Digital Technology and Customer Relationship Essay

Digital Technology and Customer Relationship - Essay Example C.Laudon and P.Laudon (2006) believed that well-designed CRM systems can improve sales and customer service. Thompson and Cats-Baril argued, "Customer relationship management systems typically offer software and online tools for sales, customer service and marketing." (Thompson, 2003, 121-130) CRM systems provide sales prospect and contact information, product information, product configuration, and sales quote generation capabilities. In B&N Company, CRM software enables customer and prospect information to be shared easily among sales, marketing, and delivery department. It can increase sales department's efficiency in reducing the cost per sale as well as the cost of acquiring new customers and retaining old ones. (Harrington, 1991) CRM software also has capabilities for sales forecasting, territory management. Customer service modules in CRM systems offer tools and information to create call centres, help desk service, and customer support personnel more proficient. CRM systems have capabilities for assigning and managing customer service requests. In the early 1990s, the idea of 500 TV channels had been embraced by the nation's leading media, computing, and telecommunications conglomerates. Now--after the mid-1990s--the nation's leading microprocessor manufacturer was ridiculing the old capacity and pioneering the way toward half a million marketing channels. Hollywood and Silicon Valley may have loved Grove's statements, but in Madison Avenue, they triggered fear and loathing. Media planners, in particular, felt distraught. Deregulation, cable revolution, and alternative media options had already shattered the old and cozy status quo. As the "big three" networks lost control of the prime time audience, promotions were invading ad volumes and brand loyalty was rapidly becoming a remnant of history. (Negroponte, 1995) Interactive television threatened to re-fragment the already fragmented markets. And now Silicon Valley was dreaming of 500,000 channels That did not mean a simple channel multiplication any longer; instead, it meant far more--a revolution in the entire channel infrastructure and the ensuing demise of all conventional industry wisdom. Digital Marketing Communications Since the mid- 1980s, the global markets have been swept by the emergence of digital marketing communications. In the past, mass marketers conceived of, organized and implemented the marketing paradigm, which originated from the consumer markets. Toward the end of the 20th century, marketers were conceptualizing and launching a new marketing paradigm. It evolved in business-to-business markets. (Brockman, 1996) If Procter & Gamble heralded the era of mass marketing, Federal Express seemed to anticipate the new one of digital marketing communications. In the long term, these systems would also proliferate in the consumer markets. (Robert, 1997) The new environment puzzled even the hard-nosed veterans. Industry wisdom had become a competitive disadvantage. Old rules no longer worked. As technology companies, they were familiar with software; as media

Business-to-Business Marketing Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Business-to-Business Marketing Report - Essay Example (Zoltners, Sinha & Lorimer 2009: 3). A motivated sales force will usher higher sales as compared to an unmotivated sales force. A well-coached, well-trained sales force ushers more sales than an untrained sales force. 2.1 â€Å" Sales Force Structure â€Å" If a company markets a single product to one industry with customers spreading over many locations and in such an event, it is ideal to employ a territorial sales force structure. On the other hand, if a company sells different products to many varieties of customers, it may either engage a product sales force structure or a customer sale force structure or a mixture of both. Under the territorial sales force setup, an exclusive geographic province is assigned to each sales person to market the company’s whole range of products to all customers in that geographical area. Under this structure, each sales person role and accountability are clearly defined. Company with diversified products engages different kinds of product s sales forces. For instance, Lear Corporation’s employ outstanding 145-sales force that brings many feats to the company. Lear sales force is good at relationship building and to satisfy customer’s needs. (Kotler 2008:423). American Express ,PepsiCo, and the Hartford Financial Services Group. sales personnel comprise one of the company’s most expensive and productive assets and increasing their figures may increase both revenue and costs to the company. (Kotler 2008:423). 2.2 â€Å" Various Sales Promotional Tools† A company’s sales promotion mix includes a mixture of various types of sales promotional tools employed by it to market its products or services. The chief six sales promotional tools are – advertising, personal...About $ 800 billion is being spent by all American companies each year on sales force, which is about 3 times the quantum of dollars spent on advertising. Many past empirical studies have found communication; commitment, trust, social contracts and co-operation are the variables that influence B2B relationships. As per eMarketer, about 88% of the shoppers prefer to do shopping online instead of traditional shopping as they can shop through online 24 hours a day and 365 days during a year. According to DoubleClick research study, about 73% of interviewees answered that they purchased a product through online due to email marketing. This demonstrates that B2C marketing is gaining momentum nowadays. SPSL should maintain adequate sales force and should launch its own website. SPSL should publish some success stories, offer the visitors some plumbing tips on how to keep their plumbing system hassle-free, and there should be a review section where its customers can post their views and recommendations about the SPSL services. SPSL can also introduce e-mail campaigns, pay-per-click campaign, local SEO programs and other online marketing strategies to attract new customers. SPSL should also publish in their websites positive reviews’, blog entries, and forum discussions section, about its past deals and upcoming ones.

