Final Dissertation Project(CRM invades Indian Insurance sector)IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE POST GRADUATE DIPLOMA IN MANAGEMENT

ByHimanshu Sharma

Under the guidance ofDr. T.K Singhal Faculty, Management INMANTEC, Ghaziabad

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DECLARATIONI Himanshu Sharma a student of PGDM VI trimester of Inmantec business school, Ghaziabad hereby declare that the research project report titled CRM invades Indian Insurance

sector is my original work and the same has not been submitted for the award of any otherdiploma or degree.

Place: Ghaziabad Date: HIMANSHU SHARMA

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AcknowledgementA project is never the sole product of a person whose name has appeared on the cover. Even the best effort may not prove successful without proper guidance. For a good project one needs proper time, energy, efforts, patience, and knowledge. But without any guidance it remains unsuccessful. I have done this project with the best of my ability and hope that it will serve its purpose. To be or not to be is not anything which matters, how to be thankful is what really matters It was really a great learning experience and I am really thankful to Dr. T.K Singhal sir and my faculties, who not only helped me in the successful completion of this report but also, spread his precious and valuable time in expanding my knowledge base. I wish to acknowledge my gratitude towards Inmantec B-school, my parent, friends and all those persons who are responsible for the successful completion of this project.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Objective.62. INTRODUCTION ..7 3. CRM.........................................................................................9 FEATURES......9 CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS..11 ESSENTIAL STEPS WHEN CONSIDERING CRM....12 4. PLANNING A CRM PROJECT ...14 5. HOW TO PREPARE YOUR OFFICE FOR CRM....22 6. WORK FLOW OF CRM ..........................................................23 7. e-CRM.24 8. CRM IMPLEMENTATION ..28 9. CRMS TOP BUSINESS MODELS..........................30 10. CRM INTEGRATION .33 11. INDIAN CRM MARKET .34 12. CRM NECESSITIES FOR FINANCIAL SERVICES .41 13. INSURANCE SECTOR IN INDIA43 14. IT in INSURANCE 47 15. CRM FOR INSURANCE48 16. SUCCESSFULL STORIES OF CRM ...51 17. CHALLENGES ...64 18. SCOPE..70 19. FINDINGS...73 20. CONCLUSION 74 22. RECOMMENDATIONS .75 23. BIBLIOGRAPHY.76

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ObjectivesTo analyze - Impact of CRM in Indian Insurance sector. (A) Process involved in planning CRM.

(B) Find out successful stories of CRM in Indian Insurance sector.

(C) Challenges of Indian CRM market.

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IntroductionAbout CRM:Customer relationship management (CRM) is a management strategy that unites information technology with marketing. It originated in the United States in the late 1990s, and, to date, has been accepted in a significant number of companies worldwide. On the other hand, some people have negative opinions of CRM; such views hold that it is difficult to implement successfully and that its cost-benefit performance is low, among others. Customer relationship management is a broadly recognized, widely-implemented strategy for managing and nurturing a companys interactions with clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processesprincipally sales activities, but also those for marketing, customer service, and technical support. The overall goals are to find, attract, and win new clients, nurture and retain those the company already has, entice former clients back into the fold, and reduce the costs of marketing and client service. Once simply a label for a category of software tools, today, it generally denotes a company-wide business strategy embracing all client-facing departments and even beyond. When an implementation is effective, people, processes, and technology work in synergy to increase profitability, and reduce operational costs. Due to ever-increasing costs and competition, organizations now must sell more products, and provide a higher level of service than at any time in the past. Fast delivery of information and service are now just as important as price. Without current technology, the increasing demands placed on the people in your Customer Facing Departments would make the job almost impossible. Software now allows sales departments, marketing departments, consultants, support reps and anyone else who interacts with customers and clients to enhance their productivity beyond what many people could have imagined just a few short years ago. Collectively, this technology and the tools associated with it are known as Customer Relationship Management Software, or "CRM". THE EVOLUTION OF MARKETING STRATEGY The Changing Market Environment In the early 20th century in the United States, demand outpaced supply to the extent that companies concentrated on selling as many products as possible. Suppliers focused on product development, manufacturing capacity, and securing distribution outlets, without regard to their consumers. They did not pay much attention to who bought their products or what their7|Page

customers needed. They used classic marketing tactics, i.e., mass marketing primarily print and broadcast advertising, mass mailings, and billboards. By the middle of the 20th century, however, the economy had matured to a point where consumers had the power of choice because supply had outstripped demand. The era of the passive consumer was coming to an end. Companies began to find out who their customers were, what they wanted, and how they could be satisfied. They analyzed data about their customers and segmented them based on their demographics, such as age, gender, and other personal information. Then they promoted their product or service to a specific subset of customers and prospects. This was called target marketing. Each company thought seriously about the four Ps (price, promotion, product, and placement), the basic concept of modern marketing, which was first suggested by the expert in the field, Jerome McCarthy, in 1960. By the middle of the 1980s, when the economy was highly matured, it had become extremely difficult to sell things. Traditional target marketing was not so gratifying under circumstances in which it was so difficult to cultivate new customers that this tactic could not sustain cost efficiency. At this point, the idea of relationship marketing gained the confidence of the business sector. This concept was aimed at building long-term relationships with customers and placed a great deal of value on the retention of existing customers rather than the acquisition of new ones. I will explain this in detail below. Retention and Acquisition Marketing operations consist of two activities: acquisition and retention of customers. In the world of mass and target marketing, the focus was on the acquisition side. On the other hand, in the world of relationship marketing, attention shifted to retention. This happened mainly because of the cost involved. In general, it is believed that it is five to 10 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than obtain repeat business from an existing customer.1 As the needs of customers became diversified, conventional promotions became less efficient and drove up costs. According to the well-known empirical Pareto principle, it is assumed that 20 percent of a companys customers generate 80 percent of its profits.2 In other words; retention of a large customer base is a major issue. Birth of Customer Relationship Management In this context, CRM came into existence in the late 1990s. Although there is no clear definition of CRM, Jeffrey Peel, CEO of Quadriga Consulting, defined it as follows: [CRM] is about understanding the nature of the exchange between customer and supplier and managing it appropriately. The exchange contains monetary considerations between supplier and customer but also communication. The challenge to all supplier organizations is to optimize communications between parties to ensure profitable long-term relationships. CRM is a key focus for many organizations now as a shift away from customer acquisition toward customerretention and churn reduction strategies dictates a need for best practice CRM processes. Share of Wallet and Life Time Value

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In the age of target marketing, marketers aimed at the expansion of their companies market share. With the advent of CRM, on the other hand, they shifted their emphasis to increasing the share of wallet4 of their customers. As mentioned above, they try to establish close connections with their customers and offer products that the customers really want, so that the customers will be satisfied. Marketers estimate the value of customers on a long-term basis, that is to say, life time value (LTV).5 Basically, LTV is calculated as follows: Multiply a customers expected number of visits times the average amount of money spent per visit. Deduct your costs of acquiring and servicing that customer. Add in the value of accounts this customer refers to you, and discount the sum appropriately for the time period youre analyzing.6 It is difficult to ascertain the exact LTV of customers, but there is evidence that significant concern over creating long-term relationships with customers is warranted.

Cross-Selling and Up-Selling Cross-selling is the behavior of selling a product or service in addition to another purchase. Upselling is the behavior of stimulating a customer to trade up to a more expensive or profitable product or service. These strategies are aimed at selling more to existing customers for the reasons mentioned above. Taking an automobile dealer as an example, suggesting a car navigation system for a buyer is cross-selling; advising a higher-class car for a potential customer is up-selling.

CRMThe concept of CRM is premised on the simple logic of business: it must keep tracking customers once attracted; retain them in business portfolio and profit from their growth.CRM epitomizes the marriage of relationship marketing with the emerging information technology. Integration of people, process, technology and data. Effective CRM practices can mean the difference between the success and failure of a business across all industries. CRM is a way of differentiation between customers to provide greater value to more valuable customers. The meaning of more valuable would be in terms of the monetary spending received from the customer along with regency and frequency of visit. CRM can be viewed in 4 principal ways y y y y Firstly it is a contemporary response to the emerging climate of unprecedented customer churn, waning brand loyalty and lower profitability. Secondly, CRM is central to the task of making an organization customer centric. Thirdly, CRM is the surest symbol embracing IT in business. Fourthly, CRM is the most certain way to increase value to the customers and profitability to the practicing organizations.

