Maruti Suzuki India Limited (Hindi: मारुति सुज़ूकी इंडिया लिमिटे ड) is a publicly listed

automaker in India. It is the largest automobile manufacturer in South Asia. Suzuki Motor
Corporation of Japan holds a majority stake in the company. It was the first company in India to
mass-produce and sell more than a million cars. It is largely credited for having brought in an
automobile revolution to India. It is the market leader in India and on 17 September 2007,
Maruti Udyog Limited was renamed Maruti Suzuki India Limited. The company's headquarters
are located in Delhi.

Contents
[hide]

 1 Profile
 2 Partner for the joint venture
 3 Joint venture related issues
 4 Industrial relations
 5 Services offered
o 5.1 Current sales of automobiles
 5.1.1 Manufactured locally
 5.1.2 Imported
o 5.2 Discontinued car models
o 5.3 Manufacturing facilities
 5.3.1 Gurgaon Manufacturing Facility
 5.3.2 Manesar Manufacturing Facility
o 5.4 Sales and service network
o 5.5 Maruti Insurance
o 5.6 Maruti Finance
o 5.7 Maruti TrueValue
o 5.8 N2N Fleet Management
o 5.9 Accessories
o 5.10 Maruti Driving School
 6 Issues and problems
 7 Exports
 8 See also
 9 References and notes
 10 External links

[edit] Profile
The old logo of Maruti Suzuki India Limited. Later the logo of Suzuki Motor Corp. was also
added to it

'To Munsiyari on a Maruti 800', Uttarakhand Himalayas

Maruti Suzuki plant in Gurgaon

Maruti Suzuki is one of India's leading automobile manufacturers and the market leader in the
car segment, both in terms of volume of vehicles sold and revenue earned. Until recently,
18.28% of the company was owned by the Indian government, and 54.2% by Suzuki of Japan.
The Indian government held an initial public offering of 25% of the company in June 2003. As
of 10 May 2007, Govt. of India sold its complete share to Indian financial institutions. With this,
Govt. of India no longer has stake in Maruti Udyog.

Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL) was established in February 1981, though the actual production
commenced in 1983 with the Maruti 800, based on the Suzuki Alto kei car which at the time was
the only modern car available in India, its' only competitors- the Hindustan Ambassador and
Premier Padmini were both around 25 years out of date at that point. Through 2004, Maruti
Suzuki has produced over 5 Million vehicles. Maruti Suzukis are sold in India and various
several other countries, depending upon export orders. Models similar to Maruti Suzukis (but not
manufactured by Maruti Udyog) are sold by Suzuki Motor Corporation and manufactured in
Pakistan and other South Asian countries.
The company annually exports more than 50,000 cars and has an extremely large domestic
market in India selling over 730,000 cars annually. Maruti 800, till 2004, was the India's largest
selling compact car ever since it was launched in 1983. More than a million units of this car have
been sold worldwide so far. Currently, Maruti Suzuki Alto tops the sales charts and Maruti
Suzuki Swift is the largest selling in A2 segment.

Due to the large number of Maruti 800s sold in the Indian market, the term "Maruti" is
commonly used to refer to this compact car model. Till recently the term "Maruti", in popular
Indian culture, in India Hindu's lord Hanuman is known as "maruti", was associated to the
Maruti 800 model.

Maruti Suzuki has been the leader of the Indian car market for over two decades.

Its manufacturing facilities are located at two facilities Gurgaon and Manesar south of Delhi.
Maruti Suzuki’s Gurgaon facility has an installed capacity of 350,000 units per annum. The
Manesar facilities, launched in February 2007 comprise a vehicle assembly plant with a capacity
of 100,000 units per year and a Diesel Engine plant with an annual capacity of 100,000 engines
and transmissions. Manesar and Gurgaon facilities have a combined capability to produce over
700,000 units annually.

More than half the cars sold in India are Maruti Suzuki cars. The company is a subsidiary of
Suzuki Motor Corporation, Japan, which owns 54.2 per cent of Maruti Suzuki. The rest is owned
by the public and financial institutions. It is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and National
Stock Exchange in India.

During 2007-08, Maruti Suzuki sold 764,842 cars, of which 53,024 were exported. In all, over
six million Maruti Suzuki cars are on Indian roads since the first car was rolled out on 14
December 1983.