Individual and Combined Healing Techniques Experiment

Individual and Combined Healing Techniques Experiment Smart materials: The materials that have one or more properties that can be changed in a controlled way by an external stimuli such as heat, light, pressure, electric field etc. Examples: Piezoelectric: these materials produce a voltage when stress is applied Magnetic shape memory: these materials change their shape in response to magnetic field PH sensitive polymers: these materials change their volume with change in their surrounding ph. Chromogenic systems: these materials change their color with thermal, opticall and electrical changes Temperature responsive polymers: these materials change their behavior with change in temperature. and many more as Smart inorganic polymers, Halo chromic,Ferro fluid,Photomechanical materials, Self-healing materials, Magneto caloric materialsetc. Smart materials in construction industry: since the dawn of humanity, having a proper place to live under has been the prime need of humans, to tackle this the humans have started building shelters using natural available materials.wiht the passage of time the human being evolved and their requirementsincreased, and a new era of construction begin in which they combined utilizedscientific methods to build huge sky scrapers of different shapes and heights. In the twentieth century to achieve certain automated functions and artificial intelligent systems, certain materials that could decide on their own in limited ways were developed. Since then aloof research has been done in this field and it has also been utilized in construction industry in manyways I-e It is used in windows to automatically close and open in response to light and temperature, it is also used in rooms electric control systems to switch on and off depending on the requirements, It is used in central cooling and central heating system to control the room temperature.it is also used in concrete to introduce certain qualities, Self healing concrete: The concrete that fix its own crack is called the self healing concrete Introduction: Concrete is a core building material. But even concrete starts to crumble when it comes face-to-face with water, wind, stress and pressure. it is the worlds most usable material since 2000 years when then romans built pantheon.and the durability of the concrete has always been under question.since centuries a lot of money, effort and time spent in repairing concrete structures. different types and different of concrete has been tested and utilised,but the issue of cracking hasn,t been solved yet,which reduces the life span of the concrete. The current method of dealing with structural instability in concrete has been to replace or repair it. But what if all you had to do was add a little water? A new type of smart concrete. A concrete that could heal itself and work well till its service life. Types: There are two types of self-healing concrete: bending concrete bio concrete Bending concrete: They consist of polymer fiber thick as human hairs. They are 40% lighter in weight. They are 500 times more resistant to cracking Bio concrete: Bio concrete consist of concrete mix with bacteria called extremophiles. When a crack occurs in the concrete, the bacteria actively produces lime, thus healing the cracks. Mechanism of self healing concrete: Mineral producing bacteria has been found that could help heal micro cracks inconcrete. since 2006 at the Civil Engineering and Geosciences Faculty in Delft A healing agent that activates when certain bacteria added in the concrete convert nutrients into limestone has been under development. The science behind self-healing concrete The project team have investigated individual and combined healing techniques in the laboratory and at the field-scale. The individual healing techniques address damage at various lengths and timescales. These include encapsulating healing agents, bacterial healing agents, and crack closure using shape memory polymer tendons and repeated supply of healing agents through vascular networks. We explore how these work in a bit more detail below: Healing agents small grain sized ingredients areused as healing agents. These capsules are termed as microcapsules. Once the concrete sets the capsules are in dormant condition unless a crack is formed and it ruptures releasing the materials that fills the gap and recovers it. The mechanism stops the entrance of other substances and thus strengthens it. Bacterial action A solution containing self-healing bacteria is mixed within the concrete mix. In their trails scientists used different types of self-healing bacteria. But the bacteria bacillus pseudofirmus mixed with light weight aggregates in the form of pearlites worked the best. Memory polymer tendons Memory polymers have also the healing capability to close any cracks that results later after exposure. In a trial these polymers were manufactured into tendons tied onto the reinforcement .these could be activated by a heating wire system. Repeated supply of healing agent through