From the e-Activity, determine the strategic advantages and disadvantages of using Customer Relations Management (CRM), services provided by vendors, such as Salesforce.com, with regard to analytics and forecasting, infrastructure maintenance, data mining, and availability for a business that cannot implement its own CRM system.
Businesses that employ CRM, Supply Chain Management (SCM), and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) for better decision making have a competitive advantage over businesses that do not. Assume that you are CTO of a large retail company that doesn't use these tools. As part of the company's IT strategic plans, the CEO would like to implement them. Suggest to the CEO how to effectively integrate these tools into the company.