Literature Review and an Analysis of the State of the Market of
Anything Relationship Management (xRM)
xRM as an Extension of Customer Relationship Management
Jonathan P. Knoblauch and Rebecca Bulander
Pforzheim University of Applied Sciences, Tiefenbronner Str. 65, 75175 Pforzheim, Germany
Keywords: Anything Relationship Management, xRM Concept, Customer Relationship Management, Stakeholder,
Relationship Management.
Abstract: In this paper we want to point out the importance of Anything Relationship Management (xRM) as an ex-
tension of Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Therefore we will describe the historical develop-
ment of xRM and give a detailed and comprehensive literature review as well as an own definition. After
that we want to point out the key aspects of xRM compared to CRM. Finally the results of a state-of-the-art
market analysis about xRM platforms are presented and evaluated. This market analysis demonstrates the
variants of xRM platform offers. The literature review, the xRM CRM comparison and the state of the mar-
ket analysis will help future research activities towards a general xRM concept and platforms which enable
relationships to and the management of any stakeholders or entities.
1 INTRODUCTION
Many companies and organizations use Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) to manage their
customers systematically and strategically with the
support of information and communication tech-
nology (ICT).
Due to the continuous progress of ICT and the
increase of connected people, (smart) physical things
and virtual objects in the so called Internet of Every-
thing (IoE), more and more stakeholders and busi-
ness objects are mapped into the IT systems of com-
panies and organizations. This progress is called
Anything Relationship Management (xRM) meaning
a consistent and comprehensive mapping, inter-
connection and administration of all relevant objects
in the business and private sector. xRM also includes
concepts, approaches and strategies like CRM.
In this paper we want to highlight the importance
of the topic Anything Relationship Management as
an extension of Customer Relationship Manage-
ment. Therefore we will describe the historical de-
velopment of xRM and give a detailed and compre-
hensive literature review as well as an own defini-
tion. After that we want to point out the key aspects
of xRM compared to CRM. Finally the results of a
market analysis about xRM platforms are presented
and evaluated. This market analysis demonstrates
the variants of xRM platform offers. Finally a con-
clusion is given to summarize the most important
results and to give an outlook towards future re-
search that is necessary.
2 ORIGIN OF CRM AND
LITERATURE REVIEW
In this paragraph we explain the origin of the term
Anything Relationship Management. After that a
literature review about xRM and a final definition of
this expression in the context of this paper is given.
2.1 Origin of xRM
Next to the topics Cloud based CRM, Social CRM,
Mobile CRM and Big Data Analysis of customer
data xRM is one of the most important business
subjects at the moment.
Anything Relationship Management has its
origin in Marketing (McCarthy 1960). In the 1970ies
Relationship marketing as, “[…] attracting, maintai-
ning and - in multi-service organizations – enhan-
cing customer relationships” became important, be-
cause companies realized that long term relation-
236
Knoblauch J. and Bulander R..
Literature Review and an Analysis of the State of the Market of Anything Relationship Management (xRM) - xRM as an Extension of Customer
Relationship Management.
DOI: 10.5220/0005128602360244
In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on e-Business (ICE-B-2014), pages 236-244
ISBN: 978-989-758-043-7
Copyright
c
 2014 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

ships to customers contribute to the economic profit
(Berry, 1983, p. 25).
In the course of time companies did not only
concentrate on customers but also on additional
stakeholders like suppliers; therefore the expression
Relationship Management as an extension of Rela-
tionship Marketing was introduced (Smyth, 2008, p.
638).
Based on the continuous progress of ICT in
companies Customer Relationship Management
(CRM) became more and more important at the end
of the 90ies. CRM respects a customer oriented
philosophy of marketing, sales and services sup-
ported by a CRM IT system (Hippner and Wilde
2006, p. 18). At this point the focus of the definition
was again only on the customers.
In 1998 the term EXtended Relationship Mana-
gement (XRM) was used for the first time by the
software vendor Broadvision. It extended CRM to
an one-to-one relationship using internet technology
(Britsch et al. 2012, p. 83).
Until 2005 the idea of the extension of CRM in-
cluding stakeholders became more important; an
evidence for this development is the increase of soft-
ware solutions on the market for Supplier Re-
lationship Management (SRM) or Partner Relation-
ship Management (PRM). At the end of 2007 Mi-
crosoft was the first company who offered a solution
for Anything Relationship Management (xRM); it
was called Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. The ex-
pression “Extended” was changed into “Anything”
and stood not only for any stakeholder but also for
other entities like intelligent objects or assets
(Britsch and Kölmel 2011, p. 2.).
