Customer Relationship Management

Multi domain MDM has been the buzz word in most Analyst forums. Many software vendors have jumped into the bandwagon, with the aim to create separate product offerings for each of these domains. While few software vendors have added "customization capabilities" to existing product stack with the ability to create new domain. So which is the right approach?

As always the customer's specific business needs drive the product selection. Of course the final implementation budget, as well. Most of the package offerings are aligned to Customer, Product, Hierarchy, Site and Supplier data domains. However there are not many packages addressing "asset" or "risk" domain.

Typically asset master is very critical element in Communication Media and Entertainment (CME) industry. E.g. In a typically telecom industry we are attuned to find shared infrastructure e.g. cell towers (Ground Base Tower, Roof Top Tower, Rapid Transport Tower provided by an external). On this shared infrastructure, the telecom provider install the hardware (basic switch center and master switch center) and the software (owned equipments) and it is essential for the telecom provider to track back where these assets are deployed and under which location. This allows them to track back the warranty of each device so installed and manage the life cycle of these assets.

In the current world, there are no master data management products supporting this subject area, and it is essential to custom built a solution. Based on a quick assessment, a SME has evaluated a cost saving of $217,000 in positive business benefits in a traditional large enterprise over three years.

Gartner magic quadrant states the following "In addition, although many MDM solutions are marketed as multi domain MDM, we find that they don't provide similar depth of capability in every data domain"
 

So is this not a sufficient inflection point, to create an "asset" master management solution? If yes, should we partner with a product vendor to co-create a new product offering or extend the capabilities of the product to support a new data domain?

At least a few players such as Siperian and IBM have provided the ability to create an extensible data model that can support new data domain. At the time of writing this blog, IBM as part of the Infosphere Master Information Hub, has announced support for custom domain. What it means is that, the ability to create a new domain is limited or constrained by your imagination, rather than the support by the product.

Oracle had plug-ins for managing asset master data through its extensible Siebel Data model, however this domain has yet to be published in its product road map view.

Posted by Jairaj Asok Kumar at 6:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Gary Lemke at CRM Advocate has recently been blogging about "Hammer Lady" and what kind of grievance redressal options can be given to customers when they are disenchanted with traditional channels of customer Service. Hammer Lady is a famous disgruntled customer of Comcast who took a hammer to the nearest Comcast office and destroyed office equipment before inquiring if she finally had their attention. It transpired that her phone connection had been out for a week and she couldn't get anyone at Comcast to fix it. 

Not all customers would take such a drastic step when they feel they haven't received the service they deserve. Some may fret and fume; others may bad mouth the company or product to friends and colleagues. Some others may be more patient and follow through with the published escalation channels, if available. But in today's age of social media, the "hammer" can also be taken into cyber space and what was earlier a potential loss of goodwill restricted to a few acquaintances of a disgruntled customer can quickly take up a frightening form on the internet, thanks to social media. 

If companies today want to avoid such pitfalls they need to quickly establish effective grievance redressal mechanisms to reach out to disgruntled customers before they take out the "hammer". Such mechanisms may take many forms but to be successful it has to have a few necessary ingredients. 

Credibility. It is not something that can be built quickly but sustained service mechanisms to deal with unhappy customers can lead to success stories which can then be leveraged to build a culture of service excellence. Your claims on service delivery may also be taken seriously through widespread marketing and well publicized awareness campaigns. A Money Back Guarantee or a 5 Year Free Service offer can help.  

Make it Easy. Your Grievance Mechanism is not going to win you any fans on Facebook if the web link is hidden deep in the bowels of your website that generates an auto reply about "looking into it" and vaguely mentions that it is "glad to receive the feedback". If you already have a Facebook page, YouTube channel or other frequented forums on your website use them to address miffed customers. 

Dedicate Resources. If your regular service folks couldn't solve the customer's problem in the first place, it wouldn't make sense directing the same customer back to the same service team. So don't just change the channel, change the people, change the process, change the training and only then will you be able to change the results. 