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CRM is the business strategy, process, culture and technology that enable organizations to optimize revenue and increase value through a more complete understanding and fulfillment of customer needs. There is a "Revenue Gap" that exists in most companies today. It is the difference in revenue that could be derived if all of a companys Customer Facing Departments were working with optimum information and at peak efficiency. Many companies understand that the greatest competitive advantage they have is what they know about their customers and how they use that data. However, most companies have not established the systems and methods necessary to capture customer centric information and leverage it into higher revenues and profits. Once captured, this information may be used to strengthen customer relationships that will then help to differentiate your offering and decrease the necessity to engage in costly price wars. Your ability to capture and leverage this customer information will become the measuring stick for your companys future success. Communication is the foundation of any successful relationship and business relationships are no different. Many companies are transitioning from the traditional one-way mass marketing communication model to a two-way communication model that engages their customers in an ongoing dialogue, creating a learning relationship. Every contact with the customer, whether its e-mail, phone, Web, or face-to-face, is an opportunity to learn more about the customers unique preferences, values and expectations. It is also an opportunity for the customer to gain valuable insight into a companys product or service offering. Enlightened companies are refining their product or service offerings based on what they learn, and theyre using this greater understanding to create deeper, more profitable long-term customer relationships. The more your customers invest in these learning relationships, the greater their stake in making the relationship work, and the harder it becomes for your competitors to place a wedge between you and your customers. QIEM starts with the goal of helping companies develop comprehensive Customer Relationship Management strategies and solutions that focus on improving four key areas: Communication the exchange of information that, in turn, builds a greater understanding for both parties. Efficiency those areas for improving productivity while not in front of the customer. Effectiveness those areas for improving productivity while in front of the customer. Decision-Making leveraging the information derived to set future direction. A focus on these four key areas will help your company narrow the Revenue Gap by decreasing expenses and increasing revenue.

Definition CRM is the business strategy that aims to understand, anticipate, manage and personalize the needs of an organization's current and potential customers" -- PWC Consulting

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Rather it is the IT face of business processes that aims to establish enduring and mutually beneficial relationships with customers in order to drive customer retention, value and profitability up. Important features of CRM y It permits a one-to one marketing as compared to mass marketing y It stresses commitment over flirting y It helps disintermediation and delayed distribution aspects. y It helps reducing marketing cost significantly.

Critical Success Factors for CRMGeneric CSFs can be defined for any CRM project. These align around customer-facing processes and include: creating a customer culture adopting customer-based measures introducing effective IT segmenting customers developing an end-to-end process. The degree of change required around each of these measures needs to be evaluated at the outset. Many companies have customer-facing processes in place, such as complaints handling and customer service. Other initiatives may be less effective. For example, there is widespread dissatisfaction with loyalty programmes in many cases, they do not create added value because they are not integrated with product or service development. It is important not to develop what is, in effect, a wish list of processes, however. Processes need to be actionable and economic. Changing the business culture to be customer-centric can be a significant challenge because of the long-term dominance of the product view. It is vital to change the measures on which business performance is assessed this also allows the organization to benchmark how well it is progressing towards CRM. Reporting is closely linked to culture, as it indicates what the company believes is important. While customer satisfaction measures are relatively widespread, many companies struggle with identifying customer profitability. Fewer than half of all organizations have this measure in place (although one-third plan to introduce it), while more complex indicators such as lifetime value, are even less widely adopted. Aggregated, gross financial measures still dominate and need to be11 | P a g e

added to. Customer-defined measures also need to be adopted to evaluate performance against expectations. CRM systems and technology have been a major focus and 40 per cent of companies have already implemented them. Vendor selection is critical: a robust process needs to be adopted, as the right partner will affect the outcome of the project. End-users need to be consulted and piloting organized, with strong management support and training to ensure adoption. The impact of internal IT issues can be overlooked, but may harm the outcome of CRM implementations unless they are carefully managed. Gaining a better understanding of the customer base is an important step, especially the adoption of new segmentation practices (which seven out of ten companies are undertaking). The primary new approach is needs analysis, providing insight into how these differ by customer group. This may often reveal where the organization needs to make service improvements, or where it can achieve differentiation. To be effective, the CRM process needs to be integrated end-to-end across marketing, sales and customer service. This may require the introduction of board-level representation of the customer. There are important human resource implications, such as managing the expectations created by the project concerning timescale, costs and results. High-level sponsorship and a steering committee can be central to this, working closely with the project team.

7 Essential Steps When Considering CRMFor many advisers, choosing a specific customer relationship management technology can be a challenge. There are hundreds of CRM systems, and more than a dozen are focused specifically on financial planning practices. So where do you start? While it can be tempting to choose a CRM system based on the cost and list of features, you need to take a step back and consider your practice from a broader business perspective. Here are seven essential questions for you to answer to make sure your CRM investment gives you a great return.

1) What are your business objectives?Software that allows you to easily create professional e-mail templates can be exciting, but it doesn't do you any good if it doesn't help you achieve your objectives. List your business objectives and make sure they are clear and measurable. For example, one of your business objectives could be to increase retention of current clients by 5 percent over the next three years.

2) What processes will the CRM impact?Even before you decide to buy the software, consider your current customer relationship strategies and processes. How do you currently handle contact information? What is your process for preparing for client meetings? How do you communicate with your clients12 | P a g e

throughout the year? Understanding what could be impacted can help you identify areas you want to adjust, change or keep intact once the software is installed. 3) What are the anticipated gains from implementing CRM? Clearly identify what it is you expect your CRM to ultimately give you. Is it scalability to help you serve more clients, or efficiency in daily tasks so you can spend more time prospecting to increase revenue? These gains should relate to achieving your overall business objectives, but should also be very specific and relate directly to your anticipated use of CRM.

4) What features and functions are most critical to achieving your

objectives?Once you have answered the questions above, you can use that collective information to help identify the functions you need in a CRM system. Here's a hypothetical example: Business objective: Increase client base by 10 percent with a corresponding 10 percent increase in revenue in the next three years. Processes impacted: Lead conversion process, which includes looking up pertinent client information before contacting the client (currently a long, manual process). Anticipated gains: Time savings to free up more time for prospecting. Function needed: The ability to quickly look up pertinent client information, including updated portfolio information, goals, net worth, etc. Track the stage each prospect is in. By using this information you can outline exactly what you need the software to accomplish to achieve your objectives.

5) What incentives and measurements exist to support the adoption of CRM?Before you purchase and install a CRM system, you need to consider how you will motivate your staff to use the software. If it takes your assistant an extra 20 minutes to input complete client information into the software, he or she will need to understand how this extra work benefits the entire practice in the long run. It may also be appropriate to award him or her in some way for taking on additional work.

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6) Who will be responsible for evaluating and improving your business processes?It is important to know if you are actually getting the value you want and need from your software purchase. To that end, identify who will evaluate the software and any gains (or losses) you have received from using the software on an ongoing basis. This individual can also be tasked with identifying new ways to improve your process that can save you time and money. 7) Which CRM is the best fit? Now that you know what you need the CRM software to do for you and how you are going to ensure return on your investment, you can evaluate the various CRM options available in light of how the software will improve your business. While going through all of these questions may seem like a daunting task, you will ultimately be better equipped to choose and use a software system that will help you take your practice to the next level.