Since 2008 the expression xRM is used by more
and more software sellers; some of them extended
their existing CRM software platforms some of them
offer xRM solutions for specific branches.
The following diagram provides an overview of
the evolution of the expression xRM (see figure 1).
Figure 1: Development of the expression xRM.
2.2 Literature Review
In this section important definitions of the expres-
sion xRM which were created over the last 17 years
have been collocated and analyzed. Compared to
other literature reviews such as by Britsch and
Kölmel (2011) this literature review includes signif-
icantly more definitions. Furthermore the definitions
are not only listed, they are also evaluation by dif-
ferent criteria. Following the results of the literature
review as well as a classification of the xRM objects
will be presented. The object of the literature review
is to identify common criteria for xRM. These are
the basis for a general definition that considers the
current development in ICT.
2.2.1 Classification of the Objects of xRM
To implement xRM in an enterprise the different
objects which might have interrelations have to be
classified first. Synonymously the objects will also
be called entities. An entity is an existing object
which is distinguishable from other objects (Klein-
schmidt and Rank 2005, p. 10.).
In xRM three different categories of stakeholders
are defined: single individuals and enterprises also
called stakeholders, physical (smart) objects and
virtual assets (see also table 1).
Table 1: Entities of xRM.
Objects of xRM Synonyms Examples
Single individu-
als & enterprises
Stakeholder
entities
Customer, partner,
Employees, Supplier
Physical objects Physical entities Cars, machines,
washing machine
Virtual assets Virtual entities Documents, terms
and conditions
2.2.2 Result of the Literature Review
To conduct the literature review not only scientific
literature but also commercial publications have
been evaluated. The listed definitions were selected
because they represent a comprehensive 17 year
range (oldest and newest definition), the most im-
portant authors in our opinion and different perspec-
tives regarding the term xRM. Because of the page
limitation of this paper only the literature comprising
the most important criteria are listed and also the
different definitions of xRM are not posted on its
own in this paper (see Appendix for further infor-
mation). The evaluation criteria are the following:
1. Bibliographic information sorted by the
date.
2. For what stands the “x” in xRM?
LiteratureReviewandanAnalysisoftheStateoftheMarketofAnythingRelationshipManagement(xRM)-xRMasan
ExtensionofCustomerRelationshipManagement
237

3. Which aspects does the definition of xRM
contain?
4. Which categories of entities are mentioned?
If there is an aspect in a certain definition of xRM
missing this is marked with a minus in the following
table. The literature review in table 2 shows, that
there is a large variety in the meanings of the xRM
definition. Some have a focus on an application,
some of them on a concept and others for example
on a strategy. The results of the review also indicate
that xRM has to be implemented by ICT; it is mainly
done by a platform or a combination of platforms.
Table 2: Result of the literature review
1.Source 2.Focus 3.Defined as 4.Entities
A:Anything; E:Extended A:Application C:Concept M:Methodology S: Strategy P:Platform Stakeholder Physical objects Virtual assets
B ROAD V ISION (1998) E A, S - - -
L ANEY (2001) E A, C x - -
R ADJOU ET AL .
(2001)
E A x - x
Z WEGERS ET AL .
(2002), p. 157.
E A x - -
S CHILD - HAUER
(2003)
E C - - -
S CHUBERT (2005), p.
154f.
- S x - -
B ÜNING (2005) E M x - -
T AUB (2010) A A x - x
A SCENTIUM (2010) A P x x x
M ICROSOFT (2010),
p. 8.
A P x x x
B RITSCH & K ÖLME l
(2011), p. 3.
A P, S x x x
CAS S OFTWARE AG
(2012), p. 7.
A A, C x x x
W ERMANN (2012) A C, S x x x
B ULANDER ET AL .
(2014), P . 149.
A C x x x
A LEXAKIS ET AL .
(2014), p. 124.
A C, P x x x
Because of the variety of definitions we want to
propose a general definition, which combines the
different aspects mentioned before. Based on the
definition of Bulander (2014) this definition inte-
grates the aspect of an IT platform also:
“Anything Relationship Management (xRM), as
an advancement of CRM, is a consistent and holistic
concept of Relationship Management between and
in-between enterprises, people, physical things and
virtual assets. It is based on one or more flexible,
modular and scalable IT platforms, which can be
focussed on different branches. xRM helps enter-
prises to capture, coordinate and analyse entities and
their relationships as well as processes in the Inter-
net of Everything.”
3 KEY ASPECTS OF xRM
From the point of view of most authors, the litera-
ture review suggests that xRM is a further develop-
ment of CRM. Therefore, it is appropriate to com-
pare the two terms to determine the key aspects of
xRM.
