a study of customer relationship management strategies in ites industry
TRANSCRIPT
SIVA SIVANI INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT
A REPORT ON
CRM STRATEGIES IN ITES INDUSTRY
SUBMITTED TO,
SAI BABA Sir
SUBMITTED BY
DIWAKAR(17098)
SHIVENDRA(17107)
SAMEER(17103)
Information Technology Enabled Services
(ITES)
Definition:
ITES, Information Technology Enabled Service, is defined as outsourcing of processes that
can be enabled with information technology and covers diverse areas like finance, HR,
administration, health care, telecommunication, manufacturing etc. Armed with technology
and manpower, these services are provided from e-enabled locations.
Objectives of ITES
ITES was formerly known as IndoNet.
The main objectives of ITES are:
Enabling business strategy
Achieving an organization's business goals
ITES Services
ITES offers different services integrated in a single delivery mechanism to end users.
Some of the services offered include:
Medical Transcription
Document Processing
Data Entry and Processing
Data Warehousing
IT Help Desk Services
Application Development
Enterprise Resource Planning
Business process outsourcing
Business process outsourcing (BPO) is a form of outsourcing that involves the contracting of
the operations and responsibilities of a specific business functions (or processes) to a third-
party service provider. Originally, this was associated with manufacturing firms, such as
Coca Cola that outsourced large segments of its supply chain. [1]. In the contemporary
context, it is primarily used to refer to the outsourcing of services.
BPO is typically categorized into back office outsourcing - which includes internal business
functions such as human resources or finance and accounting, and front office outsourcing -
which includes customer-related services such as contact center services.
BPO that is contracted outside a company's country is called offshore outsourcing. BPO that
is contracted to a company's neighboring (or nearby) country is called nearshore
outsourcing.
Given the proximity of BPO to the information technology industry, it is also categorized as
an information technology enabled service or ITES. Knowledge process outsourcing(KPO)
and legal process outsourcing (LPO) are some of the sub-segments of business process
outsourcing industry.
Knowledge process outsourcing
Knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) is a form of outsourcing, in which knowledge-related and
information-related work is carried out by workers in a different company or by a subsidiary of the
same organization, which may be in the same country or in an offshore location to save cost. Unlike
the outsourcing of manufacturing, this typically involves high-value work carried out by highly skilled
staff. KPO firms, in addition to providing expertise in the processes themselves, often make many
low level business decisions—typically those that are easily undone if they conflict with higher-level
business plans.
Types of KPO services
KPO services include the following:
Market research services
Legal research services (also known as Legal Process Outsourcing)
Patent research services
Challenges to providers
In addition to the challenges faced by clients, KPO companies themselves have challenges:
High staff turnover, especially where work is not challenging to the employee's skills
High cost of training and tendency to lose the most experienced employees to the
clients
Ensuring the security and confidentiality of information, especially when privacy laws
vary from one country to another
Market researching
Leaders in the market research industry are slowly seeing the benefits offered by KPO and
have begun outsourcing.Comprehensive IT solutions are offered by vendors who provide
solutions covering the entire life cycle of a market research project. Smaller firms can also
benefit from these solutions as they are cost effective and remain within the budget of
smaller organizations.
KPO is claimed to efficiently increase productivity and increase cost savings in the area of
market research.Advocates claim that the trend is likely to prove increasingly popular in the
global market research industry.
Literature Review (CRM Practices in ITES)
The Indian Business Process Outsourcing Industry: An Evaluation of Firm-
Level customer Relation Management - Arti Grover, Delhi School of Economics, University of
Delhi
Introduction
Companies in high wage nations are increasingly viewing offshoring of services as a strategic and
essential element of their business strategy. Offshoring enhances the overall productivity of the
sourcing firm by lowering its costs of production, providing access to high quality resources not
available internally and releasing internal resources1. The impact of offshoring on the productivity of
the buyer has been widely researched2, however, little investigation has gone into the factors that
explain the productivity of the supplier in an outsourcing relationship. A major stumbling block in
such an evaluation is the complete absence of any theory relating to the service provider firm. In this
paper, we borrow relevant features of a firm, which resembles that of a typical service provider firm
from different strands of literature. This helps us formulate an econometric model of a
representative Business Process Outsourcing3 (BPO) or Information technology enabled services
(ITES) firm to quantitatively evaluate the factors that explains its performance in India.
The specification of our econometric model is based on the available literature on the theory of a
supplier and preliminary analysis of aggregate and firm level data. Our estimation of BPO firm
performance indicates that in the year 2002-03, prior experience, number of locations, funding from
venture capitalists and the number of clients positively affects a firm’s performance while
investment on information security certification, which is a mandate from the client, does not
benefit the supplier firm, at least in the short run. Further, we find that our empirical results are
robust and invariant to the choice of estimation technique.
Predictions of the model for the BPO Industry
In the Indian BPO space, Venture Capitalist funds such as Oak Hill, General Atlantic Partners,
Westbridge Capital, Warburg Pincus, among others have been very active and have invested more
than US$ 300 million from 2001 to 2003. In the first stage of BPO development in India, when
competition was low, firms backed by VC did not perform well. Examples include firms like Tracmail,
Epicenter Technologies and Infowavz which have now touched the stage of insolvency while
Transworks and FirstRing have already closed down. As is true of the externally financed
intermediate good suppliers in the Aghion et al model, the initial development of the Indian BPO
industry faced lower incentives for technology adoption for firms funded by VC. This is obvious from
their poor performance. However, in the past decade, competition in the Indian BPO industry.
Significance of CRM
Customer retention through better customer services is very significant for any business enterprise.
The slowdown in global economy and tough competition among the enterprises made the
companies to focus at cost containment and growth in profitability. Managing the good relationship
with the customers is the only key to success and for the survival of the business. The concept
customer relationship management helps companies to not only to retain the existing customers,
but also widen the customer base. The cost of retaining a customer is one-fifth in the cost of
acquiring a new customer. CRM helps in tracking marketing opportunities better and focus on those
customers who not only increase the sales/volume but also in terms of profitability. CRM is defined
as tracking customer behavior in order to develop marketing and maintaining customer relationship
to a brand often by a development of software system provides one-on one contact between the
marketing business and their customer. CRM is a business strategy, which includes the people,
processes, and technology associated with a marketing and service. It provides information for every
corporate activity from marketing to fulfillment.
CRM embodies six key disciplines: Sales force Automation; Marketing Automation; Help Desk, and
call center. The CRM technology promise to retain customers and boost the top line continues to
resonate with companies recovering from a tough economy. Apart from customer relationship
management, CRM also referred as customer relationship marketing and continuous retention
marketing.
