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Intro to Relationship Management Technologies
customers. CRM software is typically sold as a SaaS to its customers. Because of the introduction of
open-source software and cloud-based CRM, initial costs have lowered enough to maintain steady
profits. CRM technologies continue to improve with the implementation of AI and data analytics. As
the economy becomes more data-centric, CRM software will become more important in gathering
sales information and providing knowledge. Some experts believe CRM software will become the
bestselling enterprise software by 2021. Some of the leading players in the CRM market are
Salesforce, BASE, and Oracle. With many players in the market, companies use trademarks and
copyrights to protect their property since it is hard to patent SaaS products. Relationship
management programs and technology are currently focused on customer relationships, however
Industry Analysis
Competitors in the CRM Industry – Currently, the CRM market is dominated by 10 major
companies that control nearly 58% of the global market. Salesforce, the largest CRM platform,
accounts for roughly 26% of the $24.3 billion market (Appendix 1). This leaves the remaining 42% of
the global CRM industry in the hands of BASE and other, smaller CRM companies and platforms.
CRM software allows companies to manage the interactions and engagements between
their existing and potential customers. It does this in several ways. One of these includes marketing
automation. This automation allows companies to create personalized emails from criteria in their
customers’ data (i.e. people who purchased X product recently). On platforms like Salesforce,
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customer inquiries from several platforms are conglomerated into one user-friendly, efficient page.
Tactics such as this help improve consumer experiences, leading to a 30% increase in customer
centralized dashboard for a company. Companies can integrate their social media accounts to track
what customers are saying about their product or service. Companies can link their email, website
portal, and social media chat boxes into one space to allow them to address consumers questions
or concerns. They can even integrate their phone services to automate their incoming and outgoing
calls to assist in marketing and sales campaigns as well as address additional consumer needs in a
Each of these additional inputs can lead to a better overall customer experience. 55% of
customers said they were willing to pay more to guarantee better customer service. Millennials,
who make up 25% of the US population, are driven consumers who are willing to pay up to 20%
extra for improved service. These statistics illustrate the importance of CRM platforms for use in
business. CRM systems’ ability to work across platforms becomes increasingly important when
· 48% of millennials say word of mouth advertising influences purchases more than TV ads
(Intrepid)
· 62% of millennials say online brand engagement leads to becoming a more loyal customer
(Forbes)
With this change in how future consumers want to be advertised to, and the many different
systems that they are using, companies must work harder and smarter to meet their consumers.
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Alternative Relationship Management Products - Companies such as Salesforce seek to
address the business need in regard to relationship management. But who is helping individuals and
new, small businesses with their relationship management strategy? Social media platforms such as
Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn can help meet some of the personal brand needs of an
individual, but other needs go left unfulfilled such as networking management technology.
Companies such as Airtable, Cloze, and Closr can integrate multiple inputs from one’s
personal life into a single, united platform. Cloze even reminds the user to reach out to contacts
whom they have not met with in a while, helping to increase networking potential and manage
their contacts.
Although companies such as Airtable, Cloze, and Closr manage to meet some of a personal
user’s needs, they have still been unable to attract a large consumer segment with only 15,000
downloads for the Closr app. This lack of market reach demonstrates that some improvements
could be made to the software or business model to increase engagement with their consumers. As
these improvements are made, more consumers will begin integrating relationship management
software into their daily lives. Few know how impactful these technologies can be, so early
adopters and new companies still have an open window to explore the very important world of
Relationship management systems started with CRMs. Those have developed over the past
30 years as discussed above. Recently, this software has branched from large companies, into the
life of everyday businesspeople. Likely, this technology will continue to develop and be adopted by
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businesspeople and small companies. From there, it will move into every day, personal life where
users will be reminded to email siblings, call parents, and catch-up with friends.
While there are good options on the market. They have not been readily adopted. They fall
1. They are too complicated. They must be simplified to fit the end user’s need.
2. They have too broad of a focus. The current products fall in between professional and
personal use. There is a need for a system that allows businesspeople to effectively
The best lesson that can be learned is in the failures of current companies to achieve widespread
adoption. Why is this? It seems that it is because of the above-mentioned reasons. There is a need
for the “Apple-approach” of simplification with a heavy focus on the core problems of the end user.