3.1 Overview of xRM
Regarding the future development of CRM the fol-
lowing figure illustrates this process’ dependency on
a multilayered architecture with a management lay-
er, a middleware layer and a backend layer.
Figure 2: Development of xRM.
The three layers of CRM will shift towards dif-
ferent xRM layers. The management layer in xRM
describes the conceptual approach to manage the n:n
interaction, coordination and collaboration between
all entities. The middleware layer interconnects
people, enterprises, virtual assets and intelligent
objects to create virtual organizations and cross-
company business processes. This layer has to be
implemented as a highly efficiently and dynamical
platform with the capability of interoperability. The
back-end layer integrates various systems in a ho-
mogeneous system landscape. Besides ERP and
SCM systems this layer also has to integrate intelli-
gent physical things like Cyber Physical Systems
(CPS) or virtual things such as cloud computing
services.
ICE-B2014-InternationalConferenceone-Business
238

3.2 xRM in Comparison to CRM
Objectives: According to Hippner & WILD (2006),
the objectives of CRM are to establish profitable
customer relationships and a holistic customer-
oriented business strategy with CRM systems. For
this purpose, the relevant departments of a company
must be interconnected and aligned towards the
customers (Hippner and Wild, 2006, S. 8). By con-
trast, the objectives of xRM are to identify and man-
age all profitable relationships of the company and
to map them in a consistent and holistic approach
with ICT. Additionally xRM seeks to increase the
relationship quality in all relevant stakeholder rela-
tionships
Management Tasks: A company serves a popu-
lation of customers. These can be differentiated by
e. g. their buying behavior, revenue or customer
value. Therefore it is important to manage them each
in an individual way. An established approach, espe-
cially for marketing and sales, is to manage custom-
ers depending on their customer value. (Günter and
Helm 2006, p. 622.) With xRM, however, all rele-
vant relationships of the company have to be man-
aged systematically. This leads to a significantly
higher complexity of relationships management.
That complexity isn’t contained in the individual
relationships, but rather in the variation of the rela-
tionships.
Entities and Relationships: The main entities in
CRM are the customers and their relationships to the
company, the products and the services or the brand.
In xRM the customers are only one of many entities,
but still the most important. Besides virtual assets
and physical objects xRM also includes all relevant
primary and secondary stakeholders of the company.
Furthermore xRM connects stakeholders and physi-
cal objects in the real world with virtual assets in the
virtual world among themselves. Each relevant ob-
ject of the real world always exists as a digital repli-
cation in the virtual world. xRM is therefore closely
related to the IoE and can be seen as a management
layer to manage the different entities. The following
figure describes this issue.
Functional Areas and Range of Functions:
CRM systems are designed to combine activities
form the marketing, sales and service area in a coor-
dinated system environment that gets systematically
managed. Therefore the CRM system is split into
different components that each have specific re-
quirements and tasks involved. The most important
component is the operational CRM, which includes:
marketing automation, sales automation and service
automation. Another important functional area of
Figure 3: Relationships in an xRM concept.
CRM is the analytical CRM. In this component the
behavior of customers is recorded systematically
with the aim to optimize the customer-related busi-
ness processes. (Hippner and Wilde 2006, p. 48ff.)
By contrast, xRM provides significantly more func-
tionality. Besides the already mentioned functional
areas of CRM xRM also includes components for
social collaboration and cooperation. However it is
important to note that xRM functions have to be
seen more like apps that include functions out of
different functional areas to provide a certain service
for a user.
4 ANALYSIS OF THE STATE OF
THE MARKET OF xRM
This chapter contains the results of the market anal-
ysis. First we describe the modus operandi of the
analysis. After that the results are presented: first the
xRM platforms and second the further developments
on these platforms. Afterwards the results will be
discussed.
4.1 Proceeding of the Analysis
One of the results of the literature review is that
xRM is mainly perceived as a platform. Therefore
the analysis of the state of the market is focused on
xRM platforms and further Add-ons based on any
xRM platform which uses explicit the term xRM; it
also considers platforms which definitely offer xRM
major aspects in their platform even if they do not
use the term xRM. The analysis is focused on the
German market because the financial support of the
research program refers to Germany. The analysis
also considers major US vendors active on the
LiteratureReviewandanAnalysisoftheStateoftheMarketofAnythingRelationshipManagement(xRM)-xRMasan
ExtensionofCustomerRelationshipManagement
239

German market.
