We're all ears

Customer relationship management software has helped dealers to tune into customer demands. But with some firms doubting its effectiveness, how easy is it to sell? Dave Evans investigates.

Pushing water uphill is a skill familiar to most dealers given the task of making a profit amid cut-throat pricing, and where corporate customers regard them as a cog in the machine. But how does this sound for a proposition?

Instead of the boardroom door slamming shut in their faces, clients invite them in, all smiles, and are near falling over themselves to sign that contract?

Sweet dreams, as they say, are made of this. Yet talk to some people about the market for customer relationship management (CRM), and this is not too far off the mark. Whether as bolt-on applications to enterprise-wide suites, discrete sales force automation program, or a standalone piece of customer boosting software, CRM is all the rage.

Moreover, it seems that boardrooms can't get enough of this technological seducer, drawn by the promise that it will add to their bottom line like never before.

Steve Hughes, managing director of Point, a leading CRM vendor, says: "The return can be 10 per cent or a hundred-fold in just a year. It's stunning - and it's also the best piece of oil I've ever had to open a boardroom door."

Others might counter that the lubricant in question is little more than snake oil, promising more than it can deliver with little evidence to verify the more outlandish claims about how it can boost profit.

Analysts Ovum recently underlined this with a report warning that CRM could drive away customers if the wrong tool is chosen or its implementation botched. Report author Cassandra Millhouse says: "Very few companies have implemented CRM software successfully or can show a measured return on investment."

All the same, there's no denying CRM's meteoric growth. Indeed, by next year its predicted sales will top $3.5bn, representing a phenomenal growth rate of 54 per cent per year. Martin Brampton, analyst at Bloor Research, argues that the enthusiasm for CRM reflects a shift in boardroom perceptions about what IT could, and should, achieve.

"For a long time the bias was towards production and firms were very hung up on the leading ERP brands. But what companies now realise is that customer relationships are their greatest asset and that it is more important than focusing on any single technology. If CRM is done well, it can transform the company quite dramatically," he says.

The next few years, Brampton predicts, should also see a consolidation of the main CRM players in which speed of implementation is likely to be a key differentiator - a factor that could well play into the hands of dealers, providing they possess the right integration skills.

Vars doubling up as business partners to mainstream IT companies should do well too, given how the latter are rushing to climb aboard the CRM bandwagon. IBM, for instance, is tackling the market with its Core Point company - the fruits of its acquisition of Software Artistry - which should allow it to get ahead if only because of its big customer base.

Not to be outdone, Compaq has similarly clinched a two-year deal with Nobert Technologies. It will provide both distribution and integration back-up for Nobert's CorWorks software as part of Compaq's own CRM package.

Similarly, most of the top five ERP vendors are busy adding CRM modules to their own suites in a move which, once again, could provide useful pickings for partners. But just how easy is it for humdrum dealers to get a piece of the CRM action? The short answer appears to be if they only sell tin, and know little about integration, they should look elsewhere.

Brampton says: "For CRM to work, you have to have people who understand business issues, and speed of implementation is critical. Typically, CRM guys will complete a project in five months or less."

So just who are CRM customers, and why are they so keen?

According to Paul Phillips, director of European operations at consultancy Urban Science International, customers can be divided into two sets. The first tend to ask for proven CRM systems with demonstrable return on investment. The second, usually working at the behest of a board director, are convinced that CRM technology can be a differentiating factor between success and failure.

Phillips says: "These two types of purchaser are quite different. Very often the second type makes the mistake of not setting stringent short term return on investment goals to ensure the project, or parts of it, are self-financing after a relatively short period of time. Then, in times of pressure, the project might be terminated."

He adds: "The irony is that there is little rigorous cost-benefit analysis information available as CRM technology is so young. It has been promoted as the holy grail of marketing, but it is also in danger of being over-hyped."

Even so, research by Professor Adrian Payne of the Cranfield School of Management, shows that a five per cent increase in customer retention yields a corresponding increase in profit - a profit that can be anything from 20 per cent to as much as 125 per cent. With figures like these, it's little wonder that boardrooms have undergone a damascene conversion to IT, seeing its potential to improve the bottom line not drain it.

That said, defining CRM can be something of a will-o'-the-wisp quest, given it can underpin everything from call centres and websites, through to software that links mobile reps with the office, or programs that manage appointments.

As with ERP, CRM software can consist of numerous modules in which the main objective is to funnel all customer data - no matter where or how it arrives - into a single system so that can be analysed, maintained and acted on.