The Team – With these ideas mentioned above, and considering the state of the industry,
we feel that there is a market gap that can be addressed with a service that provides a simple list of
people for you to talk with for the week. Rather than several complicated screens, there will be one
screen that suggests who the user should call or communicate with for that week based on the
importance that the background-AI suggests and the last time you communicated with them. Our
The PRMPT team has the highest stake in this new venture. Obviously, the team will
dedicate the most time, effort, and individual resources towards its success. The team, consisting of
Luke Lampe, Jeffrey Bogenschutz, Waqas Tanveer, and future additions, will rely on PRMPT’s
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Additionally, the culture, mission, and environment of PRMPT is extremely important. The
team will spend most of their waking hours working. As such, PRMPT will strive to build an inclusive
and exciting work space that encourages both collaboration and creativity. This will be
accomplished by frequent team meetings and updates during working hours and social activities to
build community. Furthermore, the team will focus on finding the best talent and fit for the
organization by working closely within the community and utilizing connections to young talent
companies are important to the continued development and growth of PRMPT. Our goal is to
maintain a superior product and interact with our users more effectively by utilizing a simpler,
Potential Investors – Any investors that PRMPT may have are amongst the most important
stakeholders. Through their funding, they provide sustenance for the continued growth of the
PRMPT will need an upfront amount of money to fully develop the service. PRMPT hopes to
raise around $100,000 for the first year to accomplish this goal. Over the 2-3 years of growth after
that, PRMPT plans to raise an additional $1,000,000 to support employee costs, marketing efforts,
The PRMPT team will value its relationship with its investors immensely by exceeding their
Contractors and Business Needs – A final stakeholder in PRMPT will be additional businesses
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• Legal team – supporting the legal needs such as contracts and establishing guidelines regarding
data privacy.
• Data companies – socially-responsible companies who PRMPT can sell data to in order to make
• Developers – individuals and companies to continue the development of PRMPT and support
additional features. PRMPT will also look for help regarding cyber security from this segment.
• Interface designers – PRMPT believes in visually appealing and easy-to-use products. This will
Members of the PRMPT team have a strong relationship with the INTERalliance of Greater
schoolers from the Cincinnati area. This would be a mutually beneficial relationship as it would give
highly skilled, young people an opportunity to gain experience and make money, while providing
The User – The consumer needs to trust and feel invested in the product. PRMPT will be
demographic has likely just graduated from college and are in the midst of budding careers. This
sector weighs in at 17.2 million Americans according to the Department for Professional Employees.
They have increasing responsibility at work, requiring more time and focus. Despite this, they are
also trying to network with professionals and maintain relationships with their family, college
friends, and high school friends. It can be difficult to remember to call grandma or Susie, your best
friend since high school. PRMPT will provide a simple, easy to use screen with reminders to reach
out based upon the importance of the relationship and the time since the user last spoke with
them.
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It is our mission to ease the difficulty of maintaining both professional and personal
relationships during busy times in life. For example, the average commute time is over 50 minutes a
day. For many people, this is time spent listening to the radio, music, or podcasts. Imagine if you
spent this time talking with your loved ones instead. PRMPT makes this simple to do and eliminates
the “who should I call now?” question. The user must simply go down the list. If grandma doesn’t
answer, call dad. If dad doesn’t answer, Samantha is next. Don’t want to call Samantha now?
Snooze until next week and call the next person. Oh! Winner! It’s your favorite aunt who you
haven’t spoken to in a month and who you know is always free at 5 PM.
PRMPT takes one more step towards automating the small decisions in your life. Its purpose
is to enhance the user’s relationship and increase the joy they get out of life by helping them to
develop those relationships that are both meaningful and important to professional and personal
life.
BHAG in the Eyes of the User – Users download PRMPT to make their lives less stressful and
most importantly, increase the quality of their relationships. At PRMPT, we will judge our successes
based off our user’s experiences. Our BHAG will be defined as 80%+ of users reporting that they
believe PRMPT has positively impacted the relationships that they value in their lives.
app, PRMPT will need to accomplish several things. First, we need to finish developing our app.
PRMPT’s app will use artificial intelligence to aggregate and organize data. The app will require
extensive hours of programming for the artificial intelligence and backend API, which will connect
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the software to the correct cloud storage. The app will encrypt incoming data from consumers for
safety purposes. Once the backend is developed, we will work on developing the interface.
We will use graphic designers to help shape the app based on the principles of simplicity,
accessibility, and ease of use. Graphic designers may be hired through a digital consulting firm or
from the renowned School of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning at the University of Cincinnati.
Once an initial version of the app is developed, a beta will be released to a predetermined
number of individuals. Individuals will come from various age ranges but will be focused on our
target range of 23-35 year-olds. The beta will allow us to make changes as needed. While the final
stages of the app are being developed, we will create a consumer agreement form with the help of
a legal firm.