The results of the state of the market analysis
were raised through literature researches in books,
scientific magazines and on the web (especially the
home page of the xRM vendors). Specific sources
from SCHWETZ (2014), SCHWETZ (2013) and
BRITSCH ET AL. (2013) were incorporated in the
analysis. Furthermore a survey was carried out dur-
ing the CeBIT 2014 in Hannover (Germany) and
discussions (personal, email etc.) with xRM vendors
and xRM experts were conducted.
4.2 Result of the Analysis of the State
of the Market
Table 3: Result of the market analysis of xRM platforms.
Vendor / Product
Software
model *
A B C D E F
Microsoft /
Dynamics CRM 4.0
OP, OD,
H
(1)++,
(2)++,
(3)++
++
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
CAS Software /
CAS genesisWorld
OP, OD
(1)++,
(2)++,
(3)+
++
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
Genius4U /
SugarCRM
OP, OD
(1)++,
(2)++,
(3)+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
Salesforce /
Salesforce1
Plattform
OD
(USA)
(1)++,
(2)++,
(3)+
++ +
+
+
+
+
+
+
Netsuite / CRM+ OD
(1)++,
(2)++,
(3)++
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
GSD Software /
GSD XRM -
Docuframe
OP, OD
(1)++,
(2)++,
(3)++
++
+
+
-
+
+
-
Glaux Soft AG /
Evidence Platform
OP, OD
(1)++,
(2)+,
(3)+
++
+
+
+ + -
CDC Software /
CDC Pivotal
OP, OD
(1)++,
(2)++,
(3)-
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
Zoho / CRM OD
(1)++,
(2)++,
(3)++
+ +
+
+
+
+
+
+
Sage CRM
Solutions/
SageCRM
OP, OD
(1)++,
(2)++,
(3)+
++ + +
+
+
+
+
Adito Software
GmbH /
ADITO4
OP, OD
(1)++,
(2)++,
(3)+
++
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
TecArt GmbH /
TecArt CRM
OP, OD,
H
(1)++,
(2)++,
(3)+
++ + +
+
+
o
Selligent GmbH /
CRM & Interactive-
Marketing-Suite
OP, OD,
H
(1)++,
(2)++,
(3)+
++ + +
+
+
o
Remarks to the table:
*Software Model: OP: On-Premise,
OD: On-Demand, H: Hybrid
A: Administration of entities: (1) Stakeholder, (2) Virtual
assets (3) Physical objects
B: Basic functionalities
C: Extendable and flexible
D: Functionalities of reporting and analysis
E: Mobile access
F: Support of Social Media
Table 4: Result of Add-ons based on xRM-Platforms.
Vendor
Based on
Bran-
ches
xRM Functionalities
arvato
Systems
MS D 1, 6
Management of contacts (VIP,
artists, speaker, moderators, etc.)
proMX
GmbH
MS D 8
Project Management,
administration of travel costs and
holiday, human resource
Management (skill and profile),
controlling functionalities
awisto
business
solutions
GmbH
MS D 1, 5, 6, 7
Project and document Management,
Management of contacts, route
planning reclamations,
administration of trainings and
service contracts,
Team4
M
S D, Lotu
s
Notes,
Team4
solution
1, 2, 5, 6
,
7
Management of contacts (supplier,
investors, journalists etc.), adminis-
tration of publications & conference
participants), Key Account &
Product Management
Axcentro
GmbH
MS D 1, 2, 5
eGovernment Management, Event
Management, Student Management,
Management of contacts (artists,
etc.)
BPA Solutions
GmbH
MS Share-
Point
8
Quality, Project, Recruiting and
Risk Management
eNovation
Business IT
GmbH
MS D 8
SRM, Partner Relationship
Management, Human Resource
Management, etc.
