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Pune-based IT services firm, Cybage, was in a dilemma. For
years, it has been working on data in silos with each senior manager owning and
managing his own database. However, consistent growth over the last few years
meant the company suddenly facing the need to manage about 20,000 prospects and
customer contacts, as well as sales and marketing cycles simultaneously. There
was an urgent need to procure and maintain a centralized database, says Amit
Gajwani, director, Business Development, Cybage Software.
Besides, there were growing concerns about security, with
respect to collaboration amongst users, and creation of duplicate islands of
information.
The Ideal Solution
Cybage started the groundwork by evaluating various CRM solutions. A panel
comprising IT and sales/marketing professionals analyzed various solutions that
came up for evaluation. The company made a pro-and-con list which was used as a
benchmark to evaluate vendors and their solutions.
"While some of the solutions were too complex in
functionality, or difficult to implement, others came with high costs or
complicated licensing models," says Amit Gajwani, director, Business
Development, Cybage Software. The search finally ended with Sage Softwares
AC.
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"Tracking of leads and
quantum of work performed by all executives has become a lot easier," |
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Amit Gajwani,
director, Business Development, Cybage Software |
"We decided to deploy ACT! Premium Web to provide access to
the mobile sales team, while ACT! Premium for Workgroups would fuel the
marketing team," Gajwani says. Within the company, this led to the creation
of a total and integrated scenario where users could access information easily,
prioritize work schedules as well as access and report opportunities in an
efficient manner, he added.
In terms of deployment, the product was implemented mostly out
of the box with some 20% customizations. "The rollout was done as per
schedule and since this was a product meant for mid-sized businesses, it proved
to be cost-effective," adds Gajwani.
The solution enabled the company to work on a synchronized
database, which ultimately helped it avoid a lot of rework. Also, it has helped
Cybage track leads, ensure timely follow up and access to information associated
with a company/contact at a location faster and more efficiently," says
Gajwani.
Strategic Partnering
Cybage needed a strategic partner to help them implement the solution. The
company was looking for a partner with a proven track record in providing
value-added services like data entry and management.
With Cybage using MS Excel as a database and records running
into tens of thousands, the immediate challenge was to sanitize the database and
import it into ACT, explains Jenit Ramaiya, ACT Consultant, Atyanta Consulting.
After deployment, the company worked toward importing existing
data into the server, and provided training to end-users on the new web-based
functionality.
Tangible Results
The migration not only helped improve sales cycles and customer management
at Cybage, it also helped decision-makers track the top ten prospects per sales
person, resulting in the creation and management of an efficient pipeline. The
senior management today is closely cued on to revenue forecasts and sales
predictability, and is also better equipped to help sales close key contracts.
With access to information on the fly, the sales force is able to focus efforts
on fueling leads, rather than repeatedly re-contacting old ones. More
importantly, the sales support is also able to leverage real-time customer data.
Cybage has been able to achieve nearly triple digit sales growth
even though the industry was experiencing a sluggish growth of just 20%. Thanks
to the CRM solution, it has been able to achieve, synchronization between field
sales, inside sales, marketing, and management.
Urvashi Kaul
urvashik@cybermedia.co.in Page(s) 1
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