Summer Training Report

In
Datamatics Global Services
On
Customer Relationship Management

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the two

year
Post Graduate Programme (PGP)

Submitted by
Vivek Bohra
……………………………………………………………………………….
Roll No: PG20095063
Batch: 2009-2011

IILM Institute for Higher Education, Gurgaon

1
 Declaration

I hereby declare that the Project work entitled, Customer Relationship

Management submitted by me for the partial fulfillment of the Post

Graduate Program (PGP) to IILM Institute for Higher Education, is my

own original work and has not been submitted earlier either to IILM or to any

other Institution for the fulfillment of the requirement for any course of

study. I also declare that no chapter of this manuscript in whole or in part is

lifted and incorporated in this report from any earlier / other work done by

me or others.

Vivek Bohra (PG20095063)

Place :

Date :

2
 Acknowledgement

I express my heartfelt gratitude to Ms. Ankita Singh ( Manager- Coroprate HR : Datamatrics

Global Services Ltd. Pune), for giving me the opportunity to undertake a project on Customer
Relationship Management under his guidance and observation.

I also express my deep sense of gratitude to my mentor Dr. Sanyukta Jolly for her unflinching
support and making herself available for discussion and providing me as required facilities
whatever, whenever needed throughout duration of my dissertation.

Last but not least I would like to sincerely acknowledge the help received from various persons
and sources in collecting data’s and information in completing this satisfactory Project.

3
 Executive Summary

As a part of my MBA curriculum I have done my summer internship training at Datamatrics

Global Service Ltd. In this report I am going to share my experience in the company.. I was
supposed to research on the status of CRM in India.

Deep customer relationships represent a continuing stream of income and a critical platform for
new growth. They also represent a powerful and defensible barrier to entry. Establishing and
strengthening long term relationship with your customers is the key to success. It’s the focus of a
well structured and coordinated process of customer relationship management.CRM involves far
more than automating processes in sales, marketing and service and then increasing the
efficiency of those processes. it involves conducting interaction with customers on a more
informed basis and individually tailoring them to customers needs.

This project helps to gain a deeper understanding about how CRM can contribute towards
improving the way you measure and optimize your relationships with customers.

4
 Contents

• Company Analysis
 Infrastructure……………………………………………………………………………
………………..8
 Branch Network
………………………………………………………………………………………….9
 Management Team
…………………………………………………………………………………..11
 Group
clients………………………………………………………………………………………
………13
 Quality Policy
……………………………………………………………………………………………..1
4
 Group Synergies &
Alliances………………………………………………………………………17
 Corporate social responsibility
initiatives…………………………………………………..19
 Siebal CRM
services……………………………………………………………………………………
20

• Chapter 1 (Conceptual Framework For CRM)

 Key CRM
Principles……………………………………………………………………………………
.27
 CRM
Activities……………………………………………………………………………………
………29
 Emergence Of CRM
Practice……………………………………………………………………..30
 CRM Formation
Process…………………………………………………………………………….31
 CRM
Programs……………………………………………………………………………………
……..33
 CRM Implementation
Issue……………………………………………………………………….34

• Chapter2 ( CRM & Related Concepts )

 KM With Focus on
CRM……………………………………………………………………………..36
 Role Of CRM In Context Of SCM
………………………………………………………………37

5
  ERP &
CRM…………………………………………………………………………………………
……..37

• Chapter 3 ( Technological Tools For CRM)

 Tools…………………………………………………………………………………………
………………38
 Data Mining For
CRM……………………………………………………………………………….39
 Existing CRM
Solutions……………………………………………………………………………..40
 CRM Model
……………………………………………………………………………………………..4
1
 e
CRM…………………………………………………………………………………………
……………42
 Review & Assessment Of CRM
Solutions…………………………………………………43

• Case Study 1 Implementing A Technology

Based CRM Solution The ICCI Experience……………………….46

• Chapter 4 ( Organizing For CRM)

 Assessing
Needs…………………………………………………………………………………… 52
 Employee Empowerment & CRM
Hewlett Packard (HP)
Case…………………………………………………………………53

• Chapter 5 ( Status OF CRM In INDIA)

 Survey OF Service
Firms……………………………………………………………………………56
 Research
Objective…………………………………………………………………………………..
56
 Methodology
………………………………………………………………………………………….. 57
 Analysis OF
Findings……………………………………………………………………………………
… 57

• Chapter 6 ( CRM In Select Services)

 Customer Relationship Management At

APTECH…………………………………………..64

6
  CRS…………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………..66
 Financial Framework For
CRM…………………………………………………………………………70
 CRM IN HMTL
………………………………………………………………………………………………
….72

• Refrences
………………………………………………………………………………………………..75
• Annexure
………………………………………………………………………………………………..76

7
“Listening to customers must become everyone’s business. With most competitors moving ever
faster, the race will go to those who listen and respond more intently”.

Tom Peters, Thriving on Chaos

8
 Conceptual Framework for CRM

Company profile

Datamatics is a global provider of intelligent, value-driven technology and business solutions.

These solutions span IT consulting, business process transformation, off-the-shelf technology
solutions and customized software services. They leverage our proven expertise in developing
technology to drive business efficiency and productivity.
Product innovation, IP-creation and technology collaboration form the core of our Company's
positioning as a 'one-stop-solution provider'. Datamatics has built up strong teams of Business
Analysts, Technology Architects, Delivery Experts, Quality Specialists and Marketing and Pre-
sales Professionals. These teams are geared up to provide solutions that are based on technology
platforms that deliver competitive advantage to our customers.
Our domain and technology experts have integrated Artificial intelligence (AI) into many of the
solutions that Datamatics currently markets. For instance, AI has given i-Q©, our path-breaking,
intelligent information processing solution, the capability to think like a human being, giving the
software intelligence and intuition. Besides AI, i-Q© also conducts tree search and is capable of
pattern recognition, automatic learning, displaying confidence level of information located, auto
correction, and has Heuristics in hundreds of its components.
This success is being replicated across the organization, and solutions with similar features have
already been launched during the past year: i-Mask™, i-Cat™, i-Pub™, i-Mark™ and i-
Clinic™.
Mobile Serve™ , a web-based application for developing surveys on handheld devices, has been
tested and found to be highly-effective. Built on the latest technology, MobileServe™ gives
customers the power to conduct surveys using a range of mobile phones and PDA platforms.
With customers increasingly demanding solutions to improve operational efficiency, faster go-
to-market, higher employee productivity and maximized customer satisfaction, Datamatics has
focused on developing solutions to meet these market needs. Dartenium™ and e-Payables
Manager© are two such solutions. Dartenium™ is a high-productivity automation framework for
web testing. Similarly, e-Payables Manager© is a configurable Web-based workflow system
specifically configured to cater to various Accounts Payable Functions. It is widely used by our
customers including many Fortune 100 companies. Its flexibility has helped many of our
customers in their initiatives to bring automation, visibility and agility to their Accounts Payable
process.
Datamatics Global Services has emerged as a leader in niche areas like embedded engineering
and telecommunications, having developed solutions for ticketing, toll and parking applications.
Such solutions have components that help manage user profiles better, and systems to maintain
inventory and issue tickets, smart cards and discount coupons, and to configure vehicle type,
tariff and concessions, etc.

9
We continue to be driven by our vision “To be a World Class Organization Admired for
Consistently Delivering Superior Business Value”.

Infrastructure
For nearly three decades DFSL has invested in world class infrastructure capable of servicing
India’s expanding capital markets. Our offices provide an environment where employees can be
at their productive best and ensure the highest service levels.
• Located in the heart of Mumbai, India’s financial capital
• Over 70,000 sq. ft. of state of the art facilities
• 40,000 sq. ft. of physical document library and retrieval facilities
• Strong rooms as per RBI guidelines to store negotiable financial instruments & sensitive
documents
• Access controls across all facilities
• Round the clock security provisions by trained staff

Branch Network
To ensure highest quality service and convenience to investors, DFSL has created a national
network of branches, Datamatics Investor Service Centers (DISC), in strategic locations across
India.
Staffed with friendly and helpful personnel, our branches provide various services
including:
• Transaction requests
• Service requests
• Account queries
• Statement of account generation
• Complaint lodging and redressal etc.

» Mumbai » Nagpur » Ahmedabad » Indore

» Jaipur » Bangalore » Patna » Kolkata

» Bhopal » Raipur » Ludhiana » New Delhi

» Chennai » Visakhapatnam » Baroda » Kochi

» Rajkot » Lucknow » Chandigarh » Vijaywada

» Mangalore » Hyderabad

10
Awards and Milestones
1975
The Incorporation of Datamatics.
1983
Pioneered India’s first offshore software factory by setting up a Dedicated
Offshore Center for Wang Labs, USA.
1989
First company to establish a satellite link from its software development center in
India to AT&T Bell Labs, USA
1992
First Electronic Publishing Company in India.
1995
Chairman, Dr. LS Kanodia, inducted into the Dataquest Hall of Fame... and
remains the only software professional to be thus honored.
1997
First in India and second in the world to obtain an ISO 9002 certification in
Electronic Publishing.

1998
First company in the world to guarantee a 99.997% accuracy level in data capture.

1999
Prime Minister of India confers the ESC “Most Innovative Software Product
Award” upon Datamatics Technologies.

2000
First Indian Technology Company to acquire controlling stake in a US listed data
management company (Saztec International).

11
 2003
First Indian company to scale up a dedicated facility into a Joint Venture in the
BPO space via acquisition of CorPay for providing customized outsourcing
solutions for payables processing and other Finance & Accounting functions.
2004
First Indian non-voice third party BPO Company to get listed on BSE and NSE.
2006
Selected as Rising Star at 'The Global Outsourcing 100' 2006 Outsourcing World
Summit.
2006
Among Top 50 best managed outsourcing vendors by 'The Black Book of
Outsourcing'.
2007
Winner of the IMC Ramkrishna Bajaj National Quality Award 2006.
2007
Ranked Third globally among global document process outsourcing providers by
'The Black Book of Outsourcing'.
2007
Winner of International Asia Pacific Quality Award. Becomes first and only
Indian company to win the award in Services category, beating competition from
hundreds of companies across the services spectrum in countries such as the US,
Japan, Australia, Russia, Canada...

2009
Amalgamation of IT and BPO divisions complete.

Management Team

Dr L. S. Kanodia – Chairman and Founder, Datamatics Group

Rahul L Kanodia – Vice Chairman and CEO

Vidur Bhogilal – Chief Financial Officer

12
Sameer L. Kanodia – Executive Director

Arvind Sirrah – President, US

Dr. C M Dwivedi – President and Global HR Head

Michael Thuleweit – Managing Director, Datamatics GmbH (Germany / DACH)

Navin Anand – President, UK / Europe

Ramkumar Akella – Chief Operating Officer

TECHNOLOGY
At DFSL we believe that technology is a key enabler to significantly improve service levels and
guarantee customer delight. DSFL has nearly three decades of experience in the R&T business
and we leverage our experience to develop world class solutions to enhance our business
processes. We use contemporary software technology, state of the art infrastructure and periodic
BPR (Business Process Re-engineering) activities to make our processes efficient, our employees
more productive and continuously improve our service standards.