Maruti Suzuki offers 15 models, Maruti 800, Alto, WagonR, Estilo, A-star, Ritz, Swift, Swift
DZire, SX4, Omni, Eeco, Gypsy, Grand Vitara. Swift, Swift DZire, A-star and SX4 are
manufactured in Manesar, Grand Vitara is imported from Japan as a completely built unit
(CBU), remaining all models are manufactured in Maruti Suzuki's Gurgaon Plant.

Suzuki Motor Corporation, the parent company, is a global leader in mini and compact cars for
three decades. Suzuki’s technical superiority lies in its ability to pack power and performance
into a compact, lightweight engine that is clean and fuel efficient.

Nearly 75,000 people are employed directly by Maruti Suzuki and its partners. It has been rated
first in customer satisfaction among all car makers in India from 1999 to 2009 by J D Power Asia
Pacific.[2]

Further information: Timeline of Maruti Suzuki

[edit] Partner for the joint venture

Pressure started mounting on Indira and Sanjay Gandhi to share the details of the progress on the
Maruti Project. Since country's resources were made available by mother to her son's pet project.
A delegation of Indian technocrats was assigned to hunt a collaborator for the project. Initial
rounds of discussion were held with the giants of the automobile industry in Japan including
Toyota, Nissan and Honda. Suzuki Motor Corporation was at that time a small player in the four
wheeler automobile sector and had major share in the two wheeler segment. Suzuki's bid was
considered negligible.

In the initial rounds of discussion the giants had their bosses present and in the later rounds
related to the technical discussions executives of these automobile giants were present. Osamu
Suzuki, Chairman and CEO of the company ensured that he was present in all the rounds of
discussion. Osamu in an article writes that it subtly massaged their (Indian delegation) egos and
also convinced them about the sincerity of Suzuki's bid. In the initial days Suzuki took all steps
to ensure the government about its sincerity on the project. Suzuki in return received a lot of help
from the government in such matters as import clearances for manufacturing equipment (against
the wishes of the Indian machine tool industry then and its own socialistic ideology), land
purchase at government prices for setting up the factory Gurgaon and reduced or removal of
excise tariffs. This helped Suzuki conscientiously nurse Maruti Suzuki through its infancy to
become one of its flagship ventures.[3]

[edit] Joint venture related issues

Maruti Suzuki's A-Star vehicle during its unveiling in Pragati Maidan, Delhi. A-Star, Suzuki's
fifth global car model, was designed and is made only in India. [4] Besides being Suzuki's largest
subsidiary in terms of car sales, Maruti Suzuki is also Suzuki's leading research and development
arm outside Japan

Relationship between the Government of India, under the United Front (India) coalition and
Suzuki Motor Corporation over the joint venture was a point of heated debate in the Indian
media till Suzuki Motor Corporation gained the controlling stake. This highly profitable joint
venture that had a near monopolistic trade in the Indian automobile market and the nature of the
partnership built up till then was the underlying reason for most issues. The success of the joint
venture led Suzuki to increase its equity from 26% to 40% in 1987, and further to 50% in 1992.
In 1982 both the venture partners had entered into an agreement to nominate their candidate for
the post of Managing Director and every Managing Director will have a tenure of five years[5]
Initially R.C.Bhargava, was the managing director of the company since the inception of the
joint venture. Till today he is regarded as instrumental for the success of Maruti Suzuki. Joining
in 1982 he held several key positions in the company before heading the company as Managing
Director. Currently he is on the Board of Directors. [6] After completing his five year tenure, Mr.
Bhargava later assumed the office of Part-Time Chairman. The Government nominated Mr.
S.S.L.N. Bhaskarudu as the Managing Director on 27 August 1997. Mr. Bhaskarudu had joined
Maruti Suzuki in 1983 after spending 21 years in the Public sector undertaking Bharat Heavy
Electricals Limited as General Manager. Later in 1987 he was promoted as Chief General
Manager, 1988 as Director, Productions and Projects, 1989 Director, Materials and in 1993 as
Joint Managing Director.

Suzuki Motor Corporation didn't attend the Annual General Meeting of the Board with the
reason of it being called on a short notice. [7] Later Suzuki Motor Corporation went on record to
state that Mr. Bhaskarudu was "incompetent" and wanted someone else. However, the Ministry
of Industries, Government of India refuted the charges. Media stated from the Maruti Suzuki
sources that Bhaskarudu was interested to indigenise most of components for the models
including gear boxes especially for Maruti 800. Suzuki also felt that Bhaskarudu was a proxy for
the Government and would not let it increase its stake in the venture. [8] If Maruti Suzuki would
have been able to indigenise gear boxes then Maruti Suzuki would have been able to
manufacture all the models without the technical assistance from Suzuki. Till today the issue of
localization of gear boxes is highlighted in the press.[9]