vascular networks Artificial channels were strategically placed within concrete structures through which healing agents could be supplied under pressure. By combining all the above mentioned mechanics the healing efficiency of the concrete could be increased. Preparation of bacterial concrete: We have two methods: direct application encapsulation in light weight concrete Direct application: In this method,while making the concrete, the bacteria and its food calcium lactate are mixed with the mixture. In this process when a crack occurs the bacteria pores break and the bacteria gets active and feeds on calcium lactate and as a result limestone is produced. Encapsulation method: This method is expensive however effective.in this method bacteria and its food, calcium lactate are formed into pellets and then these pellets are mixed into the concrete. About 6% of bacteria is used in making self-healing concrete. When a crack is formed in the concrete the pellets are broken and the bacteria is released and then the bacteria starts its healing action and thus the cracks are recovered. Testing of bacterial concrete and its result: Sample: In this test concrete disks are prepared by mixing porousaggregates, bacteria and its food to make a self-healing concrete disks. The samples are cured for 56 days. Tests performed on samples: Tensile test: deformation tensile controlled splitting test is performed on the disks. Permeability test: after cracking of the disks, the concrete is place in permeability setup in which water is applied at one end for 24 hours. Test results: After cracking and permeability test, the cracks were healed and the results were obtained. The result showed that the healing of the bacterial concrete was far greater than normal concrete. UKs first trial of self-healing concrete: this is a university led project in which the different types of self healing concretes are tested. The project is named entitled materials for life.in this project three separate self-healing technologies will be used for the first time in real world setting. The overall aim of the Cardiff-led project is to develop a single system that can be embedded into concrete when it is initially set, and then automatically sense when damage occurs. Once damage is detected, the system will be able to repair itself autonomously without the need for human intervention The first technique is using shape shifting materials, called shape memory polymers, which are used to repair large concrete cracks. In the technique, both inorganic and organic bacteria will be injected through thin tunnels into the concrete to fix the cracks. In the third technique, tiny capsules containing bacteria and its food will be embedded in the concrete, so when a crack occurs in concrete the capsules will collapse and heal the cracks. In this research, the researchers have cast six concrete walls, each containing different technology. The team will load the concrete at different angles to induce cracks at different positions and then measure how effective each of the applied technique is. Advantages: Theself-healing concrete reduces the maintenance and the repair costs of the reinforced concrete structures. Oxygen is the main cause of the corrosion of steel in reinforced structures, the bacteria present in self-healing concrete mixture reduces the corrosion of the steel. It can be used for the maintenance of places and structures where the human accessibility is dangerous or impossible I-e- underwater structures, dams, tunnels etc., thus reducing the human losses in construction industry. The crack will be repaired in its initial stages, so the life of the building will increase, making it more sustainable. Disadvantages: If the volume of the bacteria is increased than 20% in self-healingconcrete, the strength of the concrete reduces. It is still in beginner stages, thats why no wide spread use have. Bacteria and calcium lactate are the two main ingredients of the self-healingconcrete, and making of calcium lactate from milk is costly, thus making the self-healing concrete cost double that of conventional concrete. Not practically used in real life buildings, thats why people are reluctant to its use. Skilled labour is required Applications: Self-healing concrete can be used in sectors such as Marine structures Underground retaining walls Highway bridges Basement walls Concrete flooring Tunnel lining Conclusion: Self-healing concrete, is still at its initial development stage and vast research is required in this area, because it is not easily achievable and is costly which makes it difficult to use. But with all its cons it have some good attributes such as self-healing and corrosion reducer. it is an effective and smart material which if further research is carried on, can be the future of concrete structures, enhancing the life span and strength of concrete structures. References: National building specifications (NBS) Delft university/structural department/research articles/webredactie Cardiff university research journal www.iflscience.com www.concrete.org.uk   

