CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE

REQUIREMENT FOR DIPLOMA IN IT

DIT-02-8573/2020

ELIZABETH ORORI

TO

THE DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

FACULTY OF ICT AND ENGINEERING

ZETECH UNIVERSITY

JANUARY 2022

1
DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the project work entitled CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP

MANAGEMENT SYSTEM is my work and the record of my own work.

………………………………… ……………………………..

Signature Date

This proposal has been submitted for examination with my approval as the unit lecturer.

Francis Mutuku

…………………………………. ………………………………

Signature Date

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DEDICATION

This work is dedicated to God Almighty, my strong pillar, my source of inspiration, wisdom,

knowledge and understanding. He has been the source of my strength throughout this
program.

This work is also dedicated to my parents and my lecturers.

Thank you, my love for you all can never be quantified. God bless you.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Firstly, I would like to thank the almighty God for His protection during the entire work. I
also acknowledge the entire school and my supervisor for his guide during the project.

I express my sincere gratitude to the university HOD MR Daniael Njeru for providing an
opportunity to work on a real time project.

I would also thank my parents for their continous support that plays an important role in the
completion of this project.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ii

DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ iii

ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- iv

ABSTRACT-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- v

LIST OF FIGURES---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- vi

LIST OF TABLES---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- vii

CHAPTER ONE: RESEARCH INTRODUCTION--------------------------------------------------------------------1

1.1 Executive Summary----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1

1.2 Research Objectives---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1

1.2.1 General Objective------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1

1.2.2 Specific Objectives------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1

1.3 Background Information---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1

1.4 Study Justification------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1

1.5 Study Limitation--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1

1.6 Problem Scope----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW--------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2

2.1 Introduction------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2

2.2 Global Review---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2

2.3 Regional Review-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2

2.4 Local Review------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2

CHAPTER THREE: SYSTEM METHODOLOGY AND DATA COLLECTION------------------------------3

3.1 Introduction------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3

3.2 System Requirements Specification-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3

3.2.1 Functional Requirements--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3

3.2.2 Non Functional Requirements--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3

3.3. Design------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3

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3.3.1 Low Level Design------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3

3.3.2 High Level Design------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3

3.4 Implementation / Development------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3

3.4.1 Language(s), Frameworks and Other Technical Requirements-----------------------------------------3

3.4.2 Code Review Strategy------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3

3.5 Testing------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4

3.5.1 Functional Requirements Testing----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4

3.5.2 Non-Functional Requirements Testing-----------------------------------------------------------------------4

3.6 Deployment------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4

CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS-----------------------------------------------5

4.1 CONCLUSION--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5

4.2 RECOMMENDATIONS--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5

CHAPTER FIVE: REFERENCES AND APPENDICES-------------------------------------------------------------6

5.1 REFERENCES--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6

5.2 APPENDIX I:---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6

5.3 APPENDIX II:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6

5.4 APPENDIX III: GANTT CHART--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6

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DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS

CS(customer Skills)
This are skills customer get from the council in the Customer Relationship Management System.

CRM(Customer Relationship Management

This is a relationship management between the customers and the councils

CRMS(Customer Relationship Management System)

A system that ensures a good communication between the customers and the authorities

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ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

CRM Customer Relationship management

CRMS Customer Relationship Management System

SSA Sector Skills Agreement

CS Customer Skills

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ABSTRACT
ConstructionSkills (CS), Sector Skills Council for the construction industry, has a remit of addressing the skills
and training needs of the construction sector.

The aim of the study was to come up with a system for customer relation to construction. CRM(Customer
Relationship Management) has been widely accepted and successfully applied across a range of sectors.
However, there has been very little research efforts in the field of CRM in the construction industry. This paper
provides a review of the CRM philosophy and technology, and considers the implications; benefits and
challenges to construction organizations at a strategic business and operational level. Given the generally
unstable economic and highly competitive marketplace, implementation of CRM throughout the lifecycle of
assets may provide for more effective management of existing and prospective clients. The CRM approach
would seem to be compatible with general trends in the construction industry towards more collaborative
working and the paper provides that both the philosophy and technologies can be integrated with current
initiatives such as building information modeling (BIM).

