Part A
Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. (40 points)
One key answer to the problem of finding and keeping customers—and turning their good will into sales—is having good customer relationship management (CRM). CRM's goal is to create a cooperation among sales, marketing, and customer-service activities within an organization in order to obtain and retain customers. CRM on the Internet—e-CRM—uses Web technology to create such a cooperation.
E-CRM means different things to different companies. Some enter e-CRM through traditional contact-management and sales-force automation software from such vendors as Gold Mine Software Corp. or Interact Commerce Corp. Many companies see e-CRM as a natural extension of their call centers. In an ideal system, historical information, such as customers' buying preferences, or circumstantial information, such as customer-contract volumes, can launch actions and data screens. Finally, companies with corporate enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems see e-CRM as a natural part of computer-facilitated management.
You don't need to begin on a grand scale; you can take small steps toward a comprehensive e-CRM system with experienced contact management companies such as Commence Corp. Gold Mine Software Corp., Interact Commerce Corp., and Multiactive Software. GoldMine 5.0 is aimed at teams of 1 to 50 users who want to track, refer, and act on telephone and e-mail contacts from customers. The users needn't reside on a local network to coordinate an action. All each user needs is an IP address. Gold Mine Front Office offers templates for specific industries; these define roles and relationships and include rules for workflow processes. Similarly, Interact Commerce Corp. has a multi-layer product family, including ACT2000 and SalesLogix2000. Each can integrate the activities of sales, marketing, and support teams.
Smaller organizations can also take advantage of the services of dot-com companies such as salesforce.com and UpShot.com, which focus primarily on sales-force automation. These companies will put your basic e-CRM services online for under $50 per user per month. On the downside, you don't get much customization or integration.
Some e-CRM companies have fewer options, and often concentrate on vertical markets. Janna Systems, for example, specializes in e-CRM solutions for the financial services industry. Some companies, such as eGain Communications Corp. and Talisma Corp. specialize in e-mail based CRM and offer both hosted and online services. Socrates Technologies Corp. takes the online ASP approach and offers the SalesLogix2000 suite on the Web along with other e-business applications.
In the opening paragraph, the author introduces his topic by

A. posing a contrast.
B. making a comparison.
C. explaining a term.
D. defining an invention.