Customer Relationship Management or CRM is an indispensible factor for any organisation across any industry which aims to last long and strong to which it caters to. Unfortunately there are not many organisations in the country that caters to this service in a manner which is local in nature in terms of both cost and application. How SimpleCRM intends to change the entire landscape of CRM across industries is narrated by Indraneel Fuke founder-director of the company in an exclusive interview with Elets News Network(ENN).

Tell us about SimpleCRM beyond the information provided by your website.
SimpleCRM founders have been involved in global CRM project implementations since 2004. Over the years it became increasingly clear that organizations in Asia require an Enterprise grade CRM at a price point that factored in local economic realities. This led us to launch SimpleCRM product specifically targeted towards Asian customers. SimpleCRM is a comprehensive, highly-scalable, flexible and cost effective CRM solution for small, medium and large organizations in Asia.

What was the most challenging part of setting up your company?
Developing a product that matched the features and benefits of top-tier enterprise CRM solutions like Salesforce.com and Microsoft Dynamics, but at a far lower price point, was both our main value proposition and a challenge. However, we were able to overcome this challenge by tapping into our 15+ years of experience in developing enterprise software for global organisations and leveraging open source technologies to build SimpleCRM product line that did deliver our value proposition that is an Enterprise grade CRM at a highly attractive price point for Asian organisations.

Who are your target consumers? How are you reaching them?
SimpleCRM modules are applicable to all sizes of businesses in a variety of industrial sectors. That said, we do have developed verticalized solutions for certain industries, shown as follows:

What are the major benefits for Institution/individuals adopting your solutions?
At a high level, SimpleCRM solution consists of following key modules:

1. Comprehensive Lead Management System – This module allows organizations to track and manage leads, opportunities, accounts, contacts, create quotations and invoices and many other sales related aspects; basically the entire lead to cash cycle
   
2. Case Management (Help Desk CRM) System – This module enables organisation to capture customer complaints, feedback from a variety of sources such as, calls, emails, website and even social media. It also helps manage case escalations and workflows. Basically this empowers the organisations to better serve their customers resulting in higher customer delight and retention.
   
3. Partner and Customer Portal Framework – This module extends the reach of traditional CRM and allows other important stakeholders like reseller partners or customers to share information and collaborate with internal teams of an organization
4. Marketing Automation System – This module helps organisations capture leads through a wide variety of sources such as, website, social media, calls, chats, emails and others. It also helps run email and SMS campaigns and provide campaign analytics.
   
5. Mobile CRM App– Mobile app is a great way to be in touch with your customers on the go, even when you do not have net connectivity. It allows easy access to customer data and also ability to make updates which are later synchronised with the main CRM.

What is the level of competition and what is the biggest hurdle you have faced or are still facing?
There is competition for all promising business opportunities. Most Indian organisations still do not have a proper CRM system in place and that presents a big opportunity for solution providers, so there is bound to be competition for us as well. However, we believe no other CRM provider is able to match the combination of our Asia market focus, high expertise in delivering CRM projects and a great product at an attractive price-point.

At this stage of our growth, we do not have any big hurdles as such, but recruitment and retention of good talent continues to be something we need to keep working on.

Where do you see your company in the next five years?
SimpleCRM initially began as a customised solution on open source platform for one of the largest financial services organizations in Asia. After delivering a successful and scalable solution for 1200+ bank users, SimpleCRM founders decided to further build the product and deliver an enterprise grade, highly-scalable, comprehensive and affordable CRM for Asian organisations. Over the last few years SimpleCRM team has successfully delivered several large-scale deployments in Asia. For example, e-commerce companies like askme.com have 4,500+ of users managing sales, support and operations on SimpleCRM. NGOs like Reliance Foundation are using SimpleCRM for running their PAN India Toll Free Helpline for more than two million rural audience. Life Insurance companies like Union Assurance have decided to roll out SimpleCRM Lead Management System for 4,000+ advisors. On Education, SimpleCRM has been selected for providing lead management and help desk solution by premium institutes such as ITM University, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) and Orchid International School.  

Over the next few years, we expect to continue to grow at a fast pace and become number one CRM alternative to salesforce.com or Microsoft CRM for the mid-enterprise & large enterprise market segments in the Asia Pacific.

Quick Facts

Headquarter: Singapore and India

• Management details – https://www.linkedin.com/in/indraneelfuke
• Clientele:
  • Large Customers with CRM users ranging from 500 to 2,000+
  • SMBs with CRM users ranging from 5-500.
• Team: Having experience of more than 300 CRM projects over the last decade
• Awards:
  • Selected as one of the top 40 startups in Web Summit’s ALPHA program
  • Selected as one for the 25 most promising CRMs by APAC CIO-Outlook