Construction clients in the public and private sector are diverse in nature, complex in their buying processes and
at varying levels of knowledge of the Industry. In addition to seeking value for money from their projects and
assets, they have become more concerned about sustainability and environmental impact. It has been recognized
that management of a broader range of business and project level stakeholders is necessary.

Therefore CRMS uses CS(Customer Skills) to come up with a better way for it’s relationship in the construction
business.CS is a Sector Skills Council(SSC) that uses its guide and authority to run the customer relationship in
the busin

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LIST OF FIGURES

Analysis fig 1

CRMS framework fig.2

Prototypying process fig.3

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LIST OF TABLES

CRMS framework fig.2

Database sheet assosiated with customers. TABLE 2

Data dictionary TABLE 3

Contact record SHEET TABLE 4

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CHAPTER ONE: RESEARCH INTRODUCTION
1.1 Executive Summary

The system uses SSA(Sector Skills Agreement) as the voice created by the SSC . this ensures that the agreement
is clearly made and skill gotten by the customers while maintaining a goog relationship with it’s council.

As a management philosophy and set of tools, CRM has been successfully applied across a range of sectors
which have been seen to recognize the need for CRMS approaches to take into account an increasingly wider
range of critical business and operational stakeholders.

However, there has been very little research efforts in the field of CRM in the construction industry, particular
on the relationship marketing of customers behavior , whereas the others were focused on telecommunication
industries . In reality, the philosophy, tools and techniques of CRMS in construction has both strategic and
operational consequences.

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1.2 Research Objectives
1.2.1 General Objective

Exploring CRM benefits from organizational and managerial point of view.

1.2.2 Specific Objectives

 To enhance its interfacing and communication with its customers; an essential activity if the industry is to
address its perennial problem of skills shortages.

 to investigate customer relationship management (CRM) experiences of construction marketing firms and
how this experience influences their performance using CS technique.

1.3 Background Information

As SSC it represents the voice of the industry which is reflected through the Sector Skills Agreement (SSA).
The SSA outlines how the SSC and employers will work with training providers and funders to secure the
necessary supply of training in the sector.

The priority areas of the SSA include the following: recruiting qualified new entrants; qualifying the existing
workforce and improving business performance (ConstructionSkills, 2007). Whilst CS is operating as the SSC,
it retains its original status of the Industrial Training Board (ITB), which empowers it with a statutory right to
impose a levy on construction employers which is then re-distributed in the form of training grants in order to
support training activities within the industry.

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1.4 Study Justification

Since adopting CRMS for construction will provide a lot of benefit in firms and their process, it would be
helpful to clarify results and benefits of implementing CRMS for them. Therefore, they will have a good
background about the results and incomes from using CRMS applications for adoption of CRMS :

Customers from the competition will desire come your organization, Simplify customer

focused internal organization will make simpler the infrastructure, decrease the workflow and remove

non-productive information process, and Profits will increase from more satisfied customers and more
integrated focused company.

1.5 Study Limitation

The study goal to ensure to create an efficient system for customer relationship in the construction company
limits the idea of manual responsibilty and time taken for the council to have following up with its customer.

1.6 Problem Scope

The importance of loyalty in building long lasting relationships is indisputable. Furthermore, customer loyalty is
claimed to be a critical success factor of CRMS. It is widely recognised that customer loyalty is the pre-requisite
for long term success and growth . However,I argues that obtaining customer loyalty is a demanding task,
resource intensive and a long lasting process that requires commitment from the whole company. When a
company manages to build loyal relationships, it achieves a durable competitive advantage .

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CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction

This chapter provides a review of what CRM is and how the philosophical approach, strategies and technologies
may bring about positive changes at a business and operational level in construction organizations. The paper
identifies a number of possible obstacles to implementing CRMS and areas that would seem to require further
research.

Answers questions such as how,where when and why.

It explain various review globally,regionally and locally.

