Staying Ahead of the CRM Curve - CIO Special Advertising Supplement

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The Outsourcing Alternative

SECTIONS
Staying Ahead of the CRM Curve

Making Customer Information Work for You

Channeling and Campaigning: Front Office Challenges

e-CRM: What the Web's Got to Do with It

Closing the CRM Loop

The Outsourcing Alternative

Getting There from Here

Need to get a CRM solution up and running but lack the time or internal resources? Outsourcing may be your answer...

    Should you outsource your customer relationship management functions? The answer is a resounding "It depends."
    And it depends on a number of factors, says Kevin Rosen, Silverline Technologies' CRM practice leader, including an organization's relative competencies in IT as well as its business operations.
    "I'd recommend outsourcing the business assessment and technology selection components of a CRM initiative in order to kick off the process in an objective manner utilizing experts who understand the possibilities of CRM solutions-and who aren't burdened by specific operational issues that exist in every company," Rosen says.
    And, he continues, "it often makes sense to utilize technical experts who can work in conjunction with internal subject matter experts to best define, configure and integrate the application into the existing environment.
    "Beyond the system deployment, many organizations find value in outsourcing operational activities-like contact centers, fulfillment centers, service centers-which are more complex since they're customer-facing."

Considering ASPs
Certainly, CRM implementations are notoriously complex, expensive and lengthy-which is why so many companies turn to hosted alternatives from application service providers (ASPs). IDC estimates that in the U.S. alone, businesses will spend more than $400 million on hosted CRM services in 2004, up from $40 million in 1999. CRM ASPs come in several varieties:

Traditional ASPs, like USinternetworking and Corio, which host applications from leading CRM vendors like Siebel.
Service providers such as Silverline Technologies, Unisys, eConvergent and Esyst, which offer software and systems integration services, too. Silverline, for example, implements Siebel's front office solutions, and will develop add-on functionality, integrate these solutions with legacy applications and other third party packages, and create Web-based extensions for them. Silverline's services include onsite consulting as well as fixed price and time and material projects.
Unisys, too, has partnered with Siebel and implements Siebel applications on its e-@ction Enterprise Servers via its business consulting, outsourcing and implementation services.
Self-hosting software vendors, such as Allegis, which host their own CRM applications (sometimes transparently via third parties).
Dotcom services, from vendors like Software911.com, which offer subscriptions to their CRM systems through their Web sites.

There are so many ASP options in the CRM market that pricing varies wildly, from as little as $50 per user per month to hundreds of dollars per user per month, to six-figure fixed monthly fees.

CosmoCom Helps ByeByeNOW.com Create Integrated Telephony & Customer Care Infrastructure

ByeByeNOW.com, a major provider of leisure travel services on the Internet, was seeking a long-term, comprehensive solution that would support its clicks-and-mortar company infrastructure as well as catapult it into a leadership position in the Internet-based travel industry.
    ByeByeNOW.com's one-stop shopping Web site offered vacation packages of every type; its booking capability encompassed a 24-hour toll-free customer service number as well as a nationwide network of more than 350 independent, franchised travel agencies.

Traditional Options Explored
Available telecom solutions offered complex, pre-routing solutions based on traditional telecom equipment and CTI software that would require significant investments in PBX/ACD equipment.
    What's more, determining a strategy to integrate traditional telecom calls with the new, IP-based transactions (Web chat, e-mail, Internet voice, etc.) added an additional layer of complexity to the project.

CosmoCall Universe^TM: A New Paradigm
CosmoCall Universe, from CosmoCom, Inc., seemed custom-made for ByeByeNOW's needs: a true IP-based ACD providing a single queuing engine for all potential call session types: PSTN voice calls, Web chat, e-mail, voice-mail and VoIP calls.
    Moreover, a single instance of CosmoCall Universe would allow them to maintain, manage and monitor all 1,400 agents across all 350 sites with ease. CosmoCall Universe's IP-based platform was an ideal fit with IP-based travel agents at diverse locations.
    ByeByeNOW has a single instance of CosmoCall Universe running in its Florida contact center facility that will service its entire organization. Network connectivity is provided to the local franchise agencies using frame relay technology. All facets of Universe functionality-telephone and Internet live/message sessions-are used in the ByeByeNOW solution: Telephone Connection Servers provide both VoIP conversion and IVR scripting, Internet Connection Servers allow chat, Web collaboration and VoIP, Message Connection Servers facilitate calls sent via e-mail and fax and if agents are not immediately available, messages are routed to the appropriate remote office for real-time response.
    With installation in progress, the local call center includes 100 CosmoCall agents and 20 remote sites across North America.
    "CosmoCom helped us achieve our strategic goal of creating a seamless, efficient and integrated telephony and customer care infrastructure," says Peter Nicoletti, CTO and CIO, ByeByeNOW.com. "We are already seeing the ROI and favorable customer acceptance of the CosmoCall Universe solution."
    For more information about CosmoCall Universe^TM visit http://www.cosmocom.com/.

Who benefits from hosted CRM?
Generally, mid-size and smaller companies tend to opt for CRM ASPs, though as CRM implementations become more and more complex and all-encompassing, the appeal of hosted alternatives expands.
    If your budget and the scope of your CRM needs are limited, and if you need a fast turnaround, an ASP may be a good choice, since CRM products can cost millions of dollars and the systems integration that they require can cost millions more. Even a single solution CRM software application can carry a pricetag as high as half a million dollars.
    Some believe that full-blooded CRM solutions from large vendors such as Siebel or Oracle are not appropriate for mid-sized companies. They contend that high-end applications, even when they're scaled down, may be too costly, too complex and too time-consuming to implement.
    An ASP can offer a way around this: picking a traditional ASP that rents licenses from major vendors enables your end-users to learn the environment and gives your IT staff time to decide whether it's able to bring it in-house smoothly.
    Some firms that have spent significant time and money implementing CRM and sales automation software have expressed interest in hosted alternatives because maintaining and upgrading the software consumes so many IS resources. And others who've installed customized CRM in-house seek out ASPs to host, support and maintain their applications.

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