FWI Infor-
mation Tech-
nology GmbH
MS D 3, 5
SRM, Fleet Management,
administration of trainings,
financial accounting
itdesign
GmbH
CAS 8
Applicant and Employee
Management
itelligence AG
S
AP-System
e
8
Flexible adjustment to the project
Movento
GmbH
SAP CRM
C
AS & CAS
PIA
1
Administration of schools and
office equipment
Unidienst
GmbH
MS D
1, 2,
3,4,5,6,7
Product configuration,
administration and Management of
objects, sub contractors and
competitors
Cluster Reply
MS D 3, 5
Contract Management,
Management of Objects, Call
Center, Apps for Automobile
provalida
GmbH
SugarCRM,
IBM,
Epiphany
Cobago
8 but
focussed
o
n 3, 5,
6
Individual development, Campaign
Management
crmpartners
MS D 8
Finance Management, Member
Management, individual
development
Remarks to the table:
Based on:
MS D: Microsoft Dynamics CRM
CAS: CAS Genesis World
IBM: IBM Enterprise Marketing Management
Branches:
1 = Public and Private Service Provider
2 = Energy, Water Supply, Mining
3 = Industry
4 = Building Industry
5 = Trade, Transportation & Hotel and Restaurant Industry
6 = Financial Services
7 = Medicine, Chemical & Pharmaceutical Industry
8 = Intersectoral
ICE-B2014-InternationalConferenceone-Business
240

The state of the market analysis pointed out that
there is a wide range of xRM platform vendors
(Table 3) and xRM vendors that offer further Add-
ons (Table 4) for xRM platforms. Regarding xRM
platforms vendors, there are three kinds of platform
to be distinguished. First are xRM vendors who offer
a generic xRM platform that gets enhanced and
adjusted by business partners or users for specific
industries (e. g. Microsoft), second are xRM
vendors such as CAS who also work with business
partners to enhance and adjust their platform but
also offer own industry-specific xRM solutions, and
third are some xRM vendors that offer a platform on
which apps, functions or enhancements can be
purchased depending on user requirements and
industries (e. g. Salesforce). The xRM platform is
thereby sold and distributed by the xRM vendor.
Other developers can develop apps and publish them
in the company’s own App-Store. Most of the xRM
vendors have an on-premise and an on-demand
delivery model. Some vendors like Salesforce or
Netsuite only have an on-premise delivery model.
The investigation of the administrated entities has
shown that all vendors more or less allow the
mapping of stakeholders and virtual assets. The
mapping of physical entities however is not
supported by all vendors. But it is important to note
that physical entities (especially smart objects) could
be integrated via Web services, which in turn get
supported by several vendors. All xRM platforms
have a relatively large basic functionality and
extensibility. The extensibility is limited when
vendors are offering only an App-Store to add new
functions and extension. Reporting and analysis
functions as well as mobile access are available on
most of the xRM platforms. This indicates that
mobile computing is generally accepted in the
xRM/CRM market. Only social media support is not
consistently realized on xRM platforms. In
summary, it can be stated that the xRM platform
vendors offer a wide range of solutions. Microsoft
(with their Dynamics CRM solutions) is certainly
one of the most competitive xRM vendors since they
have positioned themselves early in the xRM
market. In the German market the company CAS has
also established themselves well especially for small
and medium-sized enterprises.
There are a variety of companies offering xRM
solutions based on customized xRM platforms.
These companies are typically business partners of
xRM platform vendors and develop xRM solutions
to one or more specific industry sectors. For
example, the company arvato Systems has
specialized themselves with their product CARE
xRM which caters towards social services. Other
companies like Movento GmbH focus on public
administration, schools and institutions. Lots of
companies also act across variety industries and
merge different third-party applications to create
powerful customized xRM solutions. The survey
regarding Add-ons based on xRM platforms made
clear that two-third of xRM Add-ons solutions are
implemented on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM
platform. But it must be taken into account that the
analysis primarily was focused on solutions that
mention the term xRM. Since Microsoft uses this
term already several years, this is an explanation
why so many Add-ons are based on Dynamics
CRM.
5 CONCLUSIONS
5.1 Summary
At the beginning of this paper we highlighted the
importance of xRM. Then we described that
relationship management is the theoretical origin
and CRM is the technological origin of xRM and
demonstrated the development towards the
expression xRM. After that an extensive literature
review was provided. The main findings out of the
literature review were that the ‘x’ in xRM stands for
anything since around 2010, newer definitions see
xRM primarily as a concept as well as a
methodology and all newer definitions include the
entities stakeholder, virtual asset and physical
object. Another important key finding was that xRM
is perceived as one or more IT platforms that offers
different services to user. Out of those research
findings we provided an xRM definition which
includes all important xRM aspects. We continued
by describing the key aspects of xRM in comparison
to CRM. After that, the results of the state of the
market analysis of xRM platforms and Add-ons on
existing xRM platforms were presented. Important
results were that there are three kinds of xRM
platform vendors. xRM vendors who only offer a
generic xRM platform that can get enhanced and
adjusted by business partners or users, xRM vendors
that only provide a platform on which all needed
functionality can be added through provide
enhancements and xRM vendors who provide both
variants. Another result of this analysis was that
there are already vendors that offer xRM platforms
and functionalities, but they do not really cover all
aspects of xRM. The reason is that xRM is at its
beginning and the enabling technology like Internet
LiteratureReviewandanAnalysisoftheStateoftheMarketofAnythingRelationshipManagement(xRM)-xRMasan
ExtensionofCustomerRelationshipManagement
241

Protocol version 6 or context sensitive sensors to
integrate context sensitive information are at an
early stage and have to be more adapted in the
practical use.
