The Western European market has been seeing strong growth in the area of CRM services. This is reflected in the fact that a number of contracts were signed in 2000. Some of the significant ones are:

• British Airways is developing a new range of Internet services with IBM in response to the success of the online small discount offered by airlines. British Airlines is planning to add functionality that would let customers book tickets from digital televisions and WAP-enabled mobile phones. By 2003 the company is planning to sell over 50% of its tickets online.

• Logica signed a contract valued between $20-50 million for five months with British Energy. Logica will assume responsibility for many aspects of British Energy’s customer care, including back-office and front-office services, contract management, work management, billing, payment processing and credit management.

• John Lewis Partnership, one of UK’s most successful retail businesses has chosen Prime Response’s integrated e-marketing software solution. The food division of John Lewis will be able to utilize customer data from the Internet, e-mail and direct mail, and integrate it with historical buying information about each customer.

• Unicredito, one of Italy’s largest full-service banking groups, will begin to offer its customers more personalized one-to-one customer service. This initiative will be realized by using Prime Responses’ Prime Vantage software. This software is designed to analyze, plan, execute and track one-to-one marketing campaigns.

• After a successful three-month pilot testing with the interactive mobile banking services via WAP, Woolwich, the UK building society, has decided to make this service nationwide. The service is being provided in association with Vodafone. Customer’s of Woolwich will be able to run their personal finances, current accounts, savings and mortgages round-the-clock from all locations. This ‘banking on the move’ will also provide customers with the flexibility of using a full range of channels.

• Sema Group has constructed and is managing a CRM system for the Ferrari World Club. The solution includes an advanced CRM platform with multilingual integrated customer care using e-mail, post, fax, subscription and payment by multiple channels. It also includes a website linked to the Ferrari World Club home page and content sites that enable online subscription. The contract is worth between $1-6 million for a three-year period.

• Lloyds TSB Group signed a $23-million contract with Chordiant Software for the development of a multi-channel e-CRM infrastructure. Andersen Consulting has been chosen as the strategic consulting partner to deploy Chordiant software. The e-CRM infrastructure will make possible current and historical customer information to be shared among the bank’s branches, call centers and Internet, WAP and interactive TV banking services.

• Vertex has announced a seven-year CRM outsourcing contract valued at $506 million with Eastern Energy in the UK. Services provided include customer base management, contact management, including Web-based self-service, call center management and billing solutions.

CRM has reached a threshold in many industries  across Europe and continues to penetrate and transform many businesses deeply. The current economic climate is funneling pressure across the corporate landscape as many firms struggle to seek competitive differentiation. With the aid of new technology and business ethics, companies are embarking on new approaches to building loyalty with customers. These new technologies are evolving rapidly and shaping the future of many businesses.

Ishan Ranjan is VP, projects, CMIL.