BANGALORE: The crash of the Internet stock in the US early this year forced
many to review their strategies and mission. One of the biggest realizations
that dawned upon dotcoms was that it was impossible to survive as a pure Web
company. It began to dawn on them that their business model should include some
features of the traditional brick and mortar versions.
One such case is that of 24/7 Customer.com, a US based company offering
customer relationship management (CRM) services and solutions. The company
started off by offering Web-based CRM services. However, over the past few
months, the company has changed its strategy to include some of the offline CRM
services, such as call centers.
Points out CEO, US Operations, PV Kannan, "The world has shifted during
the last six months. It is difficult for pure Net-based companies to survive.
Companies will need to have both offline and online presence. We cannot offer
only e-mail based services. We need to provide voice-based services too."
And, therefore, the company has embarked on setting up call centers in India for
its clients.
Kannan compares call centers to software outsourcing. "There is a lot of
similarity between the two. However, unlike in software outsourcing, if you do
not scale up fast, you will not survive. Also, you need huge investment for
setting up call centers." But, isn’t the business of call centers a
crowded one? "We are at an early stage of the development cycle for call
centers. There is huge demand. However, over time there will be consolidation
and only a few will survive," Kannan says.
The company, which raised $3 million in its first round of funding, is
scouting for VCs for the second round, which is expected to bring in more than
$10 million. In the next few weeks, its first CRM solutions will also roll out.
According to its Founder and CEO Prakash Gurbaxani, the company’s revenues
should touch Rs 100 crore in the next 3-5 years.
Kannan plans to start with focusing on the US market. "Some amount of
market awareness is required. We (the top executives) all have worked in the US
and understand the market well," he says, adding that in the Europe, the UK
market holds some potential, where again, the accent of spoken English differs
from that of the US market."
The call center market is fast growing in the US. However, it is becoming
increasingly difficult to manage the growing number of these centers. With an
unemployment rate of less than three per cent, the employee turnover rate is in
excess of 50 per cent. "This is creating huge problems for companies. The
situation opens up attractive opportunities to India, which has a sizable number
of educated non-engineers. In terms of cost advantage in setting up centers in
India, one tends to cut down cost by about 30 per cent depending on the industry
and the scale of the centers," says Kannan.
And, what is the future of CRM in the Indian markets? "A lot of
consulting companies have emerged. However, it is still in its early stage.
People are talking about it. Hospitality and the financial services industries
seem to be taking the first steps. It will slowly trickle down to other
industries," feels Kannan.