2.2 Global Review

Bose (2002) noted that CRM was invented because the customers differ in their preferences and purchasing
habits . If all customers were alike, there will be little need for CRM. As a result, understanding customer
drivers and customer profitability, firms can better tailor their offerings to maximize the overall value of their
customer portfolio (Chen and Popovich) . The attention CRM is currently receiving across businesses is due to
the fact that the marketing environment of today is highly saturated and more competitive (Chou et al, 2002) .
According to Greenberg (2004), CRMS generally is an enterprise-focused endeavor encompassing all
departments in a business .

He further explains that, in addition to customer service, CRM would also include, manufacturing, product
testing, assembling as well as purchasing, and billing, and human resource, marketing, sales and engineering.
Chen and Popovich (2003) argued that CRM is a complicated application which mines customer data, which has
been retrieved from all the touch points of the customer, which then creates and enable the organzation to have
complete view of the customers. The result is that firms are able to uncover and determine the right type of

customers and predicting trend of their future purchases. CRM is also defined as an all embracing approach that
seamlessly integrates sales, customer service, marketing, field support and other functions that touch customers
(Chou et al, 2002) . They further stated that CRM is a notion regarding ho an organization can keep their most
profitable customers and at the same time reduce cost, increase in values of interaction which then leads to high
profits.The modern customer relationship management concept was shaped and influenced by the theories of
total quality management (Gummesson) and by new technological paradigms (Zineldin, 2000). There is
however, a perceived lack of clarity in the definition of customer relationship management, although all

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accepted definitions are sharing approximately the same basic concepts: customer relationships, customer
management, marketing strategy, customer retention, personalization (Zineldin 2000).

However, while academics debate the subtitles of various definitions, the practitioners have developed a wealth
of applicative papers analyzing the concrete challenges and opportunities of implementing the systems
(Bacuvier et al. 2001). CRM in some firms is considered as a technology solution, considering of individual
databases and sales force automation tools and sales and marketing functions so as to improve targeting effort.
Peppers and Rogers (1999) argued that other organizations view CRM as a tool, which has been particularly
designed for one-to-one customer communications, which is the function of sales, call centres or the marketing
departments. Accordingly Frow and Payne (2004) added that CRM stresses two-way communication from the
customer to the supplier to build the customer over time. The two-way communication has been enhanced
greatly by advances in technology particularly the Internet.

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2.3 Regional Review and Local Review

Chalmeta (2006) indicates that solving the integration problem in CRM implementation need for an overall
integrated methodology. Therefore, CRM-Iris methodology was developed. It is a formal methodology that
directs the process of developing and implementing a CRM system, taking into consideration various aspects of
the CRM system including defining customer strategy, re-engineering customer-oriented business process,
human resources management, the computer system, management of change, and continues improvement

(Chalmeta, 2006).

Chalmeta (2006) also explains that CRM-Iris methodology consists of nine activities including project
management and prerequisites, definition of the organization framework, definition of customer strategy,
designing a customer relationship assessment system, process map, human resources organization and
management, construction of the information system, implementation, and monitoring.

At the first activity (project management and prerequisites), the techniques and methodology used in
engineering projects must be applied on the CRM project management to help at the following activities.
Therefore, before beginning the project, there is a need to raise the management awareness, define the vision
and the objectives of the project, create committee, appoint a coordinator officially, and develop and get the
approval on the project plan and internal dissemination. On the other hand, during the execution of the project, it
is necessary to monitor the execution of the project to control time slippage, prevent resistance to change,
motivate staff, and measure the degree of participation and asses the results.

The second activity is defining the organizational framework through the analysis of the organization's vision,
mission, strategies, objectives, and culture including policies and values. Next, the organization needs to create
and define a customer strategy through, identifying organization's customers, then analyzing the profitability of
customers and defining customers' objectives. After that, the construction of measurement system for

assessing customer relations including the customer satisfaction and customer care.