CRM's largest vendors such as siebel, people soft, Oracle, and SAP will continues to grow and
expand their reach into newer application segments, such as marketing automation, partner-
relationship management and even employee-relationship management. ICICI Bank, HDFC Standard
Life, UTI and ABN-Amro are now looking at business process management to increase returns on
investment, improve customer relationship management and employee productivity. The worldwide
CRM services market reached $22 billion in 2002-03, a 10.6 percent increase from the prior year
according to Gartner group. The group forecasts this market to hit $25.3 billion in 2003-04, and $47
billion by 2006. The CRM market in India has witnessed a healthy growth and expects the CRM
software market to grow at a CAGR of 40% to reach Rs 188 crores in 2006.
Predictions of the model for the BPO Industry
In the Indian BPO space, Venture Capitalist funds such as Oak Hill, General Atlantic Partners,
Westbridge Capital, Warburg Pincus, among others have been very active and have invested more
than US$ 300 million from 2001 to 2003. In the first stage of BPO development in India, when
competition was low, firms backed by VC did not perform well. Examples include firms like Tracmail,
Epicenter Technologies and Infowavz which have now touched the stage of insolvency while
Transworks and FirstRing have already closed down. As is true of the externally financed
intermediate good suppliers in the Aghion et al model, the initial development of the Indian BPO
industry faced lower incentives for technology adoption for firms funded by VC. This is obvious from
their poor performance. However, in the past decade, competition in the Indian BPO industryhas
grown tremendously and therefore by the Aghion et al model we would expect higher pace of
technology adoption and performance for VC backed BPO firms8. We will test this in the empirical
section of the paper.
In the Aghion et al model, it is easy to see that a high fixed (and variable) cost of operation 9
decreases the pace of technology adoption and hence firm performance. This is primarily the reason
to expect low performance in firms with high proportion of voice based process. On the cost side,
firms with a high proportion of voice processes have high fixed costs of operation (like dialer running
and maintenance, bandwidth costs) as well as high employee wages10 and related expenses, while on
the revenue side, voice processes are among the ones with lowest billing rates. Voice processes
typically require low entry-level skill which induces higher competition and thus drives down
prices11. For instance, Wipro BPO, Spectramind blames its poor performance in the past to a high
proportion of voice processes and there had been a clear mandate to reduce this proportion from
84% in 2005 to 60% in a span of 18 months for improving its margins.
Aghion et al model also implies that high (variable) labor cost, lowers the pace of technology
adoption and hence firm performance. This is intuitive because increasing labor cost lowers not only
the expected profit from adopting a new technology, but it also increases the cost of adopting the
technology. In the Indian BPO industry, high employee attrition12 rates averaging about 40%, (In
2002, the attrition rate in Wipro BPO was 120%) are additional costs, over and above the wage
inflation of 15-20% per annum. Attrition13,14 is a big drain on the revenues of BPO firms. It costs a
company $1000 to train an agent. GENPACT, the largest Indian third party vendor, spends about
$10 million and over 1.5 million man hours per annum on training and it takes at least three
months for a new employee to reach an optimum productivity level. To combat high attrition,
GENPACT maintains a buffer of 15% employees on bench which further increases labor costs and
lowers firm performance15. High bonuses, salary hike, incentives, door-to-door transportation
services and offsite team events are some of the strategies to fight attrition which have additionally
pushed up the average labor cost of the industry and pulled down the margins. It is worth noticing
that voice-based processes, which are characterized by high levels of stress and odd working hours16,
are again at a disadvantage due to high attrition rate. Attrition in voice based processes averages
between 50-55% as against an average of 30-35% for non-voice work. As cost of labor rises in India,
voice-based BPO firms may be unsustainable in future if higher rates of attrition persist.
To combat the problem arising from high labor and operational costs, firms try to maximize “shift
utilization” (that is, 3 eight hour shifts) from their fixed investment of $ 10,000-$ 15,000 per seat in
office space. However, reality is far from ideal. Shift utilization of Indian call centers is about 1.5-2
shifts principally because 80% of the call center business in India comes from the US, which implies
that most of these seats are vacant for 16 hours. To increase seat utilization, BPO firms actively look
for clients across the US, that is, from the east coast to the west coast, as well as in UK and Australia.
To increase seat utilization, call centers handle their voice-based services during business hours and
use non-business hours to answer queries through e-mail. This may also enable a healthy balance of
voice and non-voice processes and thereby help evade the problems typical of a voice based
process.
Indian Offshore Suppliers: The Market LeadersUnderstanding the Market Leads to Better Vendor Relationship.
by Stephanie Moore and William Martorelli with Adam Brown
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Large suppliers continue to dominate the market for Indian software and services exports.
This is due to the preference of North American customers for large, seemingly stable
partners. Indeed, these Indian industry leaders remain ideal vendor partners for large
customers seeking significant scale in their offshore operations. The leading Indian suppliers
will continue to pace the market, but cracks are beginning to appear. Obliged to continue
their rapid growth by seeking the largest opportunities, their customer responsiveness and
recruitment/retention policies are being tested. Smaller Indian suppliers are emerging as
viable alternatives. While customers struggle to differentiate the leading Indian suppliers,
which all seem to have the same breadth of capabilities, important differences exist. One of
the most significant differences is the relationship management philosophy by which they
engage with their customers.
Large suppliers continue to dominate the market for Indian software and services exports.
This is due to the preference of North American customers for large, seemingly stable
partners. Indeed, these Indian industry leaders remain ideal vendor partners for large
customers seeking significant scale in their offshore operations. The leading Indian suppliers
will continue to pace the market, but cracks are beginning to appear. Obliged to continue
their rapid growth by seeking the largest opportunities, their customer responsiveness and
recruitment/retention policies are being tested. Smaller Indian suppliers are emerging as
viable alternatives. While customers struggle to differentiate the leading Indian suppliers,
which all seem to have the same breadth of capabilities, important differences exist. One of
the most significant differences is the relationship management philosophy by which they
engage with their customers.
Rapid Growth Challenges Vendors And Adds Risk To Client Engagements
To make matters worse, Indian vendors need to increase headcount rapidly to
accommodate new business. Infosys, for example, grew from about 15,000 employees last
year to about 25,000 employees this year. Today, Wipro brings in about 200 recruits every
Monday. In addition to finding the qualified resources to hire — a Herculean task in itself —
the vendors have to assimilate and train this new staff quickly. Each recruit has to learn the
vendor’s culture and processes required to deliver quality results. Even if we assume that
every vendor can train and assimilate staff quickly, most clients are going to find themselves
with a preponderance of unseasoned junior staff on projects.
Client Relationship Management Emerges As the Key Differentiator
All of the leading Indian suppliers possess mature infrastructure, robust development
processes, and typically very broad capabilities. In fact, these capabilities are so broad that it
can be difficult for many customers to tell the leading vendors apart. Because significant
differences exist, customers should evaluate these capabilities carefully. One of the most
important areas of differentiation lies in the vendor’s engagement and relationship
management philosophy and overall relationship management skills. Some Indian suppliers
are easier to work with than others. By providing the kind of engagement style that
customers are used to from domestic suppliers, these suppliers provide transparency
in relationship management. The level of relationship transparency required by any
customer will vary depending on the offshore outsourcing maturity of that customer. Early
adopters with significant experience in managing offshore suppliers, for example, will not
need these skills as much as beginners. Moreover, these competencies will not be as
important in a relationship based on staff augmentation as they are with project based
engagements, where a close, flexible, and transparent relationship with suppliers is
essential. One of the principal reasons Cognizant has been included in the leader category
is its mature relationship management skills.
