Customer relationship management system and method

Abstract

A software-based customer relationship management system and method.

Description

RELATED APPLICATION / PRIORITY CLAIM [0001] This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) and 120 to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60 / 707,820 entitled “Customer Relationship Management System and Method” filed on Aug. 12, 2005, the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The invention relates generally to a customer relationship management system and method and in particular to a software-based system and method for providing customer relationship management. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Customer relationship management (CRM) systems and solutions are well known. For example, typical known CRM systems include Microsoft® CRM, e-Synergy, a CRM product provided by SalesForce.com, Netsuite CRM, and SAP Business One CRM. However, conventional CRM systems have significant limitations that include a lack of flexibility, high costs, and a closed-source structure which is embedded into the traditional product offerings. These ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0004] In accordance with the invention, a novel customer relationship management system and method are provided. In a preferred embodiment, the CRM system is software based and more preferably is an open source software CRM system. The CRM system in accordance with the invention may include a process for determining the number of queries per page of the CRM application. Using this determination of the number of queries per page, the developer is able to diagnose performance issues during development and to quickly isolate the source of queries in the CRM application.

[0005] The CRM system may also include a module loader / unloader portion that allows for easy end user administration of adding and removing components from the CRM application. The components that may be added or removed may include language packs, upgrades, new modules, and themes.

[0006] The system in accordance with the invention may also include the ability to connect to a server as a mobile client. When this is done using the system, the mobile client becomes a miniature version of the application and it will automatically synchronize all data of the specified username / password, and also synchronize the application changes that affect source code files, metadata, caches, and / or database schema. In accordance with the invention, application changes are synchronized only from the server to the client. The application data changes are synchronized bi-directionally and changes on the client and server are merged. The system may also produce encoded version of the source code before copying it to mobile clients to deter theft.

Problems solved by technology

However, conventional CRM systems have significant limitations that include a lack of flexibility, high costs, and a closed-source structure which is embedded into the traditional product offerings.

These limitations have led to a failure rate of over 70% with traditional CRM implementations.

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