Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

Extraprise, the B2B database marketing services and CRM systems integration provider, today announced that The CUMIS Group Ltd., an insurance and financial solutions provider, selected Extraprise SOS, Siebel Onshore Support.

 

"After reviewing a number of external and internal options to support our Siebel CRM implementation, we found the comprehensive Extraprise SOS offering to be truly unique. While reducing our support costs, we have improved our issue resolution response time and reduced the headaches of maintaining the right blend of Siebel specializations and providing 365/24 coverage. Furthermore, our SOS resource pool shields CUMIS from the cost of turnover and risk of downtime related to reliance on contractors," noted Paul Koski, CUMIS Group, manager, IT Application Support.

 

"Extraprise is pleased to offer CUMIS the Siebel support services that will enable the company to operationalize their sales and marketing programs in a manner that provides world-class service while producing considerable cost savings," said Ken Marshall, Chairman and CEO of Extraprise.

 

Extraprise also announced results from its COLLABORATE '08 survey, which gauged adoption and success of CRM technology implementations.

 

According to the survey, 58.1% of respondents indicated that their CRM personnel were unable to understand how their systems effectively interface with the firm's business processes – an issue noted more than twice as often by respondents than the second most common issue – a lack of technical knowledge (25.8%).

 

"One consideration that companies often fail to appreciate when selecting a CRM support model is that cultural elements, general unfamiliarity with western sales processes, and lack of proximity to the actual operational environment, which are often limitations of offshore support, may contribute more to support dissatisfaction than can be made up with technical expertise and low rates," Marshall added.

 

Respondents also said that they have problems in providing CRM support. More than half (57.1%) complained about insufficient resource levels that limited their respective IT services groups in providing this proper level of support. Other challenges included: a lack of access to specialists (38.1%); requirements to meet SLA targets (28.6%); and staff turnover (23.8%).

 

Respondent's indicated a limited level of satisfaction level with CRM, with an average satisfaction score of 3.3 on a 1-5 scale (5=highest satisfaction). Also, 11.4% of respondents indicated a complete lack of satisfaction with their implementation (a 2 rating), while only 6.8% were extremely satisfied (a 5 rating).

 

Forty-nine percent of respondents considered Mission Critical or Strategic application indicate that organizations may not be properly allocating their IT resources against firm priorities.

 

IT Managers and CRM Support personnel identified Insufficient Resources, which over half (57.1%) of all respondents selected. This was followed by gaining Access to Specialists at 38.1%; Meeting SLA Requirements 28.6%; Turnover and Attrition of Resources at 23.8%; Ensuring Night, Weekend, and Holiday Coverage at 19%; Too Expensive at 9.5%; and Contractor Inefficiency, Offshore Relationship Issues, and Other Reasons all at almost 5%.

 

On a question to select the primary three reasons for dissatisfaction with support, more than half (58.1%) of respondents cited their support's Knowledge and Understanding of Organization Business Processes. This factor was followed by Technical Knowledge of Support Personnel with 25.8%.

 

About 1 in 5 respondents indicated dissatisfaction with support due largely to: Communications Ability of Support Personnel (22.6%), Critical System Functionality Missing (22.6%), Excess Time to Resolve Problems (19.4%), and Outdated Software Versions (19.4%). Other contributing factors included Delays in Reaching Support (12.9%) and Unavailability of Support After Hours (9.7%).

 

Nearly two-thirds (63.6%) of respondents indicated they had an Internal Help Desk for basic issues, 50% indicated that they had an in-house CRM Support Team that either worked alone or in conjunction with their Help Desk or other support providers.