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SAP, Oracle target SMEs with off-the-shelf CRM offerings

NetScribes/Ganesh Ramamoorthy

With the Indian market turning out to be a hotbed for customer relationship management solutions, especially in the small and medium enterprises segment, global e-business solutions companies SAP and Oracle are restructuring their CRM offerings to woo Indian customers.

One after the other, SAP and Oracle launched programmes to deliver their CRM solutions speedily and efficiently. According to the companies, this would help Indian corporates cut down on cost and implementation time.

While SAP's 'Accelerated CRM' will focus on delivering CRM solutions to clients in 10 weeks, Oracle promises to deliver its solutions in 90 days or less.

Oracle will initially deliver nine key CRM e-business modules that will be implemented by Oracle Consulting or its strategic implementation partners. Its CRM package will be priced at $150,000-395,000 (Rs 6.9-18.2 million). Oracle's CRM deals generally fall in the $300,000 -400,000 groove (Rs 13.8-18.4 million). But since the company wants to focus on the SME segment, it has kept open the scope to price it as low as $50,000.

Oracle's move also aims to increase the volume of e-business software sales, which has seen revenues hit by the slowing US economy that is making organisations reluctant to spend on large software projects.

SAP, on the other hand, will deliver 10 modules, bundled with critical business specific practices within the mySAP CRM strategy, which will be implemented by SAP's partners - PricewaterhouseCoopers and Siemens Information Systems. SAP's CRM package has been priced at Rs 2.3-3.8 million.

"Software prices are not being cut," said Ruth Connolly, president and managing director of SAP India.

"Rather, the total cost of owning SAP software will go down because companies will pay less to have the software installed and see a return on their investment sooner."

Historically, companies that are looking for CRM have acquired related software from several niche application vendors and then hired personnel to assemble them into a business flow.

But with the offerings from Oracle and SAP, the software comes integrated, out-of-the-box. The click-to-order process is pre-configured and running within 10-12 weeks.

Moreover, companies will also be able to leverage their existing investments in SAP and Oracle solutions.

SAP's 'Accelerated CRM' provides solutions such as Internet-enabled selling, contact centres, Internet pricing and configurator, market planning and campaign management, mobile sales, mobile service, business workplace and business intelligence warehouse.

On the other hand, Oracle CRM will enable companies to automate the natural flow of business on specialised end-to-end systems that are based on its 11i e-business software suite.

As part of its business simplification initiatives, Oracle has also launched a set of new offerings that would enable companies to standardise best practices.

SAP India expects the market for its CRM solutions in India this year to grow by around 28 per cent, while Oracle India expects a growth of about 30 per cent this year. Both SAP and Oracle expect to complete 12-15 installation in the country by this year.

Meanwhile, SAP Labs India has also unveiled plans to invest $26 million on expanding operations in India, focusing on mySAP.com development activities, and e-CRM projects.

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