New CRM Solution Specifically for Companies on IBM
System Platforms
Tue Aug 4, 2009 Featured Broker sponsored link
Infor today announced the availability of Infor CRM, a new solution that provides enhanced
customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities to customers with Infor enterprise
resource planning (ERP) solutions on IBM System platforms. The new solution can help
Infor's more than 14,000 System customers create growth and loyalty through heightened
customer dialogue, increased revenue, reduced costs, and enhanced customer service. CRM
linked with Infor's ERP products, provides Infor customers a single, integrated view of
customer-related information such as credit limits, financial transactions, orders, quotes,
shipments, and more. End users can access the solution via their Internet browser, ensuring
data availability anywhere, anytime. The solution further simplifies use by providing CRM
data to users through a single access point. CRM has robust capabilities for campaign
management, opportunity management, sales process management, and quotation and
order management.
CRM helps customers leverage their ERP data with new capabilities that will help them
increase sales revenue, reduce sales costs, expand data visibility, enhance forecast accuracy,
and improve customer service," said Kevin Piotrowski, director of System solution
marketing, Infor. "Providing innovation and support to our large installed base of System i
customers is an important priority and commitment for Infor and a major factor behind our
recent establishment of a business unit dedicated to our worldwide base of customers who
use IBM System i."
CRM i Edition enables companies to manage campaigns using CRM and ERP data
to easily target subsets of their customers with offers tailored to specific wants and needs.
Using e-mail, call lists for telesales and the mail merge function, the solution enables
companies to better define and execute campaigns. Additionally, the solution provides the
ability to manage marketing events, such as invitations, response tracking and post-event
surveys, and also measure a campaign's success.
With the solution's sales process management functionality, companies can use multiple
sales practices as part of an overall CRM program. User-defined sales processes include
additional sales to an existing customer, service without a contract, maintenance renewal,
sales to a prospect, sales through a partner or reseller, and major account sales. In each
instance, a record is created for every opportunity, enabling usersto review status using
various parameters such as deal value, predicted close date and others.
Additional functionality in Infor CRM i Edition enables users to manage quotations and
orders by taking advantage of the abundant information contained in the company's
existing ERP system. This data includes pricing, discounting, promotions, sourcing, and
more. Using this data, the solution simplifies the prospect-to-customer and quote-to-order
conversion processes, enabling users to increase the number of inquiries that become
orders. This conversion rate is also boosted by the solution's opportunity management
capabilities, which helps improve close rates and shorten sales cycles.
IT enabled Services (ITeS) INDIA
Sector structure
India is referred to as the back office of the world owing mainly to the Information
Technology-enabled Services (ITeS) sector. According to the National Association of
Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), the apex body for software services in India,
the revenue of the information technology sector has grown from 1.2 per cent of the gross
domestic product (GDP) in 1997-98 to an estimated 5.8 per cent in 2008-09.
Indian IT-BPO grew by 12 per cent in 2008-09 to reach US$ 71.7 billion in aggregate
revenue. Software and services exports (includes exports of IT services, BPO, Engineering
Services and R&D and Software products) reached US$ 47 billion, contributing nearly 66 per
cent to the overall IT-BPO revenue aggregate.
ITeS, which started with basic data entry tasks over a decade ago, is witnessing an expansion
in its scope of services to include increasingly complex processes involving rule-based
decision making and even research services requiring informed individual judgment. It now
offers services such as knowledge process outsourcing (KPO), legal process outsourcing
(LPO), games process outsourcing (GPO) and design outsourcing among others.
India continues to capture a large share of new offshore centers being established in Asia.
According to a new report by the Everest Research Institute, a leading research agency on
the IT, ITES and BPO sector, more delivery centers have been set-up in tier-I and tier-II
locations during the second quarter of 2009 as compared to the first quarter.
Moreover, according to AT Kearney, India continues to be the most preferred destination
for companies looking to offshore their IT and back-office functions. It also retains its low-
cost advantage and is among the most financially attractive locations when viewed in
combination with the business environment it offers and the availability of skilled people.
India has retained its numero uno position even as some other well-established outsourcing
hubs dropped in their attractiveness to be replaced by new emerging destinations in AT
Kearney’s latest ranking of the top outsourcing destinations across the globe. The top three
countries in the 2009 Global Services Location Index (GSLI) remain the same — India, China
and Malaysia.
Moving up the value-chain
India with its natural competitive advantage is likely to play a huge role in various segments
of the ITeS industry.
The Indian animation industry is rapidly growing as a major outsourcing hub with a
growth rate of 30 per cent.
The Indian KPO sector is estimated to become a US$ 10 billion industry by 2012,
from the current size of US$ 4 billion.
India is fast becoming a hot destination for outsourced e-publishing work. As per a
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) report, the industry is growing at an annual
rate of 35 per cent and India's outsourcing opportunities in the value-added and core
services will help make the publishing BPO industry worth US$ 1.46 billion by 2010.
As per a CRISIL study, engineering services outsourcing (ESO) is poised to be the next
big opportunity in the Indian outsourcing services industry. The ESO sector is likely to
grow at a compounded rate of 26 per cent and post revenues aggregating around
US$ 7.5 billion by 2012.
Deals
The cross-border merger and acquisition (M&A) involving Indian IT and IT-enabled
companies increased by nearly 12 per cent between January 1 and December 15, 2008 to
US$ 3.22 billion (in 98 deals) compared with US$ 2.88 billion (in 159 deals) in 2007. The
average deal size in 2008 increased to US$ 32.86 million (as compared to US$ 18.15 million),
according to Grant Thornton India.
Some recent deals include:
Essar Group's business process outsourcing and technology arm, Aegis Ltd, has
acquired CCN Group PTY Ltd, a South Africa-based BPO firm, for around US$30
million.
Nasdaq-listed EXL Service has acquired the operations of European logistics provider
Schneider Logistics in the Czech Republic. Analysts peg the transaction value at
about US$3 million to US$5 million.
Infosys BPO, the BPO arm of Infosys Technologies, has secured a five-year contract
with T-Mobile UK. Infosys BPO has been engaged by T-Mobile UK to support several
core processes for their finance directorate which cover customer finance,
commercial finance and accounting (F&A), and procurement operations.
Growth
A study by NASSCOM and Everest India on the Indian BPO sector states that India is at the
forefront of the rapidly evolving BPO market, having established itself as a "destination of
choice."
According to the study, the Indian BPO sector, at its current momentum, can reach around
US$ 30 billion in export revenues by 2012. Furthermore, the domestic BPO market (in
verticals such as, banking, retail, insurance, media, telecom and government) provides an
additional US$ 15-US$ 20 billion opportunity for the sector. According to the study, the
Indian BPO sector has been growing at more than 35 per cent over the past three years.