Software – Overview
• State of the art Transaction Processing and CRM software built on the Microsoft .Net
framework
• Back-end database on the latest Oracle 10g
• Image based transaction processing to enable anytime, anywhere operations
• Built in controls and validation to ensure error free transaction processing
• Parameterized software, enabling customization to meet the unique requirements of
different scheme features of AMCs
• System is capable of catering to high volumes of transactions
• Complete integration of all transaction modules offers 360 degrees view of the Investor
• All transactions can be tracked at every stage of processing – from receipt to dispatch of
confirmations
• Flexible software architecture that can be integrated with software systems used by the
AMCs and Distributors
• AMCs and Distributors can get real time data feeds of transactions to keep their systems
and database always updated

13
Data Center

• International Standard Data Center that guarantees

o High Availability and Superior Performance – leading to higher productivity and
ensure meeting client’s SLAs
o Redundancy – to ensure minimum downtime and no loss of data

o Security – to protect our client’s critical data and applications

o Scalability – to be able to scale up our operations as per the requirements of the

client and upgrade to better technology as and when available

• Physical security
o Biometric fingerprint scanners and secured card access

o High-security, tamper-proof cabinets with specially keyed locks

o Restricted access to server rooms and 24-hour on-site security staff

Group Clients

The Datamatics Group has partnered with top service providers from around the world to provide
our clients an unmatched value proposition.

Partial List Of Clients

14
Quality
Datamatics Quality Policy
• Amongst only few ISO 9001:2000 certified R&T agents
• 4 quality layers for all transactions
o Maker – accurate data capture from application form

15
 o Checker – double data entry of critical fields and error corrections

o Auditor – recheck all high value transactions, complex transactions from a

randomly generated pool
o Validation – rule based systems validation of all transactions before final update
of records

• Documented processes, guidelines & checklists for all service operations

• Dedicated internal audit and QA team for all processes & critical outputs
• Concurrent audits through external auditors

Jidoka - Quality check at every step of the process

» Poka–yoke – Fail safe systems and processes

» Kaizen - Continuous improvement

16
GROUP STRENGTHS
DFSL is a part of the Datamatics Group of Companies. Through this association we are able to
offer our clients a holistic value proposition that is unique only to Datamatics. By associating
with DFSL, our clients establish a relationship with the Datamatics Group. The Datamatics
Group Value Proposition:

Datamatics Ltd (DL)

As the flagship company, DL is a pioneer in offshore development empowering clients with a

competitive edge through software solutions in numerous areas.

We are able to leverage DL’s strengths in:

• Best in class software solutions used in international financial services markets
• Established software development processes
• Continuous improvement to our technology based on international best practices and
quality standards
• Assured timely solutions
• Expertise in Migrations

Datamatics Technologies Limited (DTL)

DTL is an end-to-end BPO service provider to the Electronic Publishing, Legal, Healthcare, and
Tax and Financial Accounting industry verticals.

We are able to leverage DTL’s strengths in:

• World class Data Management, Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence solutions
• Association with companies such as File Net and Humming Bird for work flow and
document management solutions
• World class best practices in seamless business process migration
• Proven ability to offer solutions such as Data Migration, Warehousing, Analytics,
Knowledge
• Management and Enterprise Portal technologies to help client's build Enterprise-wide
Information Architecture.

Datamatics Staffing Services (DSS)

DSS is among India's leading recruitment organizations with over 1,300 person years experience
in recruitment consulting

17
We are able to leverage DSS’s strengths in:
• Recruitment of quality and professional staff
• Augment staff strength in a very short notice during busy periods
• Industry best practices with respect to keeping motivation high and maintaining a low
attrition rate

GROUP SYNERGIES
We extract valuable group synergies to provide un-matched services to our clients

18
ALLIANCES
Strategic Partners

Product Partners

Implementation Partners

PEOPLE
At DFSL our people are our greatest asset. We are proud of our staff and they are proud of
working with us. 400+ strong workforce
• Lowest attrition rate: 8 %.
• Minimum Entry Level: Graduation

19
 • Domain expertise across various financial processes with dedicated teams of qualified
finance professionals
• Dedicated legal team headed by a High Court lawyer to handle all legal aspects
• Dedicated ISO and QA team to manage compliance

Training
We also inculcate a system of continuous training to ensure highest productivity. Employees
receive on going training on latest technology, processes and policies and most importantly on
providing exceptional customer service.
Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives
Datamatics Global Services Limited has recognized the underutilized potential of the educated
and skilled physically-challenged professionals. Datamatics has provided such individuals an
opportunity to contribute to the organization's growth while ensuring that they too benefit
through the Knowledge Associates (KA) programme.
Datamatics has tied up with a non-governmental organization called NASSEOH (National
Society for Equal Opportunities for the Physically Handicapped) and Amar Seva Sangam where
nearly 60 physically-challenged individuals work as Knowledge Associates in the Outsourcing
Management Team. Apart from these, nearly 20 KAs work from home.
Through the KA programme, Datamatics has provided such individuals the satisfaction of being
financially independent, thus improving their status in society. The programme is tailor-made for
individuals who cannot commit themselves to full-time employment or travel any distance to the
place of work.
Datamatics has also enabled the NGOs to provide opportunities for the physically-challenged by
donating PCs to facilitate their IT set up. Trainers from the organization visit the NGOs and
homes of the KAs to conduct training and feedback sessions. In some instances, a mentor co-
ordinator is stationed at the NGO for 3-6 months to co-coordinate training & hardware setup.

Application Management Services

The AMS team at Datamatics Global Services combines its multi-domain expertise with the
decades of experience in designing and deploying new applications that are robust, reliable and
scalable, modernizing legacy applications and giving existing applications the competitive edge.

20
Datamatics AMS Solutions Framework

AMS Center of Excellence

Siebel CRM Services

Siebel practice at Datamatics is well established and leverages our vast experience across various
industry verticals. We offer industry specific Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
solutions to our customers and have proved our expertise in several Siebel implementations. Our
value added services include:
• Siebel Testing

21
 • Siebel Implementation
• Siebel Customization
• Siebel Maintenance
• Siebel Support
• Pre-packaged Siebel support
• Siebel Pre-Implementation
• Siebel Post-Implementation
• Siebel Enhancements
• Business process analysis
• Implementation of Siebel
• Customizations / enhancements and upgrade to current Siebel versions
• Pre-packaged Siebel support and upgrade services
Our Siebel Center of Excellence support model can help organizations by:
• Supporting and enforcing business and IT processes
• Lowering support costs
• Preserving knowledge assets
• Enforcing quality standards
Some of the benefits that we have delivered to customers include:
• Improved quality of service to end customers
• Reduced costs by 40%
• Increased responsiveness to end customer

Oracle ERP
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Supply
Chain Management (SCM) are areas where Datamatics is engaged in providing solutions to
customers for a decade. We are one of the most preferred partners of Oracle's E-Business suite
for implementation, upgrade, maintenance, and support services. The most important factor in
our success is our objectives are closely aligned with our customers in addition to quality, lower
TCO (Total Cost of Ownership), and rapid implementation.
Our Oracle practice helps optimize an organization's investment through a complete set of
application life cycle management services.
22
At Datamatics, we have created an Oracle Center of Excellence (CoE) to constantly improve our
services for customers. Oracle Center of Excellence focuses on upcoming Oracle technologies
and works on designing new tools and frameworks. Through the CoE, we are able to deliver
• Predictable service levels to customers
• Leverage global best practices
• Provide access to a wider pool of talent

SAP ERP Services

Datamatics has a proven track record in providing services for the SAP package. We provide a
gamut of services that enable our customers to perform better:
• SAP Application Support
• SAP Testing
• Enterprise Reporting Applications
• SAP Application Implementation
• Application Migration, Consolidation and Upgrade Services for SAP
• Enterprise Application Integration Services ..
The proven benefits from this accelerated ASAP methodology include:
• Reduced costs
• Guaranteed quality and knowledge transfer
• Improved efficiency in a shorter duration

Supply Chain Management Services

We provide complete business consulting and technical integration services for supply chain
management (SCM). . Our SCM technology practice provides expertise in solutions like JDA
(formerly Manugistics) and SAP backed by experienced technical and functional consultants as
well as certified Domain experts.
We have a strategic alliance with JDA for implementations services. We have a dedicated
Software Development Center in India for developing / enhancing and creating client specific
requirements. We have completed over 50 implementations in different Business Segments in
last 5 years.
Our service offerings are:
• Consulting and implementation services
• Migration / Upgrade services

23
 • Post implementation services
• Business Process tuning
• Education services
• Testing services

Datamatics Funnel Methodology

Datamatics uses a ‘funnel’ methodology to deliver a higher selection ratio. We set down
requirement analysis and job descriptions in association with clients. A team of 25 recruitment
specialists together with technical experts then evaluates all candidates through multiple levels.
Only those who meet the criteria are forwarded to the client for final evaluation.

SAAS and SLA

The business potential of Software as a Service (SAAS) has exponentially increased in the last
few years. Organizations are today increasingly adopting the SAAS framework and see
significant value in it. We help customers in formulating solutions that ensure their SLAs are
built to have a positive business impact with SAAS. This includes precise definition of outages,
downtimes, components, resource availability among others. Thus we ensure that the entire
services suite is clearly defined by accurate definition of SLA terms. This clarity helps our
clients achieve optimum operational efficiency and increased ROI.