The relation strained when Suzuki Motor Corporation moved to Delhi High Court to bring a stay
order against the appointment of Mr. Bhaskarudu. The issue was resolved in an out-of-court
settlement and both the parties agreed that R S S L N Bhaskarudu would serve up to 31
December 1999, and from 1 January 2000, Jagdish Khattar, Executive Director of Maruti Udyog
Limited would assume charges as the Managing Director. [10] Many politicians believed, and had
stated in parliament that the Suzuki Motor Corporation is unwilling to localize manufacturing
and reduce imports. This remains true, even today the gear boxes are still imported from Japan
and are assembled at the Gurgaon facility.

[edit] Industrial relations

For most of its history, Maruti Udyog Limited had relatively few problems with its labour force.
Its emphasis of a Japanese work culture and the modern manufacturing process, first instituted in
Japan in the 1970s, was accepted by the workforce of the company without any difficulty. But
with the change in management in 1997, when it became predominantly government controlled
for a while, and the conflict between the United Front Government and Suzuki may have been
the cause of unrest among employees. A major row broke out in September 2000 when
employees of Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL) went on an indefinite strike, demanding among other
things, revision of the incentive scheme offered and implementation of a pension scheme.
Employees struck work for six hours in October 2000, irked over the suspension of nine
employees, going on a six-hour tools-down strike at its Gurgaon plant, demanding revision of the
incentive-linked pay and threatened to fast to death if the suspended employees were not
reinstated. About this time, the NDA government, following a disinvestments policy, proposed to
sell part of its stake in Maruti Suzuki in a public offering. The Staff union opposed this sell-off
plan on the grounds that the company will lose a major business advantage of being subsidised
by the Government.

The standoff with the management continued to December with a proposal by the management
to end the two-month long agitation rejected with a demand for reinstatement of 92 dismissed
workers, with four MUL employees going on a fast-unto-death. In December the company's
shareholders met in New Delhi in an AGM that lasted 30 minutes. At the same time around 1500
plant workers from the MUL's Gurgaon facility were agitating outside the company's corporate
office demanding commencement of production linked incentives, a better pension scheme and
other benefits. The management has refused to pass on the benefits citing increased competition
and lower margins.[11]

[edit] Services offered

[edit] Current sales of automobiles

File:Bfdac92ee34997e83055e524257cc722.jpg
Maruti 800

Maruti Omni

India's Corps of Military Police personnel patrolling the Wagah border crossing in the Punjab in
a Maruti Gypsy.
Maruti Alto

Maruti Suzuki Swift

Maruti Suzuki Zen

Suzuki SX4
5th Generation Suzuki Alto is sold as Maruti Suzuki A-Star in India.

Maruti Suzuki Swift DZire

Suzuki Splash is sold as Maruti Suzuki Ritz in India.

[edit] Manufactured locally

1. 800 (Launched 1983)

2. Omni (Launched 1984)
3. Gypsy (Launched 1985)
4. WagonR (Launched 2000)
5. Alto (Launched 2000)
6. Swift (Launched 2005)
7. Estilo (Launched 2009)
8. SX4 (Launched 2007)
9. Swift DZire (Launched 2008)
10. A-star (Launched 2008)
11. Ritz (Launched 2009)
12. Eeco (Launched 2010)
[edit] Imported

Suzuki Grand Vitara

1. Grand Vitara (Launched 2007)

[edit] Discontinued car models

Maruti Zen

Maruti Baleno

The recently discontinued Maruti Suzuki Versa.

Suzuki XL7 was sold as Suzuki Grand Vitara XL7

1. 1000 (1990–1994)
2. Zen (1993–2006)
3. Esteem (1994–2008)
4. Baleno (1999–2007)
5. Zen Estilo (2006-2009)
6. Versa (2001–2010)
7. Grand Vitara XL7 (2003–2007)
*Source

[edit] Manufacturing facilities

Maruti Suzuki has two state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in India. [12] Both manufacturing
facilities have a combined production capacity of 1,000,000 vehicles annually.

[edit] Gurgaon Manufacturing Facility

The Gurgaon Manufacturing Facility has three fully integrated manufacturing plants and is
spread over 300 acres. All three plants have an installed capacity of 350,000 vehicles annually
but productivity improvements have enabled it to manufacture 700,000 vehicles annually. The
Gurgaon facilities also manufacture 240,000 K-Series engines annually. The entire facility is
equipped with more than 150 robots, out of which 71 have been developed in-house. The
Gurgaon Facilities manufactures the 800, Alto, WagonR, Estilo, Omni , Gypsy, Swift and Eeco.