Moreover, according to a latest Ernst & Young report, the domestic BPO market is expected
to reach US$6 billion by 2012, with a maximum addressable opportunity of US$16-19 billion.
The study notes that domestic service providers would move to tier II and III cities to tap
additional resources at low cost to serve domestic clients. The net margin in the domestic
BPO market is predicted to increase gradually from around 9 per cent in 2008 to 11-12 per
cent in 2012.
Exports
According to NASSCOM, if India maintains its current share of the global offshore IT-ITeS
market, the IT-ITeS exports from India will exceed US$ 330 billion by 2019-20 (nearly 14 per
cent of the projected worldwide spend). Currently the exports stand at US$ 47.3 billion.
The ITeS sector is working towards reducing its dependence on the US market and is
exploring new and emerging markets such as those in Australia and the Middle East.
Government Initiative
Realising its potential, after IT Parks and IT special economic zone (SEZs), the government
has cleared a proposal for creating much larger Information Technology Investment Regions
(ITIRs) to give a fillip to the country's growing IT and ITeS sector.
Road Ahead
According to a new Gartner report, the share of Indian BPO vendors will be 10 per cent of
the total global market by 2010 from the current 5 per cent. Moreover, the domestic market
is developing, providing a huge opportunity to the BPO sector. Infosys Technologies sees
over US$ 1 billion worth of outsourcing contracts coming from the Indian market over next
few years, as the country’s government and state-owned organisations seek to become
more efficient by outsourcing their IT needs.
BPOAbout Wipro
Wipro has 2300 + person years of experience of delivering CRM solutions in the past eight
years. Wipro’s vast experience comes from our years of experience implementing different
suites like Siebel, Amdocs Clarify, Peoplesoft CRM, SFDC and SAP CRM.
Wipro provides unmatched business value to customers through a combination of process
excellence, quality frameworks and a mature Global Delivery Model which in turn helps in
reducing the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
Consider the following
SFDC Implementation across SFA, Customer Support, Marketing Automation and
PRM
SFDC Application Integration & Consolidation- using Middleware and SAP XI
SFDC Administration and Support (Functional & Technical)
Propriety methodologies for rapid implementation and roll outs
Deep industry specific vertical knowledge
CSAT of 4.5 ( on a scale of 1 to 5 )
On time. On Budget .Always
Delivering strategic solutions that match the high stakes
Wipro BPO Solutions is a leading provider of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) focusing on the
complex, voice and non-voice based segment of customer-care services. The integrated solution
approach provides enhanced value to the customers through process standardization, process
simplification and process optimization. Services are provided from delivery centers in the North
America, Central and Eastern Europe, India, China and Latin America. Our services include,
Customer Service
Technical Help Desk
Finance and Accounts Outsourcing
Human Resource Outsourcing
Procurement Outsourcing
Specialized Services
BASE)))™
Wipro BPO is about delivering long-term benefits & measurable value to our customers through:
Business process re-engineering
Integrating technology with BPO
Knowledge services
Wipro BPO is uniquely positioned to service customer requirements by leveraging its tenets of
quality and innovation, the best people talent, self sustaining process framework and domain
knowledge. We offer customized service offerings; translating into the most flexible and cost
effective services of the highest quality for our customers.
In 2002, Wipro took a quantum jump in the BPO services by acquiring the then Spectramind. Wipro
BPO Solutions, complements the services offered by Wipro Technologies, making it one of the
largest BPO service players.
With over 19,000 people, operating out of 9 different locations (India and Eastern Europe), Wipro
BPO has been a critical partner to all its customers in achieving their business goals. Wipro BPO
services customers in various industries including Banking & Capital Markets, Insurance, Travel &
Hospitality, Hi-Tech Manufacturing, Telecom & Healthcare sectors. Wipro BPO also has deep
expertise in delivering process specific solutions in areas like Finance & Accounting, Procurement, HR
Services, Loyalty Services and Knowledge Services.
Wipro BPO Loyalty Services
In the current global business environment, a company’s survival and success depends on how
effectively it manages customers across the entire lifecycle. It is essential that businesses have a
single view of the customer across the customer lifecycle, enabling them to uncover retention
drivers and customize marketing and operational enhancement efforts.
Wipro’s Loyalty Services provides an integrated approach to revenue enhancement, productivity
improvement and enhanced customer loyalty.
We follow a three-step program to manage your customers across the life cycle:
Understanding drivers of loyalty and defection
Developing a loyalty strategy with a framework for measurement and rewards
Systematically delivering what your customers value
ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS SERVICES (EAS)
Globalization and Technology innovation have presented new set of challenges to the
organizations like increased competition, shrinking margins and customer’s increasing
expectations .In the face of such challenges, it is imperative for an organization to have a
customer centric business strategy .A CRM software facilitates improved customer relations
and thus has evolved as a competitive edge for organizations. The challenge now has zeroed
down to selecting right CRM product with maximum ROI and flexibility. The mantra is to “Do
more for less. “
Today some of the risks faced by clients while implementing traditional CRM Solutions are:
Long development life cycles and complex customizations taking longer time-to-
customer which further takes a toll on the IT investments
Under utilization of investment on huge CRM licenses and Client/Server
infrastructure
Millions of dollars being spent on maintenance and upgrades
Low user adoption and consequent failure of the CRM strategy
To help minimize the above risks, Wipro’s CRM practice brings you Software as a service
(SaaS) in collaboration with Salesforce.com(SFDC), the market leader in On-Demand CRM
Solutions
SFDC CRM
Salesforce.com is the worldwide leader in on-demand customer relationship management
(CRM) services. SFDC’s strong credentials in Sales Force Automation, Customer Service,
Marketing Automation and Partner Channel Management helps customers of any size
derive quick time to value, usability and lower upfront cost.
Wipro’s Service Offerings
Wipro’s Global CRM Practice helps customers define & execute their CRM Strategy which
comes from the impeccable record of delivering CRM implementations in multiple business
processes across different industry verticals.
Consulting
As radical changes that occur in the business environment, evolution invariably becomes a
necessity as customers world-wide expect and seek innovation for both products and
services. Successful CRM acts as a differentiator in business, especially when product and
price fail to achieve this competitive advantage. Also the product and price advantages
being replicable, they fail to give you the necessary edge in your industry. Hence CRM is
emerging as a critical strategy as customer relationships are coming to the forefront of the
competitivebattleground.
At Wipro, we offer a range of CRM consulting services to help you enhance the life-time
value of your customers and increase customer satisfaction. Some of the broad based
offerings are as listed below :
CRM strategy definition
As the right CRM strategy will help you revolutionize your business practices, our domain
experts help you define an optimal CRM strategy, formulate a plan for efficient execution,
and establish milestones for your CRM implementation.
Business process analysis and definition
For rapid deployment of the CRM solution across the organization, we combine our
traditional process improvement techniques with technology to carry out business process
analysis and definition. This enables keen understanding of the uniqueness of your business
processes, thereby ensuring that the CRM solution implemented, meets your strategic
business objectives.