Afterwards, the developing of process map which involves redesigning the business processes to become
customer-oriented by analyzing the current situation (AS-IS state) and designing the future status (TO-BE).
Then, the human resources need to know about the CRM project, its importance, and trained on its using. In
addition, accompany with changing the organization's culture, the organization's job manual and the
organizational diagram need to be restructured. Another issue is choosing the right computer system that
handles the acquisition of customer information and converting it into business knowledge. Additionally, the
CRM computer system must cover four main areas; transactional (operational), analytical, strategic, and the e-
CRM. Next, the implementation stage, that is how to move from the old (AS-IS) system to the new (TO-BE)

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system by making activities prioritization then implementing the short term projects and managing the change
properly that will inevitably accompany the conversion. Finally, the monitoring stage by which, a control panel-
type tool

is initiated to monitor each activity by using different types of indicators of success. In addition, to assure that
the desired change is implemented effectively, a quality assurance method must be established. In conclusion,
the integration of the strategic and technological aspects of CRM properly is one of the most appealing factors
for the using of CRM-Iris methodology. In the contrary,

CRM-Iris methodology has many weaknesses like limited consideration of the critical success factors (CSFs),
users not involved in the design of the CRM system, no indication nor measurement for the user acceptance, and
limited validation for the methodology to small and medium-sized companies.

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CHAPTER THREE: SYSTEM METHODOLOGY AND DATA COLLECTION
3.1 Introduction

The study adopted a qualitative approach to gathering information as this was deemed suitable for addressing
the research issue outlined. There were interviewees, In the involvement of CRMS in other organisations,
which was deemed to provide additional insights into the factors that will aid successful implementation of a
CRMS at CS. A focus group was also conducted as a means for gathering additional data from a less formal
environment. When comparing the use of focus groups to other methods, the real strength of focus groups is the
ability to provide insights into the sources of complex behaviours and motivations in addition to exploring what
people have to say.

(Morgan and Krueger, 1993).

Another advantage of this method is that the discussion equates to more than the sum of separate individual
interviews because the participants can query each other and explain themselves to one another. This interaction
enables the researcher to observe the extent and nature of interviewees‟ agreement and disagreement and offers
valuable data on the extent of consensus and diversity among the participants; a unique strength of focus groups
(Morgan and Krueger, 1993)

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Analysis

Fig1

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3.2 System Requirements Specification
3.2.1 Functional Requirements

REQUIREMENTS

Hardware requirements:

Processor: intel pentium

RAM: 3 GB

Hard Disk: 50GB

Sofware requirement

OS: Windows,linux,ubuntu

Software: visual studio code,xampp,wamp.

Database: MSQL

Back end: PHP.

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3.2.2 Non Functional Requirements

User training

Aimed at increasing adoption through teaching the customers. The SSA skills are used by the council to come
up with a good strategy for the CRMS (Customer Relationship Manangement System).

Failure Contingencies

The system is non-critical. Temporary inaccessibility, even up to several days, will not create a substantial
burden on any

user. The host site for the system will be chosen so as to include data backup capabilities and protocols.

Sustainability and Open Source Plans

The system will be developed under desktop web development tools and practices.

3.3. Design

This chapter explains the system design which is used to aid in the system development by providing the details
for how the system should be built. For the Customer Relationship Management System the system under
consideration will be based upon a 2-tier,client-server architecture. It is possible that the architecture will have
secure managed interfaces to isolate systems from illegal access. The achitecture may be a simple client-server
system in which the system will provide forms from a simple server that can be filled in remotely by someone.

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3.3.1 Low Level Design and high level
CRMS framework fig.2

Database design of the E-R diagram is a conceptual model of the form of expression, the reality of

the entity relationship with E-R diagram clearly show . The CRM system, there are 16 main

entities, namely: user entity, entity roles, permissions entity, role permissions associated entity,

customer, customer contact customer service entity, entity, customer information entity, customer

communication record entity, entity marketing opportunities, sales plan entities, product inventory

entity, entity, entity order, entity, entity dictionary. There are mainly 6 kinds of association: one-way

one to one N:N. One way one to one N: N. [9,10] One way to many N:N. Bidirectional N:N. One

way to many n:n and bidirectional multi to many N:N.

The user, authority, role relational data table model was shown in Fig.

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Datasheet TABLE 1.