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PLANNING A CRM PROJECTA well-defined and thought out plan outlines the following: The general business goals and objectives The necessary people involved A date for implementation A budget for all phases of the solution A Technical Inventory

The General Business Goals and ObjectivesThe first step in implementing a successful CRM project is to conduct an internal analysis. From this point you can begin to outline your project goals, objectives and requirements. Current State Analysis Successful solutions begin with analysis. This usually starts with an assessment of the current state of things. These most usually include the "aches and pains" that hinder your teams productivity and detract from your companys goals, but they might also include certain strengths within the current system. It is important to identify both. How do you know what the current state is? Begin by asking your sales, marketing and customer service teams a few key questions: What are the strengths and weaknesses of your companys current processes? How can the processes be improved? What administrative activities are detracting from their productivity?What is the competition doing?

Desired State AnalysisYour desired state will establish and define the ultimate project goals. This analysis will result in a clear direction for the project and be the foundation for measuring the projects success. This analysis will also define the "Gap" between the Current and Desired State. Also, as a result of this phase of the analysis, the areas where the Revenue Gap can be narrowed will become obvious. Technology is an enabler, not a solution itself. Automating an inefficient process will only speed up the wrong activity. On the other hand, automating very strong processes can be easy and early victories for your system. Examples: Increased customer satisfaction Shorter sales cycle Higher close rate Higher margin per sale15 | P a g e

More accurate revenue forecasting Improved management information Stronger relationships with partners

Project GoalsYour project will begin to come into focus once you begin to drill down into the measurable, tangible project goals that address your CRM solutions unique requirements and specific needs. Example Objectives: Reduce the time required to disseminate leads to the sales team Automate quote and proposal generation Create and distribute reports electronically Cut the time required to generate forecasting reports Eliminate duplicate data entry Distribute pricing information, collateral materials or inventory Catalogs more quickly Facilitate group scheduling and activity calendaring Your project objectives will become your projects critical success factors. Youll use these to evaluate CRM solutions, and in turn, they will become the benchmarks or criteria that the solution must meet in order to be considered successful. If you dont identify the projects objectives, youll.

Project DeliverablesYour project deliverables drill down further into the specific business needs that your system must address. This detailed list of features and functions will sometimes serve as the body of an RFP used to evaluate and compare CRM applications. Example Deliverables: Classify contacts by type, such as prospect, customer, reseller, supplier, business partner Automatically notify other team members of important plans, events or customer interactions Run reports automatically and distribute electronically Track customer referrals and lead sources Manage multiple marketing campaigns, projects and activities Create mailing lists and generate targeted direct mailings using fax, e-mail or standard mail

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Maintain an online encyclopedia of all marketing and sales materials including slide presentations, videos, graphics and audio clips Synchronize data changes, additions, deletions and modifications to records with mobile users.

Cost JustificationYour CRM solution plan should also provide a basis for justifying the expense associated with your initiative. Increased revenues and decreased costs are the obvious ROI indicators, but more must be understood. To justify the costs, first determine your ROI expectations. Begin by outlining your project goals and defining your measurable objectives. Convert the measurable objectives into a dollar amount that reflects the operational savings and increased sales that you anticipate. Now you can calculate how quickly you will realize a 100% ROI.

Example ROI Equation:Company XYZ automated 20 salespeople with a CRM solution. As a result, each salesperson reduced his or her administrative tasks and non-selling time an average of 4 hours a week. 4 hours X 20 salespeople = 80 extra selling hours/week. Thats equivalent to hiring two additional salespeople without the overhead. Next, add to your ROI analysis the less tangible benefits that your organization will derive, such as: Enhanced communication Greater Responsiveness Better-informed employees Better-informed management Happier Employees To achieve success, the CRM initiative must be endorsed and used at the highest level. Involve users in the analysis. Create a system that becomes a tool for them, not just a repository for management information. A solution may take as little as 30 days to implement, all the way up to 120 days, based on complexity.

Involve the Appropriate PeopleThe most important factor in a successful CRM implementation is the people involved. Involvement has to start at the top with management and include relevant parties all the way to the user level. As a rule, successful CRM projects have an executive as the project champion. They make sure the project stays on track by setting the initial project goals and objectives, and eliminating obstacles that arise. Executive support and endorsement ensure that the CRM solution becomes a part of the corporate culture.

PrioritizePlan meetings where the teams can discuss the opportunities to improve your current system and have them establish the priority of some "must-do". Since the CRM project will also impact17 | P a g e

management and information services (IS), poll them individually or create representative teams to compile their critical success factors as well. Early participation by everyone affected by the CRM solution promotes a sense of ownership and stimulates enthusiasm before the solution is implemented. Failure to involve the users during the project development leads to user resistance when you roll out the solution.

Establish a TimelineImplementing a CRM solution, or any automation project, without pre-implementation planning is a sure-fire way to set out on the road to failure. An effective planning process includes creating the project calendar, complete with established deadlines and scheduled meetings. If your decision process will be by committee, delegate the appropriate tasks to the members. The length of the planning process can range from a few weeks to several months depending upon the complexity of your companys processes. Low-end contact management applications that are implemented "out-of-the-box" require less time than high-end enterprise solutions with complex customizations. Implementing the typical middle market CRM solution, not including your preimplementation planning, usually requires 30 to 120 days to complete. Many factors can affect the implementation timeline, including the depth and breadth of your customizations, amount of your internal IS departments participation, the number of users to automate, the amount of data to convert, and the degree to which the CRM solution will be integrated with existing systems. To help our clients begin realizing the benefit of their CRM solution quickly, QIEM recommends a phased implementation approach. In a phased approach, we begin by implementing the solution with only the minimum amount of customization necessary to meet your projects most critical success factors. Your employees begin using the CRM solution quickly and your company starts to realize ROI immediately. As the users become familiar with the systems capabilities and features, additional customizations are made in subsequent phases. The most successful CRM projects only attempt to implement in each phase as much as the users organization can absorb. A phased implementation can also help your project avoid the "scope creep" that can occur when you attempt to address too many requirements all at once. If you approach your CRM project with a long-term vision, then segment that vision into prioritized phases; youll be less likely to overwhelm your organization with massive changes.

Take a Technical InventoryOne area thats often overlooked prior to selecting a CRM solution is the technical inventory. It is critical to know the current components and age of your companys technical infrastructure. This information will directly impact both the cost and operability of any CRM solution. Enterprise wide CRM solutions are designed for the client/server environment, Web-based environment or combination of the two. While some products will function in a variety of technical infrastructure configurations, others are designed for a limited number of configurations. If your technical infrastructure will not support the application you select, you may have to decide whether to change your infrastructure or choose from a more limited list of solution options. Some solution providers or software publishers offer system-hosting services. This alleviates some of your internal IS departments responsibility from some of the maintenance and administration of your CRM solution, but generally costs considerably more over 48 months or so.

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Establish a BudgetFront-office automation solutions vary from low-end, "off-the-shelf" products to high-end, customizable solutions. The cost of these products will vary significantly based on functionality, scalability and architectural elegance. While the CRM marketplace is crowded and fragmented, you should be able to compile a short list of systems to review based on your specific CRM objectives, business requirements and technical infrastructure. The greater your functional requirements, expect the cost for the system to increase. Your CRM project budget will need to account for the following Components: Software Consulting (analysis and project management) Customization, Integration and Data Conversion System Implementation User and Administrator Training Technical and User Support Software Maintenance There are two categories of costs commonly associated with a CRM project: Implementation Costs: These are the costs associated with the initial system implementation. Annual Costs: These are the ongoing costs associated with the long-term maintenance and support of the system.

Implementation CostsTo make sure that sufficient resources are available from the outset of the project, it is important to consider the solutions total cost. In addition to the software licenses, other costs associated with the initial implementation of a CRM solution include customization, implementation, training, support, and maintenance. These additional costs over and above the software will generally be 1 to 3 times the cost of the software. A typical middle market CRM solution implementation costs from $1,000 to $4,000 per user. Annual Costs Once youve completed your implementation there will be annual expenses required to ensure the long-term success of the solution. Support Typical support agreements give you direct access to technical analysts for problem resolution, bug reporting, documentation clarification and technical. Maintenance Typical maintenance agreements include software updates, software upgrades and new versions. Without a maintenance agreement, you will have to purchase separately the software upgrades and new versions required to keep your system current. Industry standards are two to three software updates per year, one software upgrade per nine months to one year, and a19 | P a g e

new version every 18 months. A support agreement usually costs 10-15% of the software publishers current suggested price for the software. Professional Services In addition to the support and maintenance agreements, you will want to budget annually for the professional services necessary to implement the upgrades, updates, and new versions. Ongoing Training When new versions or customizations are planned, you will need to include additional training for your users in the annual budget. New employees will also require user training to ensure they are using the solution successfully.

