A Reference Application Architecture for the CRM Domain

Abstract

This paper presents the definition of a Reference Application Architecture for the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) domain. The definition of the Reference Application Architecture is done by extracting best practices from five CRM commercial solutions: SugarCRM, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Sage CRM, Oracle Siebel CRM and Salesforce CRM. The CRM Reference Architecture was developed considering the shared functionalities and information entities among these commercial solutions. In the Reference Architecture the authors identify six modules in the CRM system and five systems, which interact with the CRM system. The six CRM modules are: Account module, Sales module, Marketing module, Service module, Scheduler Module and Administration module. The five interacting systems are: Portal, Contact Center, Document and Knowledge Base Management system, Workflow system and Reporting and Analytics system. Then the authors apply the defined architecture in a case study from the Portuguese Public Administration, the Citizen Spaces provided by the Agency for the Administrative Modernization. The authors compare the current state of the Citizen Spaces with a possible architecture reached through the Reference Architecture, and assess the benefits and pitfalls of the purposed architecture.