Surrogate Mothers Essay -- essays research papers

Surrogate Mothers The practice of bearing a child on behalf of another woman. This is surrogate motherhood. Is it considered immoral? By some, yes. In some countries it is banned—and in others it is promoted or up for consideration. In recent days, the issue of "right and wrong" has surfaced in the midst of this argument, sharing different meanings to the opposing sides. To some, it is right only for the woman who brings forth life to raise the child; for it is deemed that she is the only one fit to be the child's mother. Clearly, we must indeed recognize this side of the argument. But to those with that viewpoint, that is the end of the argument. They do not see any reason for the issue to be continued further; rather, to end the debate and declare anyone who disagrees to lack morals or values. But have those who preach this anti-surrogate moralism ever experienced what it would be like to be those on the other side of this issue? Suppose, for a moment, that they were the ones who were incapable of having children. Would they condemn themselves the way that they condemn others if they were in another predicament? It is surely easy to say what one would do in any situation, but one can never know exactly what they would do until that situation comes. How many of you have ever held a small child in your arms and looked into its small eyes and felt the love that you had for it. Perhaps it was a younger sibling, perhaps even a child of your own. You know how much th...

Computing Goes Green

Gregorio, Marie Grace M. INFOMAN Midterm Exam KTD, Prof. Raymond L. Ganotice PART 1: CHAPTER 5- Computing Goes Green 1. What business and social problems does data center power consumption cause? >>Problems caused by Data Center Power Consumption: BUSINESS PROBLEMSSOCIAL PROBLEMS 1. Electricity consumption doubled1. More servers, more emission of carbon footprints 2. Very high cost for cooling data centers 2. Some materials used are environmentally 3. Heat generated from the servers causes hazardous when not properly disposed equipment failure . What solutions are available for these problems? Which are the most environment-friendly? >> Solutions that are available for data center problem are: a. Use of Hydroelectric power as a source of electricity b. Replacement of copper wiring to light pulses on microprocessors c. Use of thin computers which are very basic terminal machine that consumes significantly less power than normal computers d. Server Virtualization e. Muticore Processor The most environmental-friendly solutions stated above are virtualization and the use of thin computers because both reduce power consumption. Virtualization which creates higher utilization of computer results to fewer data centers therefore electricity consumption is reduced. It is the most efficient means for a cost effective greener computing. On the other hand, the use of thin computers which are directly connected to servers consume significantly less power than normal computers. 3. What are the business benefits and cost of these solutions? >> Majority of these solutions reduces the consumption of electricity because data servers are utilized to its full capacity therefore operating cost on ata servers are reduced also. As stated in the book, cost reduction ranges from 10% to 25% with the use of new solutions. 4. Should all firms move toward green computing? Why or why not? >>Yes, all firms should embrace computing green because our mother earth is now very much destroyed with so many pollutants produced daily. Awareness on how we can lessen this is very important and one of this is computing green which in a way can minimize environmental impact and improve power efficiency.

