CRM: Nothing outside-the-box. Deliberately!

MUMBAI, INDIA:

SpongeBob: Can you hear me Patrick?

Patrick: No! It's too dark in here.

The remark incidentally makes some sense when one tries to peep inside a CRM cube. For once, it's not amusing to find how it can really become impossible to listen to customers and in-your-face opportunities for the sheer lack of enough light inside usual software boxes. Is re-inventing CRM supposed to be the torch then? Can it manage to be not just one more box inside a bigger box?

Despite game-changing pioneers like Salesforce or open source mavericks like Sugar; CRM space still grapples with wistful ‘what-if' sighs on gaps like strong sentiment analysis, proactive CRM, Predictive customer behavior analysis and strategic actions, proper MDM backbones etc.

Can CRM be more than a glorified contact list and post-it diary? Can it reorient to emergence of new-age currencies like the CMO and social networking? Can customers be assured of SLAs and not be left devoid of them because they did not ask for one in a CRM suite?

Can someone with a stubborn emphasis on product instead of a bevy of technicians and support pipelines make a mark in the industry? Specially a terrain where on one hand one can hear giant footholds of the likes of SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, Sage etc while on the other hand many pixies can be felt flitting about as new SCRM holes get burrowed by the likes of Mzinga, Telligent, Lithium, Jigsaw, Jive, Chatter, or Yammer ?

Can someone make sense of all the floccinaucinihilipilification that defines the game as it plays out in this side of the ERP world? Can someone perforate an industry well-entrenched and shiftless for years? Specially someone new, made-in-India and with a hint of a rebellious streak?

CRMnext, for now, says it is confident enough as a true-blue Indian software product which has been making slow, but steady strides in the Indian enterprise segment.

It has been quite some time since it was launched in 2006, after apparently four years of intensive research and product development, with a claimed kitty of over Rs 70 crore as investment.

 

So far the confidence seems to not have disappointed anyone, with over 70 per cent of CRMnext's customers running large installations (over 1000 seats as against an industry average of over 50 seats). Some of the key ones having even replaced their legacy CRM systems with CRMnext (read HDFC Bank, TATA AIA, Reliance Mutual Funds and Crisil).

All this while, Sushil Tyagi, Director - Global Sales & Marketing at CRMnext also insists that the company will keep thinking inside-the-box and not expend or let customers unnecessarily spend on porters and cargoes.

He seems to convey that he not only sees some light inside the big brown box but in fact wants to be that flash of hope that can change the game again.

In this interview he tackles how it is like to compete amongst a continuum of players like Salesforce.com, Sage, MS Dynamics and the usual ERP Big Cheese. He also navigates issues that he feels plague the industry and restrain the radius that should be available to a customer. Will he and his team be able to absorb some big questions and wipe out a dark room?

What is CRMNxt in simple words? Why did you choose this space as a business problem worth a market?

Globally and regionally also CRM is one space where we observed a gap, more so in India. So we decided to address this space and started by investing a lot in the product. Interestingly, there has always been a confusion or overlap between a services company and a product company. We were always sure to be on the right side and have maintained an unrelenting focus on the architecture with continuous evaluation of the product, based on market needs from time to time. Not many companies can boast a confidence of being a high-impact and scalable CRM today. To the extent of 70 per cent, implementations in CRM can be seen failing. It's a product game and that's what we realized and worked upon. A product has to be driven by R&D, something that cannot be easily conferred by a service company.

What's the underlying model you have picked - specially when many majors find their bread, butter and even jam in support revenues?

In enterprise model we offer both options. We give the customer the flexibility to own the solution the way he wants to own it. But, we ensure that we maintain the difference between a service company and a product company. Shall we leave the easy revenue or shall I stick to the product, is a fork in the road we were clear about from very early on. What stops many systems from an upgrade is the complexity of the integration. Once you integrate it, the standard practice is to write a code for that. One can never upgrade with the same code again. Our code does not become a constraint. What the world is grappling today with in form of BYOD is something we tackled ten years back. Our systems can run any device and with capability to adapt for any browser or OS with ease.

Is it easy standing amidst the likes of SAP, Oracle and CRM specialists or CRM pioneers?

It is all about whether we want to chase service revenue numbers. When I speak to SIs (system integrators) they were not able to digest this new model for this market. They were really not really thrilled about it. Either one keeps providing the same story and let the customer crib about it or creates a real differentiator. Today we have the likes of TCS, Polaris working with us. It is not a tough market when it comes to private sector. We are meanwhile figuring out how to iron out other challenges.

What's the toughest pothole?

Our biggest challenge is the problem of cartelization in the industry. An ERP biggie that sells databases and CRM together makes things tricky for sure. Government tenders have a different contour consequently. Customer choices become limited of course. It's all about pricing it effectively then as we have a rival that is pushing a stack and thus limiting options. From our end, we provide every compatible option possible. We give our customers the flexibility to choose whatever they want. We are geared up to bring in any database that is needed.

Anything really unique that you think can make you stand out?

What differentiates us is that we realize that CRM does not necessarily work or fail because of features. Competition can neutralize that part pretty soon. But it's about capability of the system. I have to be ready for any upgrade or support that would be needed by the customer four years down the line. And that should happen, now. For instance, no one thought about the prospect of SCRM (Social CRM) becoming so powerful. It cannot be just an add-on feature then. Specially, when it is a business requirement. We deliver outcome-based CRM. A product has to have an outcome and not just frills. We invest in product and context a lot.

How much do SLAs matter here?

We work on standard SLAs as per whatever is the industry standard. But we certainly try to go beyond SLAs, as long as basics and infrastructure stays in place. Example- with HDFC we have managed a 99.8 per cent uptime for last five years.