5.2 Implications and Research Outlook
The literature review and the state of the art market
analysis are the basis to create a general xRM
concept and platform, which enables relationships to
any kind of stakeholder, virtual assets and physical
(smart) objects also using context information. The
next steps of our research project are to develop such
an xRM concept and an xRM prototype to
demonstrate a specific xRM use case for SME
(Small and Medium Enterprises). The xRM concept
should also offer a guideline for companies how to
establish xRM in a company. The prototype will
help to evaluate the xRM concept and will be
implemented for a defined process out of a specific
scenario like Smart Factory, Smart Mobility, or
Smart Building. Based on such an xRM concept
value creation, networking, administration and
management of the complex network of relations of
companies and organizations is possible.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank the research
program of Karl Steinbuch of the MFG Innovation
Agency for ICT and Media for the financial support
of the research project “Ma-x-RM – Management
concept of Anything Relationship Management”.
REFERENCES
Alexakis, S.; Bauer, M.; Britsch, J.; Kölmel, B. (2014):
Interoperability in Service-Oriented Production
Networks: Managing n:n Relationships with xRM. In:
Charalabidis, Y.; Lampathaki, F.; Jardim-Goncalves,
R. (eds.): Revolutionizing Enterprise Interoperability
through Scientific Foundations, pp. 119-136.
Ascentium (2010): CRM: the tip of the XRM
iceberg. URL: http://www.istart.co.nz/index/HM20/P
C0/PVC197/EX245/AR211044 (accessed
03.27.2014).
Berry, L. L. (1983): "Relationship Marketing.". In: Berry,
L. L.; Shostack, G. L.; Upah G. (eds.): Emerging
Perspectives on Services Marketing. American
Marketing Association, pp. 25–28.
Britsch, J.; Bulander, R.; Kölmel, B. (2013): Anything
Relationship Management (xRM) as Management
Layer for the Hyper-connected Society. In:
Collaborative Systems for Reindustrialization. 14th
IFIP WG 5.5 Working Conference on Virtual
Enterprises, PRO-VE 2013, Dresden, Germany:
Springer, pp. 451–458.
Britsch, J.; Kölmel, B. (2011): From CRM to xRM:
Managerial Trends and Future Challenges on the Way
to Anything Relationship Management. Conference
and exhibition, October, Florence, Italy. Dublin:
IIMC, International Information Management
Corporation.
Britsch, J.; Schacht, S.; Mädche, A. (2012): Anything
Relationship Management. In: Wirtschaftsinformatik,
Volume 54, Issue 2, pp. 83–85.
BroadVision (1998): BroadVision Featured in
BusinessWeek's 'InfoTech 100,' press release, PR
Newswire Association LLC, Oct. 27, 1998.
Bulander, R.; Kölmel, B.; Wüstemann, J. (2014):
Auswirkungen des Anything Relationship
Managements auf das Dialogmarketing. In:
Dialogmarketing Perspektiven 2013/2014. Wiesbaden:
Springer
Büning, M. (2005): Jenseits des Kunden. URL: http://
www.team4.de/wpcontent/uploads/2013/10/Team4Ac
quisa2005Beziehungspflege.pdf (accessed 23.1.2014).
CAS Software AG (2012): xRM – Nutzen Sie die Kraft
Ihres Netzwerks, white paper, 2012, URL: http://
www.cas.de/fileadmin/user_uploads/Enterprise/Mittel
stand/Download/Zentrale_Dokumente/xRM_ Whitepa
per_fuer_CAS_Mittelstand.pdf (accessed 24.02.2014).
Günter, B.; Helm, S. (2006): Kundenwert. Grundlagen -
Innovative Konzepte - Praktische Umsetzungen.
Wiesbaden: Gabler Verlag.
Hippner, H.; Wilde, K. D. (2006): Grundlagen des CRM.
Konzepte und Gestaltung. Wiesbaden: Gabler Verlag.
Kleinschmidt, P.; Rank, C. (2005): Relationale
Datenbanksysteme. Eine praktische Einführung. Berlin
[et. al.]: Springer.
Laney, D. (2001): Application Delivery Strategies. The
Great Enterprise Balancing Act: Extended Rela-
tionship Management (XRM). URL: http://blogs.
gartner.com/doug-laney/files/2012/02 /ad1074-The-
Great-Enterprise-Balancing-Act-Extended-Relation
ship-Management-XRM.pdf (accessed 02.03.2014).
