Situation

P.H.Teknow, one of the best companies in providing Information Technology services to its clients, offers integrated business solutions addressing issues from financial control, sales force productivity, marketing effectiveness, customer service, management information to operational efficiency. It aims to become the leader in IT solution providers with superior analytical skills and know-how of products supplied and supported by industry giants like Microsoft and Adobe. With an employee strength of 20, the annual turnover of the company for financial year 2009-20010 was U.S.$ 6.0 million.

Until recently, P.H.Teknow maintained sales and customer information in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. However, this system failed to perform to expectations. With manual process of filling Excel spreadsheets, data integrity became an issue. Also, with no central place for employees to locate data, a lot of time was spent in data compilation and other administrative tasks rather than on productive tasks which resulted in inappropriate utilization of manpower and resources.

In addition, the company lacked consolidated customer data for last 10 years. Data in the existing sales database maintained by Excel reports was inconsistent, disintegrated and therefore unusable. This meant that managers had little insight into sales operations and as a result, they were unable to identify and act on emerging trends.

Lack of integration also impacted the generation of quotes and sales processes. All template documents like quotations, purchase orders, delivery notes, and payment receipts were maintained in different folders on Microsoft SharePoint Server. Users accessed them; completed the entries manually in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets exposing the risk of errors and sent them across individually. As Paresh Shah, Partner, P.H.Teknow explains, “Quick and intelligent data analysis was not available to unearth the cause of losing 30 orders out of 100 quotations sent. This analysis was crucial for us to compete in the marketplace to generate more revenue and augment customer loyalty.”

To improve business opportunities and strengthen customer relations, the company required consolidated data of existing customers, lost customers as well as of customers with whom it had not dealt with for more than 3 years. To track all these customers, a unified database of all customers and complete sales records was essential, based on which management could review situations, analyze and identify reasons for lost orders and work towards retaining its old or lost customers.

Having identified its limitations, the company sought a unified solution that would give it a single view of information and would automate manual tasks. Paresh Shah, Partner, P.H.Teknow foresaw the solution in form of a customer relationship management solution to effectively track customers’ history, trail related information instantaneously, and pass on new products information to all its customers. This would mitigate the risk of lost orders, streamline company’s processes allowing greater workflow, and allow employees to improve customer experience.

Solution

To meet these requirements, P.H.Teknow needed a CRM solution that would integrate data required to provide the visibility, speed and accuracy to compete as a fast-growing business. Being associated with Microsoft for 15 years, a Microsoft solution was the obvious choice. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 was considered the best fit for its inherent tools like lead and loyalty management and quotation and sales order tracking capabilities. “Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM 4.0 possesses astounding tracking capabilities,” explains Paresh Shah, Partner, P.H.Teknow. “Moreover, we would benefit immensely from sales automation, which will help us track sales pipelines and productivity of resources.”

CRM solution handles all the sales records electronically. The automated workflows have enhanced our sales planning leading to a 10-15 percent increase in sales productivity. Paresh Shah Partner P.H.Teknow

P.H.Teknow partnered with Compusoft, a Microsoft® Gold Certified partner, to deploy Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. The implementation started in the company’s head office in Mumbai in March 2009 and went live in August 2009. It was deployed for 15 users. The Sales Module was deployed initially.

The implementation started with requirement definition followed by the analysis phase. Then the solution was deployed for internal usage, system testing, user acceptance and training. Finally, the project management and quality assurance processes were deployed.

Integration with Microsoft SharePoint Server, Office Communication Server and Exchange Server 2010, being one of the primary pre-requisites of the implementation, is planned in near future. Paresh Shah, Partner, P.H.Teknow says, “We will showcase live integration capabilities at our office to all our clients which will boost customers’ confidence level and sales effectively.”

Since in-built tools were not enough to meet the company’s requirements, it aimed at customizing the solution with assistance from CompuSoft. The company built a Pricelist Utility to facilitate the conversion of USD to INR for all its products. This was based on the newest exchange rate, thus changing the cost each time the currency value changes.

The overall objective of the project was product marketing as well as customer data analysis. Taking advantage of the robust and open architecture of the Dynamics CRM platform, the company started reaping the benefits almost instantaneously.

Benefits

With a sophisticated CRM solution tailored to meet specific needs, P.H.Teknow is realizing a variety of benefits. Data entry time is reduced, which contributes in cost and resource saving and also improves customer interactions.

Improves Customer Retention, Enhances Revenue

By leveraging the extensive features and functionality of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, P.H.Teknow has a robust, integrated customer service solution. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 presents the historical perspective of clients’ information like business data, sales success or failures and potential future needs. Paresh Shah, Partner, P.H.Teknow says, “We can retrieve all the information from Customer Data Analysis report with a single click. It assists us to figure out how to retain our existing customers, retrieve lost orders or lost customers and ensure customers’ loyalty. This analysis helps in customer retention and enhances revenue generation by 15 percent.”

Paresh Shah continues, “Microsoft Dynamics CRM has increased volume of business by 10 percent. If we analysis our sale figures before and after implementing CRM solution, we now observe constant upwards graph.”

Acquaints Customers With Latest Products

Earlier the company not only found it challenging to manage customer data, but also to update product lists regularly. Since the legacy system was not integrated, updated product list with quotes could not be attached directly with a particular customer’s record. The sales team had to put in extra efforts and additional time to do so. It has been facilitated with the new CRM solution. Paresh Shah, Partner, P.H.Teknow explains, “The CRM helps to update customers with information about new products. It conducts return on investment (ROI) and net present value analysis on technology investments, strategizing the decision criteria of customers to buy our products.”

Boosts Sales Productivity by 10-15 Percent

Microsoft Dynamics CRM has supported every aspect of our business, from design and development to sales and marketing. With an improved sales management system, leads are generated in the central database and assigned to sales team simultaneously. Account managers convert leads to opportunities in the system; quotations are developed, converted to orders and mailed to customers directly. These leads are then monitored till they are successfully closed. All the intermediate and inter-department steps are eliminated.

Paresh Shah, Partner, P.H.Teknow states, “CRM solution handles all the sales records electronically. The automated workflows have enhanced our sales planning leading to a 10-15 percent increase in sales productivity. Thus, the teams spend less time doing entries and spent more time improving customer service.

Offers Cost Effective Solution

Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM offers low cost of ownership. P.H.Teknow being Microsoft® Certified partner pays only for the number of user licenses and not for the cost of solution. Paresh Shah, Partner, P.H.Teknow happily elucidates, “We hope to recover the cost with in next two years.”

Moreover, the solution is easy to use, thus minimizes the trainings requirements. With so many in-built, customized and security features in a single integrated solution, the company saves on third party solutions.

Customized Features Save 40-60 Percent Time

The Pricelist Utility for products directly converts the products’ cost from USD to INR. It takes into account the daily conversion rates, automatically converts the pricelist and generates the quotes in rupees. According to Paresh Shah, Partner, P.H.Teknow, “We save 40-60 percent of time which was earlier spent in preparing quotations that involved lots of calculations for currency conversions and taxes. Now, we merely select a product and conversion, that’s it. Our quotation is ready.”