Vendor Relationship Management

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Vendor Relationship Management (short: VRM) describes a business practice that enables customers to use suitable software applications to make their relationships with companies more independent on the one hand and to facilitate relationship building on the other. These software applications can also be used for relationship management to other, non-commercial institutions and organizations.

The term first appeared in ComputerWorld magazine in May 2000, albeit in the context of supplier relationship management . The term was first used by Mike Vizard in a podcast on September 1, 2000 during a conversation with Doc Searls about a project recently initiated by Searls at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University . Vizard interpreted VRM as a counterpart to the corporate practice of customer relationship management . Searls' project was then continued under the name ProjektVRM and has been coordinating the development of VRM-based applications and services ever since.

VRM-based applications offer customers the opportunity to manage and design their data from relationships with companies and other organizations holistically and on the basis of their own conditions. In doing so, you counter the intention of CRM to assume a dominant role in the management of relationships with customers. With the help of VRM, customers turn from passive participants into active participants in the process of relationship management.

According to the description of the ProjectVRM at the Berkman Center, the basic theory behind VRM states that many market-related problems (including the lock-in effect that is widely assumed to be the ideal state of the bound customer) can only be solved by the customer by turning the customer into a completely Instead of being dependent, as in many cases, on the relationship with companies, which is based solely on the companies' terms and conditions.

According to Searls, VRM applications have the following purposes:

  1. They are tools that individuals can use to manage their relationships with organizations
  2. They make individuals collectors of their own data
  3. They give individuals the ability to selectively share their data
  4. They give individuals control over how third parties use their data
  5. They give individuals the opportunity to explain their own terms and conditions
  6. You assist individuals in articulating demands in an open market environment
  7. You create applications based on open standards, open APIs and open source codes

From the company's point of view, VRM in direct marketing can create new opportunities for satisfactory interaction with customers and thus unleash potential in the areas of operational efficiency, customer acquisition , customer development, customer loyalty and product and service optimization.

The CRM magazine devoted VRM much of its May issue in 2010. In 2012, the ProjektVRM with Customer Commons produced a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the VRM principles committed to. The aim of Customer Commons is to support individuals in their dealings with other companies and organizations through research, support and design of VRM-based applications. Doc Searls is a founder of Customer Commons and a member of the board of directors.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ComputerWorld May 2000
  2. ^ Vendor Relationship Management: The Role of Shared History And the Value of Return on Trust , Eric K. Clemons, Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr., June 27, 2000
  3. ↑ Gillmor Gang: VRM Gang Part I ( Memento from July 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ VRM - When customers manage their data themselves. ( Memento from April 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ^ Greenberg, Paul: CRM at the Speed ​​of Light. Social CRM Strategies, Tool and Techniques for Engaging Your Customers. 4th edition. New York, McGraw-Hill 2010. p. 46 ff.
  6. ^ ProjectVRM page of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society
  7. ^ Searls, Doc: The Intention Economy. When Customers Take Charge. Boston, Harvard Business Review Press 2012. pp. 163 ff.
  8. ↑ Mitchell, Alan; Henderson, Iain and Searls, Doc Reinventing direct marketing - with VRM inside. Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice 2008. (10) 1. p. 6 ff
  9. ↑ CRM Magazine : May, 2010
  10. ^ Customer Commons