SELECTING A CRM SOLUTIONThere are over 400 front-office automation solutions on the market today. Keep in mind"Execution is more important than vision". Your success depends on the ability of your company and your selected business partner to successfully integrate the new tool into your existing ecology. So it starts with the planning process. The more planning that is done, the more obvious the selection will be. The "must-dos" are the benchmarks used to evaluate each solutions ability to effectively support your business processes and address your automation requirements. Solution evaluation processes range from an informal discussion among the project leaders to a formal rating procedure involving the entire project team. The complexity of your business processes, the amount and detail of your project requirements, and the number of solutions you plan to evaluate will guide the format of your evaluation process. Establish benchmarks for evaluating a solution. The evaluation should include all factors that could impact your solution.

Proprietary SystemsYou may be considering designing your CRM solution from scratch. The initial cost of developing a proprietary system may look attractive, but many companies find that after they "re-invent the wheel" they face ongoing development costs to keep the system functioning. Most of these proprietary projects fail because of one or more of the following reasons: Lengthy design and implementation cycle Resource draining maintenance requirements Future platform incompatibility Inability to integrate system with other enterprise applications Reliance on a single custom developer

Packaged SolutionsImplementing a packaged CRM solution with customizations to accommodate your business practices will save you both time and money. Customized solutions can be implemented in less time than it takes to develop and implement a proprietary or homegrown system. Customized20 | P a g e

solutions also require fewer resources to maintain and can be readily integrated with back-office automation solutions such as MRP/ERP and accounting/finance systems. When evaluating a CRM solution, you want to consider the software developers market leadership or position, the long-term growth goals and financial stability. In the current economy, many CRM vendors are not financially stable. The last thing you want is to select a vendor only to see them go out of business in three months. Check out their financials. It is also important to purchase a mature product, not some late entry into the middle market CRM space. Most new products may have some slick new technology, but never make enough of a dent in the market and mind share to survive. You will also want to be comfortable that the solution is scalable and will grow with your company. You may only have ten sales reps today, but will the system still handle 50 or 100 sales reps easily without abandoning it. Consider carefully the methods that the CRM solution can be customized. Many appear to be simple to customize in a quick demo, but cannot be inexpensively adapted for more complex customizations. You may not feel that you need these today, but most companies regret not considering this aspect in their decision process. For example, can you affordably add custom business logic to the data entry and other areas using a simple and commonly understood programming language such as Microsoft Visual Basic? Can you add additional tables to the CRM system? For example, could you add a custom 1:Many table associated with the Account or Company table to store multiple software licenses, multiple channel partners, or multiple products? Do not trust the sales rep with an answer like Yes, no problem!. We tend to call this type of answer SMOP, or Simply a Matter of Programming, and many, many dollars. Have them demonstrate how you can make such changes in front of you. Do not trust any custom demos developed off-site. Also, check with other companies who are using the system. See how much they have been able to adapt and customize the system to their special business needs.

SELECTING A SOLUTION PARTNERSelecting a knowledgeable, reputable solution provider or systems integrator is more important than selecting the best solution for your project. You can take an excellent CRM software package and totally mess up your implementation if it is not done right. You will want a partner with the resources to provide full implementation support including system design, customization, data conversion, installation and training. Look for the following in a CRM partner: Specialized resources Companies and organizations that have consultants who specialize in Customer Relationship Management understand how to implement successful solutions. Organizations with resources dedicated to supporting CRM solutions are able to provide comprehensive services and ensure the long-term, ongoing success of the system. Current certifications and training Maintaining a staff of trained and certified professionals requires a significant allocation of a companys resources and is a strong indicator of their commitment to servicing the CRM solutions they represent. It is important that the team assigned21 | P a g e

by your CRM partner to implement your system includes experienced professionals certified to customize, integrate and provide training for the solution you select. Check out the experience of the consultant to be assigned to you. In fact, be sure to meet this consultant prior to your selection of the solution provider. CRM Experience The CRM industry is growing exponentially, and so are the numbers of solutions and solution providers. It is important that your partner has the experience, both with implementations and with the product offered to understand both the technical and strategic aspects of CRM. Be wary of ERP and Financials solution providers who also offer CRM solutions. With the slowdown in their market, many have jumped into the hot CRM space but have little experience and understanding of it. Documented methodology The solution provider that you choose should utilize a proven and documented project management system. Development of a successful, repeatable methodology is a strong indicator that they will deliver a reliable solution form start to finish and that they are committed to the CRM market. Client references The best way to assure that your implementation experience will be positive and professional is to check client references. Call three to five of their customers and ask questions such as: Did the solution provider meet the project deadlines? How were last minute changes handled? How well did the solution provider communicate with them? Was the final project cost in line with the estimate? How well have they provided "after sale" service?

How to Prepare Your Office for CRMBusiness surveys show that more than half of CRM solutions actually fail because of poor implementation. Business experts recommend ten steps that project managers can take to ensure the successful adoption of new CRM solutions.

1. Get Clear on Who Owns CRM Solutions

Some marketing professionals perceive sales automation as a function of the IT department. In other organizations, CRM might be viewed as an individual's "pet project." Instead, everyone in an organization should have some emotional buy-in for CRM to succeed.

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2. Communicate How CRM Solutions Help Meet Business Goals Customer relationship management encounters resistance in organizations where CRM solutions appear to contradict goals. For instance, if employees don't feel empowered by information, CRM can become a waste of time. Tying each element of a CRM implementation to a policy or to a vision statement can improve its chance for success. 3. Put Customer Relationship Management into Strategic Context In organizations where CRM solutions fail, project managers often focus on the potential savings of sales automation features. Instead, successful project managers emphasize the areas of longterm opportunity opened up by CRM. 4. Offer Thorough Training on CRM Solutions scheduling a handful of mandatory training sessions is a great strategy for a failed implementation, according to veteran project managers. Understanding that different team members may have different learning styles can lead to a more comprehensive training program that continues beyond the launch phase. 4. Offer Thorough Training on CRM Solutions scheduling a handful of mandatory training sessions is a great strategy for a failed implementation, according to veteran project managers. Understanding that different team members may have different learning styles can lead to a more comprehensive training program that continues beyond the launch phase. 5. Carve Sales Automation Tasks into Manageable Chunks CRM solutions fail to gain traction in organizations when one team member or job role becomes tasked with "keeping things running." Instead, project managers can work out assignments for specific departments that keep the system from developing a bottleneck. 6. Track ROI on CRM Solutions Project managers often justify a CRM solution by pointing at the potential cost benefits. Moving beyond the internal savings and into tracking the new business generated from sales automation and other modules is essential to keeping a CRM project moving forward. 7. Prepare for Culture Shock after Online CRM Implementation Online CRM tools break down barriers in organizations, even when stakeholders prefer to keep some information to themselves. Openly addressing coming changes and their implications early in the launch cycle can help prevent team members from rolling back into old habits. 8. Roll Out CRM Solutions Gradually In organizations where CRM solutions failed to take root, stakeholders often reported feeling overwhelmed. Launching CRM in smaller chunks maintains a sense of forward momentum while team members become acclimated to new systems. 9. Ask for Input on Customization and Future Releases when stakeholders feel "shut out" of the release process, CRM implementations fail. Soliciting23 | P a g e

and tracking feature requests can help team members understand how CRM solutions evolve over time, based on user feedback and budget guidelines. 10. Celebrate Milestones Regularly Taking time to celebrate wins is just as important as addressing opportunities, according to many experienced CRM project managers. Giving team members time to reflect on the positive impact of a CRM solution can shift focus away from gripes and criticisms of an incomplete system. Clear Communication Leads to CRM Success Experts agree that following these ten steps often leads to significantly higher success rates for CRM rollouts. Keeping everyone in the loop about the rationale for and the progress of the project is essential to an effective launch.