Solution prototyping
To help our customers increase the familiarity with their CRM environment, we design a
solution prototype. This helps our customers test the effectiveness of the CRM
implementation in their organization.
Gap analysis
Any deficiencies (gaps) in your existing CRM products and processes should be addressed to
completely leverage your CRM solution. We identify the business processes, which are not
supported by the standard application and suggest potential solutions for these gaps,
revitalizing your CRM system
Implementation
Increasing customer loyalty, sales, profitability and gaining a competitive advantage are the
key drivers to an organization’s success. An investment in this respect is an investment into
your future, the one that will repay you with improved business processes and higher
returns.
A CRM initiative which fails to fall in line with the organization’s stated objectives to success,
will not work as a differentiating business strategy. Wipro ensures that your CRM project
delivers rich short-term results and also realizes the full strategic advantages of the
implementation in the long run.
We combine the best in processes, people, infrastructure, alliances and our global delivery
model to ensure that CRM works best for your business. Our CRM offerings span across
various business functions like customer care, marketing, sales force automation, customer
service, order management and partner relationship management
Our project management ensures that, each critical success factor is successfully
incorporated during implementation, so that a complete end-to-end solution is delivered.
Our expertise in enterprise applications deployment enables seamless integration with
existing legacy or other application systems.
Our analytics reporting services help in defining the right metrics for your marketing
campaigns and customer behavior analysis.
A successful CRM is possible only through the integration of the four key components -
process, technology, data and people. Therefore, the ultimate success of a CRM project lies
in the hands of the user. To make your CRM program completely successful, we train future
users to handle the transition into a CRM driven enterprise
Upgrades
Organizations on a fast-track need to keep their processes geared up to achieve accelerated
growth. This coupled with an ever-changing customer perception of value is a key driver for
growth in any business. Customer perception of value is an amalgamation of what the
customer receives, how much of it is sold, delivered and supported and the cost- the total
cost of ownership.
Every successful organization thus aims to minimize the total cost of ownership for its
customers. A customer-centric strategy will ensure that, your organization is aligned with
your augmenting business objectives. In such a situation, your leap into the next level of
technology has to ensure minimal interference with your on-going processes.
Wipro’s migration assistance in Siebel CRM
Version upgrade: Upgrade from one version of Siebel to a higher version, in a specific
business environment
Re-implementation: Sometimes due to high customization in the existing framework, a
simple version upgrade might not be practical. In order to, evade this situation and also,
leverage new functionalities of a higher version, Wipro offers re-implementation services for
a successful upgrade.
We conduct an impact analysis to conceptualize the impact of a new version upgrade and
setup the necessary infrastructure for the build. We assure seamless data migration when a
new functionality is implemented, so that operational functions are undisturbed.
We employ a proprietary upgrade & re-implementation methodology for better
predictability & governance.
Our clients have benefited from an accelerated upgrade model which ensures rapid upgrade
processes and 100% on-time deliveries.
Center of Excellence
CRM process improvements and competency building to stay with cutting edge technology
has always been the agenda with Wipro. We develop industry specific point solutions and
participate in various forums. The Center of Excellence (COE) complements the engagement
to focus on entire CRM application life cycle management than just implementation.
CoE has a well structured portal with:
Completely threaded knowledge repository from requirements to deployment
Sand box environment so that end users feel confident of the application
Seamless induction of new IT staff managing application
CoE also has standards based CRM pre-configured solutions to navigate green-field CRM
implementations and provides application roadmap definition along with methodologies
which have specific templates and checklists to ensure consistency and quality of
deliverables .We also do customer specific feasibility assessments or proof of concepts to
provide solutions for complex requirements
Overview
Companies in virtually every industry face an almost insolvable problem: how to reduce
operating costs and maintain profitability in the face of soaring customer expectations.
According to IBM research, 79% of business leaders have only a generalized or
superficial/absent understanding of their customers. As a result, they could interpret that
business leaders continue to act on an operational basis or “what can be made faster or
more efficient,” versus what the customer may value most.
In an atmosphere of extreme price sensitivity, customers are demanding more service, more
convenience and more personalized communications. Businesses must maximize every
interaction with their customers to make positive impressions and drive loyalty and
preference.
At IBM Global Business Services, it regards CRM as a journey, not a destination. It involves
shifting the focus from products and channels to customer. It means streamlining and
integrating the sales, marketing and customer service.
Done right, the results can be extremely powerful:
Lower contact center costs
Increased customer satisfaction and sales conversion rates
Improved sales performance across all channels (direct, indirect and partner)
Reduced field service operations costs
Business challenge
What business challenges are today clients facing that might be addressed by these
offerings? One or two paragraphs - Consider pain points.
How can organization deliver competitively superior customer experiences within a
realistic, achievable operational model in a cost effective manner?
How can formalize and deploy the advocacy building, higher-order emotive attributes, such
as dignity or empathy, as promised by brand?
Automotive customer relationship management (CRM) analytics
solutions
Automotive CRM analytics solutions from IBM employ technology for greater customer
insight. Target market for higher sales and return on marketing expenditures. Use customer
intelligence to personalise messaging and offers across marketing channels. Help predict
trends, optimise customer relationships and uncover new sales opportunities.
The advantage Extensive industry experience
Our automotive CRM analytics solutions include:
Extensive experience in successful CRM analytics implementations.
Leadership in collaborative tools.
Convenience of complete solutions including hardware, CRM applications from
leading software vendors and installation.
One point of accountability to give you the results you need.
We can leverage our experience from our CRM implementations.
We have automotive industry experience from engagements with Volvo Truck, JCI,
Renault, Peugeot, DCX and Jeep.
We offer a long CRM consulting track record with customers across the automotive
industry.
The benefits Gain the power of information CRM analytics solutions from IBM can help
thecompany capitalise on customer intelligence to gain substantial strategic advantages.
Improve understanding of customers' needs.
Identify and target customers with higher profit potential.
Gain decision support from accurate, up-to-date customer intelligence.
Personalise offerings to individual customers for greater returns.
Derive insights into customer purchasing patterns to identify inhibitors to success,
recognise new or up and coming trends and possibly uncover hidden niches.
Give customers a more positive contact experience to improve customer satisfaction
and loyalty.
Improve your overall reputation in the marketplace with targeted, relevant
marketing and excellent customer service from sales to repair and service
warranties.
The ROI Happier customers, more revenue Automotive CRM analytics solutions from IBM
can help to achieve the return on investment by providing accurate customer data that
enables to:
Identify and target customers with higher profit potential.
Increase the effectiveness of marketing programs by delivering targeted,
personalised messages to help increase revenue.
Reduce cost of tracking leads through automation.
Increase orders with relevant messaging that enhances customer satisfaction.