McCarthy, E. J. (1960): Basic marketing, a managerial
approach: Homewood, IL: Richard D. Irwin.
Microsoft (2010): The xRM Advantage for Solution
Builers.URL: http://microsoftaucrm.wordpress.com/20
10/05/20/new-dynamics-crm-white-paper-the-xrm-ad
vantage-for-solution-builders/ (accessed 02.11.2014).
Radjou, N.; Orlov, L. M.; Child, M. (2001): "Apps For
Dynamic Collaboration," The Forrester Report. In:
Forrester Research, MA: Cambridge.
Schildhauer, T. (2003): Lexikon Electronic Business.
München: Oldenbourg.
Schubert, V. A. (2005): XRM integrated customer
relationship management for pharmaceutical
innovations. Thesis, Technical University Berlin.
Schwetz, W. (2013): xRM-Markt im Aufwärtstrend.
URL:http://www.marketing-boerse.de/Marktueber
sicht/details/1316-xRM/41886 (accessed 03.04.2014).
ICE-B2014-InternationalConferenceone-Business
242

Schwetz, W. (2014): xRM - das CRM der dritten
Dimension. URL: http://www.computerwoche.de/
a/xrm-das-crm-der-dritten-dimension,2515
917 (accessed 02.11.2014).
Smyth, H. (2008): The credibility gap in stakeholder
management: ethics and evidence of relationship man-
agement. In: Construction Management and Econom-
ics, 26:6, pp. 633–643.
Taub, J. (2010): Managing Relationships with Microsoft
Dynamics CRM. URL: http://www.crmsoftwareblog.
com/2010/06/managing-relationships-with-microsoft-
dynamics-crm/ (accessed 03.02.2014).
Wermann, B. (2012): xRM: ein Managementkonzept
macht Schule. URL:http://www.springerprofessional.d
e/xrm-ein-managementkonzept/3550460.html (ac-
cessed 03.13.2014).
Zwegers, A.; Wubben, H.; Hartel, I. (2002): Relationship
Management in Enterprise Networks. In: Mařı
́
k, V.
(egs.): Knowledge and technology integration in pro-
duction and services. IFIP – The International Federa-
tion for Information Processing, Volume 101, pp. 157-
164.
APPENDIX
xRM Definitions
Source Definition
BROAD-
VISION
(1998).
„BroadVision believed that the Internet would funda-
mentally alter the way businesses conduct commerce
and communications around the world. This belief led
us to bring to market a series of strategic Internet
applications that enable companies to manage one-to-
one relationships across an extended, global enter-
prise. This Extended Relationship Management
strategy – what we call XRM – is at the core of all
BroadVision products and services.“
LANEY
(2001).
„By 2005, extended relationship management (XRM)
practices, discrete technologies, and inclusive busi-
ness solutions (e. g., ERP) will surface to offer a more
holistic means of administering and measuring all
enterprise points of interaction (POIs). Advanced
offerings will accommodate interaction with all
business allies across all channels, and just as com-
mercial CRM solutions entered the mainstream in the
late 1990s, packaged XRM technologies will become
viable by 2007. [...] Advanced XRM solutions will
also manage relationships with secondary business
allies (e.g., local/federal/international government,
community, industry organizations, investors, associa-
tive PECS, even competitors)“
RADJOU ET
AL
. (2001).
„To collaborate effectively, firms will need a new
breed of apps called eXtended relationship manage-
ment (XRM) to help them speed up and expand the
scope of supplier, channel, and customer relation-
ships. XRM apps enable firms to monitor partner
status, manage intercompany transactions – and
optimize design, production, and service.“
ZWEGERS ET
AL
. (2002), p.
157.
„To enable the cooperation of multiple organizations
in supply chains or virtual enterprises, the relations
between these partners need to be defined. Configura-
tion and set-up tools are needed to define inter-
enterprise relationships, in addition to applications for
monitoring, management, and optimization of inter-
enterprise business processes. Before processes within
a supply chain or virtual enterprise can be executed,
the relations between the various partners have to be
defined by means of tools for the set-up of these
cooperation forms. These so-called eXtended Rela-
tionship Management (XRM) services can be used to
configure a whole supply chain or virtual enterprise.“
SCHILDHAU-
ER
(2003).
(translation)
“Due to Extended Relationship Management concept
(XRM) the interactions with the company environ-
ment are optimized and a profitable and continuous
Relationship Management is thereby enabled.”
SCHUBERT
(2005), p.
154f.