Analysis of Guy de Maupassant’s “Old Mother Savage” Essay

We are all taught that our identity lies in the roles we play throughout life, in other words, in our actions. William Shakespeare wrote, â€Å"All the world’s a stage / And all the men and women merely players. / They have their exits and their entrances†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (As You Like It, II, vii). Whenever people act outside of their parts; whenever we miss our entrance, our identity is challenged. This can be seen everyday in all walks of life and in all arenas. For example, a teen father who takes responsibility for his child is look upon with surprised admiration while a teen mother is look up with distain for becoming pregnant in the first place. Placing standards and expectations upon people can be a vastly good thing, but what happens when those standards and expectations become too rigid–to all consuming? Rigid, all-consuming, roles have been required of women since time remembered. Even in the twenty-first century, the career woman is still expected to maintain a family. Gloria Steinhem puts it succinctly; â€Å"I have yet to hear a man ask for advice on how to combine marriage and a career.† Men are expected to place high priorities on their careers. The implication is that a man will receive less criticism for neglecting his family for his career, while a woman will be criticized sharply for having a career without also being an excellent wife and mother. Many of these identity feminine roles have been so inflexible that many women cannot break free in order to discovery the woman inside. When circumstances force them out of their traditional roles, they find themselves wondering, â€Å"Who am I? What is my purpose?† Guy de Maupassant in his short story â€Å"Old Mother Savage† (1885) depicts a classic example of this. His main character is a mother in German occupied France who is deprived of her identity roles i.e. wife and mother. Since she has nothing else to give her life purpose, she becomes homicidal and a bit suicidal. In this story, Maupassant is arguing that women who have uncompromising and limited identity roles can become violent to themselves and others. Maupassant paints a vivid picture of how nineteenth century countrywomen of France presented themselves to the world at large. The narrator’s friend,  Serval, describes her as â€Å"not at all timid†¦tall and gaunt, neither given to joking nor to being joked with†¦the men folk come in for a little fun at the inn, but the women are always very staid† (p. 161). Victoire Simon, Old Mother Savage, is a kind, yet reclusive woman. She had once offered the Maupassant wine when he passed by her cottage fifteen years earlier tired and thirsty an obvious kindness (p. 160), yet Serval, Maupassant’s friend who tells the story of Old Mother Savage, implies that a â€Å"staid† attitude is normal for the women of the area. Maupassant presents his readers with a woman who has been taught very specific actions for conduct. She dresses so that her â€Å"tightly bound†¦grey hair† is never seen in public. She was taught duty and â€Å"never learned how to stretch [her mouth] in laughter. By the time Maupassant’s readers meet Victoire, her identity is irrevocably tied to performing the duties of wife and mother. Just like all the other wives of the region, she is nothing without the duties of either wife and/or mother. Victoire has her identity challenged thrice. The first challenge occurres many years before when â€Å"[t]he father, an old poacher, had been shot by gendarmes [police]† (p. 160). This provides a serious blow to her wife identity but she buries the lose because after all half her identity is still intact–she is still a mother. The role of mother is more prevalent than that of wife since, she cannot control the actions and their consequences of her husband. He, to some extent, failed in his role of husband and father by getting caught at poaching and subsequently shot for the offense. Victoire, on the other hand, is still around to perform all the motherly duties of keeping a home, cooking meals, and mending clothes, which she does religiously. The second challenge to her identity comes when war is declared and her son, now thirty-three, goes to fight in the Franco- Prussian War. Victoire is alone. She knows her duty but has no one to perform it for save for herself. Her life consists of â€Å"go[ing] to the village once a week, to buy herself bread and a little meat; then get back home at once† (p. 161). She does only what is necessary to keep herself alive until she can resume her duty as mother. In her mind there is nothing else for her–no gossiping with the village ladies; no sewing a new garment for herself; no cups of tea with a  neighbor. Her world ceases to function without her duty to her son. The death stroke to her identity began with the arrival of the Prussians. She is required to billet four of the occupying German soldiers, since she was â€Å"known to be well off† (p. 161). These young men, about the same age as her son â€Å"would clean up the kitchen, scrub the flagstones, chop wood, peel potatoes, wash the house-linen–do, in fact, all the housework, as four good sons might do for their mother† (p. 161). She would cook and mend for them, as a good mother would do. She still had a purpose–to be a mother even if it was to surrogate sons. For a month these soldiers are sons not enemies then she receives word that her son has been killed in the war. Suddenly, her world is shattered without her son she has lost her last shred of purpose. â€Å"The gendarmes had killed the father, the Prussians had killed the son†¦and suffering flooded her heart† (p. 162). With her husband buried for years, her son dead; she has no identity and co nsequently no purpose in life. Within moments, she plans a special form of revenge–not only will others suffer as she has, not only will someone die for to avenge her son, but she will be sure to die in consequence of her actions. Suddenly, the four German sons become four German soldiers–the enemy. â€Å"Simple folk don’t go in for the luxuries of patriotic hatred†¦the poor and lowly†¦pay the heaviest price†¦their masses are killed off wholesale†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (p. 162). Ones like these German soldiers billeting in her home murdered her boy. It is quite possible that she would have assumed a German mother was caring for her son like she was caring for the German men. She is, after all, a â€Å"simple folk†, who would not have much knowledge of the intricacies of war beyond the billeting of the German soldiers. Therefore, not only did German soldiers kill her son, but also a German mother failed in her duty toward her son. Through a carefully executed plan conceived in the brief afternoon of discovering the fate of her son, Victoire kills the soldiers. She burns her cottage to the ground with the soldiers trapped inside. When the German Officer asks her how the fire started, she said, â€Å"‘I lighted it, myself.’ She took†¦two papers from her pocket. ‘That’s about Victor’s [her son] death.’ ‘That’s their names, so that you can write to their homes.’ ‘Tell them [the German mothers] how it happened, and tell them it was I who  did it, Victoire Simon, that they call the Savage. Don’t forget.'† In order to ease her grief, she wanted other mothers to suffer as much as she was suffering. She knew she would be shot for her actions; she was probably counting on it. She could easily have lied. She could have told the German Officer just about any excuse, but she didn’t. What did she have to live for? She had no purpose for living without her husband and son. Her society, by placing limited and ridged identity roles on its women, robbed her of the ability to discover an identity within herself separate from family. Therefore, she did the only thing she could do–take revenge on the closest target and be sure she did not survive the experience. Maupassant, in five short pages, presents a compelling argument for the avoidance of limiting women with restrictive identity roles. Disastrous consequences are all too likely to result from their removal. Consequences that go beyond the death of four soldiers and their murder, the narrator’s friend Serval had his chateau burned down by the Prussians due to Victoire’s actions. If her identity had been broader–if she knew herself outside of societal-imposed roles, she then may have had something to cling to–a purpose in life rather than a kamikaze plan of revenge.