CRM Practice
Integrate sales, marketing and customer service functions and improve sales performance
across all channels
IBM’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) practice helps to improve the efficiency
and effectiveness of marketing, sales and customer service, while also helps to improve
customer loyalty, satisfaction and profitability. They do this by understanding the evolving
dynamics of customer relationships, products and the sales and service channels then
synchronise the processes, competencies and systems that enables to:
Help clients understand the "voice of the customer" and interpret what it means.
Link information and processes across the enterprise, to create effective interaction
and product affinity.
Reengineer and integrate sales, service and customer contact capabilities.
CRM Strategy – to help clients achieve consensus around their CRM strategy and
identify the capabilities required to meet business goals. They do this by creating a
view of the end state from a customer and company perspective and a benefits-
driven blueprint of the future platform. The work spans areas of CRM value
proposition, CRM blueprint and roadmap, and CRM transformation program.
Marketing and Sales Transformation - to focus on strategies and solutions to
improve sales and marketing performance by driving effectiveness and efficiency
through all stages of the sales and marketing process. Thework spans areas of
marketing operations, marketing programs, and sales operations.
Service Transformation – to help improve customer and employee satisfaction,
and dramatically drive down the “cost to serve,” often resulting in improved
revenue. Looking across the entire field service lifecycle, they help to set competitive
metrics, simplify/standardise processes and leverage technology aggressively but
prudently. The work spans areas of service transformation strategy, service
transformation diagnostic, and service transformation implementation.
Contact Center Optimisation – to help clients improve efficiency and
effectiveness of contact centre operations by designing consistent approaches to
dealing with customers across all channels (phone, web, IDTV/kiosk, mobile access,
etc). The work spans areas of contact centre strategy, contact centre consolidation
strategy, contact centre diagnostic, self service assessment, and telephony
integration assessment.
Business Intelligence – to help focus the use of customer insight to achieve
business intelligence, better campaign capabilities and deeper relationships between
the customer and provider. Some of the key BI applications and practices include
threat/fraud detection, risk/compliance, operational intelligence, business
performance management (BPM), and workforce productivity.
IT Services for CRM - to provide business and technology services for CRM that
will improve the ability to serve customers. The key services offerings that align to
CRM include Siebel CRM OnDemand, Portals, content and e-Commerce Services,
Network Convergence Services, Infrastructure services readiness engagements, and
Customer experience, branding and usability design services.
CRM solutions
Branch convergence from IBM and Avaya
The inability to reach the right expert at the right time. Inefficient use of customer
representatives. Inconsistent customer experiences. See how IBM and Avaya can help
eliminate these frustrations through the creation of an enhanced branch communications
network.
Customer relationship management from IBM and SAP
Sustaining customer relationships and identifying new markets is integral to the success.
How can they control costs and inspire customer loyalty? IBM and SAP can provide the
applications, best practices and industry expertise need to provide personalized service,
access to information and integration across channels.
Customer service solutions from IBM and KANA
Increase the quality of the customer experience, turn service centers into profit centers, and
ensure processes are compliant with regulations. IBM and KANA can help to organization
deliver the experience customers want over multiple channels while effectively balancing
cost, compliance, and revenue objectives to benefit their business.
Electronics sales and service from IBM and SAP
The electronics business must acquire and retain customers in a competitive market. But
loyalty is in short supply. IBM and SAP help to compete with customer-focused strategies,
processes and tools designed to help increase loyalty, revenue and profit.
IBM and Oracle's Siebel solutions
The IBM and Oracle alliance unites the recognized market leader in CRM with the largest
Oracle integrator and implementer worldwide. Together, we offer companies new
opportunities to do CRM right.
CRM done right from IBM
The goal - Improve success by doing CRM right
According to a recent study by IBM's Institute for Business Value and The Economist, 85
percent of companies do not feel they are fully optimizing their CRM initiatives. How can it
improve CRM operations? Can it mitigate the risk that's inherent in new programs? What's
the best way to secure organizational commitment to these critical initiatives? IBM CRM
done right can guide to transformation.
The advantage - Adopt a pragmatic approach to CRM initiatives
IBM has developed a pragmatic approach to planning and deploying CRM initiatives—the
IBM CRM done right framework. In applying the framework, it can help to establish
agreement within organization on how CRM can create value for business and clients. It
helps to shape a vision for the capabilities that will deliver the value proposition. And finally,
create and execute an implementation roadmap that defines projects to build new and
improved CRM environment.
IBM CRM done right can guide its decision making, optimize practices and alleviate the risk
of transforming CRM capabilities into a strategic differentiator for organization.
The benefits - Realize the true benefits of CRM
CRM programs must impact the bottom line and deliver a return on time, effort and
investment. Successful CRM can transform the company, helping to grow more profitable by
serving customers more intelligently. Our CRM Strategy services are designed to improve
the success of initiatives. Potential benefits include:
Management buy-in and sponsorship of the CRM vision and business objectives.
Alignment of the vision with shareholder and customer value.
Alignment of the strategy with operations (marketing, sales and service) by linking the value
proposition with customer-facing processes or channels.
IBM has worked with companies across many industries—financial services,
telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and more—to build innovative CRM
strategies and to implement solid, successful initiatives. The strong relationships with
leading CRM application providers such as Siebel, PeopleSoft and SAP, enable to offer a
complete solution that delivers measurable benefits.
The customer experience planning and implementing own CRM transformation at IBM—the
largest Siebel implementation in the world—contributes greatly to the expertise and can
apply to the solutions build for clients. They are integrating all the parts of the business that
touch clients and have already seen a 30 percent improvement in client satisfaction ratings.
The goal - Conquer the challenges of CRM transformation
Addressing CRM as a core operation can present many challenges. Compelling company to
change. Achieving consensus around CRM strategy. Aligning teams to work toward one
common goal. Sustaining commitment and support. IBM CRM done right is designed to help
conquer these challenges by creating directed value cases and aligning priorities with the
appropriate resources and work efforts.
The advantage - Leverage CRM strategy capabilities
IBM has the capabilities to help and build an effective and successful CRM strategy.
IBM Global Business Services has CRM engagements with 74% of the Fortune Global
100 and 45% of the Fortune Global 500.
They have the largest global CRM practice with more than 5,500 experienced CRM
practitioners who work with leading companies across a broad set of industries,
providing integrated, on demand solutions that transform how clients interact with
customers at every point of contact.
IBM has business relationships with several industry-leading CRM application
providers, including Siebel, PeopleSoft and SAP, which help to build a complete
solution for CRM operational transformation.
The benefits - Improve the success of CRM efforts
From justifying business decisions to building and maintaining support for CRM programs.
They can help to develop:
Value case—fundamental analysis of the cost, feasibility, risks, benefits and
economic return of a CRM initiative with which customers gain:
o Organization agreement on initiatives, goals and financial expectations.
o Clear economic justification for CRM solutions.
o Documented proof of commitment.
o Confidence that business decisions are made on sound analysis.
Value propositions—definition of specific measurable objectives that create the
most value for all stakeholders, including customers, employees, partners and the
company as a whole.