[edit] Manesar Manufacturing Facility

The Manesar Manufacturing Plant was inaugurated in February 2007 and is spread over 600
acres. Initially it had a production capacity of 100,000 vehicles annually but this was increased to
300,000 vehicles annually in October 2008. The Manesar Plant produces the A-star, Swift, Swift
DZire and SX4.

[edit] Sales and service network

Maruti Suzuki is one of the companies in India which has unparalleled sales and service network.
As of June 2010 it currently has 800-plus dealerships across more than 500 cities in India. It
plans to expand total number of dealerships to 1,000 [13]. To ensure the vehicles sold by them are
serviced properly, Maruti Suzuki has 800-plus dealer workshops, 1,945 Maruti Authorized
Service Stations and 30 Express Service Stations on 30 National Highways across 1,314 cities in
India.

Service is a major revenue generator of the company. Most of the service stations are managed
on franchise basis, where Maruti Suzuki trains the local staff. Other automobile companies have
not been able to match this benchmark set by Maruti Suzuki. The Express Service stations help
many stranded vehicles on the highways by sending across their repair man to the vehicle.[14]

[edit] Maruti Insurance

Launched in 2002 Maruti Suzuki provides vehicle insurance to its customers with the help of the
National Insurance Company, Bajaj Allianz, New India Assurance and Royal Sundaram. The
service was set up the company with the inception of two subsidiaries Maruti Insurance
Distributors Services Pvt. Ltd and Maruti Insurance Brokers Pvt. Limited[15]

This service started as a benefit or value addition to customers and was able to ramp up easily.
By December 2005 they were able to sell more than two million insurance policies since its
inception.[16]

[edit] Maruti Finance

To promote its bottom line growth, Maruti Suzuki launched Maruti Finance in January 2002.
Prior to the start of this service Maruti Suzuki had started two joint ventures Citicorp Maruti and
Maruti Countrywide with Citi Group and GE Countrywide respectively to assist its client in
securing loan.[17] Maruti Suzuki tied up with ABN Amro Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Limited,
Kotak Mahindra, Standard Chartered Bank, and Sundaram to start this venture including its
strategic partners in car finance. Again the company entered into a strategic partnership with SBI
in March 2003[18] Since March 2003, Maruti has sold over 12,000 vehicles through SBI-Maruti
Finance. SBI-Maruti Finance is currently available in 166 cities across India.[19]

"Maruti Finance marks the coming together of the biggest players in the car finance business.
They are the benchmarks in quality and efficiency. Combined with Maruti volumes and
networked dealerships, this will enable Maruti Finance to offer superior service and competitive
rates in the marketplace".

— Jagdish Khattar, Managing director of Maruti Udyog Limited in a press conference

announcing the launch of Maruti Finance on 7 January 2002[17]

Citicorp Maruti Finance Limited is a joint venture between Citicorp Finance India and Maruti
Udyog Limited its primary business stated by the company is "hire-purchase financing of Maruti
Suzuki vehicles". Citi Finance India Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Citibank Overseas
Investment Corporation, Delaware, which in turn is a 100% wholly owned subsidiary of Citibank
N.A. Citi Finance India Limited holds 74% of the stake and Maruti Suzuki holds the remaining
26%.[20] GE Capital, HDFC and Maruti Suzuki came together in 1995 to form Maruti
Countrywide.[21] Maruti claims that its finance program offers most competitive interest rates to
its customers, which are lower by 0.25% to 0.5% from the market rates.maruti is the best car in
the world

[edit] Maruti TrueValue

Main Article: Maruti True Value

Maruti True service offered by Maruti Suzuki to its customers. It is a market place for used
Maruti Suzuki Vehicles. One can buy, sell or exchange used Maruti Suzuki vehicles with the
help of this service in India. As of 2009 there are 315 Maruti True Value outlets.[22]

[edit] N2N Fleet Management

N2N is the short form of End to End Fleet Management and provides lease and fleet
management solution to corporates. Its impressive list of clients who have signed up of this
service include Gas Authority of India Ltd, DuPont, Reckitt Benckiser, Sona Steering,
Doordarshan, Singer India, National Stock Exchange and Transworld. This fleet management
service include end-to-end solutions across the vehicle's life, which includes Leasing,
Maintenance, Convenience services and Remarketing.[23]

