Business Challenges

In the absence of any existing system or application to support Customer Relationship Management, Akar Limited was finding it tough to be ahead of fierce competition. The process for selling was very manual and did not include reporting or documentation of cases under sales persons. Also, a key part of Akar’s sales strategy involves exports, which further presented a strong case for transforming its sales process.

Solution Highlights

SYSTIME brought in domain and technology expertise gleaned over several JD Edwards CRM implementations and ensured a smooth implementation process. Best Practices were used for role management, accounts records creation and reporting relationships as per the CRM requirements. The solution provided reporting and analytics functionality to the customer. It enabled easy capturing of data related to artwork at various stages of the sales and production cycle. The two business lines of Akar viz. Promotions and Stationery were mapped by defining two sales processes and were attached to the relevant user roles. The solution makes it possible for sales people to capture key cost-impacting information such as details of creative work received from customer and number of revisions made to the creative work, making it easy to ascertain the cost of the final product. It also captures sales person specific information such as incentives and commissions along with the payment details. The solution helps in better managing production status by tracking each job from the raising of a job ticket to the final delivery, while capturing key information such as reference document details, quantity, actual delivery date and shipping address.

Business Benefits

The CRM technology helped the customer to ease the pressures in the marketing and sales management. The online technology also helped in the development of better accessibility and MIS reporting. The implementation improved the sales processes, making it more manageable and transparent. It equipped the sales team with the tools necessary for managing customer data and better collaboration. With relevant customer information at hand at all times, the sales team is now able to focus on core activities and rapidly convert leads into customers. There was a significant improvement for the business in terms of gathering the most relevant contact information of customers. The analytics and reporting function helped in generating a better view of the sales and marketing department’s performances. There was an overall reduction in the costs and time involved in sales operations, lead management and marketing campaign management. All sales personnel have access to a common database of prospects. The customer is now able to view and manage, in real-time, the details of products with the accurate price and cost details, including the cost of creative work, to avoid negative sales. There was a significant improvement in the end-customer’s experience and customer relations. Akar is now a system-dependent business rather than a people-dependent one.

“We are delighted to have had worked with the SYSTIME Team during our implementation of CRM OnDemand. Their professional and courteous attitude, expert knowledge, and patience in handling our specific issues were very important to the project and have ensured our complete satisfaction.” Rahul Jain, Director, Akar Limited