But CRM has to be integrated with existing, legacy databases. Often, where there is no single database, virtual data structures or warehouses are set up, providing a single view while interacting with many diverse databases scattered across multiple locations. Data engineering is similarly brought to play - providing the methodology to structure data sets for optimum commercial benefit, ensuring efficient capture, cleansing and formatting of information.

Data mining is yet another weapon in the CRM armoury, helping to dig out statistics and other customer intelligence in a meaningful way, perhaps using neural nets or sophisticated algorithms to model the likely outcome of a sales campaign or to uncover hidden spending patterns.

Next are the high-level reporting tools, provided by companies such as Cognos, Business Objects and SAS Institute, so that even IT-challenged management can investigate data relationships - slicing and dicing corporate figures.

But all this not only requires integration before the CRM software can reside on top, it also demands that hardware and software are configured so that they are commercially efficient. That, in turn, means a deep understanding of the company's business goals.

But Phillips, says: "This is also one of CRM's shortcomings because there is very little expertise around. Integrators don't tend to understand both the technical and business concepts. They might be skilled in hardware or certain programs, but all too often they have scant commercial vision."

All of which might explain the huge success of Siebel, set up by former Oracle salesman, Tom Siebel, and which today boasts a massive 60 per cent of the CRM market, in fact, as much as the next three vendors put together.

Phill Robinson, senior director of European marketing at Siebel, describes the company quite simply as a "$500m runaway business" and "the fastest growing software application company in history".

Although Siebel's roots were in sales force automation, it has since spread to include software that drives everything from marketing and customer service functions through to call centre and third-party channel integration.

Moreover, says Robinson, the market for CRM products is growing at four times the rate that the ERP market ever grew.

And, as with the ERP market, the more successful CRM vendors are now starting to buyout smaller rivals - Siebel itself having acquired its main customer care rival Scopus in March last year.

"As any market matures there is always a shake-out, with those firms that aren't viable going to the wall or being eaten by bigger fish. That is happening with CRM now," says Robinson.

Not surprisingly, he also enthuses about the business case for customer relationship software. "It's all about increasing revenue and profit. A 15 per cent increase in sales effectiveness through CRM translates to a 60 per cent increase in profit.

In some instances customers are getting returns on investment in 90 days," he says.

Such is the success of Siebel that even Microsoft is implementing its software at its Seattle headquarters in an 18 month project. Once installed, the software will support all Microsoft's sales activities, not to mention an initial army of 7,000 sales reps and consultants who work with channel partners.

Over at another leading CRM player, Saratoga, UK managing director Alastair Bremner admits that while integration with key services such as call centres is vital, there is also a dangerous tendency towards overkill in terms of the software's functionality.

He says: "Some of the emerging stars are trying to build absolutely everything into their products, including the kitchen sink. It's also responsible for some of the software's failings."

But away from the top players - Siebel, Vantive, Saratoga and Clarify - there are countless small software houses whose products, while not all singing, all dancing, are better suited to smaller firms wanting to improve customer orchestration. And it's here that the smaller integrators can participate in the CRM gold rush, learning the technology as they earn.

Now Distribution runs a network of 120 UK dealers and Vars, focusing on CRM customers. Its Commence 2000 software - running on Windows NT, Windows 95 and Windows 98 - works out at about £300 a seat, cheaper than rival products, with basic implementation achievable in half a day.

An ODBC synchronisation engine also allows it to be integrated with most ERP packages or any SQL-compliant back-end database, while Microsoft's Outlook application is similarly supported - allowing the swapping of address book and diary data.

But Brian Jackson, managing director of Now, readily admits that the product is not suitable for scaling more than 500 users on a single server, although 300 are easily accommodated. Otherwise, he says, most dealers have little trouble installing it, although he does admit integration with a customer's back-end database can prove a bit difficult for dealers without programming skills.

"It's intended as an out-of-the-box application, and we've got some dealers who either just sell it alone or team up with a Var to do the consultancy at a typical 25 per cent cut," Jackson says.

Integrating with call centres could be tricky for the less technically seasoned dealers, he adds, although nothing that a few visual basic skills wouldn't put right.

And although Now's Commence 2000 software has only been in the market a short while, has it been any good for business?

"The market is huge - you wouldn't believe it. The trouble is, when one of our Vars sells the product we don't see it for three months, it disappears off the map.

"It's because once you've sold a CRM package, you invariably get the implementation and customisation work that goes with it - sometimes that can be worth between five and seven times the cost of the software," Jackson adds.

As they frequently say in CRM circles, keep those punters coming.