Portfolio Services
Datamatics offers the following Portfolio services:
• Portfolio analysis

24
 • Portfolio consolidation
• Portfolio rationalization
Our customers have benefited in several ways from their engagements with us including:
• Demonstrated expertise in portfolio management for International Organizations
• Large pool of skilled and trained resources for portfolio analysis and strategies
• Process based risk management matrix for portfolio
• Optimize project risk and return with our in-house portfolio solution
• Perform successfully in critical, large scope, size and complexity projects
Data Warehousing & Business Intelligence
Datamatics’ end-to-end consulting and implementation services can efficiently synchronize your
business data into a Global Data Repository or Enterprise Warehouse and help answer your most
difficult business queries.
• Information Strategy Planning & Road-map Consulting
• Enterprise wide Data Consolidation and Warehouse Construction
• Corporate level Information Delivery and Management Reporting
• Proactive Data Warehouse Maintenance
• Service Spotlight - DW Rescue Mission
Datamatics offers end-to-end services in Data Warehousing & Business Intelligence. Our
competence is reflected in our team of highly skilled and trained consultants, who have superior
technical, business consulting skills, domain expertise and project management skills.
We believe in our technological expertise & experience of successfully building integrated
Enterprise Data Warehouses (EDW) and Business Intelligence (BI) applications utilizing our
‘Global delivery model’.
Information Strategy Planning & Road-map Consulting
• How the data warehouse is going achieve Corporate-objectives
• Identify Cross-functional Needs
• Long-term vision of the warehouse
• Create the technology plan
• Identify & Select a toolkit and associated methods
• Analyze, Prioritize and Target the needs

25
Enterprise wide Data Consolidation and Warehouse Construction
• Understand the business & work processes
• Reference data through dimensional analysis
• Design for usage while recording history
• Develop and test the queries built and feed results for changes
• Utilize various modeling techniques
• Lift Off! – Go live
Corporate level Information Delivery and Management Reporting
• Trace and Grasp Reporting Environment
• Create Reporting Plan
• Setup Reporting level security hierarchy
• Build and test management reports
• Create iterative or automated report schedules
Proactive Data Warehouse Maintenance
• Monitor the usage
• Analyze and Adapt warehouse to meet current & future business needs
• Align the warehouse with evolving business needs
• Ensure each release supports the greatest needs of the business
• Communicate the DW contributions
Service Spotlight – DW Rescue Mission
• Data Warehouse utilization assessment
• Trace Problem Areas – GAP Analysis
• Corrective Planning to plot the user expectations
• Align the warehouse to meet existing & future needs

26
 Chapter1 Customer Relationship management: an Overview

Before we begin to examine the conceptual foundations of CRM, it will be useful to define what
CRM is. A narrow perspective of customer relationship management is database marketing
emphasizing the promotional aspects of marketing linked to database efforts.
Another narrow, yet relevant, viewpoint is to consider CRM only as customer retention in which
a variety of aftermarketing tactics is used for customer bonding or staying in touch after the sale
is made.
Shani and Chalasani define relationship marketing as “an integrated effort to identify, maintain,
and build up a network with individual’s consumers and to continuously strengthen the network
for mutual benefit of both sides, through interactive, individualized and value-added contacts
over a period of time”.
The core theme of all CRM and relationship marketing perspectives is its focus on co-operative
and collaborative relationships between the firm and its customers, and/or other marketing
actors.
CRM is based on the premise that, by having a better understanding of the customers’ needs and
desires we can keep them longer and sell more to them.
Growth Strategies International (GSI) performed a statistical analysis of Customer satisfaction
data encompassing the findings of over 20,000 customer surveys conducted in 40 countries by
Infoquest.
The conclusions of the study were:
• A Totally Satisfied Customer contributes 2.6 times as much revenue to a company as a
Somewhat Satisfied Customer.
• A Totally Satisfied Customer contributes 17 times as much revenue as a Somewhat
Dissatisfied Customer.
• A Totally Dissatisfied customer decreases revenue at a rate equal to 1.8 times what a Totally
Satisfied Customer contributes to a business.
• By reducing customer defection (by as little as 5%) will result in increase in profits by 25%
to 85% depending from industry to industry.

27
 An important facet of CRM is “customer selectivity”. As several research studies have shown
not all customers are equally profitable (Infact in some cases 80% of the sales come through
20% of the customers). The company must therefore be selective and tailor its program and
marketing efforts by segmenting and selecting appropriate customers for individual marketing
programs. In some cases, it could even lead to “ outsourcing of some customers” so that a
company better utilize its resources on those customers it can serve better and create mutual
value.CRM is defined as:

Customer Relationship management is a comprehensive strategy and process of acquiring,

retaining and partnering with selective customers to create superior value for the company
and the customer.

Key CRM principles

Differentiate Customers: All customers are not equal; recognize and reward best customers
disproportionately. Understanding each customer becomes particularly important. And the same
customers’ reaction to a cellular company operator may be quite different as compared to a car
dealer. Besides for the same product or the service not all customers can be treated alike and
CRM needs to differentiate between a high value customer and a low value customer.
What CRM needs to understand while differentiating customers is:
- Sensitivities, Tastes, Preferences and Personalities
- Lifestyle and age
- Culture Background and education
- Physical and psychological characteristics
• Differentiating Offerings
→ Low value customer requiring high value customer offerings
→ Low value customer with potential to become high value in near future
→ High value customer requiring high value service
→ High value customer requiring low value service

28
 Low value customers who
require high levels of service
High value customers who
must either purchase the higher
require a high level of
level of service or become our
High service are maintained
competitors low value/high
without expanding the
cost customers
costly offering to the entire
customer population
Service Requirement

Low
Low High
Customer Value
Fig. 1 Customer value – Service Matrix

Keeping Existing Customers

Grading customers from very satisfied to very disappoint should help the organisation in
improving its customer satisfaction levels and scores. As the satisfaction level for each customer
improves so shall the customer retention with the organization.
• Maximizing Life time value
Exploit up-selling and cross-selling potential. By identifying life stage and life event trigger
points by customer, marketers can maximize share of purchase potential. Thus the single adults
shall require a new car stereo and as he grows into a married couple his needs grow into
appliances.

• Increase Loyalty Loyal customers are more profitable. Any company will like its mindshare
status to improve from being a suspect to being an advocate. Company has to invest in terms
of its product and service offerings to its customers.

29
 High Plan *You have No Choice But To *Cultivate Relationship.
Handle Them Very Carefully. Spend Energy.
Will Consume Energy Go Out Of Your Way.
Strategic Importance To Your Business

# Think Of Innovative Ways of #Think Of Strategies TO Move Them

Getting them On Your Side, But
The ‘Cost Of Acquisition’ Must Be
Controlled
*Focus On Short Term Profitability.
Spend Minimum Energy To Meet Your
Objectives.
#Don’t Pursue.
Use Opportunity As It Comes.
Short Term Acquisition Shouldn’t Affect
Long Term Image.
Low
Away From Competition. *Existing
Will Consume Disproportionately Customers
High Energy.
#Potential
*Very cautious decision needed. Re-examine
business Plan & Strategy. Evaluate That Customers
Your Loss (i.e. Your competitor’s gain)
Doesn’t become nightmare for you.
#Needs In-depth strategic review as acquisition
alone and dissatisfaction later could be more
harmful

Low Relationship & Profitability Potential High

(Fig 2. Categorizing Customers)

Summarizing CRM activities:

The CRM cycle can be briefly described as follows:
1. Learning from customers and prospects, (having in depth knowledge of customer)
2. Creating value for customers and prospects
3. Creating loyalty
4. Acquiring new customers
5. Creating profits
6. Acquiring new customers
Learning from
customers a&
Creating prospects
Profits

Acquiring new
customers
Fig.3 1
CRM Activities 5
3 Creating value
for customers &
4
prospects

Creating loyal 30 2
customers
The Emergence of CRM Practice
The Past:
Looking back at a snapshot history of marketing, we can see the following clear developments
and progression over the last four decades:
• 1960’s – the era of Mass marketing, when Gibbs SR toothpaste began the first marketing
of this kind with its black and white campaign.
• 1970’s – saw the beginning of segmentation, direct mail campaigns and early
telemarketing (such as publishing)
• 1980’s – where Niche marketing made millionaires of those who were best at it.
• 1990’s – Relationship Marketing. The explosion of telemarketing and call centres, all set
up to develop relationships with customers. The recognition of the true value of retention
and the use of Lifetime Value as a business case.
In recent years however, several factors have contributed to the rapid development and evolution
of CRM. These include: -
1. The growing de-intermediation process in many industries due to the advent of
sophisticated computer and telecommunication technologies that allow producers to directly
interact with end-customers. For example, in many industries such as airlines, banks
insurance, software or household appliances and even consumables.
2. Advances in information technology, networking and manufacturing technology have
helped companies to quickly match competition. As a result product quality and cost are no
longer significant competitive advantages.
3. The growth in service economy. Since services are typically produced and delivered at the
same institution, it minimizes the role of the middlemen. .
4. Customer expectations are changing almost on a daily basis. Newly Empowered customers
who choose how to communicate with the companies across various available channels. Also
nowadays consumers expect a high degree of personalization.
5. Emerging real time, interactive channels including e-mail, ATMs and call centre that must
be synchronized with customer’s non-electronic activities. The speed of business change,
requiring flexibility and rapid adoption to technologies.
6. In the current era of hyper competition, marketers are forced to be more concerned with
customer retention and customer loyalty.

31
 7. As several researches have found out retaining customers is less expensive and more
sustainable competitive advantage than acquiring new ones..
8. The globalization of world marketplace makes it necessary to have global account
management for the customers.
CRM Formation Process

In the formation process, three important decision areas relate to defining the purpose (or
objectives) of engaging in CRM, selecting parties (or customer partners) for appropriate CRM
programs and developing programs (or relational activity schemes) for relationship engagement
with the customer.

Purpose
 Increase
Role Specification
Effectiveness
 Improve
Relationship
Efficiency Planning Process Performance
 Strategic
 Financial
Process Alignment
Programs  Marketing

 Account → Retenti
Management Monitoring Process on
 Retention
Marketing Communication

Partners Employee Motivation

 Criteria
 Process
Employee Training

Evolution
• Enhancement
• Improvement

CRM Purpose Fig 5. CRM Process Framework

32
The overall purpose of CRM is to improve marketing productivity and enhance value for parties
in involved in the relationship. By seeking and achieving operational goals, such as lower
distribution costs, streamlining order processing and inventory management, reducing the burden
of excessive customer acquisition cost, and through customer retention economics, firms could
achieve greater marketing efficiencies. They can enhance marketing effectiveness by carefully
selecting, customers for its various programs, individualizing and personalizing their market
offerings to anticipate and serve the emerging needs of individual customer, building customer
loyalty and commitment, partnering to enter new markets and develop new products, and
redefining the competitive playing field for their company. Thus, stating the objectives and
defining the purpose of CRM in a company helps clarify the nature of CRM programs and
activities that ought to be performed by the partners. Defining the purpose would also help in
identifying suitable relationship partners who have necessary expectations and capabilities to
fulfill mutual goals.

Relational Parties

In the Initial phase, a company has to decide which customer type and specific customers or
customer groups will be the focus of their CRM activities.

CRM Programs

A careful review of literature and observation of corporate practices suggest that there are three
types of CRM programs: continuity marketing; one-to-one marketing; and, partnering programs.
These take different forms depending on whether they are meant for end-consumers, distributor
consumers, or business-to-business customers.