Assumptions – Several assumptions are made in the time sequence. One of the big
assumptions is the consumer’s willingness to share data (contacts, social media, etc.) with our app,
as well as, potential data regulations. Because of the Facebook incident, some consumers have
become weary of sharing consumers’ data. Assuring customers of their data safety and establishing
our credibility will be a key goal. Fortunately, our current market, the United States, does not
Another assumption is that our data encryption is full proof. If a company’s encryption is not
consistently updated, there is vulnerability for an attack. Our biggest challenge will be to make sure
Internal and External Risks – Throughout our actions, there will be considerable amount of
risk. For one, there is the internal risk of the artificial intelligence not performing properly or the
app crashing. Even after the app begins to work on a consistent basis, there is the need for regular
updates. Another risk is our computer code becoming outdated or another competitor jumping into
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our target market. It is nearly impossible to patent computer code, so we will have to use strategic
Our Recommendations
Product Overview – Our recommendation, is for the creation of a new mobile application,
on iOS and Android, which utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) to more accurately track one’s personal
relationships and assist in building and maintaining those relationships. This new mobile
application, called PRMPT, will prompt the user to reach out to close connections and peers to help
How it Works – The user will give PRMPT access to the information on their messages, call
history, email logs, calendar, reminders, and social media accounts. This information will then be
used to determine the frequency and meaningfulness of interactions. The frequency will be
determined by the amount of time between correspondence, while the meaningfulness will be
correspondences. The AI will look through social media or contact information to determine if a
relationship can be discerned from the information (i.e. “Mom” in contacts). This information will
then be used to determine a short list of people it feels are important to you.
Upon completing this backend questionnaire, the user will be prompted with PRMPT’s short
list of people it feels are important to the user. The user can go through and select or deselect the
people that are truly important. For example, co-workers may meet all qualifications to become an
“important” person based upon the frequency of communication; however, this relationship may
not be one that the user is interested in actively fostering. Therefore, having the user manually
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input some but not all the information, will speed up the initial set-up process while maintaining an
Once the user has input all needed information, PRMPT will ask the user to create goals that
can change weekly, monthly, or yearly depending on the user’s preference. The goal will take the
following format – “I want to meet with five friends a month to hang out after work.” Using this
goal, PRMPT will then ask at the beginning of each month, which five friends the user may be
interested in reconnecting with. These suggestions would come from the short list that PRMPT has
for the user that meet the “friend” categorization. Once PRMPT has the specific individuals that the
user is interested in reconnecting with, it will then notify the user of when they have time available
in their weekly schedule. This information will come from the user’s calendar and will assist the AI
with holding the user accountable for scheduling an event. Upon being prompted with the
reminder, the user will have the opportunity to snooze the suggestion or text/call their friend.
Should the user reach out to their friend, the PRMPT app will automatically update this information
and adjust the “relationship” score for that individual, as well as taking them off the weekly contact
list.
Simplify the Dashboard – One of the key ways that PRMPT will gain market share over its
competitors such as Cloze and Closr is through a reimagined dashboard focused on simplicity and
user experience. Cloze, a competitor in the CRM space, attempts to incorporate similar functionality
in its web and mobile platform, but is difficult to navigate and operate. Upon entering information
into PRMPT, the user will only have one screen to focus upon – the dashboard. The dashboard will
be a simple page where the user can add goals for their relationships and track the goals the user
has already assigned. It will show the list of people that the user should reach out to that week
based upon the AI. This simple dashboard will provide a competitive advantage over competitors as
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other small CRM platforms focus on too much additional functionality with less focus on user
experience.
Improving the AI – Setup time for applications like PRMPT can take a significant amount of
time. Going through one’s personal contacts and selecting them, defining their relationship, and
setting goals based off the independent relationships is an arduous task. By granting PRMPT access
to the user’s call, text, email, and calendar, PRMPT’s AI will determine the most important
relationships that the user has and offer its short list of important people. From this list the user can
then edit the AI’s selection should there be any important people missing from this list. PRMPT will
periodically request information from the user to improve its ability to classify relationships. This
Diversified Focus Group – Focus groups will be used to help market the product release and
refine the scope of the project. Focus groups will be beneficial in this situation as there are already
existing platforms like what PRMPT is aiming to offer. However, through focus groups, PRMPT will
be able to more clearly articulate and evaluate its competitive advantage. It will also use specific
focus groups of college students, recent college graduates, and 30-year old professionals as these
groups make up the primary target market. Through engaging with each of these groups PRMPT will
be able to diversify itself from its competitors and fine tune its product offering.