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Database sheet assosiated with customers. TABLE 2

Data dictionary TABLE 3

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Contact record SHEET TABLE 4

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3.4 Implementation / Development
3.4.1 Language(s), Frameworks and Other Technical Requirements
The system is using mysql and PHP to implement a full stack system.

User training

Aimed at increasing adoption through teaching the customers. The SSA skills are used by the council to come
up with a good strategy for the CRMS (Customer Relationship Manangement System).

Data cleansing and migration

Checking of the CRMS data accuracy and completeness and transfering it into a CRM solution.

Testing

Inspecting of the system for deficiencies and checking that its functionality works according to the requirement
specification.

Post-implementation strategy

Includes monitoring of the CRMS performance.adressing system issues and further tuning of CRM features and
processes to comply with changing business or user needs.

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3.5 Testing
3.5.1 Functional Requirements Testing
Prototyping is used to leverage the involvement of end-users in development. Prototyping produces a
preliminary version of the required system that can be reviewed by end-users. After review, the prototype is
added to and altered to produce another version closer to the one that is wanted.

The Figure gives a diagram of prototyping process

Fig.3

3.5.2 Non-Functional Requirements Testing

Are qualities of the solution.they consist of the solution limitations or the implemtations constraints and external
factors such as system availability.

Reliability and validity

Reliability is about indicator’s dependency and consistency.the measure applied to increase the reliability of
data and its subsequent analysis.

Validity is concerned with whether an indicator captures the meaning of the construct of interest. In order to
increase the validity of testing measures are done.

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3.6 Deployment
This is the rolling out of ready CRM solution to the production environment.

Fig 5.

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CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
4.1 CONCLUSION

This review paper has provided an overview of CRM and its applicability in construction. It has highlighted

strategic and operational implications, development strategies, critical success factors, challenges and

opportunities in its implementation from various perspectives.

4.2 RECOMMENDATIONS

CRMS ConstructionSkills need to adopt a long-term perspective to strategically embed CRM within the
organisation. It will require continuous commitment to improve the organisation's processes and cultural
alignment to ensure satisfying return on investment results and long-term success for the organisation. This
should be seen

as an important step for effectively responding to the industry's skills and training needs.

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CHAPTER FIVE: REFERENCES AND APPENDICES
5.1 REFERENCES

1. Reizensteine RC. Customer. Encyclopedia of health care management, Sage eReference

Kendall SD. Customer Service from the Customer's Perspective. In Fogli, Lawrence. Customer Service

2. Delivery: Research and Best Practices. J-B SIOP Professional Practice Series. John Wiley and Sons, 2007

3 Masterman JWE. Introduction to Procurement Systems, 2 nd edition, Taylor &

Francis, London, 2005.

4.Meng X. The effect of relationship management on project performance in construction,

International Journal of Project Management, 2012, No. 2, Vol. 30, pp. 188-198.

5. Laney D. The Great Enterprise Balancing Act: Extended Relationship Management (XRM), META

Group publication, December 10, 2001

6. Siva J, London K. Client learning for successful architect-client relationships, Engineering, Construction

and Architectural Management, 2012, No. 3, Vol. 19, pp. 253-268.

Greenberg P. CRM at the Speed of Light (4th ed.), McGraw Hill, New York, 2009

Trepper C. Match Your CRM Tool to Your business model, Information week, 2000, No. 786, Vol. 15,

pp. 74.

7. Dyche J. The CRM Handbook “A Business guide to Customer Relationship Management”, Addision-

wesley: Boston, 2002.

8. Lawrence A, Johnson SL. Technology: friend or foe to customer relationship, Marketing Management,

No. 4, 2001, Vols. 10-11, pp. 10-11.

9. Greenberg P. Capturing and keepingcustomers in nternet Real Time, McGraw-Hill, Berkeley, 2001.

10. Malaikrisanachalee S, Vathananukij H. Integration of javabased BIM with spatial database, International
Journal of Civil Engineering, 2011, No. 1, Vol. 9, pp. 17-22.

11. RC Construction Innovation. Adopting BIM for facilities management: Solutions for managing the

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Sydney Opera House, Cooperative Research Center for Construction Innovation, Brisbane, Australia, 2007

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