33
Customer Types Mass Markets Distributors Business to
Program Types Busine
ss
Markets
Continuity Marketing • After- Marketing • Continuos • Special
• Loyalty Programs Replenishment Sourcing

• Cross-Selling • ECR Programs Arrangements

One-to-One Marketing
Partnering/Company-
Marketing
Table 1 presents various types of CRM programs developed for different types of
CRM Programs
• Permission Marketing • Customer Business • Key Account
• Personalization Development • Global
Account
• Affinity Partnering • Logistics Partnering • Strategic
• Co-Branding • Joint Marketing Partnership
• Co-Design
• Co-Develop
customers

Continuity Marketing Programs

Take the shape of membership and loyalty card programs where customers are often rewarded
for their member and loyalty relationships with the marketers. The basic premise of continuity
marketing programs is to retain customers and increase loyalty through long-term special
services that has a potential to increase mutual value through learning about each other.
One-to-one Marketing
Meeting and satisfying each customer’s need uniquely and individually. In the mass markets
individualized information on customers is now possible at low costs due to the rapid
development in the information technology and due to availability of scalable data warehouses
and data mining products.
Partnering Programs

34
The third type of CRM programs is partnering relationships between customer and marketers to
serve end user needs. In the mass markets, two types of partnering programs are most common:
co-branding and affinity partnering.
CRM Performance Evaluation Process
Without a proper performance metrics to evaluate CRM efforts, it would be hard to make
objective decisions regarding continuation, modification, enhancement, or termination of CRM
programs.
Another global measure used by firms to monitor CRM performance is the measurement of
relationship satisfaction. By measuring relationship satisfaction, one could estimate the
propensity of either party’s inclination to continue or terminate the relationship. Such propensity
could also be indirectly measured by measuring customer loyalty.

CRM Implementation Issues

One of the most interesting aspects of CRM development is the multitude of customer interfaces
that a company has to manage in today’s context. Until recently, a company’s direct interface
with the customers, if any was primarily through sales people or service agents. In today’s
environment most companies interface with their customers through a variety of channels
including sales people, service personnel, call centres, Internet websites, marketing departments,
fulfillment houses, market and business development agents,. For example, a customer who just
placed an order on the Internet and subsequently calls the call centre for order verification
expects the call centre staff to know the details of his or her order history. Similarly a customer
approached by a sales person unaware that she has recently complained about dissatisfactory
customer service, is not likely to be treated kindly by the customer.
However, the challenge is to develop and integrated CRM platform that collects relevant data
input at each customer interface and simultaneously provides knowledge output about the
strategy and tactics suitable to win customer loyalty and support. If a call centre personnel cannot
identify or differentiate a high value customer and does not know what to up-sell or cross sell to
him then it would be a tremendous loss of opportunity for the company. Although most CRM
software solutions based on relational databases are helping share customer information, they
still do not provide knowledge output to the front line personnel. As shown in Figure.6, CRM

35
solutions platform needs to be based on interactive technology and processes. It should assist the
company in developing and enhancing customer interactions and one-to-one marketing through
the help of suitable intelligent agents that help develop front-line relationship with customers.

Internet
Sales Group
Knowledge
Data Input
Output
Knowledge
Data Input Integrated Marketing Output
Information Platform
Knowledge •Information Content Data Input
Output •Relational Databases Call Centre
•Decision Support System
Market Knowledge
•Active Intelligence
Development Data Input •Business Rules Output
•Collaborative Communication
Knowledge • User Profiles Data Input
Output
Knowledge
Data Input Customer
Output
Marketing Operations/
Service

Figure 6 . Information Platform for CRM

Since CRM implementation comprises a significant information technology (IT) component,

these companies have handed over the responsibility of CRM implementation to information
technology departments. They are focussed on simply installing CRM software solutions without
a CRM strategy or program in place. The lack of CRM strategy or CRM programs, would leave
the front-line people without any knowledge of what they should be doing with the additional
customer information that they now have access to. From a corporate implementation point of
view, CRM should not be misunderstood to simply mean a software solutions
implementation project.

36
 Chapter 2: CRM and Related Concepts

Knowledge Management (KM) with focus on CRM

As Peter Drucker defined “Information is data endowed with relevance and purpose”.
To effectively implement a CRM solution it is very important to identify real knowledge about
different types of customers (Viz. Most valued customers, Most grow able customers, Below
zero customers) from plethora of internal and external data, figures, surveys, etc. A straightway
technique is to create a data warehouse, thereafter information which is required to effectively
implement principles of CRM, could be mined out of this data warehouse.
Marketing, sales after-sales people would be knowledge workers. Front office could be more
productive if they could utilize customer knowledge.
Metrics, ROI, Balance Scorecard method, benchmarking are some of the common technique
of KM system evaluation. KM implementation is the key to CRM.
It’s a proven fact that 80% of organization revenues come form 20% of its customers; it becomes
imperative to design CRM solutions keeping in mind these most valuable customers and to
leverage 80% non structured data of about 20% of these most valuable customers.
Just as more tangible corporate assets like computer systems have a finite shell life, so too does
knowledge, it must be available at the right time to be able to act upon it. Retaining tacit
knowledge (derived from experiences, data and documents) means retaining the individual,
which is invariably not possible. It is possible to generate explicit knowledge from tacit
knowledge, but it’s a complex exercise. The key ingredient of this exchange is face to face
sharing of knowledge or virtual environmental tools like Lotus Notes, which can facilitate tacit
knowledge exchange. The choice of Customer Knowledge Management (CKM) architecture
should have a layered approach. Existing systems should be seamlessly linked with the proposed
layer. The choice for CKM system could be Web (Enterprise information portal) or a packaged
solution such as Lotus Notes, Microsoft solution.

37
 Role of CRM in the Context of SCM

In the context of SCM, where alliances and partnerships are keys to success, CRM plays an
important role in building long-term relationships. Apart from the end-users, it involves internal
employees, channel members and other external entities such as advertising agencies and
consulting organizations. The success of relationships depends upon sharing of savings from the
supply chain, which may be reinvested to further enhance its efficiency, and sustain the
competitive advantage.
The supply chain of tomorrow will look like a virtual organization, seamlessly integrated through
sharing data and savings as well. The bonding between partners will be closely held by CRM
practices.

ERP and CRM

Like ERP, CRM solutions focus on automating and improving business processes, albeit in
front-office areas such as marketing, sales, customer service, and customer support. Whereas
ERP implementation can result in improved organizational efficiency, CRM aims to provide
organizational effectiveness by reducing sales cycle and selling cost, identifying markets and
channels for expansion, and improving customer value, satisfaction, profitability, and retention.
While CRM applications provide the framework for embodying, promoting and executing best
practices in customer facing activities, ERP provides the backbone, resources and operational
applications to make organizations more efficient in achieving these goals.

Regain Management
“The cost of acquiring a new customer is 9 to 12 times that of holding on to an existing
customer.”-Philip Kotler

Consumer Life Time Value

38
Quantifying the “value” of customers is absolutely essential in regain management. In fact, the
percentage of profit a company makes from continued sales to its own customer base is
consistently higher than the profit made on original sale.

Chapter 3: Technological Tools for CRM

Tools
• Customer database
A good customer information system should consist of a regular flow of information,
systematic collection of information that is properly evaluated and compared against different
points in time, and it has sufficient depth to understand the customer and accurately anticipate
their behavioral patterns in future. The customer database helps the company to plan,
implement, and monitor customer contact. Customer relationships are increasingly sustained
by information systems. Companies are increasingly adding data from a variety of sources to
their databases. Customer data strategy should focus on processes to manage customer
acquisition, retention, and development.
Other Technologies that are used are as follows:
• Electronic Point of Sale(EPOS)
• Sales Force Automation
• Customer Service Helpdesk
• Call Centers
Call Centre helps in automating the operations of inbound and outbound calls generated between
company and its customer. These solutions integrate the voice switch of automated telephone
systems (e.g. EPABX) with agent host software allowing for automating call routing to agents,
auto display of relevant customer data, predictive dialing, self service Interactive Voice
Response systems, etc.
Systems Integration
While CRM solutions are front office automation solutions, ERP is back office automation
solution. An ERP helps in automating business functions of production, finance, inventory, order
fulfillment and human resource giving an integrated view of business, where as CRM automates

39
 the relationship with customer covering contact and opportunity management , marketing and
product knowledge, sales force management, sales forecasting, customer order processing and
fulfillment, delivery, installation, pre-sale and post-sale services and complaint handling by
providing an integrated view of the customer. It is necessary that the two systems integrate with
each other and complement information as well as business workflow. Therefore, CRM and ERP
are complementary. This integration of CRM with ERP helps companies to provide faster
customer service through an enabled network.

CRM – A FRAMEWORK

Traditional Approach to CRM Web-Enabled & Integration

Approach

• Customer Contact by • Customer Information

− Telephone Integration with System
− Mail technology • Customer Database
− In Person • Electronic Point of Sale
• Personal Selling (Web & Internet) • Sales Force Automation
• After Sales Service • Automation of Customer
• Complaint Handling Support
• Account Management • Call Centres
• Customer care • Systems Integration
• Customer Satisfaction • Lifetime value of a Customer

Data Mining for CRM: Some Relevant issues

Data mining is an important enabler for CRM. Advances in data storage and processing
technologies have made it possible today to store very large amounts of data in what are called
data warehouses and then use data mining tools to extract relevant information. Data mining
helps in the process of understanding a customer by providing the necessary information and
facilitates informed decision-making.
Operational CRM solutions involve integration of business processes involving customer touch
points. Collaborative CRM involves the facilitation of collaborative services(such as e-mail) to

40
facilitate interactions between customer and employees. All this effort produces rich data that
feeds the Analytical CRM technologies.

Operational CRM Analytical CRM Collaborative CRM

Customer

Fig.8 Interactions between CRM Technologies

Information Requirements Of An Effective CRM Solution

The existing CRM Solutions

Delivering the ‘360 view’ requires automation to bring together all the data concerning a
customer. This implies the organization has to change from:
Mass Marketing Product Focus
Product Focus Customer Focus
Economies of Scale Economies of time
1 way communication Interactive
Response Time Real Time

Present CRM Alternatives

Present CRM solutions are offered by host of vendors that are to a great extent not industry
specific. While there are some vendors, who have come up with industry specific solutions, the
broad model around which the CRM solutions are built remain the same. Adopting a similar or a
look a like solution across industries is what causes major strain in servicing a customer.
Typical offerings of the current CRM solutions (such as Siebel, Oracle Apps or MySap.com, etc)
vary from solution to solution. However typical CRM offerings consist of:

41
Customer Development Field sales, Tele sales, Internet Sales
Service Centre Call Centers, Field Service
Sale management and support Internet Customer Service
Market Analysis Service Interaction Centre
Internet, Tele marketing Business Partner Collaboration
Product and brand management

The Customer focused organization: CRM Model

The idea here is to develop systems that allow flexibility, work on not completely predefined
processes so as to enable front office to be proactive to each customer needs
The Mindset impact on CRM
A typical data warehouse will have the following components:
• While developing a data warehouse one takes into account all the legacy and operation
systems. But typically sales teams could be managing leads on an excel worksheet. Sometimes
critical DSS input like “Profitability Analysis” itself may reside on a worksheet.

