Customers' needs better addressed with CRM as the core platform

Why did Religare Technologies decide to venture into CRM solutions?

We have been an active service provider in CRM for the last three years. The
decision to venture into CRM solutions offerings came about when the company
decided to leverage further on its existing partnership with Microsoft. It was
also fueled by a demand within the industry for this solution and opportunities
that existed in the market.

Has this venture been profitable for the company?

Our vertical centric solutions Religare Technologies helps customers in
implementing CRM faster and also to implement best practices in their business.
This gives us further access to the specific problem, which helps us in making
more customers and driving the business faster.

How do you plan to popularize the concept of CRM?

We will run domain specific roadshows to showcase our vertical solutions. We
address the customers' needs better with CRM as the core platform.

What are the growth drivers for CRM? Will these be changing, keeping in
mind the evolving market trends?

CRM deployments previously catered to core functionalities like
opportunities, selling processes, sales operations and helpdesk services. Due to
the financial crisis and tightening of budgets, SaaS will now become more
prevalent. Use of smart phones will increase to drive sales force adoption. With
Microsoft's offerings like xRM, vertical solutions will also assume more
importance. Lastly, social CRM will no longer be a buzzword but become an
essential element of the sales cycle.

What are the latest trends in this solution?

New trends are being seen in the area of content driven processes to tie
proposals, bids, configurations and quotes integrated with authorization and
order capture. Lead and opportunity management capabilities continue to be
enhanced. Greater support for multi-tier, matrixed sales teams with
role-specific functionality for inside, field and strategic sales people.
Improvement is also being seen in multi-channel campaign management and campaign
budget tracking.

Amrita Tejasvi

amritat@cybermedia.co.in