Some companies are already innovating in this area. Just last month, SBI Life, an Indian State run Life Insurance Company announced "SOLVE", an SMS based customer care initiative for prompt grievance redressal by guaranteeing attendance to redressal within 24 hours. Customers are able to register their grievances about SBI Life's service by merely sending SMS 'SOLVE' to 56161. The message along with customers' mobile number, date and time of message is automatically registered at the central server of SBI Life's central processing centre. A special customer service team exclusively trained and dedicated for the SMS SOLVE service, calls the customer, takes note of his grievances and addresses it. 

It's early days yet though. Watch this space.

Posted by Anand Bharadwaj at 9:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Personally, I used to be facinated by the invention of the Telephone by Alexander Graham Bell, in 1876, which laid the foundation for telecommunications (communication over a distance). Since then, the last few generations have seen the rapid growth and advancements of the telecommunication networks, in the area of switching, transmission and end user devices.

The telecommunication network evolution started with the Land Line Telephone Neworks, where the telephones at home/offices used to be connected to the Local Telephone Exchange, through the Local Loop. The Land Line Telephones evolved from the Pick the Cradle and Speak type of telephones, to Rotary Dial Telephones to Push Button Telephones, which are still in use.

In the last 125+ years, the telecom service providers across the World, have invested heavily in building and operating their Land Line Telephone Network Infrastructure and have progressively grown a significant volume of Customer base. However, the tremendous growth of Mobile Phones, in the last few decades , has not only affected the growth of Land Line Phones, but also reduced the existing Land Line Customer Base, as Customers have progressively started to move towards mobile phone, due to the flexibility it offers, especially communication on the move.

As per the The Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators Report (April - June 2010), published by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), as on June 30, the total number telephone subscribers, along with the distribution of Mobile and Land Line Subscribers, in India is as follows:-
• Total Telephone Subscribers (Mobile + Land Line) - 671.69 million
• Total Mobile (Wireless) Subscribers - 635.51 million (which is nearly 95% of the Total Subscriber Base)
• Total Land Line (Wireline) Subscribers - 36.18 million (which is only 5% of the Total Subscriber Base)

These statistics distinctly highlights the phenomenal growth of Mobile Subscription (which is continuing grow, with % of increase over the previous quarter at 8.76%), compared to the low volume of Land Line Subscribers (which is continuing to decline, with the % of decrease over the previous quarter at 2.10%). The web link to access the TRAI report, is provided at the end of this article, for your reference.

Hence, the biggest challenge for the incumbent Land Line Telephone Service Providers, is to retain their existing customers first and then see if they can also  grow this market further. One of the approaches adapted was to offer Internet Services through Land Line (e.g. DSL based Internet Services) to their existing Land Line Customers. Another option was to reduce the call charges significantly, which is what Bharat Sanchar Nigan Limited (BSNL ) the incumbent Telecom Service Provider in India, has recently announced. BSNL is one of the largest & leading public sector unit in India, offering Land Line, Mobile and Internet Services to its Customers.

BSNL  has a well established Land Line telephone network (Switching Systems, Local Loop for Transmission and Fixed Line Phones) with a good Land Line customer base. Now, with more than 15 Mobile Telecom Service Providers offering a variety of services (with a few of them offering land line services), in the Indian Telecom Market, the competition is really tough and the Customer churn is more, especially from Land Line to Mobile Services.

As an attempt to retain their existing Land Line Customers , BSNL has recently announced that they are offering Long Distance Call (or STD Calls as mentioned in India), at Local Call Rates, from BSNL Land Line to any other Land Line, across the country. They have also highlighted the advantages of Land Lines Phones (compared to mobile phones) such as - Excellent Voice Clarity and Uninterrupted Calls with no call drops, which are very true.

This is really a good move from BSNL. Earlier, we used to think and limit our conversation duration, when it comes to Long Distance Calls on Land Lines, as the call charges used to be high. Now the provision to make Long Distance Calls at Local Call Rates (which is significantly less), will not only benefit the Land Line Customers (to reduce their telephone call expenses), but it will also encourage them to speak to people (e.g. family, friends, employees), across the country (India), for a longer duration (as the cost is low), which would ultimately, contribute to increased revenue (to the service provider), through increased volume of talk time.

This is yet another example of how the incumbent telecom service providers (like BSNL) have understood the pulse of the Customer and have offered what they really want, in the process of handling the challenges of advancement in the technology (in this case from land line to mobile phones) and increased competition (with new service providers coming in through privatization), to sustain themselves in this cut throat market.

