Is CRM Ready for Industry 4.0? A Historical Technological Framework Completed Research

The 4th Industrial Revolution, sometimes known as Industry 4.0, has disrupted the business and technology landscapes. Industry practitioners remain under pressure to adopt these innovations for competitive advantage. Enterprise systems (ES), such as customer relationship management (CRM) systems, are not exempt from these pressures, and indeed CRM may be at the forefront of company investments. Although CRM systems have been studied substantially, we did not find a summative framework integrating CRM innovations with their enabling technologies. We developed this framework by searching the academic literature on CRM, industrial revolutions, and technology innovation, juxtaposing the various phases of CRM evolution within the technical landscape that precipitated them. We identified a lag between the inception of technologies and their adoption within CRM systems. The purpose of this paper is to provide a technological perspective of CRM's history and state of the art, and its readiness to capitalize on Industry 4.0 innovations.