Data
Warehouse

Legacy & Operation

Extract & Transfer

Risk FP&A Mktg & Campaign

Cube Cube Sales Cube Mgmt

OLAP Tool

eCRM
What is eCRM?

42
eCRM provides companies with means to conduct interactive, personalized and relevant
communications with customer across both electronic and traditional channels. It utilizes a
complete view of the customer to make decisions about messaging, offers and channel delivery.
It synchronizes communication across otherwise disjoint-customer facing systems. It adheres to
permission based practices, respecting individual’s preferences regarding how and whether they
wish to communicate with you and it focuses on understanding how the economics of customer
relationship affect the business.

eCRM Vs CRM

CRM is essentially a business strategy for acquiring and maintaining the “right” customers over
the long term. Within this framework, a number of channels exist for interacting with customers.
One of these channels is “electronic” – and has been labeled “e-commerce” or “e-business”. This
electronic channel does not replace the sales force, the call Centre, or even the fax. It is simply
another extension, albeit a powerful new one, to the customer. The thrust of eCRM is not what
the organization is “doing on the web” but how fully the organization ties its on-line channel
back to its traditional channels, or customer touch points.

Why employ eCRM?

Companies need to take firm initiatives on the eCRM frontier to
• Optimize the value of interactive relationship
• Enable the business to extend its personalized reach
• Company-ordinate marketing activities across all customer channels.
• Leverage customer information for more effective emarketing and ebusiness
• Focus the business on improving customer relationship and earning a greater share of each
customer’s business through consistent measurement, assessment and “actionable” customer
strategies.

43
 Review and Assessment of CRM solutions

CRM software applications embody best practices and employs advanced technologies to help
organizations achieve these goals.
Categories of CRM solutions
Any enterprise, which wants to implement CRM solutions, can choose from four categories of
solutions
− Integrated applications suite
− Interfaced applications bundle
− Interfaced best of breed solutions
− Best of cluster
Key requirements for CRM solutions
Some of the functional and technical requirements for CRM solutions are as listed below:
• Business intelligence and analytical capabilities
• Unified channels of customer interactions
• Support for web based functionality
• Centralized repository for customer information
• Integrated work flow
• Integration with ERP applications
Functional Components of CRM solution
CRM applications are a convergence of functional components, advanced technologies and
channels. Functional components and channels are described below:
Sales applications
Common applications include calendar and scheduling, contact and account management;
compensation; opportunity and pipeline management; sales forecasting; proposal generation and
management; pricing; territory assignment and management; and expense reporting.
Marketing applications

44
• SIEBEL
It continues to out market and out sell the competition. It is one of the few front office suite
vendors having vertical specific functions. Its functionality is compelling. It can be integrated
with most of the back office solution like SAP and Oracle. The solutions for the verticals
described above are discussed below:
• For Consumer goods: a Siebel eConsumer goods offers eBusiness solution spanning the
entire demand chain from the end consumer, through the retailer and the wholesaler, to the
manufacturer. It has robust trade promotions planning functionality allowing users to
manage customer promotion plans and the funds to support them, while comprehensive
route planning functionality enables integrated account targeting.
• For Financial Services: Siebel eFinance enables banking, brokerage, insurance, and capital
market organizations to establish and maintain long term profitable relationship with
consumers, small businesses, and corporate customers. The organizations can capitalize on
information captured during each customer interaction to more effectively cross-sell and up-
sell additional products and services.
• For Healthcare: Siebel eHealthcare gives organizations the ability to streamline and
improve sales, member services, medical management, and network management services.
By using multiple distribution channels, including the Internet, call Centers, home office
staff and independent brokers, Siebel eHealthcare provides organizations with a single view
of their customers, thereby ensuring better service and improved quality of care.
• For telecom service providers: Siebel eCommunications helps wireless, cable, and
Internet service providers to target and win the right customers, accelerate service delivery,
and provide service across all touchpoints. Siebel eCommunications embodies the industry’s
best practices for generating accurate service orders, managing billing inquiries and
adjustments, and up-selling and cross-selling additional services

Some of Siebel employee-
facing applications are:
Siebel Call Center
Siebel eMail Response
Some of Siebel customer-
facing applications are:
Siebel eChannel
Siebel eCustomer
Some of the additional products
available in version 6.0
Siebel eBusiness Connector for SAP R/3
®
Siebel Communications Server

45
Siebel Field Service Siebel eMarketing Siebel Distance Learning
Siebel Marketing Siebel eSales Siebel Global Enterprise Support
Siebel Sales Siebel eService Siebel Language Extensions
Siebel Service Siebel Wireless

• Clarify
It offers customer service & support and field service suite; however its sales functionality is
immature.
• Oracle
Oracle is betting everything on its thin, Web Based, centralized computing model. The Internet
computing architecture is compelling for connected non-mobile users; Oracle is rebuilding
functionality on the new platform and integrates its various acquired products. It offers a broad
set of functionality across e-commerce, front office and business intelligence applications.
• Vantive
Vantive offers a compelling customer service and support and field service suite. The rest of its
front office functionality makes it suite more of a bundle. The solution is integrated with
PeopleSoft at the back office.

Table 2 Comparative Assessment of CRM Products for Vertical Specific Requirements

CRMApplicationRequiremen
Siebel Clarify Oracle Vantive
t

Consumer Products

Category Management Available Available Available Available

Promotion Management Available Available Available Available
Demand Planning Available N.A. Available N.A.
Interactive Selling Available Available Available Available

Telecom Service Providers

Blended Sales & service contact Available Available Available Available

Centre

46
 Competitive Pricing Analysis N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A.
Integration with Billing System Available Available Available N.A.
Churn management Available Available Available N.A.

Commercial Banking

Contact Centre Available Available Available Available

Profitability Analysis Available Available Available Available
Integrated Targeting N.A. N.A. Available N.A.
Marketing Datamining N.A. N.A. Available N.A.

Pharma & Healthcare

Contract Management Available N.A. Available N.A.

Marketing Analysis N.A. Available N.A. N.A.
Disease Education System Available N.A. N.A. N.A.
Knowledge Management System Available Available N.A. Available

Case Study 1: Implementing a Technology- Based CRM Solution

The ICICI Experience
ICICI set up as Development Bank over four decades ago to provide products and services for
the corporate segment, diversified into the retail segment of the financial markets in the early
1990s.
In 1994, it established ICICI bank as a commercial bank that is flexible, innovative and prompt
in meeting customer requirements. In addition to the bank, the retail initiatives include Prudential
ICICI AMC, ICICI Personal Financial Services, ICICI Capital Services, and ICICI web trade,
Prudential ICICI Life Insurance, ICICI Lombard General insurance. This apart the retail
initiatives also include a plethora of web based businesses including city portals and various
other utility sites such as billjunction.com, icicimoneymanager.com, and magiccart.com, among
others.
The Retail Strategy
As part of plans, it is implementing various projects to establish world class CRM practices,
which would provide an integrated view of its customers to everyone in the organization. CRM
at ICICI involves increased communication between the virtual universal bank and its customers
47
 and prospects, as well as within the group itself. The underlying idea is to enhance every instance
of contact with the customer. ICICI believes that a true customer centric relationship can only be
accomplished by considering the unique perspectives of every single customer of the
organization. Hence the pressing need to put in place a technology enabled CRM solution.
The CRM Roadmap
CRM, at ICICI, is viewed as a discipline as well as a set of discrete software technologies, which
will focus on automating and improving the business processes associated with the customer –
face –to-face, call Centre, ATM, web, telephone, kiosk, bank branch, sales associates, etc – so as
to allow ICICI to carry out cradle-to-grave customer management more efficiently. It should
allow ICICI to engage in one-to-one marketing by tracking complete customer life-cycle history.
To begin with it will automate process-flow tracking in the product sales process, and be able to
generate customized reports and promote cross selling. It will also enable efficient campaign
management by providing a software interface for definition, tracking, execution, and analysis of
campaigns..
Implementing CRM
A very detailed and comprehensive CRM action plan was developed based on the understanding
that CRM will require enterprise wide transformation.
The CRM Business Transformation Map below shows the various aspects of that change.

BUSINESS FOCUS

Product Sales Channel Marketing Service Customer

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

Product Place Promotion Channel Contact Customer

Management Management Management Management Management Management

BUSINESS METRICS

Product Place Program Customer Customer Customer

Patterns &
Performance Performance Performance Revenues Lifetime Value
Profitability
and Loyalty

MARKETING FOCUS

Mass Sales Marketing Integrated Marketing Segment CRM

Specific

48
 Advertising Promotion Campaigns Communications Marketing
TECHNOLOGY

Transaction Data Data Access Data Warehouse Data Marts Customer

Processing Maintenance Touchpoint
Systems

Interviews with key individuals throughout the organization helped identify different initiatives
that have been launched, all focused on CRM.
The next step in the planning process was a Gap Analysis. This analysis essentially compared
current stage against optimal relative to the five aspects of business, to identify and specifically
describe the gaps.
The CRM Business Cycle:
• Understand and Differentiate
Organizations cannot have a relationship with the customer unless they understand them… what
they value, what types of services are important to them, how and when they like to interact, and
what they wan to buy. True understanding is based on a combination of detailed analysis and
interaction. ICICI group’s customers need to see that the company is differentiating service and
communication based on both what they have learned independently and on what the customer
has told them. At the same time, differentiation should be based on the value customer are
expected to deliver.
• Develop and Customize
ICICI believes that the extent of customization should be based on the potential value delivered
by the customer segment.
• Interact and Deliver
ICICI is strongly of the opinion that value is not just based on the price of the product or the
discounts offered. In fact, customer perceptions of value are based on a number of factors
including the quality of products and service, convenience, speed, ease of use, responsiveness,
and service excellence.
• Acquire and Retain
The more ICICI learns about customers, the easier it is to pinpoint those that are producing the
greatest value for the organization. Successful customer retention basically involves getting it

49
“right” on an ongoing basis. And that is exactly what ICICI group aims to achieve out of its
CRM initiatives.
Successful customer retention is based very simply on the organization’s ability to constantly
deliver on three principles:
 Maintain interaction; never stop listening to customers
 Deliver on customer’s value definition. Remember that customers change as they move
through differing life stages; be alert for the changes and be prepared to modify the service
and value proposition as they change.
• Creating an Action Plan
The next step in the planning process was the development of a very detailed action plan.
While the complete plan might span three or more years, it was based on three-month
phases with clear deliverables that will demonstrate both progress and quick hits or
measures of success. The plan identified interdependent activities and should
comprehensively detail the time and resources required for each activity.
Another key factor for the planning process was the Leadership Action Plan. Advancing
on the CRM transformation map required significant organization change. This part of
the action plan helped assess the drivers and restraints of change and the organization’s
readiness to assess the change.

