The New Indian Express, May 6, 2007

Every time one thinks of 'customer interaction', Servion, comes to mind. With end-to-end Contact Center solutions from Servion, interacting with customers have never been easier or perhaps more rewarding. Associated with the company from 1996, K. Balakrishnan, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Servion Global Solutions Ltd. shares few facts in an exclusive interview with B&E

Q: How did the journey for Servion start?
Balakrishnan: In 1992, Servion was conceived from the vision of a group of like-minded professionals, who put their resources into a start-up venture, a pioneer in the Customer Interaction Management (CIM) space. From the first floor room of Baskar Subramanian’s (then Director now Vice Chairman) house in Chennai, India with five engineers, one sales person, and just one customer behind its banner, Servion has traveled far and wide with offices across the world serving over 400 customers and more than 1,000 installations globally. Servion’s CIM solutions deployed globally handle more than half a billion interactions a month.

Q: What market share do you command?
Balakrishnan: It is hard to define the market share since the CIM industry consists of component products (hardware and software) and services providers. If clientele is a measure of market share to go by, over 80 percent of the banks and telecommunications companies in India are Servion’s clients. Servion has customised its products and services range to suit the specific requirements of various industry segments such as banking and finance, hospitality, transport, healthcare and government organisations.

Q: What are you future plans?
Balakrishnan: We will invest in expanding our technology practice capabilities and fine-tuning the consulting offerings. Investments will also be made for geographical expansion and we expect to grow at a CAGR of 50 percent year on year for the next few years.

Q: What strategies have you adopted till date to remain in the market?
Balakrishnan: What ails the IT industry at large and the CIM industry specifically is the meaningful deployment of technology. Technology can be provided by many organisations. But for the technology to impact business is one of three areas – to reduce operational expenses, increase revenue or increase customer satisfaction, it has to be deployed keeping in mind the challenges.

Being a consultative specialist in the CIM domain, Servion has consciously worked with customers to understand the customer interaction challenges and suggest solutions (in the area of process and technology).

The job is still only half done. After the deployment of technology, care has to be taken to monitor it and keep tweaking it if need be, to ensure total integration with the existing processes and infrastructure.

According to the Gartner Hype Cycle (for technology), every new technology under goes five phases (introduction -hype - disillusionment - enlightenment - productivity). The challenge for all technology providers is to reduce the gap between the hype phase and the productivity phase. Staying ahead of the technology curve to ensure this is a must. This we believe has been and will continue to be one of Servion’s key strengths.

Q: Where lays the opportunities for the company?
Balkrishnan: Banks and telecommunication companies have been the primary adopters of CIM solutions and processes, owing to the explosion in the consumer base and the increase in service offerings. With the consumer base exploding for practically all other verticals such as retail, utilities, insurance companies, hospitality, FMCG, government, and healthcare, the option to stay out of the race is no longer available. We believe that the war to create a happy and satisfied set of consumers is won and lost at the moment the customer first interacts with the organisation.

CIM solutions help these organizations to deliver experiences that are meaningful to these customers – profitably resulting in customer retention, acquisitions through endorsements, and reduced operating costs. The adoption of these technologies by verticals other than banks and telecommunication companies will provide a great opportunity for the company.