Operational blueprint—future end-state vision for the new CRM operations that
includes:
o Plan for deployment of new resources.
o Strategy for building new technologies and infrastructures.
o Design of new processes.
o Comprehensive strategy for managing change.
Implementation roadmap—development of a planned sequence of short CRM
programs that work together to reach the main goal, with each step contributing
incremental results along the way.
Sponsorship, governance and change management—process to build support for the
CRM transformation that helps ensure the entire organization stays committed
throughout the deployment with:
o Sponsorship and agreement from all stakeholders.
o Development of an empowered governance structure.
o Plan for change management.
The approach - Learn from our CRM experiences
IBM worked with a U.S. retail bank to:
Identify and prioritize CRM strategic business objectives that support the bank's
business and financial goals.
Identify capabilities required to realize the CRM strategy.
Align processes, organization, application and data in an operating model that
delivers the required capabilities.
Develop a financially justifiable roadmap for implementing the redefined operating
model.
As a result, key internal stakeholders were aligned to common objectives and the
transformation roadmap. The expected five-year benefit case was forecast in excess of
US$125 million.
The financial advantage - Achieve the ROI promised by CRM
IBM CRM done right can deliver great value by improving the success of CRM efforts.
Help secure investments in CRM initiatives—and enhance shareholder value—by
improving the likelihood that programs will be successful with comprehensive
planning.
Boost revenue potential by focusing on a series of smaller programs that can
contribute value and ROI on their own while building toward the long-term vision.
Garner support and commitment to programs to help ensure investments are not
wasted on initiatives that will be abandoned in the near future
Introduction
Winning in the market share through the world-class customer service is an important method
adopted by many companies. Customer relationship management [CRM] is one of the customer care
services and which provides the opportunity for the companies to maintain customers intact and
also attract new market for their products.
Significance of CRM in GENPACT
Customer retention through better customer services is very significant for any business enterprise.
The slowdown in global economy and tough competition among the enterprises made the
companies to focus at cost containment and growth in profitability. Managing the good relationship
with the customers is the only key to success and for the survival of the business. The concept
customer relationship management helps companies to not only to retain the existing customers,
but also widen the customer base. The cost of retaining a customer is one-fifth in the cost of
acquiring a new customer. CRM helps in tracking marketing opportunities better and focus on those
customers who not only increase the sales/volume but also in terms of profitability. CRM is defined
as tracking customer behavior in order to develop marketing and maintaining customer relationship
to a brand often by a development of software system provides one-on one contact between the
marketing business and their customer. CRM is a business strategy, which includes the people,
processes, and technology associated with a marketing and service. It provides information for every
corporate activity from marketing to fulfillment.
CRM embodies six key disciplines: Sales force Automation; Marketing Automation; Help Desk, and
call center. The CRM technology promise to retain customers and boost the top line continues to
resonate with companies recovering from a tough economy. Apart from customer relationship
management, CRM also referred as customer relationship marketing and continuous retention
marketing.
CRM's largest vendors such as siebel, people soft, Oracle, and SAP will continues to grow and expand
their reach into newer application segments, such as marketing automation, partner-relationship
management and even employee-relationship management.
ICICI Bank, HDFC Standard Life, UTI and ABN-Amro are now looking at business process management
to increase returns on investment, improve customer relationship management and employee
productivity.
The worldwide CRM services market reached $22 billion in 2002-03, a 10.6 percent increase from
the prior year according to Gartner group. The group forecasts this market to hit $25.3 billion in
2003-04, and $47 billion by 2006.
The CRM market in India has witnessed a healthy growth and expects the CRM software market to
grow at a CAGR of 40% to reach Rs 188 crores in 2006.
IBM's 2004 Global CRM Survey
According to 2004 Global CRM Study from IBM Business Consulting services, 85% of companies in
America, Europe and Asia large and small, across every industry are not feeling fully successful with
CRM. Fewer than 15% of global companies believe they are fully succeeding with their CRM
initiatives, and another 20%to 30%are having only some success. The survey was conducted in late
2003 and early 2004 on 373 senior-level or above management decision makers or influencers at a
mix of small, medium and large enterprises, to understand how companies attain CRM success and
achieve significant return on investment. More than half of respondents' companies had annual
revenues exceeding US$50 million; 30% of respondents reported annual revenues of US$ 1 billion to
more than US$50 billion.
Despite the dismal results, CRM continues to hold great promise for most companies. Over 50% of
the 373 companies surveyed believe CRM is relevant to increasing performance from a shareholder
value perspective.75% consider CRM important in delivering revenue growth through improved
customer experiences, retaining and growing existing customer bases, increasing customer
acquisition rates and influencing the development of new product and services.
A successful CRM strategy should be at a heart of business model which focuses on a virtue of
flexibility, real time responsiveness, and a laser focus on the customer.
Significant findings
Around 75% of companies manage CRM at the division level such as marketing, sales, IT or
Customer service. Only 25%of companies run CRM from corporate, where a senior level team
typically spans multiple divisions and business units. Survey revealed that corporate units achieve a
CRM success from 25% to 50%.
Senior management in over 35% of companies impede CRM success by portraying CRM as useful,
but not critical.
Over 75%of companies do not realize returns on CRM initiatives because they do not fully use CRM
once it is implemented. Only 21% of responding companies view alignment as very important to
CRM success.
Approaches to CRM success
The global research survey found that the two approaches most consistently cited as requirements
for CRM success were 'change management' such as training employees to use CRM processes, tools
and policies; and 'process change' such as involving employees in the process of designing and
changing CRM activities. The right action taken drive commitment to CRM throughout the company
that in turn translates into sustained value.
The key faults which can cause CRM projects to fail or prevent delivery of expected return –on –
investment include too much dependence on technology systems as a panacea or organizations
down-play the importance of senior management buy-in which in turn leads to lukewarm adoption
by employees.
The IBM study reveals the great promise of CRM in driving customer value and increasing
organizational performance when it is done correctly. In the end, making CRM effective comes down
to culture and creating broad acceptance and adoption. Successful CRM can transform a company,
helping it to grow more profitably by serving its customers more intelligently. At its best, CRM does
more than just automate a call center or improve a sales report; it can transform a company –
culturally, structurally and strategically.
P-factors in implementation
For implementing CRM, the company has to start with three P-factors namely people, processes, and
planning. The P factors affect sales, productivity, service, and profitability. The well management of
the organization and right mix of these factors will lead the company to grow and prosper.
People factor
A positive interaction among employees, customers, and vendors will create a successful enterprise.
Contact with the customers and vendors will create a successful enterprise. Contact with the
customers and vendors are essential in order to understand their likes and dislikes of a company's
product and the way for further improvement of company's business. The next people factor is
employees. If there are complaints from employees about the customers, vendors, other
departments as well as complaints about employees from the side of customers and vendors, the
gaps have to be bridged before starting a CRM initiative.
The importance of people's change favorable towards the work and interaction with each other is a
valuable contributor for the successful implementation with each other is a valuable contributor for
the successful implementation of the CRM concept. Establishing a consistent process of reviewing
and resolving the issues will create a good image on the company's management. The perception of
employees, customers, and vendors on the company also reflect on a positive mood.