These attractive offers to Land Line Customers (e.g. Service Providers Offering Long Distance Calls at Local Call Rates to their Customers, Offering Good Quality of Service - Excellent Voice Clarity and Uninterrupted Calls with no call drops, Excellent Customer Service Support ), will certainly help the Telecom Service Providers, with the dual benefit of retaining their existing Land Line Customers and their Network Infratsructure, which was build progressively, over the last 100+ years. This is a Win-Win situation to both the Customers and the Telecom Service Providers.

Posted by Shanmugam Gnanasambandam at 1:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Guest Post by

Atul Chandra Pandey, Industry Head - Enterprise Application Integration and Solutions (EAIS), Enterprise Solutions, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

Marc Benioff is a master salesman and did exactly what he is known for - selling cloud like no one else. The opening keynote today at Dreamforce 2010 was all about how the cloud journey has transcended beyond the initial thresholds of leveraging pay-as-you-go benefits to creating new frontiers of innovation, agility and smart business decision making. While Salesforce announced multitudes of new offerings - notably database.com, Appforce.com, ISV force.com and VMForce,com, the winner was mobility on new devices notably iPad. Almost half the room raised hand when Benioff asked about how many in the audience use / would like to see their SFDC app on iPad.

It was refreshing and encouraging to see customers connect and share their stories on Salesforce during the Manufacturing luncheon and demonstrated how clients are looking for best practices, unique ways to expand on their SFDC solution to deliver more business capabilities including advanced analytics, channel / distribution collaboration to name a few.
It was a mayhem at the cloud expo area with new solutions / niche products announced on Force.com almost everywhere. My view is that while not all of these apps may be able to generate value at the same level, it is exciting to see how rapidly the cloud business environment is changing and PaaS taking center stage. Another ubiquitous topic of discussion has been Chatter. Introduced just about an year back, this application is already creating a lot of buzz and excitement with customers ranging from already deployed to considering implementation now. 

On the customer panel discussion today, we listened to perspectives on cloud from two of our key customers in the cloud space  ranging from a host of topics ranging from drivers behind cloud adoption, integration, data security & privacy, mobility and Force.com

Thanks to all of you who stopped by Infosys booth today.  Tomorrow (Dec 8th) we are conducting a table talk session in lower hall of Moscone West on the new applications we are planning to bring on Force.com. You are invited to visit the table talk discussion and provide your feedback / inputs.

Enjoy the rest of the conference!

Posted by Guest Blogger at 8:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Guest Post by

Atul Chandra Pandey, Industry Head - Enterprise Application Integration and Solutions (EAIS), Enterprise Solutions, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

Well, the most talked about and awaited event in the cloud community for the year started today. Welcome to Dreamforce 2010 ! - the Annual Salesforce.com user conference. With ~25000 expected attendees, this would be perhaps the biggest Dreamforce on record. While the numbers are larger than year before, the organization this time seems better - more helping staff, spacious breakout halls. However only next couple of days of pouring crowd will determine the resilience of the Dreamforce organization team. The key theme as you enter the Moscone North is Collaborate. It would be exciting to see the announcement of new apps tomorrow in Marc Benioff's keynote. Salesforce is known to create significant buzz with these new introductions and the same is expected tomorrow as well.

This is an exciting year at Dreamforce for Infosys as we enter the conference as Silver sponsors. We are proud sponsors of Manufacturing luncheon tomorrow (07 Dec 2010) starting at 11:45 AM in Intercontinental hotel, followed by Infosys organized Customer panel discussion where two of our key Salesforce.com customers will join the podium to share their insights on their experience on cloud and salesforce.com. This session is available to full conference pass holders and will be held in Room 2007, Moscone West from 05:15 PM - 06:15 PM.

On Dec 8th, Infosys is conducting a table talk discussion announcing new apps Infosys is bringing on Salesforce.com. This is from 11:45 AM - 12:45 AM in the lower hall of Moscone center. We also invite you to visit our booth in the Cloud Expo hall (#221 - closer to the Industry Solutions area) to learn more about our proposition on the cloud and how we are helping our customers leverage Salesforce.com investments better.

Enjoy the conference!

Posted by Guest Blogger at 8:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)