[edit] Accessories

Many of the auto component companies other than Maruti Suzuki started to offer components
and accessories that were compatible. This caused a serious threat and loss of revenue to Maruti
Suzuki. Maruti Suzuki started a new initiative under the brand name Maruti Genuine
Accessories to offer accessories like alloy wheels, body cover, carpets, door visors, fog lamps,
stereo systems, seat covers and other car care products. These products are sold through dealer
outlets and authorized service stations throughout India.[24]

[edit] Maruti Driving School

A Maruti Driving School in Chennai

As part of its corporate social responsibility Maruti Suzuki launched the Maruti Driving School
in Delhi. Later the services were extended to other cities of India as well. These schools are
modelled on international standards, where learners go through classroom and practical sessions.
Many international practices like road behaviour and attitudes are also taught in these schools.
Before driving actual vehicles participants are trained on simulators.[25]

"We are very concerned about mounting deaths on Indian roads. These can be brought down if
government, industry and the voluntary sector work together in an integrated manner. But we felt
that Maruti should first do something in this regard and hence this initiative of Maruti Driving
Schools."

— Jagdish Khattar, at the launch ceremony of Maruti Driving School, Bangalore

[edit] Issues and problems

On February, 24, 2010, Maruti Suzuki India, announced recalling of 100,000 A-Star hatchbacks
to fix a fuel leakage problem. the company will replace the gaskets for all 100,000 A-Star cars.[26]

[edit] Exports

Maruti Suzuki has two state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in India. The first facility is at Gurgaon
spread over 300 acres and the other facility is at Manesar, spread over 600 acres in North India.          
The Gurgaon facility           Maruti Suzuki's facility in Gurgoan houses three fully integrated plants. While
the three plants have a total installed capacity of 350,000 cars per year, several productivity
improvements or shop floor Kaizens over the years have enabled the company to manufacture nearly
700,000 cars/ annum at the Gurgaon facilities.

The entire facility is equipped with more than 150 robots, out of which 71 have been developed in-
house. More than 50 per cent of our shop floor employees have been trained in Japan.

Our Gurgaon facility also houses `K' Engine plant.

       The `K' family engine plant has an installed annual capacity of 240,000
engines and was commissioned in 2008.

Spread over an area of 20,300 m2, the `K' family engine facility is part of the Rs 9,000 crore investment
plan drawn by Maruti Suzuki and Suzuki Motor Corporation.

The next generation `K'engine like all Maruti Suzuki earlier technologies is highly fuel efficient, while
offering the best in refinement and performance.

It will take the engine technology to the next level in India. A-Star is the first car to be powered by `K'
family engine. The forthcoming models will be powered by other `K' family engines.  

   
The in-line plant layout consisting of Casting, Machining and Assembly processes has high level of
automation, effective material handling and inventory reduction techniques in place, aimed for high
operational efficiency.

The facility employs global manufacturing best practices like cold testing, 100% on line automated
checks to ensure global quality.           The Manesar facility           Our Manesar facility has been made to
suit Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) and Maruti Suzuki India Limited's (MSIL) global ambitions.

The plant was inaugurated in February 2007.

At present the plant rolls out World Strategic Models Swift , A-star & SX4 and DZire.The plant has several
in-built systems and mechanisms.

There is a high degree of automation and robotic control in the press shop, weld shop and paint shop to
carry on manufacturing work with acute precision and high quality.
The plant is designed to be flexible: diverse car models can be made here
conveniently owing to       automatic tool changers, centralized weld control
system and numerical control machines that ensure high quality.           The
plant at Manesar is the company's fourth car assembly plant and started with
an initial capacity of 100,000 cars per year. This will be scaled up to 300,000
cars per year by October 2008.           Diesel Engine Plant- Suzuki Powertrain

India Limited           Suzuki

Powertrain India Limited the diesel engine plant at Manesar is SMC's & Maruti's first and perhaps the
only plant designed to produce world class diesel engine and transmissions for cars.
The plant is under a joint venture company, called Suzuki Powertrain India Limited (SPIL) in which SMC
holds 70 per cent equity the rest is held by MSIL.

This facility has an initial capacity to manufacture 100,000 diesel engines a year. This will be scaled up to
300,000 engines/annum by 2010.