Workflow of CRMA simplified CRM workflow is as follows.

1. Collecting Customer Data and InformationAcquisition of customers and basic data including name, address, gender, age, etc, is fundamental, but transaction data such as date, time, item, value, etc. at every touch point,7 i.e., a point of interaction when the company communicates with a customer, or vice versa, are also essential. Information is often needed to complement these data. It is a knowledge that comes from asking questions to customers such as why and how.8

2. Analyzing Data to Predict Customer BehaviorMarketers use these data and information so that they can record the interests and preferences of customers. Furthermore, they attempt to ascertain purchasing patterns on the basis Of transaction records. Using sophisticated modeling and data mining techniques, behavior prediction uses historical customer behavior to foresee future behaviors.9 Understanding the tendency that a certain type of customer is apt to purchase a specific product (propensity-to-buy analysis) and that certain products are often bought with other specific products by a particular type of customer (product affinity analysis) has a beneficial effect on making marketing decisions.

3. Marketing Campaigns: Applying the Results of AnalysisCompanies conduct marketing campaigns that are designed on the basis of the results of analysis or on hypotheses. They promote their products through various channels, such as e-mail, the Internet, telemarketing, or direct mail. They also contact their customers for follow-up after purchase. And, of course, they have to monitor the results of that campaign in order to refine future campaigns. With CRM software, they can, for the most part, automate these processes.

4. Measuring Results, Revising Hypotheses, and Repeating This Workflow Process24 | P a g e

To improve their results, companies need to evaluate the effects of their marketing campaigns. They should measure whether and how a given campaign achieves its original goal and revises their hypotheses according to the results. After that, they should repeat the workflow process, thereby making gradual progress.

About e-CRM:ECRM Electronic CRM concerns all forms of managing relationships with customers making use Of Information Technology (IT). As the internet is becoming more and more important in business life, many companies consider it as an opportunity to reduce customer-service costs, tighten customer relationships and most important, further personalize marketing messages and enable mass customization. Together with the creation of Sales Force Automation (SFA), where electronic methods were used to gather data and analyze customer information, the trend of the upcoming Internet can be seen as the foundation of what we know as eCRM today. We can define eCRM as activities to manage customer relationships by using the Internet, web browsers or other electronic touch points. The challenge hereby is to offer communication and information on the right topic, in the right amount, and at the right time that fits the customers specific needs Channels, through which companies can communicate with its customers, are growing by the day, and as a result, getting their time and attention has turned into a major challenge. One of the reasons eCRM is so popular nowadays is that digital channels can create unique and positive experiences not just transactions for customers. An extreme, but ever growing in popularity, example of the creation of experiences in order to establish customer service is the use of Virtual Worlds, such as Second Life. Through this so-called eCRM, companies are able to create synergies between virtual and physical channels and reaching a very wide consumer base. However, given the newness of the technology, most companies are still struggling to identify effective entries in Virtual Worlds. Its highly interactive character, which allows companies to respond directly to any customers requests or problems, is another feature of eCRM that helps companies establish and sustain long-term customer relationships. Furthermore, Information Technology has helped companies to even further differentiate between customers and address a personal message or service. Some examples of tools used in eCRM: Personalized Web Pages where customers are recognized and their preferences are Shown. Customized products or services (Dell). CRM programs should be directed towards customer value that competitors cannot match. However, in a world where almost every company is connected to the Internet, eCRM has become a requirement for survival, not just a competitive advantage.25 | P a g e

E-CRM and its Benefits The long-term business relationships provide many potential benefits for banks and clients. It is Generally less costly for any service firm (bank) to maintain and develop an existing client Relationship (Berry 1983). The customer can also make transaction cost savings by developing a Long-term relationship with bank. The numerous studies carried on in USA reveals that transacting through Internet is much more economical than other channels. For instance, it has been estimated that while it costs nearly US $1.07 per transaction using the normal means, on the Net the costs comes to a mere cent. Even when compared with telephone banking (5 cents) and the ATMs (2.7cents), the Net seems to have an edge. In addition, the strategic and social benefits may be considerable for both parties (Halinen 1989). A long-term relationship may, for instance produce strategic benefits for the bank in its marketing by generating references and credentials or it may create competitive advantage by building barriers to switching. The client on its part may enhance the quality of services offered by engaging in long-term business relationship with a bank (Berry& Parsuraman 1991).In Net banking the financial statement can be viewed, printed or down-loaded in any format for ease of analysis. Thus, Internet as a service-delivery channel shifts the control of transactions from the bank staff to the customer. Net bank customers find better information through websites than from the unwilling, less knowledgeable and noncooperative banking staff. Thus high level of customer control that translates into customer satisfaction and repeat purchases the most critical advantage of e-CRM in banks. Other related benefits include decreased cost of sales and promotion, high supply-chain management integration and improved logistics management. Current Status of e-CRM in Indian Banks Internet has enabled banking at the click of the mouse. At present there are five functional Categories for online banking sites on line brochure center, interactive bank, e-mails, calculations and cyber banks, which offer customers access to account information, inter-branch funds transfer and utility bill payments. Banks have tied up with service providers in telecom and power sectors like MTNL, BSES and cellular service providers for allowing their customers to make bill payments online. In India, new private sector banks like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Global Trust Bank and UTI Bank, have taken the lead in e-banking. Among the foreign banks, Citibank, has noticeable presence, while others like Federal Bank, HSBC Bank, Deutsche Bank and ABN Amro Bank, are moving towards becoming big players in e-banking. Even the state run banks like SBI and Union Bank of India have realized the advantages of such services. ICICI Bank, the first bank to offer e-banking services in India has more than one lakh regular Internet user accounts, of which more than 25 percent are of NRIs. The bank has viewed advanced information technology as a managerial and competitive tool and has tried to harness technology to the maximum possible extent to deliver superior customer services. The Bank has emerged leader in B2B and B2C initiatives. A B2B solution (i-payments) aims at facilitating online supply-chain management to it corporate clients by linking them with their suppliers and dealers in a closed business loop. All members in this loop are required to maintain the account with the bank. This product has gained considerable market acceptance and the bank has already entered into memorandum of understanding with over 100 large Indian companies. The Bank became the first bank in India to introduce utility bill payment through Internet. Bank has entered into tie-ups with leading telecom companies such as MTNL, Tata teleservices, VSNL and cellular operators such as BPL Mobile, Airtel and Usha Martin. Tie-ups have been26 | P a g e

