Answers for Assignment

How are enterprise applications taking advantage of new technologies?

Enterprise applications are now more flexible, Web-enabled, and capable of integration with other systems, using Web services and service – oriented architecture (SOA). They also have open source and on-demand versions and are able to run in cloud infrastructures or on mobile platforms. CRM software has added social networking capabilities to enhance internal collaboration, deepen interactions with customers, and utilize data from social networking sites.

How are enterprise applications taking advantage of SOA, Web services , open source software , and wireless  technology?

In brief, a service oriented architecture is paradigm which include service as a layer whereas service which is nothing but individual functionality that is shared across the applications. The primary goal of Service Oriented Architecture is to align business users with information technologies (IT). Service – oriented architecture (SOA) enables increased business agility, improved business workflows, extensible architecture enhanced reuse, and a longer life span of applications. An underlying premise in the application of SOA to information technology is the principle of loose coupling. At Loose coupling in SOA is how the services are implemented without impacting other services or application. The only interaction between the application and services is through the publish interfaces. Location transparency means that the consumer of the service doesn’t care where the implementation of the services resides. It could be same server or other server across the internet. Consumer calls are agnostic to service location.

 Business-to-business and enterprise application integration (EAI) are both about the development of new or modified processes for the purposes of bettering the organization. These enhancements might lead to faster production, lower cost of development, or increased communication with customers and partners. These new processes require that information be provided on demand and be up-to-date with the latest changes. Web services enable us to take advantage of these systems as components of a much larger process without having to first rewrite them.

Most enterprises today use open-source software for everything from desktop applications to mission-critical infrastructure , but many organizations have inconsistent support coverage for the open source they use , or IT departments lack technical support coverage altogether. Just as companies want technical support for commercial software, they need to evaluate their needs and options for rely on internal expertise for support, while others require commercial support coverage for some or all of the open source software they use.

 Wireless networks support today’s most demanding business applications, including multimedia and collaboration applications. It offers high performance, advanced technology and extensive intelligence. Wireless networks help businesses move beyond bring-your-own-device access to establish a true enterprise mobility strategy. They provide the key wireless access component for solutions such as Mobile Workspace, Connected Mobile Experience and Unified Access. Wireless network technologies empower employees, customers and communities on the move.  

Define social CRM and explain how customer relationship management systems are using social networking.

Social customer relationship management (CRM) is a phase used to describe the addition of a social element in traditional CRM processes. Social CRM builds upon CRM by leveraging a social element that enables a business to connect customer conversations and relationship from social networking sites into the CRM process. Social CRM may also be called CRM 2.0 or abbreviated as SCRM (Social Customer Relationship Management). Social brings a new element into CRM because now instead of just dealing with data and information we are dealing with conversations and relationships. These conversations and relationships take place not just from company to consumer but also from consumer to consumer. Twitter is one of example. Customer relationship management entails all aspects of interaction that a company has with a customer, whether it is sales or service-related. While the phrase customer relationship management is most commonly used to describe a business-customer relationship, CRM systems are also used to manage business contacts, clients, contract wins and sales leads. CRM solutions provide you with the customer business data to help you provide services or products that your customers want, provide better customer service , cross-sell and up-sell more effectively, close deals, retain current customers and better understand who your customer are .