Los ensayos:

The huge amount of information about customers makes it difficult for organisations to extract valuable information. To remedy this problem, many organisations use e-CRM.

However, the rate of failure is high (Gartner Group, 2002). Companies, who buy such packages, fail to receive the full benefits of using them and many companies do not

47

even purchase e-CRM. The organisations must define and develop a business strategy as well as a supporting infrastructure for that strategy in order to be successful with CRM (Chaudhry, 2009). Therefore, this research investigates the reasons for such failure by examining the degree of organisational readiness to deploy e-CRM. This investigation will identify a framework for assessing e-CRM readiness in organisations and the effect of e-CRM implementation on service quality

To sum up, Egypt is one of the major countries in the Middle East and has a great potential to expand in retail banking activities because, it has the highest population among the Arab countries. Moreover, the rapid development of IT networks and telecommunications in the last 10 years is a key to develop electronic payment systems (Tooma and Grosser, 2005). However, although some banks in Egypt have recently recognized the importance of CRM, some of these CRM systems are not necessarily as effective as they could be. Most banks prefer CRM to be offline for security reasons.

But customers prefer CRM systems to be electronic, so that banks can better serve their customers at any time and in any place, as the customers need them.

The Greet Hofstede analysis for Egypt shows that large power distance (PDI) (80) and uncertainty avoidance (UAI) (68) are the predominant characteristics for this region.

This indicates that it is expected and accepted that leaders separate themselves from the group and issue complete and specific directives.

The high Power Distance (PDI) ranking indicates a high level of inequality of power and wealth within the society, where Egyptians seem to expect and accept that leaders will separate themselves from the group, as part of their cultural heritage.

The Egyptian high uncertainty avoidance index, lead to the society being highly rule-oriented with laws, rules, regulations, and controls in order to reduce the amount of uncertainty, while inequalities of power and wealth have been allowed to grow within the society. Egyptians tend to control everything in an attempt to avoid uncertainty. As a result of this high Uncertainty Avoidance characteristic, the society does not readily accept change and is very risk adverse.

48

The Masculinity index (MAS), the third highest Hofstede Dimension is (52), only slightly higher than the 50.2 average for all the countries included in the Hofstede MAS Dimension.

The lowest Hofstede Dimension for Egypt is the Individualism (IDV) ranking at (38), compared to a world average ranking of (64). This translates into a Collectivist society as compared to Individualist culture and is clear in a close long-term commitment to the group, which could be one's family, extended family, or extended relationships.

Loyalty in a collectivist culture is obvious, and over-rides most other societal rules.

This simply highlights the necessity to understand the Egyptian culture before making an attempt to adopt a new technology. Banks should first consider the high avoidance to the uncertainty and resistance to change. Technology providers should create awareness, promote the new technology, and highlight perceived gains. They should also make it clear that the logic behind adopting a new technology is to make it work for people and not the other way round. Decision makers must ease the minds of employees, customers, and other business partners regarding implementing e-CRM.

Decision makers should also consider their customers as part of a well tied family rather than just an individual. They should provide collective benefits.

2.14 Summary

This chapter introduces the definition of CRM and e-CRM defined by other researchers, the main components of CRM and CRM technologies. It also discusses the CRM and e-CRM readiness frameworks as shown in table 2.2 which identifies various frameworks and presents the factors for assessing e-CRM readiness in Egypt as shown in table 2.3. Also CRM service quality and challenges are introduced together with the technology adoption in Egyptian banking industry. The next chapter will explain the methodology that was followed in order to attain the research objective.

49 0-3 Summary of various frameworks

Framework Author Focus

CRM Readiness Factors Ocker and Mudambi (2002) Alignment framework for CRM

e-CRM Kaimi and Sarkhosh (2005) Strategic CRM

CRM strategy and

implementation Payne and Frow (2005) key cross-functional CRM processes

Conceptual Framework Tesar (2006) Distinguish between SMEs that adaptes CRM from those that don’t adapt A framework of dynamic

customer relationship management

Park and Kim (2003) Customer information Management

A Framework for CRM

Success Almotairi (2009) The CRM implementation

phases

Molla and Licker (2005) Identifies relevant managerial, organisational and contextual factors that affect e-commerce adoption

SERVQUAL framework Zeithaml et al (1985) Factors that affect quality of service

50

Table 2-4summary of previous studies on CRM and e-CRM success/failure factors

In conclusion, CRM and e-CRM are important issues that have been studied extensively in literature, which lead to CRM readiness and service quality being among the main points of concern. However, a clear gap remains unresolved; especially in developing countries.

Factor Source

Organisational culture (Ali and Altai, 2005) (Simpson, 2002) (Coltman, 2006) (Chaudhry, 2009)

Commitment (Gartner, 2003) (Saloman et al, 2005)

Awareness (Renner, 2001) (Drucker, 2000)

Employees resistance to change (Witt, 2000)

Cost

(Timm and Jones, 2005) (Goodhue et al., 2002) (Forrester Research, 2003) (Swift, 2001) (Curry and Kkolou, 2004)

Corporate Strategy

(Chen and Popovich, 2003) (Kumar,2004) (Greenberg, 2002) CGI Group Inc. (2004) (Rigby, 2002)

Timelines (Doll and Torkzadeh, 1998)

Price and service Portofolia (Bahia and Nantel, 2000)

Accuracy (Oppewal and Vriens, 2000)

Content, ease of use (Jun and Cai, 2001)

51