Selecting and Implementing a Technology Based Solution

Technology
The success of the CRM initiatives was contingent on various decisions pertaining to technology.
Some of the key issues were: -
(a) Make or Buy: - The decision to buy was based on an evaluation of an identified set of
criteria. Some criteria were Functionality, Flexibility, Scalability, Fit with existing
architecture, etc. was decided to purchase an off-the-shelf CRM solution and customize it to
suit ICICI’s requirements.
(b) From whom to buy: Some Criteria included were CRM expertise, Retail Finance Experience,
Credentials including financials, client list, life history, etc. A detailed Request for
Information (RFI) was sent to each of the shortlisted companies. After receiving the RFIs,
50
 another round of evaluation was done. After short listing two product vendors and system
integrators, reference calls were made to several of the past clients of all shortlisted
companies.

Processes

All processes were mapped on to product by understanding the details. During the course of the
process mapping, several opportunities for improvement were identified and implemented.
The Sales Process – Pre CRM and Post Implementation of CRM
Independent Databases

Call Centre Sales Agent Scrutiny Credit Agent Operations

Database

Call Centre Sales Agent Scrutiny Credit Agent Operations

Lessons so far from the ICICI experience

51
If CRM involves optimizing product, price, place of distribution, promotion, sales and service,
why are so many companies struggling? Hasn’t anyone really mastered the art and science of
CRM, and if not, why is it so difficult?
CRM is difficult because it is an enterprise wide initiative.
• CRM is not a technology initiative. Many have confused CRM as a technology initiative, and
assigned the CRM implementation project to their information system or information
technology group. CRM conferences often equate to technology exhibits and demonstrations.
Technology is needed in order to implement CRM – particularly the customization part – but
technology is not the driver of CRM, or the solution to successful CRM implementation.
• CRM is not exclusively a marketing initiative. Many organisation have merely equated CRM
with customer focused marketing, or data-driven/database marketing. CRM results in more
effective, data driven marketing efforts; CRM requires marketing experience. But CRM is
strictly not a marketing initiative.
• CRM is not exclusively a sales initiative. Similar to marketing, CRM is often lodged within
the sales department. The sales-force, after all, is extremely close to their customers…
understanding their needs and wants., and trying to fulfill them. Sales, however, is just one
functional area that can benefit from CRM, and that is necessary for effective CRM.

Chapter 4: Organizing for CRM

52
Assessing Need
How do you know your business requires CRM?
It is very easy for a business to get caught in the latest ‘customer trap’ when it is being driven by
the information technology (IT) market. Every business does require CRM; the question is to
what level?
Trends
Many businesses are pushed by the current trend to change their business strategy, especially
around CRM. There are basically three trends that effect a business:
Consumer
The customer is an ever-changing image, to be really successful with CRM you must recognize
the customer trends that are effecting the business.
If a business does not understand a customer profile and the changes that have occurred then it is
not possible to provide true customer relationship management.
Products
It is the business providing the products that meet the changing customer trends. Products need
to be reviewed constantly perhaps enhanced or even removed. Supermarkets are a perfect profile
to look at for viewing ‘product trends’, they constantly add and remove products and they
constantly view customer buying profiles and set out the pattern of the store to meet the strongest
buying trend. This may not always be by using the latest ‘technology’, it could be by just
reviewing shells at the end of the day, but the super market is at the minimum watching for the
two basic trends in CRM.
Technology
Ensure that the business is ready to install the new technologies, is the customer data upto it, or is
it time to start again? Do you need to review every technology being used or just one area. Will it
assist the business, is it going to grow with the business requirements or is the technology just
another ‘trend’? Relationship management should not be an alternative to existing
functions/technology; it could be a logical extension to enhance those in existence, though it
could radically change some of the operational processes.
Is your Business ready? Are your customers Ready?
What are the costs, monetary, time, people and long-term issues?

53
Does CRM really matter?
Whatever the business activity is all companies have to ask themselves is CRM the real factor for
their company to succeed. Some customers do not need long-term relationship with their
suppliers; therefore only minimal information is required from that customer. That however is
still a form of CRM. Other companies have high quality and high value customers that they need
to know information about, they need to provide exceptional service, the ‘pedigree’ of CRM.
Whatever the business is, if it has customer it has to ask, does customer relationship management
matter? What does it man to them in business terms? At what cost? What is the overall loss if not
adhered to?

CRM: Yes it does really matter – the strategy needs to last, be constantly reviewed and can
evolve over time.

Employee Empowerment and CRM

The Case of Hewlett-Packard India

Relationship between Employee Satisfaction, Customer Satisfaction & Market Share

Productivity Satisfaction
With Manager

Market Customer Employee Job

Share Satisfaction Satisfaction Satisfaction
-ve

-ve Cost Of Satisfaction with

Quality Right Skills
Market
Share

40%
ESS

54
 CSS
35%

30%

25%
1990 91 92 93 94 95 96 97

CSS ESS Market Share

Initiatives for Employee satisfaction

A demotivated, unenthusiastic and unhappy employee will never care for the customers. Also
organizations willing to spend money when they are doing well should spend on employees more
rather than less when things get bad. An employee satisfaction survey should be carried out on a
regular basis.

Hewlett Packard (HP) Case

HP sells its products through its channels. Whenever the customer purchases a product, and there
is an issue to be resolved, the point of contact is the front line team. It handles the usage-related,
the application related and the real product related issues. The backend team handles the up
gradation issues. The partners provide the hardware support. The sales and services are provided
by DPSP’s and the ASP’s only. Typically in a month, the total number of customer calls logged
in at HP is 21,000 out of which 4600 are through web support, 1270 e-mails and 15,000
telephone calls. They use automated call distribution software, which also enables to track the
particular history of the customer. The service providers are assessed continuously. It is a
challenge to motivate engineers who are the employees of the service providers and are not HP
employees. The engineers/service providers’ performance is monitored on:
• Turnaround Time
• Number of parts requested per call (Multiple Part consumption)
• Closing the call
55
• Customer satisfaction
• Repair rate
• Effective handling of customer escalations

HP has allocated points for each of these parameters for partner performance measurement. In
case the partner performance falls below the desired level of points, then there would be
deduction in the reimbursements of that reseller. However if he exceeds the given point scale
then he qualifies for additional reimbursements which are offered as rewards.
HP contacts all customers, who are not happy with the service, and through the partners it is
attempted that certain steps are taken so that the customer is happy. The training program for the
partner is also regularly revived.
There is also a Reward 1000 plus program where there are points awarded. There are points for
various aspects such as training, quiz bulletin, customer feedback, customer service, re-repair
rate. The top contributors among the resellers are identified and are sent for training or
entertainment apart from monetary incentives.
So at HP, there is synchronization of the employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction process
to ensure a higher market share.

Chapter 5: Status of CRM In India

56
A Survey of Service Firms
Successful implementation of CRM requires a strategic approach, which encompasses
developing customer centric processes, selecting and implementing technology solutions,
employee empowerment, customer information and knowledge generation capabilities to
differentiate them, and the ability to learn from best practices.

Research Objectives
The current research was aimed at determining the approach being adopted by businesses in
India for relationship marketing. The research focused on the following major issues:
• Do managers in service firms believe that their processes are customer centric?
• Do they select technology on the basis of an understanding of customer needs?
• Have they empowered their employees to deliver superior services?
• Do they have a customer knowledge strategy? How well do they manage their customer
relationships?

Methodology
The research was exploratory in nature and adopted a two-stage process. During the first stage,
50 managers of service firms operating in India were surveyed through respondent administered
questionnaires. These managers belonged to the following three categories:
a) Hospitality Industry encompassing hotels and restaurants
b) Information technology and Respondent Profile
Telecom industry which
included software firms and Hospitality
I.T &
Telecom
telecom providers 29% 36%

c) Financial Services included

Finance
commercial banks and 35%

mutual funds
The survey focused on the quality and the customer centric processes, technology selection,
employee empowerment, and customer knowledge strategy to gauge the status of CRM practices
in these firms.

57
In the second stage, managers of select firms in each category of services were interviewed to
understand the relationship marketing practices adopted by them. These interviews explored the
following issues:
1. What are the various CRM initiatives undertaken by the firm?
2. How do they develop these programs?
3. How do they measure the effectiveness of these programs?
4. How successful are these programs in retaining customers?
Analysis of Findings
Processes
The managers reported a wide divergence with respect to the adoption of quality assurance
across the three sectors. The I.T and telecom sector is at the forefront of adopting a formal
quality management organization. Most of the players in the hospitality and the finance sector
report having some methods in place to ensure quality management initiatives. About 8% of the
overall sample have indicated the absence of any quality initiatives in their organizations.
At the broad level, most managers believe that they understand most of the interactions between

70% 62%
60% 52%
48% 50%
50%
40% 35% 35%
30%
20% 15%
10% 4%
0%
0%
Some Most All

Finance Hospitality I.T & Telecom

58
 Quality Assurance Process

80% 69%
60% 52%50%

40% 33%38%
27%
20% 14%12%
4%
0%
None Some Methods Formal Organ.

Finance Hospitality I.T & Telecom

customers and their business processes. About 50% of them have indicated that they have a full
understanding of all possible interactions between customers and their business processes.
Customer-centric marketing emphasizes understanding and satisfying the needs, wants, and
resources of individual customers rather than those of mass markets.
Therefore it is very important to have an understanding of all linkages between the customers
and the business processes which help fulfill the customer needs.

Technology Selection
Information Technology (I.T) is a major facilitator for CRM implementation. In response to the
question on whether they take into consider customers’ needs when selecting and implementing
information technology, about 30% of managers have indicated that they have considered

Customer Centric IT

70% 62%
60%
50%
50%
38% 38%
40%
29%
30% 23% 23% 23%

20% 14%

10% 5% 3%
0%
0%
Non e Con sidered Va lida te Cus tomer Cent ric

Finance Hospitality I.T & Telecom

59
 customer needs. Only 14% of managers in financial services do customer validation when
selecting technology. While only 23% of the managers in information technology & telecom
firms believe that their technology selections are customer centric whereas this was over 50% in
the other two sectors.
Employee Empowerment
When asked whether their employees are empowered to make decisions in favor of the
customers, less than a quarter of the managers across the three sectors indicated that every
employee is empowered to take actions to ensure the ultimate satisfaction of the customer. Most
of them feel that their employees have been empowered to take independent decisions within the
guidelines. This aspect of limited empowerment gets reinforced when one looks at the linkage
between the employee’s rewards with the customer centric behavior. Over 18% of the
respondents across the sectors have reported no linkages or use of ad hoc methods to reward
customer centric behavior.

