The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains

Arthur Chickering is Distinguished Professor of Higher Education at Memphis State University. On leave from the Directorship of the Center for the Study of Higher Education at Memphis State, he is Visiting Professor at George Mason University. Zelda Gamson is a sociologist who holds appointments at the John W. McCormack Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Massachusetts-Boston and in the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan.

Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education: Faculty Inventory. Institutional Inventory.

(2009). Disrupting Class How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns. Journal of Information Privacy and Security: Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 70-71.

Disrupting Class How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns

Queensland Health, a large Australian government agency, implemented a centralised IT service management model based on the ITIL framework. This paper presents an in-depth case study of the implementation. It sheds light on the challenges and breakthroughs, confirms a set of factors that contributed to the project’s success and offers a learning opportunity for other organisations. The study indicates that the commitment of senior management is crucial to the project’s success as is a project champion and the recognition of the need for an appropriate change management strategy to transform the organisational culture to a service-oriented focus. Maintaining close and forthright relationships with multiple vendors facilitates technology transfer to in-house staff while a benefits realisation plan is a valuable tool for tracking and communicating tangible and intangible project benefits to the project stakeholders. An effective project governance and execution process further contributes to the implementation success.

Implementing IT service management: a case study focussing on critical success factors

Recent developments in information technology and Web services have increased the potential for creating more rapid and extensive social networks and business relationships. Web 2.0 technologies, commonly referred to as online social media, have become important tools within the growth of information and communication technology (ICT) in the last few years. Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, Wiki and other services, which are widely used by individuals, also have an effect on customer relationship management (CRM) systems. Consequently, social CRM (SCRM) is emerging as a new paradigm for integrating social networking in more traditional CRM systems. However, social CRM is yet to be fully utilised as a value-adding tool in improving customer relationships. This paper reports on a scoping study that explored the current situation of CRM adoption in banking industry in Saudi Arabia. The aim of this paper is to identify the factors that may influence businesses and customers’ adoption of social CRM. Various models have been proposed to study ICT and information systems acceptance and usage. This paper proposes an enhancement to one of these models, specifically the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), by incorporating a range of factors identified in the social networking and business relationships literature believed to influence social CRM adoption. In particular, the model proposes that familiarity, caring behaviour, sharing information and perceived trustworthiness can generate cognitive view about the relationships between employees and customers. This view besides Web 2.0 features may offer a way of analysing the potential adoption of social CRM.

A conceptual model for acceptance of social CRM systems based on a scoping study

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) implementation has been a daunting and exhaustive experience for many organisations. Managers and decision makers find that there is no one 'fixed formula' to guarantee its success. This paper draws from CSF models in ERP implementation and project management, determining their applicability to successful CRM implementation in a B2B context. Eight companies who implemented CRM were scrutinised, in which overlapping issues with ERP Implementation and project management were analysed. This analysis was the foundation of a CSF model for CRM implementation, providing a list of strategic and tactical CSFs that are present when undergoing such a process.

A Critical Success Factor model for CRM implementation

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Teacher Presence and Social Presence in Virtual and Blended Courses

Feelings of threat, challenge, motivation, self-efficacy, and transactional distance reflect students’ struggles with the learning process. This study examined the relationship between students’ su...

Sense of Challenge, Threat, Self-Efficacy, and Motivation of Students Learning in Virtual and Blended Courses

This study aims to identify the critical success and failure factors of customer relationship management (CRM) systems – from the project planning stage to the system's successful implementation. This aim was achieved through a quantitative analysis of 821 questionnaires and a qualitative study of 20 companies, managers and employees. Our analysis revealed an organically customer oriented organization type: this type functions as a single unit for the customer's benefit. It evolves around the customer and modifies business processes, inter alia, by introducing technology geared to implement a customer-oriented strategy. An examination of the factors reveals their intricate relationships: some factors affect and then get affected by other factors, and some change their inner properties during different stages in the CRM life cycle – technical factors were affected by organizational factors that were then reflected back to them. Organizational factors became instigating when the CRM venture was implemented; up until then, they were underlying. We also found that aggressive utilization of management support brought opposite results with regard to employees and the venture. Additional findings highlight organizational transparency as a tool for increasing success and decreasing negative aspects throughout the CRM venture. The analysis also includes a graphical mapping of the factors for the CRM life cycle.

/pdf/building-a-csf-framework-for-crm-implementation-2o42md2ddy.pdf

Building a CSF framework for CRM implementation

Introduction The use of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems in diverse industries is now common around the globe. However, the fact that many companies have undergone this process does not mean that it's easy to implement such a system, let alone decide to go through such a process. In fact, because of the substantial investment needed, many expect a return on this investment. In reality most of the time that expectation is not fulfilled. Usually 50%-70% of the times the project fails (Morrel & Philonenko, 2001). The reason a CRM project fails lies in the way companies regard CRM systems. Light (2001) claims that because companies view CRM as a technological project that is bounded by time and budget instead of regarding CRM as a long term commitment to efficiency and improvement, the project will definitely fail. Ryals, Knox, and Maklan, (2001) agree with Light's view and contend that CRM should by regarded as a holistic view including a strategy that permits organizational changes and organizational processes. The technological should not be overlooked in the process but one has to remember that is only means to an end. Holland and Light (1999) present a model that includes Critical Success Factors to insure swift ERP implementation. It is based on tactical and strategic factors, and on Slevin and Pinto's (1987) model that was modified by the two. It is argued in this paper that ERP and CRM implementation processes are similar. Therefore we aim to check two main issues: (a) Can Holland and Light's (1999) model for critical success factors be applied to CRM, and (b) What modifications in their model that reviewed ERP systems should be adapted to CRM implementation. The case study of three companies reviewed for this paper is presented here. The review leads to the conclusion that Holland and Light's (1999) model can be extended to the implementation of CRM systems. The next section presents key definitions concerning CRM and CSF. Following that is a review of the research methodology used; a review of the three case studies is next. Finally, we present an analysis that leads to the conclusion of the current paper. Customer Relationship Management Framework Despite the fact that CRM as a concept has emerged only recently in both the IT and marketing fields, the literature offers multiple definitions of CRM. Four definitions were chosen to demonstrate the correlation between Information Systems and Marketing, both of which comprise the two major components of CRM: * _CRM is at the core of any customer-focused business strategy and includes the people, processes, and technology questions associated with marketing, sales, and service". (See http://www.realmarket.com/crmdefine.html) * "CRM is defined as a management approach that enables organizations to identify, attract and increase retention of profitable customers by managing relationships with them" (Ryals et al., 2001). * "..practicing elements of an approach to marketing that uses continuously refined information about current and potential customers to anticipate and respond to their needs" (Peppard, 2000). * "CRM is not a technology or even a group of technologies. It is a continually evolving process that requires a shift in attitude away from the traditional business model of focusing internally. CRM is an approach a company takes toward its customers supported by thoughtful investment in people, technology and business processes" (Morrel & Philonenko, 2001). With regards to the Marketing component of CRM, Kutner and Cripps (1997) emphasize that CRM is all about the customer: Customers must be viewed as the company's most important. In addition, they claim that contrary to previous attitudes, customers are very different in their need, preferences and buying habits and are not equally desirable as each one generates different profits. …

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Ilan Rahimi

Papers

A Critical Success Factor model for CRM implementation

Teacher Presence and Social Presence in Virtual and Blended Courses

Sense of Challenge, Threat, Self-Efficacy, and Motivation of Students Learning in Virtual and Blended Courses

Building a CSF framework for CRM implementation

Issues in Implementing CRM: a case study