The Top 10 CRM Software Systems in India

CRM Software in India Insights and Vendor Snapshots

Impel CRM Software in India

Perhaps the first well known India based SaaS CRM solution is Impel CRM by PK4. PK4 Software Technologies Pvt. Ltd. is a Bangalore-based software company that delivers software solutions using its proprietary zeroCode approach, which it claims increases productivity, reduces delivery times and delivers bug-free, reliable, scalable software. Hosted in India at Level 3 data centers, Impel CRM is offered in a true software as a service delivery model, and the mobile CRM supports mobile workers with PDAs and phones using WAP, SMS or HTML.

While Impel is largely a horizontal CRM software product targeted to SMB companies, PK4 has more recently verticalised the solution for several industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, government, insurance and real estate.

PK4 also supports an online community and a channel partner program to deliver services across the India subcontinent. Key India business partners include Proxis, ABCON, Veersoft and Expect Tech Solutions in Bangalore, MicroClinic in New Delhi and Frontier Softech in Ludhiana.

In our discussion with PK4 CEO, Narasimhan (Kishore) Mandyam, he commented "Our experience has been amazing. We began with the typical trepidation that most SaaS providers go through in India - that everything from connectivity to "Where will my data reside" were the issues and concerns of CRM software buyers. But we very quickly learned that most Indian buyers fall into one of two categories - they either know enough to trust SaaS or they don't care. Over the first 12 months, we added over 30 customers and lots and lots of users. And our customers have come from small, three-person shops in Srinagar to a large MNC brand like Bausch & Lomb."

When asked how Impel compares to more popular SaaS CRM software companies such as Salesforce.com and SugarCRM, Mandyam indicated that from some perspectives, the Impel solution is not as deep and may not offer some hosting capabilities such as fail-over servers in multiple countries. However, the Indian hosted CRM solution does have enough redundancy to offer the fourth decimal in terms of uptime guarantee and can deliver on-demand scalability, in part because the hosting platform was previously used to build large applications for social networks. According to Mandyam "Our security has been very strong. One of our customers is a European manufacturer who applies their home-country security standards here, too. And we've passed with flying colours."

Interestingly, when Mandyam was asked what is the unique value proposition of Impel CRM SaaS, he replied "It's Indian-ness. Or rather, its non-Western-ness. And I don't mean that in a country-of-origin sense but in an applicability sense. The way people do business in India and non-American geographies is different - tomes have been written about that. A classic example is the fact that if your AC fails, someone will come home to fix it - try getting that kind of service in the US. On the other hand, try tracking that kind of labour in Salesforce - we can. Not to mention our pricing - that's Indian, too."

Note: This top 10 India software systems article will be updated next year. Late this year we will launch a comprehensive survey, followed by verification discussions with analysts, customers, vendors and business partners. Please let us know if you have suggestions or recommendations for our next annual update.

  Categories: Asia CRM

  Tags: India CRM software

  Permalink: www.crmsearch.com/india-top-10-crm.php

 Author: Chuck Schaeffer

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Comments	— Comments for this page are closed —

	Punay Suraj
	We are in a software selection project. In addition to the top 10 crm vendors, do you recommend looking at other sfa and crm vendors?

		Chuck Schaeffer
		Absolutely. No CRM software vendor works for every organization and the existing market fragmentation is testament that different CRM software systems have varying strengths and accommodate companies with different levels of fit, advantages and disadvantages. Further, customer relationship management may be only one component of a broader software selection project. For example, if you are also looking at back office ERP, or finance and accounting systems, you may want to consider the software vendors which also offer the full suite of integrated applications – such as Ramco, Wings ERP, Focus Infosoft or eresource Infotech at a domestic level or SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics AX/Nav/GP/SL, Sage, Epicor, Infor or others at a global level.

	M Ruran
	Who do you expect will be the next SaaS CRM challenger to the existing top 10 crm systems in India?

		Chuck Schaeffer
		SAP and Zoho show significant promise. SAP's Business ByDesign SaaS product is relativley new, however, getting good reviews and SAP appears to be looking at the India software market very strategically. Zoho may be the next on-demand CRM up and comer. The company was founded as AdventNet in 1996, changed its name to Zoho in 2009, and has recently gained global attention. Today the company employs over 1,500 staff in Chennai. CEO Sridhar Vembu, quoted in Forbes as the "Smartest unknown Indian entrepreneur" has turned down investments and acquisition opportunities by SaaS leaders such as Salesforce.com. Zoho is much broader than most customer relationship management solutions, which may be appealing or distracting depending upon your business objectives and perspective. Zoho is an online collaborative and productivity application suite which competes with Google Docs, Microsoft Office and Salesforce.com among others. We will be eagerly watching Zoho as it continues to evolve in India and globally.