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Small business adopt CRM to acquire customers: IDC

Our Bureau

NEW DELHI, Nov. 26

CUSTOMER acquisition, improved customer service and access to international markets are the major factors driving small and medium enterprises (SME) to go in for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions, a study by IDC India has said.

Among large organisations, creation of sales knowledge base, improved turnaround time and enhanced corporate image have been indicated as the reasons for the willingness to adopt CRM, the study said.

Organisations have laid more stress on extrinsic factors such as acquisition of new customers, improved customer service and others rather than intrinsic factors as the need drivers for CRM, it said.

``This implicates that organisations perceive a high degree of implication that would bear upon their business while going in for CRM solutions,'' the study said.

It has also found out that the CRM market in the country is still in the ``educate, test and try'' stage. While there is a 70 per cent awareness about the CRM concept among large firms, in the SME segment the awareness level stands at 25 per cent.

Among those who are aware of this solution, CRM is rated high on the return on investment (ROI) perception scale across both SME and large organisations.

This reflects the inherent need of the organisations to automate their customer relationship component. The ROI perception is the highest among medium-sized organisations.

When it comes to the willingness to adopt the CRM concept, in the SME segment, only one out of three that were aware of this, would actually adopt it, the study revealed. Among large organisations, three out of seven would adopt CRM.

However, once educated about the concept, about 7 per cent of the ``unaware'' and ``aware but non-intending'' organisations across both the segments have indicated their willingness to adopt the solutions.

This, in absolute number of firms, turns out to be very high for SMEs, the report said.

It has also found that ``customer care and support'' has emerged as the most preferred CRM module among SME organisations. The second most preferred module is ``marketing automation.''

Large organisations prefer ``pre-sales management'' followed by the ``sales management'' module, the study said.