established with BEST & BSES for electricity payment in Mumbai. The bank with its net banking service called Infinity goes a step forward by allowing the account holder to transfer fund into another persons account with the bank. Also one can intimate about the loss of an ATM card over the net when using Infinity. Corporate sector can issue letter of credit and make inquiries regarding bills sent for collection via this service. It also provides facility for nicknaming all accounts to avoid remarking lengthy accounts number. UTI bank has tied up with Cosmat Max, to create a communication network for its customers. The network will have 50 VSAT terminals at strategic locations, which will help in ATM servicing and internal management information system. The bank has signed a memorandum of understanding with equitymaster.com for e-brokering activities of the site. This will enable the bank to leverage its database for e-commerce and other initiatives with data-warehousing and data-mining, where information of the customer spending habits will be used to sell other correlated products like credit cards. HDFC Bank has, for the first time in India made the e-shopping experience secure online and real time with the launch of its payment gateway. This will allow any Visa/Master credit card holder anywhere in the world to make payments for global services over the Internet. The bank has tied up with 15 portals and is in talk with several others to offer secure business to customer e-com. transactions. The first secure, on-line and real-time e-com. credit card transaction in the country was done on the Easy.2 shoppe.com shopping mall, enabled by HDFC bank on a Visa card, heralding the launch of the payment gateway. HDFC Bank also offers a direct debit option whereby its customer can pay for the goods or services by a secure password enabled transfer of funds from their account to the merchant account. The state run public sector bank, the State Bank of India (SBI) made a quiet foray into net banking. The countrys largest commercial bank launched on-line SBI - an account browsing facility over the Net for customers in eight select branches including four NRI branches. E-CRM Techniques used by Banks in India Banks leveraging technology can develop innovative customer solutions to attain growth with Profitability within the framework of sound risk-management practices. Techno-savvy banks are Tapping into online services to initiate a new era in relationship management to create one to one Relationships as well as one to many relationships to enhance their competitive advantage. Recent developments in critical areas of IT have changed the way banks are managing their Customer relationships. The following are some of the latest e-CRM techniques used by banks in Offering new products and services to its customers. 1. Internet banking: Internet is being used by banks to disseminate information to customers about banks products and services through their websites. The banking services are provided through Net with convenience of ease and accessibility. Internet banking offers many benefits To the banks viz. vast reach, reduced transaction costs, direct marketing and cross selling, Build banks brand, etc. It also offers benefits to customers viz. reduced cost, convenience, Banking with the bank and not the branch, speed, better cash management, etc. The new private sector banks ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, UTI Bank and the Global Trust Bank have taken the lead in Net Banking. The state run public sector banks are lagging behind in Net banking, although modest beginning has been made by the State Bank of India. 2. Data Warehousing and Data Mining: This technique is used to develop and use customer data to check their profile, retention and loyalty patterns. They provide valuable inputs for retaining customers and developing products and services for the future.27 | P a g e

3. ATMs: At present installed number of ATMs in the country is 1800, which is likely to be more than 4000 by next year. Most of the demand for this technology is coming from State owned banks. Until now, ATM services have been confined to deposits and withdrawal from bank accounts by customers. The growth in ATMs has been fuelled by a race among banks to expand their customer base by going in for more value added services (bill payments and ticketing services) on these machines. 4. Telebanking or Mobile banking: These services empower the customer with an instant access to routine queries and transaction or check bank balances. 5. Computerized decision support system: This helps the banks in applying optimization techniques in functional areas such as, assetliability management, optimization of investment portfolios and asset portfolios through linear programming. This is a practical tool which helps the bank managers and customers in optimizing investment decisions. 6. E-mail: Banks can maintain the list of its best customers and inform these members through e-mail the various services and schemes offered by the bank. These days this is considered as one of the cheapest and effective means of communication. 7. Computer networking: Networking between the branches of divisional, regional, zonal and Head office of banks provides access to customer data base from the executive desk. This will Integrate the front-office applications with back-office requirements, thus generating MIS for Branch managers and executives at the different controlling offices including Head office for accurate, speedy and cost-effective customer services. 8. Customer smart cards: These cards are issued to key customers which carries all the relevant Information, details of previous and repeat purchases, to make it convenient for the customers to recall and for the banks to keep a track of the behavioral and purchase trends. Utilities like BEST in Mumbai are already using smart cards for ticketing in its luxury buses.

Phased CRM Implementation - Is it the Right Choice?CRM is the most influential customer strategy of the decade. What started out as a customer retention program today has developed into a fully fledged business strategy often involving millions of dollars? How long does an actual CRM implementation take? How long does it take to see some return on investment after employing a CRM strategy? A company can expect a fair share of return on investment equivalent to at least ten times its investment. Companies should comprehend the fact that they are actually starting up a project that could take at least 5 years but will lead to phenomenal increase in market share. Since most organizations try to get the whole organization involved in a CRM project they face considerable difficulty. This happens as most organizations are built to resist change. It is important to

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concentrate on one department, make evident changes and then get the rest of the organization involved. CRM's Time Frame- What you Need to Knowy

Sometimes putting money into a 5 yr plan may seem unwise therefore it is better to opt for small investments - quick steps. The return on these little investments can be used to further greater expansion. So one should therefore opt for a 6 months, one year project and then continue from there on. Every organization needs to establish its goals clearly. From then on it has to decide at which point it actually is and where it really wants to see itself after its CRM implementation. It is imperative that the organization have a long-term commitment to the CRM project and be willing to invest the required amount of effort time and money to obtain necessary results. The organization should not expect a return on investment too soon. Expecting a short return on investment say 6 months will have detrimental effects. The average implementation time for organizations that implement most CRM solutions is 12 - 16 weeks while the industry average hovers greater than 10 months. An organization that implements CRM should expect full ROI in 10 months. Return on investment is usually 4 to 7 times the initial and ongoing investment. Large scale change requires much more additional time. Over the first 3 years CRM will evidence a steady growth rate and deliver a profitability increase in millions. As the CRM program continues each step should pay for itself in only 6- 12 months Customer behavior shows only within a few months although some customer behavior takes longer to change. Significant improvements take place only a few months after employing the CRM strategy. After the implementation of the strategy CRM focus should be on customer interactions and using this to meet customer needs. What's most important is to build and launch, then improve, rather than spend months in preparation before the initial launch.

y

y

y

y y

y

y

So what's the best option? Do organizations opt for a one time plan or a phased implementation strategy? Opting for phased implementation is certainly more beneficial and is the better choice of the two. Guidelines for Successful Phased Implementation: Ease Slowly into CRM Implementation Establish your business needs first. Next companies need to establish a CRM project that has a short delivery period so that the project can be delivered in a short timeframe. It is better to opt for phased implementation, small individual projects than a mammoth one. This will ensure that there is adequate return on investment and that there is considerable cost reduction and efficiency.

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CRM Package vs. Business Needs It is important to ensure that the best balance is obtained between the CRM solution and the actual use of it. At most times businesses find that they are adjusting their business processes and goals to the CRM package and vice versa. An effort should be made to make use of the CRM tools to the best of its ability while at the same time accommodating business processes. Get Management Involved CRM executives and top management should be involved. Their participation is critical to the achievement of CRM goals and objectives. The CRM committee appointed or the CRM manager should actively participate in all aspects of the CRM implementation from the inception to the deployment. Responsibility should be given to the appropriate persons and ensured that they carry it through and thereby avail of all the possible CRM benefits. Training is Essential Training should be taken seriously. Since the implementation of CRM is a huge task it is important to plan for individual training within the organization for ex. classroom training, expert training etc can be opted for so that they are enabled to possess the necessary skills required for the job. This is an important part of CRM implementation. Employees should be encouraged to provide feedback on how well the CRM training has gone and whether or not they need additional help. Implementing CRM Make sure the business is affected to the barest minimum. See what effects the CRM implementation will have on your business and make sure you prepare employees for the possible jolts. It is most important to focus on the process and allow the CRM tool to manage the process. It is also important to include the entire business even if the CRM project includes only one business unit. Future Focus Since the CRM implementation will bring with it new changes and new challenges it is imperative that the resources at hand be used to deal adequately with possible change. It is important to focus on the possibility that changes will undoubtedly occur in future. Plans should be made keeping this in mind. Room should be provided for modifications and the possibility of plans going awry as well. The business should be well equipped to deal with these changes. Get Feedback from Users Obtaining user feedback is essential as this can contribute to the success of the CRM project. It yields valuable information about CRM implementation's requirements user acceptance, etc. While considering implementing the CRM strategy the adherence to the above factors will go a long way in ensuring success. Getting CRM right will ensure that customer retention is secured, sales leads are followed and marketing is boosted. After the execution of CRM the results need to be measured often, based on the methodology developed. It is important to ensure that current metrics are established. Both qualitative and quantitative measures should be adopted, after which the results need to be analyzed and finally based on this a methodology should be implemented.

