According to Pallav Sinha the company has been reaping great benefits after automating its customer processes

How does a company move from being product-centric to customer-centric? One sure-shot way is to deploy a CRM solution and integrate it completely with the other work processes of the company. Shipra Arora investigates how J M Morgan Stanley Retail Services uses CRM to offer its customers superior and differentiated services

For JM Morgan Stanley Retail Services, the customer is king. It’s no wonder then that for this retail services company of financial powerhouse JM Morgan Stanley, the key to the conduct of business is collecting information about its customers. With over 50 investment advisors handling as many as 35,000 individual and corporate investor relationships and operations widespread across eight cities—Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune and Ahmedabad—the need for streamlining the customer management processes was inevitable.

According to Pallav Sinha, chief executive, JM Morgan Stanley Retail Services, “Right since inception, the company has laid emphasis on collecting as much information about its customers as possible.” There was a huge amount of data available on customers who had interacted with the company while it was handling a large number of public issues of shares.

Hence, the first step for the company was to approach these people. It also profiled customers who had some desire of seeking investment advice. This data was then stored in a centralised database system. In order to integrate all its back-office operations into a unified system, the company hired the services of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

While undergoing the process of consolidation, JM Morgan Stanley also decided to go in for a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution. According to Sinha, there were several aspects of the business that necessitated the implementation of CRM. These included storing information on clients centrally for data mining purposes, integration of all systems at the front- and back-end into a single solution, generating and monitoring unified investment reports for clients, and lead management of campaigns across the branches.

Having realised the need for robust CRM capabilities in place, next on the company’s agenda was the selection of the right solution, keeping its varied and dynamic customer requirements in mind. JM Morgan Stanley carried out a product evaluation exercise for some of the leading CRM providers before honing in on the SalesLogix software provided by Interact Commerce. Sinha’s reasons for choosing SalesLogix: “We felt that SalesLogix provided the right combination of features, customer friendliness and ease of interfacing at a good price, hence we chose this solution.”

Implementation Process
The implementation process of the SalesLogix CRM solution was carried out in a phased manner. The first phase with basic functionality went live in November 2001, while the second phase has just been completed at the beginning of July 2002. The basic functionality implemented during the first phase included contact management, opportunity tracking and report generation.

Several customisation requests from users and integration followed in the second phase. In order to provide for more efficient functioning, the software has been integrated with the company’s central database. The solution also links to its Primary Market System (PRIMA) and Secondary Market System called Ritechoice. The entire implementation and integration process was carried out by TCS.

Challenges
Among the various challenges that the company faced during implementation were customisation of the software, interfacing of the software with its back-office systems and getting new reports from the system. While it took some time for the company, it was ultimately successful in combating and successfully overcoming all these challenges.

Functionality
According to Sinha, the SalesLogix CRM solution is primarily being used by relationship managers and investment advisors for storing information on the clients, generating reports for clients and managing their calendars and schedules. The software is also used for the company’s sales associates and tele-call centre.

The key functionality of the SalesLogix solution includes contact management, opportunity tracking, sales processes/pipeline management, calendar and activity management functionality, contact processes, forecasting, reporting, communication. In addition to these, the solution also provides for other functionality like competitor tracking, reference library, look ups & groups and marketing integration.

Training
The company conducted a series of training programmes through three stages in order to familiarise the people with the working of the software. In the first stage, all investment advisors were trained through a series of conference calls as each part of the software went live. During the second stage, a branch-wise training was done in December 2001 after the first phase went live. Finally, JM Morgan Stanley conducted a branch-wise follow-up training to drive the usage of CRM software.

Benefits
Following a planned and phased approach, the company has been reaping due benefits out of the first phase automation of its customer processes. “Over the last two years we’ve tried to offer relationship-oriented products to our customers. In other words, we’ve moved from being product-centric to customer-centric,” explains Sinha. The integration of the CRM application within the company’s work processes has enabled this successful transformation. Having started using SalesLogix, the company has acquired a better understanding of customer needs and can thereby offer the appropriate product at the right time. And that is where CRM comes into play in the company’s scheme of things. According to Sinha, these were the reasons, which prompted the company to invest a significant amount into its CRM system. In terms of benefits, among the key features of the solution, the company has found particularly useful features like query builder and reports, calendar and activity scheduling, ability to store in-depth details of accounts and contacts, and sales library for sharing documents and other material between users. Based on the feedback from initial users and the benefits derived out of the solution, the company has increased the number of licenses for the software.

Future plans
Keeping its customer service differentiation through CRM in a market that was till now considered a technological laggard, JM Morgan Stanley is now looking ahead into the future. The company is extending its CRM initiative onto the Web. “We are testing a Web front-end right now. Using a password, an investor can log in and view his complete integrated investment report. Also, through the CRM system we can show him all his investments, whether it is equity, RBI bonds or anything else, in one place,” explains Sinha. The Web-based CRM system will also allow an investment advisor to pull out an investment report and send it to the investor via an e-mail at a desired frequency.