Influencers and Promoted Advertisements – In today’s world, many people engage with one
another online via social media. On social media, people can follow friends’ updates, chat, and post
status updates. Social media falls short on maintaining active and deep relationships. PRMPT is the
app that will take the user beyond simply “liking” a friend’s post. These advertisements will take
place on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and LinkedIn. They will use influencers – those with large
social media followings – to market the PRMPT app by sharing with users how it positively affects
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their offline relationships. Research has shown that influencer marketing campaigns on platforms
such as Instagram can turn a $1.00 investment into $7.65 in revenue (Medium). This strategy will
help push PRMPT’s goal of being the offline social management solution while not competing
against the social media giants, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Furthermore, advertisements
and influencers on LinkedIn will help push PRMPT’s reach into the business world and assist with
Burst Marketing Efforts – To promote organic growth of PRMPT, burst marketing efforts will
be put into place. Burst marketing efforts take place over a short period of time and include high
visibility and high frequency advertisements on social media. These burst marketing efforts will
help drive initial downloads and increase PRMPT’s visibility on the App Store and Google Play. These
Revenue – To begin, PRMPT will offer its service for a free 4-month trial period. This free
pricing model will increase user interest at the outset and allow PRMPT to grow more quickly. After
that time, users will be charged a $2 monthly fee to use the service.
Selling Data – PRMPT will also consider selling user data to advertising firms. Data that
PRMPT will collect on is contacts, relationships, calendars, location, etc. By selling the data,
customers will be able to benefit from the service at an even lower or free cost. PRMPT believes
that the benefit of offering the free service is that more users would download and use the app
more consistently. Since 20-34 year-olds are typically less concerned about data privacy than older
generations, PRMPT believes this revenue model has high potential. Considering the current
political environment, PRMPT thinks it wise to utilize a subscription method at first and consider
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Additional Alternative Revenue Path – After 25 relationships, the service will begin charging
the user 5 cents per relationship per month. This model would help distribute the cost of the
subscription method by placing a slightly higher rate on users who use the app the most. Research
suggests that the average number of relationships a person has is 150. PRMPT does not expect
users to input that many people however. As such, there will be a cap of $10 placed on this
subscription method
Target Market – The target market for PRMPT is recent college graduates around the age of
23 through business professionals around the age of 34. This demographic is very familiar with
social media, with nearly 74% of customers using at least one social media site (PEW). This
familiarity with social media services would make the addition of PRMPT an easy one. This also
supports the social media advertisement strategies outlined above. PRMPT should be able to
capture a significant portion of the market through burst advertisements, influencers, and banner
Exit Strategy – The end goal for PRMPT is to be acquired by a larger social media firm. By
being acquired, PRMPT will be more suited to expand to a larger audience with social media
integration. Social media companies can implement PRMPT into their services to assist with more
meaningful personal relationship building. Companies such as LinkedIn can market the service for
networking opportunities while companies such as Facebook and Twitter can expand their social
media tools and encourage users to meet in person or talk actively over the phone.
Strong Competitor – The CRM industry is very competitive as demonstrated in the industry
analysis at the beginning. There are several companies who offer personal CRM products, which
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PRMPT is most closely classified as. Some of the companies include Closr, Cloze, Ryze, and Etch
(Cox). One of our main competitors will be Etch as that has the most similarities. Similar to PRMPT,
Etch (Appendix 4) uses artificial intelligence to gather, organize, and analyze consumer information.
Etch gets its data from the consumer’s contacts, calendars, and social media. Furthermore, the goal
of Etch is to act as a Contact Manager which, of the competitors examined, most closely matches
PRMPT’s goal.
Competitor’s Response – With PRMPT aiming to be a lower priced but simple and efficient
app, Etch can capitalize on its own array of features. PRMPT will be using influencers on social
media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter to prominently display PRMPT and its benefits.
PRMPT will have a competitive advantage with its simplicity and low price. To combat our
recommendations, Etch can use social media influencers and guerilla marketing techniques to
demonstrate its extensive features. Etch’s AI analyzes each individual contact and enriches their
information by inputting professional experience, social media profiles, and more. Etch can take
Our Adjusted Recommendations – Amid facing apps with more expansive features, PRMPT
can develop our own additional features into the app. The additional features will be marked as
add-ins to maintain simplicity. Depending on the market response, the additional features may
become another source of revenue or may be built into the default app. By building on a simple and
effective concept, PRMPT will have the flexibility to face and mitigate future threats.
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Appendix 1 Appendix 2
Appendix 3 Appendix 4
ETCH Logo
PRMPT Logo
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Sources:
1. Ryze, https://ryzeapp.co/13-personal-crm-systems-for-your-everyday-life/
4. Salesforce, https://www.salesforce.com/crm/examples/
6. Salesforce, https://www.salesforce.com/customer-success-stories/#!page=1
8. Salesforce, https://www.salesforce.com/solutions/small-business-solutions/keep-customers/
every-marketer-should-know
technologies/
sheets/the-young-professional-workforce/
data_us_59cd51f9e4b04575111f3963.
5192571083c3
age/?dataView=1¤tTimeframe=0&selectedDistributions=adults-26-34--adults-35-54--adults-
55-64&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D
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18. Data USA, https://datausa.io/profile/cip/520201/?compare=52#employment
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