Process factor
The CRM success is also influenced by the process factor. Before introducing a new technology, the
company management needs to review their business and workflow processes. In reviewing the
workflow, it is essential to look at the natural flow of orders, product and information. It is also
important to note at the source of order namely internet, the mail or the call center and continues
through the shipment of product. This will facilitate to notice any bottlenecks, employee conflicts
and inter departmental issues. Once these are mitigated, the next step is to document the
procedures, policies and processes.
Planning Factor
Planning is a particular kind of decision-making that addresses the specific future that managers
desire for their organizations. A well-developed plan will give the managers to stretch boundaries
and achieve organization goals.
The primary features of a good plan are:
* Specific particulars: each goal and the step must be indicated. For example increase customer
retention by 20%
* Responsibility: the responsibility should be assigned to a team or person for completion.
* Deadlines: Specific deadlines and contingencies need to be mentioned.
* Flexibility: Modifications are essential for the plan when necessary.
* Integration: the area affected by CRM must be integrated in to the plan.
* Metrics: Benchmarks are essential in order to measure the success or failure.
Addressing the P factors will reflect on small gains initially and latter there will be tremendous
growth in profitability. There will be a rise in sales, decline in cost, satisfactory customers and
motivating employees.
How do GENPACT succeed at CRM?
Across the world, there are some companies who are successful at customer relationships and some
are not. Numerous reasons are attributed for this. George day, marketing professor at Wharton
Business School provided the answer after surveying 342 companies. He classified the companies
that pursue a CRM strategy in to three groups.
The first and the most successful are companies that have market driven approaches. This approach
makes CRM a core element of a strategy that aims to deliver superior customer value through
complete solutions, superior service and a willingness to cater to individual requirements.
Technological support will then come in to speed up business processes which will save the
customer's time and effort.The second rungs are companies whose CRM initiatives are related to
inner-directed. These companies want to get a better picture of their internal processes, with the
intent of organizing data to cut service costs and help improve marketing targets. However, these
companies assign operational tasks to the IT department, which does not have much to do with the
operational strategy.
Finally, there are companies that use a defensive approach to crm, by way of using loyalty programs
and reward. This is essentially a reactive strategy and, at best, maintains status quo in the market.
Limitations of CRM
The business objectives in front of the CRM path are appearing more like distant mirages when
companies see the potholes/ traffic jams and road- raged drivers that lie in between.
The software and systems cost hundreds of thousand of dollars to buy and customize and it takes
months, if not years to install, integrate and debug. The process requires endless meetings with IT
staff, which are in short supply, command huge wages, and may not have all the skills to do it right.
Further, the business enterprises may not have the screening and training modules, or have the time
to develop and deploy them to sift out agents for contacts.
CRM is essentially about value. But this is not achieved simply by putting more people on the
phones. The businesses have to offer a broad, integrated range of services: live agents and
technology, backed by market analytics and deployed to each to their advantage.
CRM implementation is a challenge. Most managers are reluctant to measure parameters to monitor
progress before and after a CRM exercise. This is because it could show how well or badly the
manager has implemented the CRM programme.
CRM has become a senior management issue because it consumes staggering amounts of money
and, notwithstanding the success stories, has mostly proved a disappointment. Companies around
the world spend has mostly proved a disappointment. Companies around the world spend $3.5
billion a year on CRM software and that is only a fraction of total expense. Implementation, training,
and integration outlays can be three to five times higher. Further, it takes three years to complete
the implementation.
Outsourcing the CRM
To overcome the limitations of CRM approach practiced by companies themselves, the company's
worldwide contact the outsourcing bureau or service provider to find the solution. This will facilitate
faster and less bumpy alternative CRM route to reach the business destination.
The outsourcing provider or bureau provides a CRM platform that offer an integrated blend of live
agent and automated IVR, web and e-mail services, connected with contact management and if
needed, integration with the business enterprise existing database.
Many service providers have entered the CRM game that companies have almost too many choices.
There are data base providers and call centers. There are communications specialists. Most
advertising agencies have their own direct marketing arms. Further there are technolog6y vendors.
With all these, getting started on CRM should not be a problem.
Outsourcing the CRM can reduce customer retention costs, with out compromising the
responsiveness, accuracy, availability, and quality of customer service. In addition, businesses should
strive to increase both their efficiency and quality and drive greater profits to their bottom lines.
By outsourcing CRM and intelligence, companies will have powerful analytics with fewer payrolls
overhead. Meanwhile suppliers are delivering greater personnel accountability and ability to access
software, technology and skill sets otherwise4 not available to a single company. Suppliers promise
greater revenue reduced marketing costs and shortened cycle time.
Many companies have decided to outsource all or part of their CRM technology, applications and /or
business processes to achievable improved processes, business improvement, more effective
customer service, increased competitive advantage and a demonstrated ROI.
According to a survey reported in tele Professional magazine, "Companies who fully outsource CRM
had the most favorable results. This is reflected in a greater 10-year average return to investors, a
higher average 10 Year annual growth rate and a larger average percentage change in annual
earnings per share".
Off shoring CRM Locations
A large number of companies around the world have set up thousands of off shoring call centers to
provide integrated customer service solutions. Australia has about 4000 call centers employing
225000 people with US$7 billion revenue. Similarly India has nearly 1000 companies employing over
100,000 people with revenues of US$1 billion. Philippines and Ireland has 70 and 500 companies
employing over 12000 and 40000 people respectively.
Elements of CRM outsourcing IN GENPACT
CRM outsourcing includes the following elements:
Customer support: this comprises value based phone support, e-mail response, live chat and co-
browsing and instant messaging.
Telemarketing and telesales: this covers outbound calling for lead generation, campaign
management and outbound calling for cross-sell and up-sell to existing customers.
Employee IT Desk: this comprises level1 and 2 multi-channel support for internal applications;
system problem resolutions related to desktop; notebooks; shrink wrapped products; connectivity;
office productivity tools support including browsers and mail; new service requests; IT operational
issues; and remote diagnostics.
Thames water is a good example for CRM outsourcing in the Utility industry. Thames water has
signed a business process outsourcing deal with Xansa to offshore to India it's metered billing
expenses and Customer correspondence operations. The BPO service will handle over 700,000
transactions a year and in one month it has already handled predicted volumes and cleared a
backlog of an extra 17 percent of transactions.
Limitations
Even though the outsourcing to CRM provides valuable benefits to a business organization, but it still
faces some problems. The business enterprises are losing much of their control of customers and
services to another party. Another problem is technology implementation, database integration and
agent selection and training issues with the service provider. These issues are more complex.
Conclusion
For selecting the right outsource provider, the business enterprises should take enough time, due
diligence and clearly established and communicated goals and objectives. A successful relationship
will be one that lowers the business costs, increase the company's revenue and retains profitable
relationship a win-win situation for the company's business and its most valuable assets, and
business customers.