E m p lo y e e E m p o w e r m e n t

F in a n c e
60%
50%
50% 43% H o s p it a lit y
40%
28% 28% I.T &
30% 24% 23% 2 4 %2 4 % T e le c o m
20%
20% 15%
10% 12%
10%
0%
S tr ic tly R u le B o n d In d e p e n d e n t D ec isio ns w ith inE ng cuido uelin
r a eg se de cis ion s w h ich affe
R ec qt cu us
ir etoemv er
er y e m plo ye e to e ns ur e c u sto m er
s a tis fa c tio n s a tis fa c tio n

60
Facilitation of employees for their role fulfillment through information technology is another
aspect of employee empowerment. Information technology helps employees respond to customer
queries and provide support in a fast and timely manner. It helps employees respond to customer
queries and provide support in a fast and timely manner. It helps them access information, which
is normally spread across the organization. Over 54% of I.T and Telecom firms have provided
the most effective technology to all employees who interact with customers.

Customer Knowledge Strategy

Customer knowledge gets built when information is collected systematically over a period of
time. This can be done through regular surveys and also during customer interactions. But
importantly this information has to be combined with the organization’s experiences with
customers to build rich customer profiles, buying behavior, preferences and usage patterns.
Over 60% managers in the hospitality industry have indicated that they have a continuous
strategy for collecting customer information. In most of the services, opportunities to come in
direct contact with their customers are high in comparison to other businesses that have
intermediaries and hence have an arms length relationship with their customers. Therefore it is
natural for service firms to collect customer information on a regular basis. But information
collection is just the first step in generating customer knowledge. This information has to be
combined with experiences to develop consumer insights which

Strategyfor CombiningCustomer InformationwithExperiences togenerate

Knowledge
80%
67%
70%
60%
50%
38%
40% 33% 33%
27%
30% 24%
17% 17% 19%
20% 15%
10%
10%
0%
0%
Poor Is Encouraged Process for Select Rigorous Process for
Customers each Customer
Finance Hospitality I.T&Telecom

61
help them serve their customers better.
When it comes to combining customer information with experiences, service firms seem to be
economizing. Most of them seem to be doing it for select customers. Hotels do it for their regular
guests specially those who have enrolled for their membership schemes. Financial service
providers selectively do it for their high net worth individuals who typically use multiple
offerings of the service provider.

Most service firms rely on periodic surveys to understand their customers’ expectations and also
understand and anticipate their behaviors. Over 40% of managers in the financial services have
indicated that they work with customers as a team to ensure that their expectations are met or
exceeded. It is very important to work with customers to understand their expectations as
research has consistently indicated that one of the major reasons for poor service quality is the
gap between manager’s perceptions about customers expectations and actual customer
expectations (Parasuraman, Zeithmal and Berry 1985).

Individualized Marketing Programs

60% 54% The purpose of
50% collecting customer
36% 35%
40% 33% 33% information and
28% 28%
30% developing
19%
20% 14%
8%
12% knowledge is to be
10%
0% able to differentiate
0%
Mass Market Perceived Niche Some for Individuals All Programs customers and meet
Specific to each
Finance Hospitality I.T & Telecom customer needs their specific
requirements. Peppers, Rogers and Dorf (1999) have recommended a four-stage process of
Identification, Differentiation, Interaction, and Customization for implementing one to one
relationships with customers. Over 50% managers in financial services have indicated that they
have critical business information about their relationships with individual customers. This falls
to about 40% in the hospitality and IT services. Customer knowledge can be used to initiate
customization of the service for customers based on their needs. By tailoring the elements of
services marketing mix, firms can customize their offerings to all or select customers.

62
A majority of the marketing programs are targeted for smaller segments of the markets. But there
is a growing trend towards individualizing these programs. With the emergence of e-commerce,
this trend is going to further intensify.
Some of the important findings of the depth interviews with managers of these services are:
(a) The relationship initiatives undertaken by firms have been directed towards customer
retention. The initiatives were mostly membership /privilege schemes with gradations based
on frequency and value of usage / purchase.
(b) Most of them also indicated that these schemes were table stakes i.e. they cannot survive in
the business without these schemes if everyone else offers them. But the race is always to
differentiate on the basis of convenience for customers.
(c) The source and reasons for adopting these programs were found to be diverse - frontline
initiatives, adaptation of successful programs in parent organizations abroad especially for
the multinational firms, or copying competitor’s offerings. Pioneers in the industry like one
of the multinational bank, which introduced the concept of relationship manager, adopted the
practices of their parent organization.
(d) A common finding, across sectors, was the absence of measures for determining the
effectiveness of these programs. Managers were convinced that these retention programs had
long-term benefits but they were still grappling with metrics which would indicate that the
investments were paying off.
(e) In several cases, there was a lack of coordination across functional departments. Although
managers admitted that cooperation and coordination were crucial, they accepted that many a
times, only marketing and customer service ended up as the 'program champions'. This had
impact on the success of the overall program.
Conclusions
Relationship marketing is emerging as a new area of focus for service firms in India. But these
are mainly based on some loyalty programs and investments in technology for enhancing the
capability of databases. Managers should ensure that while investing in databases, technology,
human resources and relationship marketing programs, attempts should also be made to develop
milestones, which help them sustain these initiatives. These milestones become benchmarks
against which future programs get evaluated. Measurement metrics get developed over a period

63
of time when one starts collecting information about customers, their buying patterns, usage
behavior, referrals, etc and start linking them to the marketing programs.

Successful firms take a long term strategic view of customer relationship management. It cannot
be solely managed through periodic programs. To be successful, firms need to be marketing
oriented before initiating relationship-marketing initiatives. A holistic approach which leads
firms to develop customer centric process, integrate technology through customer oriented
approaches, motivate employees to perform to their full potential through empowerment are
prerequisites for firms to successfully utilise their customer knowledge for customized or even
one to one marketing.

Chapter 6: CRM in Select Services

1. Taj Air Caterers & Singapore Airlines

Taj actively participates in product designs and influences service design, wherever necessary.
This has evolved after getting an insight into Singapore Airlines’ customer profile and their
needs. The product is designed to reflect their passengers’ preferences, which are quite different
in Delhi and Mumbai, and on different sectors ex-Mumbai. TAJ Chefs conduct an annual
workshop on Indian Cuisine for Singapore Airlines’ caterers worldwide. Taj staff gets trained at
Singapore Airlines’ catering subsidiary, SATS. Taj Caterers share a lot of information and can
access technology issues with Singapore Airlines.

2. Taj Air Caterers & GE Capital Services

There is e-mail connectivity between the service provider i.e. Taj and GE (for canteen and food
supply). Taj Customer Relations responds within a stipulated time frame directly to GE
employees and analyse their satisfaction. Also on cards is a ‘Fitness Program’ where Taj’s
experts will share information of food nutrition, exercise, etc with GE staff. Similarly, a Loyalty
Program is being designed wherein for purchases of snacks and confectionery, GE employees
can obtain attractive discounts at Taj outlets/hotels. With another company Taj is involved in
cafeteria design and selection of equipment.

64
 Case Study 5: Customer Relationship Management
At APTECH

The case of APTECH Ltd. Deals with an organization in the intensely competitive information
technology education and software services industry. In such markets where technology is
changing by the minute, organizations take initiatives to obtain even the slightest competitive
edge. The company described in the case is in the process of implementing a Customer Response
System across its 1500 odd centres. The impact of such a move is being felt on customer
satisfaction ratings and the critical word of mouth that attracts new inquiries. There are of course
certain implementation issues to be tackled. In order to evaluate the system implementation at
test centre’s, and to work through the implementation in the remaining centre’s. APTECH is
considering some cultural and organizational issues within the organization. Also, besides its
relationships with customers, it is working on its relationship with business partners and
employees.

INTRODUCTION
Today, computers are not restricted to computer software field only, in fact they have become a
necessary part of every business industry. This has led to tremendous rise in the demand for
trained computer professionals. The Indian computer software industry itself has grown from a
mere 0.3 billion ten years back to 70 billion today. The rapid growth of this industry has led to
high growth in the computer education and training business. Private institutes today produce
about 65% of the software professionals and remaining by government affiliated institutes. The
growth in the demand in future is expected to be spurred by the growth in the information
technology sector both domestic and international, which is growing by the rate of 30-40%. The
demand for computer software professionals has shown an increasing trend over the years. As a
result of this many entrepreneurs took to this opportunity and opened computer-training
institutes. Over the years these institutes have developed rapidly to become huge in terms of their

65
spread and the number of students churned out. Notably among them are companies like NIIT,
APTECH, SSI, TULEC, BITS, IEC, LCC, SOL-STAR etc.

Structure of information technology Education Industry

The information technology education industry in India is estimated to be around 625 crores.
Although there are many players, it is mainly dominated by NIIT and APTECH in the organized
sector. This sector is growing at the rate of 20%.

Market Shares

Others
30% NIIT
40%

APTECH
30%

NIIT APTECH Others

CRM at APTECH

“There are tow sides to APTECH’s business: student education, and corporate consultancy,
training, software, etc. Eighty percent of the students enroll at APTECH because of word of
mouth. There is qualitative and quantitative research. However, what experience was shared is
not documented. Therefore, we now have a system known as Customer Response System (CRS)
that captures any suggestion, complaint or query made by a student. As far as reusable templates
are concerned, they are widely used in e-commerce and ERP solutions
How did APTECH get into customer care?

Firstly, APTECH was in the knowledge management business. There was a need to be able to
practice what one preached. Secondly, there was the business imperative. The need to be at the
vanguard of the quality initiatives was recognized. There were already manual systems in place,
both formal and informal. Formal mechanisms included feedback forms, while informal channels
included faculty interaction and open houses. However, these contained an element of

66
subjectivity. If a student had a good rapport with the centre staff his/her feedback, complaints,
suggestions, and queries were paid cognizance. A need was felt for more quantifiable metric.
Students, being young, are wary of expressing their concerns. An element of monotony had crept
into the manual systems – students said what they were expected to say. In the feedback forms
emphasis was placed on the contents of the course.

CRM Road Map at APTECH

There are two units of CRM – CRS and CAS. Using CRS, a student gives feedback on the
Centre, Product, People, and Specific Issues. Where policy decisions are taken, they affect CAS
(Centre Automation System) and RAS (Regional Automation System) and changes are
incorporated as necessary.
The second unit CAS (Centre Automation System) is the database of the students. Currently this
database is used by Centre Personnel for student tracking and by the R.O. for monitoring centre
performance in terms of product delivery. The plan is to have a web interface, so that students
can access their information on a limited basis. This will help the student o judge his/her current
status and accordingly plan if any corrective action is required. E-mail facility is already
available for APTECH members, so that the student can consult the respective Faculty/Centre
Personnel in case any assistance is required for planning.
Customer Response System (CRS)

CRS is a customer service solution and not a data crunching operation. It covers three locations:
centre, regional office, and head office. In the centre’s and the regional offices CRS consists of
Client Service Module, while in the head office it consists of Client Server as well as Knowledge
Management modules. There are multiple objectives of CRS:
• Provide sufficient information, through an easy to access interface, to the customer for
judging their current status and make a plan for the future based on the same
• Provide an interface for the customer to communicate his/her views on the service received
by them.
• Have a mechanism in place to capture warning signals at an early stage to enable proactive
preventive action.