Customer relationship management

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

This article is written like a personal reflection or essay and may require cleanup. Please help
improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style. (September 2009)

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a broadly recognized, widely-implemented

strategy for managing and nurturing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales
prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business
processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing, customer service, and
technical support. The overall goals are to find, attract, and win new clients, nurture and retain
those the company already has, entice former clients back into the fold, and reduce the costs of
marketing and client service. [1] CRM denotes a company-wide business strategy embracing all
client-facing departments and even beyond. When an implementation is effective, people,
processes, and technology work in synergy to increase profitability, and reduce operational costs.
[2]
It is important to emphasize that CRM is a specialty within marketing, and to implement CRM
in a company, you can use tools as CRM systems, mailers, databases etc. CRM is commonly
misunderstood, thinking it is an IT system.

Contents
[hide]

 1 Benefits
 2 Related Trends
 3 Challenges
 4 Types/variations
o 4.1 Sales force automation
o 4.2 Marketing
o 4.3 Customer Service and Support
o 4.4 Analytics
o 4.5 Integrated/Collaborative
o 4.6 Small Business
o 4.7 Social Media
o 4.8 Non-profit and Membership-based
 5 Strategy
 6 Implementation
o 6.1 Implementation Issues
o 6.2 Adoption Issues
 7 Privacy and data security system
 8 Market structures
 9 See also
 10 Notes and references
[edit] Benefits

These tools have been shown to help companies attain these objectives:

 Streamlined sales and marketing processes

 Higher sales productivity
 Added cross-selling and up-selling
 Improved service, loyalty, and retention
 Increased call center efficiency
 Higher close rates
 Better profiling and targeting
 Reduced expenses
 Increased market share
 Higher overall profitability
 Marginal costing

[edit] Related Trends

What trends are affecting CRM tools? Perhaps the most notable trend has been the growth of
tools delivered via the Web, also known as cloud computing and software as a service (SaaS). In
contrast with traditional on-premises software, cloud-computing applications are sold by
subscription, accessed via a secure Internet connection, and displayed on a Web browser.
Companies don’t incur the initial capital expense of purchasing software; nor must they buy and
maintain IT hardware to run it on.

[edit] Challenges

Despite the benefits, many companies are still not fully leveraging these tools and services to
align marketing, sales, and service to best serve the enterprise.[3]

Tools and workflows can be complex to implement, especially for large enterprises. Previously
these tools were generally limited to contact management: monitoring and recording interactions
and communications. Software solutions then expanded to embrace deal tracking, territories,
opportunities, and at the sales pipeline itself. Next came the advent of tools for other client-
facing business functions, as described below. These technologies have been, and still are,
offered as on-premises software that companies purchase and run on their own IT infrastructure.

Often, implementations are fragmented; isolated initiatives by individual departments to address

their own needs. Systems that start disunited usually stay that way: siloed thinking and decision
processes frequently lead to separate and incompatible systems, and dysfunctional processes.

[edit] Types/variations
[edit] Sales force automation
The sales force automation (SFA) system provides an array of capabilities to streamline all
phases of the sales process, minimizing the time that sales representatives need to spend on
manual data entry and administration. This allows them to successfully pursue more clients in a
shorter amount of time than would otherwise be possible. At the heart of SFA is a Contact
management system for tracking and recording every stage in the sales process for each
prospective client, from initial contact to final disposition. Many SFA applications also include
insights into opportunities, territories, sales forecasts and workflow automation, quote
generation, and product knowledge. Newly-emerged priorities are modules for Web 2.0 e-
commerce and pricing.[1]

[edit] Marketing

Systems for marketing (also known as marketing automation) help the enterprise identify and
target its best clients and generate qualified leads for the sales team. A key marketing capability
is tracking and measuring multichannel campaigns, including email, search, social media, and
direct mail. Metrics monitored include clicks, responses, leads, deals, and revenue.

[edit] Customer Service and Support

Recognizing that service is an important differentiator, organizations are increasingly turning to

technology platforms to help them improve their clients’ experience while aiming to increase
efficiency and minimize costs.[4] Even so, a 2009 study revealed that only 39% of corporate
executives believe their employees have the right tools and authority to solve client problems.“.[5]
The core for these applications has been and still is comprehensive call center solutions,
including such features as intelligent call routing, computer telephone integration (CTI), and
escalation capabilities.

[edit] Analytics

Relevant analytics capabilities are often interwoven into applications for sales, marketing, and
service. These features can be complemented and augmented with links to separate, purpose-
built applications for analytics and business intelligence. Sales analytics let companies monitor
and understand client actions and preferences, through sales forecasting, data quality, and
dashboards that graphically display

Marketing applications generally come with predictive analytics to improve segmentation and
targeting, and features for measuring the effectiveness of online, offline, and search marketing
campaign. Web analytics have evolved significantly from their starting point of merely tracking
mouse clicks on Web sites. By evaluating “buy signals,” marketers can see which prospects are
most likely to transact and also identify those who are bogged down in a sales process and need
assistance. Marketing and finance personnel also use analytics to assess the value of multi-
faceted programs as a whole.