„Integrated customer relationship management is
translated into the term XRM: targeting all the cus-
tomers involved in the industry and managing the
relationship between them and the pharmaceutical
company interdependently. […] The XRM approach
allows a holistic communication strategy appropriate
for the pharmaceutical product involved. It includes
the explicit consideration of processes, players and
positioning. “
BÜNING
(2005).
(translation)
“[xRM] is about relationships, which every company
maintains – to customers, to business partners, to
lobbyists and facilities, to all stakeholders companies
are in contact. All of these stakeholders want to be
cared of and looked after. This goes further than the
typical CRM approach, which largely concentrates on
the static assignment of one person to one company.”
TAUB
(2010).
„This new era of CRM is focused on relationship
management. Some in the industry call it "XRM"
because the X factor can mean any relationship
important for a business to manage information
around. For example, an Insurance agency focused on
providing employee benefit plans would need to
manage the relationships between clients, quotes,
policies, carriers, policy rates, producers and commis-
sions. Now that businesses are able to configure a rich
application in line with their own specific needs, the
return on investment can be companywide and not
just focused on specific department silos.“
ASCENTIUM
(2010).
„An effective CRM shouldn’t be just about sales and
marketing. It’s a platform for developing line of
business applications – applications that manage and
track information and processes around real-world
objects. The object could be a customer, but it could
also be a grant, building, or a potential candidate for
hire. The key question is: “Do I need to track the in-
formation and activities related to this entity?” If the
answer is “yes,” then you should be thinking xRM,
where the ‘x’ might represent ‘supplier,’ ‘channel,’
‘partner,’ or some other term.“
MICROSOFT
(2010), p. 8.
„The “X” in xRM stands for “anything,” connoting
the framework’s flexibility to accelerate the develop-
ment applications for virtually any type of relationship
managed by a line-of-business (LOB) application.”
[...] “An application developed with xRM is able to
help any team manage any relationship, any relevant
process, and any data. Known as a relational LOB
application, a custom solution developed on xRM
could be used to manage vendors, assets, people,
partners, licenses, or any other aspect of a business
that involves relationships, which is most of what
business is about.“
BRITSCH &
KÖLMEL
(2011), p. 3.
„Anything Relationship Management, xRM is a
holistic management strategy containing the integra-
tive data collection, analysis, and control of any kind
of relationships that concern any kind of organization-
al entities, using appropriate positions, processes, and
line of business applications based on a flexible,
scalable software platform with a high degree of stan-
dardization, aiming to establish beneficial col-
laboration among entities, and, eventually, to con-
tribute to the long-term success of the organization.“
CAS
SOFTWARE
AG (2012),
p. 7.
(translation)
“Anything Relationship Management could be
translated with Relationship Management for all sorts
of things’.” […] “Similar to the mathematical varia-
ble, ‘x’ represents any single individual or thing. It’s
no longer only about the customer relationship (like in
CRM) but also about the relations network between
any organizational stakeholders and entities. xRM is
LiteratureReviewandanAnalysisoftheStateoftheMarketofAnythingRelationshipManagement(xRM)-xRMasan
ExtensionofCustomerRelationshipManagement
243

the continuation of the CRM-idea to a company’s
whole ecosystem. By means of xRM the junctions of
an organization should be interconnected and support-
ed.” […] “Like CRM, xRM is not only a software but
also a management concept.”
WERMANN
(2012).
(translation)
“xRM is the further development of CRM, which
provides sales a holistic view of all important data,
relationships and facts around customer relationships.
As a company strategy for the connected world all
relationships of an organisation are captured, con-
trolled and analysed through appropriate xRM tools.”
[…] “It’s no longer only about customer relationships
but rather about the relations network between all
sorts of humans (e. g. employees, customers, partners,
suppliers), things (e. g. products, vehicle fleet, real
estate) and virtual assets (e. g. documents, events, test
series).”
BULANDER
ET AL
.
(2014), p.
149.
(translation)
“xRM (Anything Relationship Management) de-
scribes a holistic relationship management concept
within and between organizations, humans as well as
virtual and physical objects. xRM connects the Inter-
net of Services and the Internet of Things, it coordi-
nates the relations between the different actors and
objects and includes the interactive processes between
them.”
ALEXAKIS ET
AL
. (2014),
p. 124.
„xRM is the concept of managing n:n relationships in
collaboration networks by connecting all related
parties through a common IT platform. The typical
xRM platform/app architecture and its deployment in
the cloud allow a scalable integration of systems,
stakeholders, things, and services, while at the same
time guaranteeing interoperability and seamless
processes between all companies of the network.“
ICE-B2014-InternationalConferenceone-Business
244