Applications Page

Applications

It is wasteful (and probably dangerous) to worry too much about the definition of applications. For our purposes we shall consider an application as a combination of technologies that provides one or more services to the business. The process of combining technologies may involve building or buying, hardware or software, in-house or oursourcing: however it is done, it needs to start with a requirement and end with a solution that can be compared to the requirement. Lecture over.

Applications can be grouped into types – note that the underlying technologies may be the same for each. Note also that one application may provide a service to another, a concept that can be simple to some and mind-blowing to others. Here are the application types that we have covered to date:

Content Management (Portals)
E-Commerce (B2C, B2B)
Customer Relationship Management (CRM, CSS)

For a brief overview, and for links to further information, click on the application types above. Is what you want to know about not in this list? Tell us here -

Before we start, note that there is huge confusion about exactly what names to give specific tyes of applications. Consider e-commerce and e-business, for example - while it is possible to define each of these terms, it remains true that they are used interchangeably. Application names may vary depending on context, so Web-based CRM becomes e-CRM, mobile CRM is m-CRM. Such is marketing but it doesn’t change the underlying applications. Don’t get hung up on the definitions – it is more important to understand your own needs than to have a terminology debate.

Content Management

Content Management has been said to be “the art of making information accessible”. Like all application types, it has gone under several names, including Information Management and Document Management. In these Web-driven days it is concerned mostly with how information is presented to users of the Internet, either externally or internall to the corporation. The bottom line is, if you have document-based information (and there are few companies that do not), you need a strategy to deal with it and there may be applications that can help.

Content Management has hefty overlaps with Portals. These are best defined by example: Yahoo! is a portal, as is FT.com. Portals collate and present information and services in a suitable form for their user base – they can be generic, industry specific or focused on a particular topic. A particular form of portal is the Enterprise Portal – one which provides corporate employees with access to all the information and services that they need to get the job done.

For further information on Content Management applications, click here. One more thing – all-about-IT.org is a portal. Hope you like it.

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E-Commerce

Is there really any more to be said about e-commerce? We won’t bore you with yet another definition, or another exposé of how the dot-com bubble burst (besides, it is not over yet). E-commerce needs its applications, in terms of software to handle payment transactions, manage customers, products, catalogues, advertising, and all the other gubbins that form a commercial Web site. As the market and the technologies continue to evolve, so e-commerce applications increase in complexity. Most recently we have seen the arrival of online marketplaces – electronic environments where suppliers and customers can do business.

For further information about e-commerce applications, click here.

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Customer Relationship Management

CRM applications started life as contact management packages, which then evolved into sales force automation software. Consider customer management at a process that starts when a prospect is first identified and continues through out your relationship with that customer. With this perspective, you can imagine both the interactions that you would have with the customer, and the information that you would need to collate about each interaction. Put it all in a package and there you have it – CRM.

As usual, the world is refusing to stand still. The arrival of the call centre is one business practice that has major impacts on the applications required, causing CRM to integrate with help desk applications and evolve into a strategic platform. The second, inevitable impact is caused by the Internet, which offers the possibility of customers logging their own details, ordering their own products (through e-commerce) and raising their own service calls. This facility is known as Customer Self Service (CSS) – for once an acronym that does what it says on the tin.

For further information about CRM applications, click here.

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