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CRM's Top Business Models are in High DemandThe purpose of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is to enable various organizations serve customers better through introducing them to a series of processes and procedures that better the buying experience for customers. This is done through implementing a successful CRM strategy through a software package that has been specifically designed to support these business processes and procedures. The work of CRM involves focusing on service automated processes, information gathering and processing, integrating and automating various customer serving processes in a company. It also manages to keep track of customer preferences, buying habits, deals with service requests, information requests, complaints etc. It deals directly with the customer. For ex call centers use Customer Relationship Management to store customer information. It enables them to retrieve and store information and serve the customer efficiently. It also helps them to encourage new customers, cater to the needs of the older ones and basically achieve customer retention. Finding a CRM software vendor is easy work but what's important is getting one that works for you. The leaders in the field include:

OracleOracle is the leader in the CRM field. The company currently offers 50 CRM applications that are able to provide for all the customer service requirements of small, medium and large industries. Oracle provides CRM applications that aid the organization through improved business processes. What does Oracle have to offer? The answer is accurate information. In addition to that the functionality it offers is just as important. It manages to provide excellent support for all departments within the organization like customer support, added services and additional

SAPSAP was established in 1972 and is now a leader in the provision of business solutions for all types of industries. It is a CRM software vendor that caters to businesses worldwide and currently serves more than 32,000 customers. SAP has a presence in more than 50 countries. It is the world's largest business software company. It is the world's third-largest independent software provider overall and employs more than 35,000 people. They are able to provide excellent customer service and support. It boasts of having the Knowledge, Experience, and Technology that is needed to optimize Business efficiency. It manages to provide a range of solutions that cater to every aspect of the business.31 | P a g e

The benefits from SAP are:y y y y y

Better efficiency Cost reduction Better performance Adaptability to business environment Overall Growth

One advantage SAP has is that SAP Ventures invests in new companies that are interested in finding new technologies. This enables them to stay ahead in the rat race. SAP offers several solutions for Customer Relationship Management and is able to deliver customer-centric solutions that revolve around each customer. It helps the organization to support the various departments like marketing, sales, and service and provides them with good analytics as well as excellent interaction capabilities. SAP CRM supports the customer-related processes and deals with all customer-related activities across all departments. It sources and gathers together all customer data in the organization in order to facilitate better decisions. It enables company's address their business needs adequately, manages to achieve the business objectives and reaps the required return on investment. Sales Force This unique provider manages to provide simple yet effective customer relationship management products that equip the business with the capacity to increase its effectiveness. It offers a wide range of solutions from marketing to sales force automation to customer service and support. It boasts of being the world's first on-demand application-sharing service. It provides customizable CRM solutions that integrate extremely well. It aids on-demand applications and succeeds extremely well at this. Its main feature is its ability to manage and share information easily. Its provisions include:y y y y y

Analytics Sales Force Automation Custom Applications Marketing Automation Customer Service Support

Right Now Business Models Right Now Technologies provides organizations with the necessary on demand CRM solutions that are needed to build a customer centered business. Its appeal lies in its technology, commitment to customer success and its ability to deliver a high ROI and capacity to achieve customer retention. Its clients number more than 1,400 organizations.

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It is able to achieve better customer relationships that cater to customers needs adequately. It helps organizations to understand and deal with their customers better.Right Now manages to provide a holistic view of the customer and the customer data. It also helps in identifying customers, satisfying them and ultimately retaining them. Sales revenue increases along with overall productivity and growth. It increases the quality of service effectiveness. The sales department as well benefits as shorter sales cycles, increased revenue from sales, and better sales efforts. From the marketing perspective marketing efforts are sharpened and marketing campaigns are improved. Right Now Technologies as a CRM software vendor has so much to offer the customer as they have exhibited leadership in the customer service field and enables the organization to actually focus a whole lot more on the customer.

Increase profitability and sales with CRM integration.CRM integration has become what is considered to be one of the best business strategies in use by companies today. With CRM integration, companies can create an effective marketing plan, improve customer service and increase satisfaction, and in turn, increase the profitability and sales of the business. Deciding to invest in CRM integration could be the best business decision your company could ever make. No matter what the size of your business, choosing to move to CRM integration is as simple as understanding exactly what CRM integration can do for you. Once the facts are clear, your business steps to CRM integration will naturally fall into place.

What Is CRM Integration?CRM integration is most simply stated as the introduction and implementation of CRM integration software into a business. In most businesses, CRM integration would include selection of a program, installation of necessary hardware and software, importing existing data and files, and training employees to use the new system. Bringing CRM integration into your business is one of the best ways to increase productivity and maximize your business profitability. CRM integration can be done within the organization or you can hire an outside firm to do the initial CRM integration work for you. How Do You Start CRM Integration? Starting CRM integration can vary depending on your specific business and needs. The first step is to decide what type of program would best benefit your business with CRM integration. Some research and comparison of available projects will help you to complete this step. Next, you must decide if your company is capable of handling CRM integration on its own or if you should contact outside help to make the transition seamless. Bringing in the necessary software and equipment, setting it up, and importing existing data would be the next step in CRM integration.

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Finally, training your employees on how to best utilize the new system would complete your companys CRM integration process

What Are The Benefits of CRM Integration?Businesses that go through CRM integration see many different benefits. One of the biggest benefits of CRM integration is increased business profitability. CRM integration makes this possible through streamlining processes to reduce the time spent on customer relations. With just a few keystrokes, customer service, billing, and sales information is available in the database, making each customer contact more efficient. CRM integration also allows you to direct your marketing plans to the most receptive audiences. This can cut costs for marketing and advertising, while increasing customer conversion. You can also use the CRM program to manage your employees tasks and sales, keeping tabs on everything that is going on within your organization. Depending on the nature of your business, you may find even more benefits of CRM integration once the process has been implemented.

How Can CRM Integration Apply To Your Business?No matter what industry your company is in, the need for CRM integration is universal. Every business provides a service or product to a customer and keeping detailed records on customers, purchasing history, and service needs can allow CRM integration to help you make the most of each customer interaction. Additionally, the other features of CRM integration, such as employee monitoring and task delegation can help you to manage the productivity of your employees and their customer contacts. Finally, the CRM integration process will better prepare you to plan and organize future business plans with detailed information and customizable reports on your business activity and trends. CRM integration can apply to and improve your business in any way that you find acceptable to use the processes included.

CRM Integration and Prophet Software.One of the industry leaders in CRM integration is Prophet Software from the Avidian Company. This knowledgeable company offers CRM integration solutions for businesses of all sizes. Whether you are a business that has one employee or a hundred thousand, CRM integration is possible with the wide range of Prophet Software solutions. Avidian can also offer a complete package for CRM integration, including self-training and an extensive training package for your employees to be used to wrap up the CRM integration process. Exploring Avidian Prophet Software solutions for CRM integration may be the best choice for the future success and profitability of your company

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The Indian CRM MarketThis report is an Executive Survey of about 70 CRM Consultants, Users, and Vendors involved with CRM practices and technology in India. The report is restricted to the Indian market, and the purpose is to give an overview of the market before investigating different aspects in further depth in subsequent research programs. Contents 1. CRM Market Size The Market can be sized at Rs. 50-100 Crores (1 Crore=10 million) Outsourced CRM Services forms the largest segment 2. Market Prospects Buyers are either low-awareness or unconvinced The market shall show slower than expected growth 3. Market Drivers and Inhibitors Need for improved customer service shall drive service-oriented industry sectors to adopt CRM High cost and poor customer-orientation hold back acceptance 4. Buyer Sectors and Vendor Recall Banking, Insurance, and Financial Services sectors are best-fit sectors for CRM Siebel, Oracle and Talisma emerge top-of-mind vendors 5. Respondent Profile

1. CRM Market Size Quick Glance: The Indian CRM market can be sized at Rs. 50-100 Crores (1 Crore=10 million) The CRM market can be segmented into the market for software and services The services segment includes outsourced CRM services, integration, training, and consultancy The market for CRM services is considerably larger than the market for CRM software Fig. 1. Sizing the Indian CRM Market

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Observations and Inferences y A clear majority of our respondents size the Indian CRM Market at the Rs. 50-100 Crore range but with 33% of our respondents putting the market at a size greater than Rs. 100 Crore; there could be a higher benchmark for the market size applicable than the Rs. 100 Crore mark. y Our findings are in agreement with the figure most published in the media stated by Denis Collart, the global head of PWCs CRM practice who, in an interview in November 2000, stated that the Indian Market for CRM Software and Services would grow to about Rs. 100 Crore by 2001. Fig. 2. CRM Market Segments

The market segments for CRM can be broadly out as the Software, Services, and Hardware market. Our study has been restricted to the Software and Services markets.