These types of analytics are increasing in popularity as companies demand greater visibility into
the performance of call centers and other support channels,[4] in order to correct problems before
they affect satisfaction levels. Support-focused applications typically include dashboards similar
to those for sales, plus capabilities to measure and analyze response times, service quality, agent
performance, and the frequency of various issues.

[edit] Integrated/Collaborative

Departments within enterprises—especially large enterprises—tend to function in their own little

worlds.[6] Traditionally, inter-departmental interaction and collaboration have been infrequent
and rivalries not uncommon. More recently, the development and adoption of the tools and
services has fostered greater fluidity and cooperation among sales, service, and marketing. This
finds expression in the concept of collaborative systems which uses technology to build bridges
between departments.

For example, feedback from a technical support center can enlighten marketers about specific
services and product features clients are asking for. Reps, in their turn, want to be able to pursue
these opportunities without the time-wasting burden of re-entering records and contact data into
a separate SFA system. Conversely, lack of integration can have negative consequences: system
isn’t adopted and integrated among all departments, several sources might contact the same
clients for an identical purpose.[citation needed] Owing to these factors, many of the top-rated and most
popular products come as integrated suites.

[edit] Small Business

Basic client service can be accomplished by a contact manager system, an integrated solution
that lets organizations and individuals efficiently track and record interactions, including emails,
documents, jobs, faxes, scheduling, and more. This kind of solution is gaining traction with even
very small businesses, thanks to the ease and time savings of handling client contact through a
centralized application rather than several different pieces of software, each with its own data
collection system. [citation needed] In contrast these tools usually focus on accounts rather than
individual contacts. They also generally include opportunity insight for tracking sales pipelines
plus added functionality for marketing and service. As with larger enterprises, small businesses
are finding value in online solutions, especially for mobile and telecommuting workers.

[edit] Social Media

Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook are greatly amplifying the voice of people in the
marketplace and are predicted to have profound and far-reaching effects on the ways companies
manage their clients.[7] This is because people are using these social media sites to share opinions
and experiences on companies, products, and services. As social media isn’t moderated or
censored, individuals can say anything they want about a company or brand, whether pro or con.

Increasingly, companies are looking to gain access to these conversations and take part in the
dialogue. More than a few systems are now integrating to social networking sites. Social media
promoters cite a number of business advantages, such as using online communities as a source of
high-quality leads and a vehicle for crowd sourcing solutions to client-support problems.
Companies can also leverage client stated habits and preferences to personalize and even “hyper-
target” their sales and marketing communications.[7]
Some analysts take the view that business-to-business marketers should proceed cautiously when
weaving social media into their business processes. These observers recommend careful market
research to determine if and where the phenomenon can provide measurable benefits for client
interactions, sales, and support.[8]

[edit] Non-profit and Membership-based

Systems for non-profit and membership-based organizations help track constituents and their
involvement in the organization. Capabilities typically include tracking the following: fund-
raising, demographics, membership levels, membership directories, volunteering and
communications with individuals.

Many include tools for identifying potential donors based on previous donations and
participation. In light of the growth of social networking tools, there may be some overlap
between social/community driven tools and non-profit/membership tools.

[edit] Strategy
Choosing and implementing a system is a major undertaking. For enterprises of any appreciable
size, a complete and detailed plan is required to obtain the funding, resources, and company-
wide support that can make the initiative successful. Benefits must be defined, risks assessed,
and cost quantified in three general areas:

 Processes: Though these systems have many technological components, business processes lie
at its core. It can be seen as a more client-centric way of doing business, enabled by technology
that consolidates and intelligently distributes pertinent information about clients, sales,
marketing effectiveness, responsiveness, and market trends. Therefore, before choosing a
technology platform, a company needs to analyze its business workflows and processes; some
will likely need re-engineering to better serve the overall goal of winning and satisfying clients.
Moreover, planners need to determine the types of client information that are most relevant,
and how best to employ them.[2]

 People: For an initiative to be effective, an organization must convince its staff that change is
good and that the new technology and workflows will benefit employees as well as clients.
Senior executives need to be strong and visible advocates who can clearly state and support the
case for change. Collaboration, teamwork, and two-way communication should be encouraged
across hierarchical boundaries, especially with respect to process improvement. [9]