67
Technology behind CRS

The Client Server module has a back end developed in Oracle, and a front end developed in
PowerBuilder.. In each centre CRS is linked to the Centre Automation System. In the regional
office it is linked to the regional automation system. The Client-Server module has various
screens like review categories/notifications – Exception, Today’s Feedback, Awaiting
Rectification, Ratified and Pending Closure
A flow chart, indicating the mechanics of how the Client-Server module functions, is shown in
Exhibit 1.

New FEEDBACK by student

Exception
Today’s Feedback
Notification to SRO/CH Awaiting Ratification
Ratified
Pending Closure

Actions/Investigation

Inform Student to ratify

Ratified Awaiting Over 15 days

Ratification

Pending
Closure

Satisfied Ratified Close

Complaint

Closed

68
CRS reports – The different reports generated by the CRS system are:
Complaint Category wise Frequency Analysis, Cycle Time for Redressal Analysis, Status
Report, Status Statistics, Complaint Details, Exception report, Complaint recurrence analysis,
and Root Cause Analysis
Knowledge management module
The Knowledge management module can be viewed from two perspectives – User and
Knowledge administrator/integrator. Mr. Jahangir Kazimi, Solution Architect of the Knowledge
Management Module says that from users, perspective it consists of six links:
• Discussion Group
• Knowledge Repository
• Latest Updates
• Best Practices
• FAQs
Exhibit 3 Architecture
Complaint Management System – KN Functional Architecture

Oracle Application

Authors/
Experts Contributors
Exception
Reports

Knowledge
Discussion
Repository
Groups
Outcomes

Users

69
Discussion group: feedback is grouped by category, by centre, region, or author. It is possible to
trace the thread of a compliant. Where it originated, who responded first, next and so on? The
status of a feedback can be discerned. One of the options under discussion group is Priority
Issues - This contains complaints that are not resolved for a certain number of days. Once a
discussion is concluded more responses are not required.
Knowledge Repository – Once a feedback is closed it may or may not be knowledge enriching.
If it is generally applicable it undergoes a process of cleansing and filtering and is then stored in
the Knowledge Repository. The default view is my view. This consists of the tasks allotted to the
user by the knowledge integrator. There is a blank format tat the user can fill in. the user can also
initiate a request to the author. All documents go through a two-stage validation process. Each
document has to have an approver. The approved document is then forwarded to the knowledge
integrator for incorporation in the Knowledge Repository.
Latest Updates: Contains complaints by category e.g. by author. There are various ways of
presenting information.
Best Practices: There are various document forms such as Best Practice, root cause, and
problem-solution.
FAQ’s: Here are answers to frequently asked questions are stored.

Implementation Process
There are Faculty, Counselor, Administrative Staff and other category of members in a centre. It
was imperative that all members of the Centre were convinced about this system. To achieve this
an exhaustive session was conducted to all members of the Centre covering the various aspects
of the system and the advantages of the system. Once the centre staff was convinced, and then
the second step of introducing the system to the students was undertaken. This was 2-step
procedure:
(a) Publicize the existence of the system for the usage of the students. This was done
(i) By putting up posters in the centre
(ii) Announcing in the classes by the faculty
(iii) Informing them during informal meeting by counselors, Centre Head, etc
(b) Encourage the students to use the system, by promptly attending to the feedbacks received.

70
 Since the CRS was coupled with CAS no additional infrastructural requirement was there to
implement CRS in the Centre. The whole process of implementation in the Centre took roughly
one calendar month time.
The Customer’s viewpoint:
Few students of APTECH franchised centre where CRS had not yet been installed and few
students from a centre run directly by APTECH where CRS where CRS went online were
interviewed to understand its immediate impact. Students from the first type of centre’s were
highly dissatisfied because their basic expectations in terms of service and facilities were not
met, they didn’t know anything about CRS or any system by which they can give the feedback
on which some meaningful action can be taken. They were also not at all sure if the franchised
centre would act on the feedback..

Financial Framework for CRM

There are organizational constraints encountered in execution of CRM programs. Mainly they
are as follows:
• A mismatch between resource allocated and service levels desired for building customer
relationship
• Absence of financial business case and ROI for investments in Customer Relationship
• Horizontal non alignment of organizations to customers line of sight
• Balance to be achieved between maximization of revenue and customer satisfaction.

Composite Costs
100%
100% Direct Sale

% 50% Unit
of Selling
ove cost
rall Referral Sale
sale
T1 T1
Time Time

Fig. 1. ‘Torpedo Graph’ Fig. 1.(a) Sale Cost Line

71
Figure 2 illustrates that with a given investment in direct sale channel the productivity can at best
be only slightly increasing line, while a referral line will be an exponentially increasing trend line
with growing subscriber numbers. This creates a multiplier effect that quickly overtakes the
direct sale numbers. Organization dependency on direct sale can gradually be reduced since they
stand to account for reduced numbers in the overall sums.

Direct sale

Sale
Unit
No.
Referral Sale

T1
Time Figure 2

Organizational measure of referral propensity can be taken through customer feedback on their
willingness to recommend the product to their friend and acquaintances.
Data of Likelihood to Recommend from Kerala market of Escotel subscriber is illustrated
below. This is based on face to face survey conducted through independent market research
agency on a sample base with >95% confidence level. Company commissioning the survey was
identified to the respondents.

1997 1998 1999 2000

71% 78% 86% 86%

Impact of referrals was measured as a part of six-sigma improvement team working on Sales
productivity improvement. Order conversion rates from various sources of lead generation was
taken and the results are as follows

72
 Method of lead generation Sample Size Conversion Rate
Cold Calling 2210 3%
Database 1674 1%
Referrals 352 29%

Organization/selling channels have to individually draw the sale cost line for their products. This
will determine saving rate impact through referrals and can serve as a decision point for how
much investment should be made for tracking & accelerating referrals.
CRM IN HMTL: A Financial Analysis
Hutchison Max Telecom Ltd. (HMTL) is the leading cellular operator in India. It owns the brand
‘Orange’. In Mumbai, there are about 14,000 customer interactions in a day, i.e. on an average a
single customer interacts once in 14 days. Therefore, one can appreciate the fact for having an
effective customer relation.
The customer interactions can be segmented into various categories:
E-Mail 2%
Direct Walk-In 5%
Fax/Letter 8%
Calls 85%
The peak load hours are from 10:00 AM to 11:00 PM. In telecom industry the cost of handling
the customer can be calculated by assigning the various cost factors such as cost of operation of
call office, cost of mailers. Staffing cost, etc. it is not possible to quantitatively find out the
benefits of having a CRM. Instead of the Cost-Benefit Analysis, it is recommended the cost of
not serving the customer (i.e. when CRM is not in place).

Financial Analysis
The complete transition from the internally developed CRM to a commercial CRM package
would take 6 to 12 months.
A typical commercial CRM package to be installed at HMTL would cost around Rs. 5 Crore
(Assuming one would go for a top of the line CRM package like Siebel, Vantive, Clarify,
Oracle.)

73
Assumptions
Package is purchased for 100 sales people
Cost of Product acquisition including opportunity cost and training cost is approximately: Rs. 5
crores.
Other Costs are as follows:
− Staffing Cost: In call centre at HMTL, the staff requirement is around 100, which can be
reduced to 80 using CRM
− Telephone outcall cost
− Delay cost
− Transition cost
Benefit Parameters
 Reduction in staff cost
 Enhanced productivity (subscriber to agent ratio)
 Quicker turnaround times
 Saving due to call handling by alternate channels
 Better Customer Relations
 Churn Prevention
 Segmented Promotions
The total benefits expected from these parameters are approximately Rs.3 crores. Hence it is safe
to conclude that the payback period should be approximately 2 years for HMTL.

Conclusion

74
In the past, CRM was mostly about the technology, not about the customer. There is a change in
the way the organizations do business. At a technology level, CRM is increasingly about
conjoined best-of-breed applications delivered via portal technologies. At a business level, it is
beginning to invade traditional territories occupied by brand management or customer support.
Peel shows companies how to make the shift to the new paradigm.

The CRM vendors look like they have got their act together in terms of coupling their wares to
the needs of the business. The market now distinguishes between CRM and eCRM. One would
be forgiven for thinking that this differentiation was contrived to allow the vendors to retreat
back to pre ecommerce CRM. But the opposite is true. eCRM is the new game and the vendors
are being bullish about it. It may well be worth creating a CRM vendor index, as I think that it
will be a good indicator of confidence in business in general and technology in particular.

References

75
 Gruen, T. W. (1997), ’Relationship Marketing: The Route to Marketing Efficiency and
Effectiveness’, Business Horizons, November – December,
 Berry, L. L. (1983), ‘Relationship Marketing of Services: Growing Interest, Emerging
Perspectives’, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science,
 Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., and Berry, L. (1985), "A Conceptual Model of Service
Quality and its Implications for Future Research," Journal of Marketing
 Payne, A. (2000), ‘Relationship Marketing: The UK Perspective’, in Sheth, J. N. and
Parvatiyar, A. (eds.) Handbook on Relationship Marketing, Sage Publications, Inc.:
 Reichheld, F. F. and Sasser, W. E. (1990), 'Zero Defections: Quality Comes to Services',
Harvard Business Review, September – October
 Sheth, J. N. and Parvatiyar, A. (1995) ‘Relationship Marketing in Consumer Markets:
Antecedents and Consequences', Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science
 Jagdish And Sheth, Atul Parvatiyar, G Shainesh, ‘CRM Emerging Concepts, Tools and
Applications’
 Websites
www.crmassist.com (Accessed on 6 May, 2010)

www.crmguru.com(Accessed on 13 May, 2010)

www.crmfoundation.com(Accessed on 20 May, 2010)

www.crmindia.org(Accessed on 27 May, 2010)

www.crmsearch.com (Accessed on 9 June, 2010)

www.crmcommunity.com(Accessed on 17 June , 2010)

www.CRM-forum.com(Accessed on 23 June, 2010)

 Philip Kotler: Marketing Management

76
Annexure 1:
Sample Questionnaire asked to 50 managers across various companies in the
service industry.

1. What are the various CRM initiatives undertaken by the firm?

2. How do they develop these programs?
3. How do they measure the effectiveness of these programs?
4. How successful are these programs in retaining customers?
5. What are the quality and customer centric processes that they follow?
6. How do they decide the technology that is to be implemented?
7. What steps have they undertaken for employee empowerment?
8. What strategy do they follow to acquire more knowledge about the customer?

77