. Thus, the corporative approach and team-building initiatives should be taken into account by the management team and administration of a definite company.
The correlation between public relations and social network touches upon the necessity to communicate and gain proper information about the employees and applicants. It is needful for being aware of the working history of an employee followed with intentions, motivation, affiliation, and achievements in a definite field of interest. The promotion of social moral values is of great concern for companies. In fact, this prospect touches upon the necessity of major companies to promote their presence within others and to stimulate customers’ activity, so to speak. Moreover, frequent advertisement of a company can make it well-known within population. Social networks of today seem to draw to a head with 2.0 Web technologies. Today such social networks as Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter are popular not only among ordinary users, they also serve to be a convenient background for placing current information about a company with proper agenda of events to appear soon. Big companies, such as GM, Coca-Cola etc., purchase their own internal social networks, so that to stay in touch with all members of the multitude of personnel (Laudon & Laudon 2009). Their main suppliers are IBM, HP, Microsoft, Oracle and others.
In this respect there are some problems with social networks. They are concerned mainly with the point of abstracting an employee from positive and effective work. One more problem is considered with the selection of the relational data. Concerning to this point John Scott (2000) underlines in his book:
…the question of the selection data is one that does pose considerable problems for social network analysis. These selection problems concern the boundedness of social relations and the possibility of drawing relational data from samples (53).
Along with the problems about social networking, there are many advantages. Among them are: informality of communication, mass audience and improvement of feedbacks promotion for both senior management team and for ordinary employees. People strive to communicate every now and then, and it is very convenient, for instance, to provide relationships at once with both staff members and customers. This technology is widely spread today and companies even compete in the extent of their social network or software improvements. Of course, boards of companies spent for this purpose large sums of money. For example, GM is known to spend $7.5 billion for total replacement of software and supported applications within the company and its subsidiaries all around the world (Laudon & Laudon 2009). Thus, social networks became a constituent part of a modern technologically-developed company in terms of better communication and promotion of companies’ main values.
One more touch is concerned with viral marketing. This way of product or service promotion is widely used due to the low-cost peculiarity of this means of advertisement. Susan Sweeney (2006) gives a concrete definition of viral marketing as “word-of-mouse” marketing with a low-cost, highly effective way to market your product or service using the Internet” (47). By virtues of e-mailing, blogging, or other services provided via the Internet, people gain access to influence on users with their unique propositions. This way of advertisement distribution enables people to capitalize on referrals from an unbiased third party – the consumer (Sweeny 2006, pp. 47). It is popular today for promotion and saves lots of money for companies. Power of words was never disregarded. By means of this service promotion and advertisement became easy to implement.
To sum up, the world of business relations props up against the sphere of CRM, promotion of products, proper advertisements, and keeping a positive atmosphere inside a company structure. This approach is more emphasized due to a wide use of technological innovations and the Internet, in particular, by people.
References
Greenberg, P 2004, CRM at the speed of light: essential customer strategies for the 21st century, Ed. 3, McGraw-Hill Professional, New York.
Laudon, KC, and Laudon JP 2009, Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm, Ed. 11, Pearson Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
Scott, J 2000, Social network analysis: a handbook, Ed. 2, SAGE, New York.
Shilcock, M, and Stutchfield, G 2003, Veterinary practice management: a practical guide, Elsevier Health Sciences, Amsterdam.
Sweeney, S 2006, 101 Ways to Promote Your Web Site: Filled with Proven Internet Marketing Tips, Tools, Techniques, and Resources to Increase Your Web Site Traffic, Ed. 6, Maximum Press, Birmingham.