 Technology: In evaluating technology, key factors include alignment with the company’s
business process strategy and goals; the ability to deliver the right data to the right employees;
and sufficient ease of use that users won’t balk. Platform selection is best undertaken by a
carefully chosen group of executives who understand the business processes to be automated
as well as the various software issues. Depending upon the size of the company and the breadth
of data, choosing an application can take anywhere from a few weeks to a year or more. [2]

[edit] Implementation
[edit] Implementation Issues

Dramatic increases in revenue, higher rates of client satisfaction, and significant savings in
operating costs are some of the benefits to an enterprise. Proponents emphasize that technology
should be implemented only in the context of careful strategic and operational planning.[10]
Implementations almost invariably fall short when one or more facets of this prescription are
ignored:

 Poor planning: Initiatives can easily fail when efforts are limited to choosing and deploying
software, without an accompanying rationale, context, and support for the workforce. [11] In
other instances, enterprises simply automate flawed client-facing processes rather than
redesign them according to best practices. [3]

 Poor integration: For many companies, integrations are piecemeal initiatives that address a
glaring need: improving a particular client-facing process or two or automating a favored sales
or client support channel.[3] Such “point solutions” offer little or no integration or alignment with
a company’s overall strategy. They offer a less than complete client view and often lead to
unsatisfactory user experiences.[3]

 Toward a solution: overcoming siloed thinking. Experts advise organizations to recognize the
immense value of integrating their client-facing operations. In this view, internally-focused,
department-centric views should be discarded in favor of reorienting processes toward
information-sharing across marketing, sales, and service. [3] For example, sales representatives
need to know about current issues and relevant marketing promotions before attempting to
cross-sell to a specific client. Marketing staff should be able to leverage client information from
sales and service to better target campaigns and offers. And support agents require quick and
complete access to a client’s sales and service history. [3]

[edit] Adoption Issues

Historically, the landscape is littered with instances of low adoption rates. In 2003, a Gartner
report estimated that more than $1 billion had been spent on software that wasn’t being used.
More recent research indicates that the problem, while perhaps less severe, is a long way from
being solved. According to CSO Insights, less than 40 percent of 1,275 participating companies
had end-user adoption rates above 90 percent.[12]

In a 2007 survey from the U.K., four-fifths of senior executives reported that their biggest
challenge is getting their staff to use the systems they’d installed. Further, 43 percent of
respondents said they use less than half the functionality of their existing system; 72 percent
indicated they’d trade functionality for ease of use; 51 percent cited data synchronization as a
major issue; and 67 percent said that finding time to evaluate systems was a major problem. [13]
With expenditures expected to exceed $11 billion in 2010,[13] enterprises need to address and
overcome persistent adoption challenges. Specialists offer these recommendations[12]for boosting
adoptions rates and coaxing users to blend these tools into their daily workflow:
  Choose a system that’s easy to use: All solutions are not created equal. Some vendors offer
more user-friendly applications than others, and simplicity should be as important a decision
factor as functionality.

 Choose the right capabilities: Employees need to know that time invested in learning and usage
will yield personal advantages. If not, they will work around or ignore the system.

 Provide training: Changing the way people work is no small task, and help is usually a
requirement. Even with today’s more usable systems, many staffers still need assistance with
learning and adoption

[edit] Privacy and data security system

One of the primary functions of these tools is to collect information about clients, thus a
company must consider the desire for privacy and data security, as well as the legislative and
cultural norms. Some clients prefer assurances that their data will not be shared with third parties
without their prior consent and that safeguards are in place to prevent illegal access by third
parties.

[edit] Market structures

This market grew by 12.5 percent in 2008, from revenue of $8.13 billion in 2007 to $9.15 billion
in 2008.[14] The following table lists the top vendors in 2006-2008 (figures in millions of US
dollars) published in Gartner studies.[15][16]

2008 Revenue 2008 Share 2007 Revenue 2007 Share 2006 Revenue 2006 Share
Vendor
(%) (%) (%)

SAP 2,055 22.5 2,050.8 25.3 1,681.7 26.6

Oracle 1,475 16.1 1,319.8 16.3 1,016.8 15.5

Salesforce.com 965 10.6 676.5 8.3 451.7 6.9

Microsoft 581 6.4 332.1 4.1 176.1 2.7

Amdocs 451 4.9 421.0 5.2 365.9 5.6

Others 3,620 39.6 3,289.1 40.6 2,881.6 43.7

Total 9,147 100 8,089.3 100 6,573.8 100