Fig. 3. Breakup of the Global CRM Market

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This chart gives the breakup of the Global CRM Software and Services market. The projected revenues for each of the segments for the year 2001 from past research have been used to arrive at the relative percentages. This breakup is merely indicative, as the revenue projections have been taken from more than one source. Observations and Inferences y The breakup between revenues from various segments in the India n context is not expected to vary from global market to a significant degree. With this assumption, the size of the market for CRM implementations (including Software, Integration, Consulting and Training) in India lies in the 40-60 Crore range. y Given the small market, a local vendor looking for business is going to find himself up against tough competition. Majority of the CRM solution providers in India do not have a product but act as consultants and integrators for software like Siebel, Oracle, SAP etc. providing consulting, software deployment and integration, and training. y Outsourced CRM Services has the maximum potential for growth, but the number of players entering this market is growing at a significant rate. Telemarketing Firms, Direct Marketing Firms, Data Collection firms, Market Research firms, and even Advertising Agencies have begun to add the CRM tag to their services. With the Call Center market finding the international market tough going, they are increasingly turning to the domestic market to supplement revenues.

2. Market Prospects Quick Glance: Indian firms are aware of CRM, but are yet to take concrete steps towards implementation The market is expected to catch on, but slower than anticipated The overall sentiment is wait-and-watch The next two charts indicates what our respondents feel is the stage of evolution of the Indian CRM market and what they feel are the market prospects. Fig. 4. Stage of evolution of the Indian Market

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Fig. 5. CRM Market Prospects

Observations and Inferences y While there has been a great deal of attention on CRM technology and practices in recent times, when it comes to putting it in practice, the market is in a very early stage of evolution. Most respondents felt that the Indian firms were either unaware, or unconvinced about the benefits and applicability of CRM. y The overall sentiment when it comes to growth prospects is upbeat in the sense that people are convinced that it shall take off, albeit slower than anticipated. Signals for Solution and Service providers are that they are going to have to stick through this early stage till the market matures in terms of awareness and acceptance, and the number of implementations increases. y Media reports have put the annual growth rate for the CRM Software market in India at 25-30%, and Services market at about 50-60%. Our respondents however feel the going shall be slower than projected. 3. Market Drivers and Inhibitors Quick Glance: The need for improved customer service and high global adoption shall drive the Indian CRM market The high cost of implementation and low awareness of benefits is going to prove a major deterrent The next two charts indicate the factors our respondents feel will drive acceptance of CRM in India, and the factors that will hold back acceptance.

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Fig. 6. Market Drivers

Fig. 7. Market Inhibitors

Observations and Inferences y A need for improved Customer Service shall be the main driver for Industry sectors that depend on the quality of their customer interactions to retain existing customers and win new ones. High Global adoption is likely to drive the MNCs to adopt CRM first in line with Global implementations. y While the first hurdle holding back the market is a lack of awareness, respondents have put high cost of implementation as the main inhibitor. Complete and comprehensive CRM packages such as those of Siebel and Oracle costing in the range of Rs. 1 to 2.5 Crores (and more) are too expensive for most Indian firms. However, with software vendors bringing down prices and offering relatively affordable packages bundled with integration and consulting services, this could soon change. y In the Indian context, lack of customer orientation and poor existing IT infrastructure can prove major factors. Firms need to evolve their customer thinking by a significant extent before they accept CRM as the strategic imperative it is, and internal systems and database management practices need to be upgraded before CRM software can be used to any effect.39 | P a g e

y

Another major inhibitor indicated by respondents was that Indian firms lack the skills and strategic vision required to successfully implement CRM.

4. Buyer Sectors and Vendor Recall Quick Glance: Banking, Insurance, and Financial Services are the sectors that shall benefit most from CRM practices and technology Siebel emerges as the most top-of-mind CRM package, followed by Oracle and Talisma Fig. 8. Best-fit sectors for CRM practices and packages

Fig. 9. Top-of-mind CRM Packages

Observations and Inferences y Our respondents voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Financial Services sector as the best fit sector for CRM. Recent implementations in the banking and financial services sector, especially those of ICICI and Citibank, have clearly grabbed attention. y The best-fit sectors as expressed by our respondents gives an indication as to how closely CRM is associated with improvement in customer service. y Siebel is the global leader when it comes to CRM software and has clearly grabbed mindshare in the Indian market as well. While 77% of the respondents mentioned Siebel as a known CRM vendor, Siebel was the first CRM package that came to mind for 64% of the respondents.

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y

SAP and Oracle have recently entered the Indian market with aggressive plans targeting the SME market in particular. Both firms are targeting a growth in the market for their products of about 30%.

5. Respondent Profile Fig. 10. Respondent Profile

Fig. 11. Respondent Involvement with CRM

Total respondents: 71

CRM Necessities for Financial ServicesThe ideal CRM solution for any financial service company is one that effectively leverages customer knowledge in times of intense competition and ever-changing customer demands. How well a bank or a financial enterprise reacts to shrinking margins and complex situations can make a huge difference in the market. Today, CRM solutions need to grow, from the CRM solutions that preceded them to the market, and provide dynamic solutions to the todays ever-changing business challenges. While early CRM solutions only provided partial solutions to complex banking issues, there is great promise that contemporary CRM solutions will be able to meet the wide range of market demands. Companies have been forced to provide a range of products and value-services to meet the growing demands of customers. With the availability new business channels such as the Internet,41 | P a g e

customers have the option of choosing from a larger pool of products and services. This puts immense l institutions to have their CRM systems in place to succeed in a competitor market place. In addition to requesting a wide range of products and value-added services, customers demand ease and comfort in using these products and services. This means that companies need a CRM solution that can capture and store real-time information in a central repository and offer easy access to the data. Capability to segment according to customer details (demographics, geography, occupation, services) is a necessity for any CRM solution. Segmentation helps business managers and leaders in strategic planning and decision-making based upon customer behaviour. With quality data, companies can create cost-efficient marketing campaigns to target the most profitable customers and ensure a profitable return on investment (ROI). CRM integration impacts the following areas: Understanding customer portfolios Optimizing sales process Integrating collaborative solutions Increasing customer satisfaction Analytical CRMs: Understanding Customer Portfolios Analytical CRMs aim at storing, analyzing and applying information from business intelligence tools to communicate with customers. It emphasizes customer knowledge, strategic planning, and execution as cornerstones of a CRM initiative. Under customer portfolio management, companies make decisions and allocate resources based on customer value. Winning new customers and retaining profitable customers are the responsibilities of a successful analytical CRM program. To obtain profitability, it is critical to match service levels to customer needs, directing less profitable service needs to lower cost service channels. Key deliverables of an effective analytical CRM solution are: 1. Problem formulation 2. Preparation of definitive datasets 3. Definitive analysis using statistical techniques, non linear pattern or deviation detection and machine learning. 4. Visualization of results in an easily understandable format. Developing a CRM Measurement Strategy Many businesses are pursuing new metrics even if they are not considering CRM. However, it is central to successful customer-focused strategies that appropriate measures are adopted which will evaluate the companys performance against the customers perspective. As well as hard measures of value and retention, softer measures also need to be incorporated and their impact on the bottom line demonstrated. Many organizations make the mistake of not establishing new measures before CRM is introduced. This makes it very difficult to demonstrate the benefit and added value of the new process. Key performance indicators are one approach, although care must be taken to ensure they are not simply deployed as a standardized checklist. It is important to measure what needs to be measured, not what can most easily be measured.42 | P a g e

Benchmarking is also likely to emerge as an important new metric for the customer-centered organization. When considering which benchmarks to adopt, those which include a strong element of process measurement should be favored as this allows causal links to be demonstrated with financial performance. Many companies do not even know their baseline metrics, including elements such as total marketing spend or composition of their sales force. This makes the introduction of benchmarking extremely difficult. Evaluation of marketing activities needs to be