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Express Computers, October 16, 2006
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The company’s contact optimisation model helps
organisations optimise and enhance their customer response mechanism, says
Vinutha V.
Channels such as IVR (Interactive Voice
Response), e-mail and fax are opening up as means to serve customers better. The interface management
between customers and the multi-channels in order to offer better customer
satisfaction is a challenge. A rising customer base, complexity of services, exploding customer contacts and technology obsolescence are some of the
reasons for the gap between what is and what should be. This situation has
given rise to Customer Interaction Management CIM). CIM is a combination of
hardware and software that integrates all interaction touch points – telephone,
e-mail and the Web.
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Contact Optimisation Model
Identifying the potential in managing customer interaction, Baskar
Subramanian of Bell Labs decided to form Servion Inc. in 1992 in the US and
Servion Global Solutions in India in 1995. Initially the focus of the company
was to develop IVR applications for telecom equipment companies, but now the
company has matured to offer end-to-end services in CIM. The experience
garnered over a decade in CIM helped Servion put
together a Contact Optimisation Model which helps organisations to optimise
and enhance their customer response mechanism. In this way, Servion has been
able to help its clients squeeze more out of their existing systems and
infrastructure, reduce operating costs, increase revenue, and enhance customer
satisfaction. This model helps them understand the gap that exists between an
ideal state of 'contact' and what the real situation is. It helps create
solutions to bridge that gap and improve customer service levels.Servion offers solutions from
application maintenance to consulting to R&D that encompass multi-media
contact centres, computer telephone integration, self service channels (such
as IVR), speech recognition, outbound interactions in diallers, multi-media
alert notifications, call-back managers, workforce management software,
process management solutions and
CRM. Based on a Frost & Sullivan study, the Indian addressable market for CIM
is tagged at $ 50.5 million, and Servion believes that it is in a position to
corner a substantial portion of this. The company has helped enterprises in
verticals such as banking and finance, government, healthcare, hospitality,
insurance, manufacturing, outsourced call centres, retail, telecom and
transportation.
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Customer Interaction Management is a combination of hardware and
software that integrates all interaction touch points – telephone,
e-mail and the Web |
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Competing in a fragmented market
Typically, CIM is a niche market and vendors offering end-to-end solutions
in this space are few “Since it’s a fragmented market, we have to compete with
vendors operating in different areas such as telephony and CRM, as well as
global SIs. However, the trend is slowly changing as consolidation is taking
place and the fragmented market is now turning towards a one-stop-solution for
CIM,” says
G. Shankaran Nair, Senior Vice-President and Head, Marketing and
Business Development, Servion Global Solutions. Initially the growth path was
clear for Servion as it focused on IVR and related applications. Then in
January 2006 Servion acquired 5by5 Networks, a company that specialises in
managing and routing telephone calls, e-mail, faxes, SMS and chat.Most business from telecom and
BFSI
For Servion, telecom and BFSI (banking,
financial services and insurance) are the verticals that generate the largest
chunk of its business. Customers include Hutch, Reliance, Bharti, BSNL, HDFC,
ICICI, Standard Chartered, Kotak, IDBI, Bank of India, Syndicate Bank and
State Bank of India. About 30 percent of the revenue is being generated out of
India, with the US as its biggest market, contributing as it does 35 percent.
APAC, Middle East and Europe account for the rest.
Developing business by acquiring customers in verticals such as healthcare,
travel, railways, hospitality and retail is on the company’s radar. “Even
though the CIM market is in a formative stage, the services industry is
opening up in India. The concept of generating a good customer experience is
catching on. With India’s multilingual scenario, we foresee sophisticated
customer interactions taking place, which is a huge opportunity for us,”
observes Nair. Automotive and retail are coming up with different CIM
requirements. Automotives are looking at direct customer interaction not only through dealers but also with
end-customers. With the boom in retail, enterprises are looking at
acquainting end-customers with their loyalty programmes and promotions. The
BPO space – especially the voice part of it – is an important market for Servion.
Adds Nair, “Since Western countries such as the US and Britain are setting up
customer-call handling facilities in India, the market is pretty big as we
generate revenue on a per-agent basis."
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In a nutshell |
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Servion was founded in 1995.
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It has 360 employees worldwide.
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The global customer base is over 400.
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The company has designed and deployed more than 500 applications
in the customer interaction domain.
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It has global partnerships with Avaya, IBM, i-flex, Infosys, Intel
Dialogic, Microsoft, Nuance, Sun Microsystems, Talisma, TCS, and
Witness Systems.
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The suite of products it offers includes Response Application
Platform, Medius, enTRAC and CallBack Manager.
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Servion’s Indian installations number 127.
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Clients include ABN-Amro Bank, Allsec Technologies, Hutch, HDFC
Bank, Genpact, BSNL, Bharti, ICICI Bank, Tata Teleservices, Scope
International and Slash Support. |
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Different strokes
Servion's selling model is different for different geographies. The
company’s game-plan for the new verticals is to have a direct sales force. In
the APAC and Middle East regions it believes in generating business through
partnerships. Even with the hurdles of language and the need for a different
business approach, Servion aims to tap the Chinese and Japanese market. “Our
decade-old domain expertise is helping us build strong capability in
consulting. Through our R&D wing, we see a better opportunity in serving other
CIM players such as Intervoice and Avaya, our strengths being our
cross-platform capability and systems integration," states Nair.
Servion achieved revenue of $ 12 million in fiscal 2004-05. Though the company
has not audited its financial results for 2005-2006, it expects a 40 percent
growth in revenue. It has set a target of $ 50 million revenue in three years.
From its existing employee strength of 360, Servion will grow to 400 by end-2006. |
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G. Shankaran Nair
Senior Vice-President
Servion Global Solutions
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"With India’s multilingual scenario, we foresee sophisticated
customer interactions taking place, which is a huge opportunity
for us" |
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