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The Semi-Finalists: Hindustan Construction Company's CRM Implementation

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PCQ Bureau
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Unlike traditional CRM deployments that are done for B2C scenarios, this is one of the first that caters to a B2B and B2G scenarios, which involves projects with long gestation periods and multiple customer touch points

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Projects like Lavasa, Bandra-Worli Sealink or the Kodankulam nuclear power plant are symbols of India's growing infrastructure, and the company behind making them a reality is Hindustan Construction Company, which has been in this business for nine decades. Strategy was preliminary to all their operations that began with learning about tenders, finding information about clients, keeping track of their clients and their projects on a regular basis, and then preparing a presentation for them. The aim was to capture all the leads regarding a project or a client in an effective manner to improve sales planning and forecasting and use them to prepare a superior action plan.

SAP CRM was shortlisted for integration amongst different departments and for their strategy creation. The need was felt after HCC's top management found that information about a customer wasn't readily available. It had to be compiled and presented, since each data was in diverse formats. Contacting the person who handled a project to know anything about a project was also time-taking. This necessitated data collation at one place, which could be accessed by concerned people. The company deployed CRM for users that handle business processes like Accounts & Contact Management, Opportunity Management, Order Booking, targets review and monitoring, support for effective Decision Making which includes various reports such as project tracker, meeting roadmap, Sales MIS, project appreciation document, etc. It is also meant for Sales, Business Development, Marketing departments and all regional offices.

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Challenges Faced

The standard packages of CRM have traditionally been deployed for a B2C business scenario. To customize the package to suit the B2B scenario was a challenge. A particular employee was in touch with multiple clients at a given time. This led to creation of multiple entities at various locations, making information management a challenge.

The Outcome

The solution is regularly updated with numerous projects as leads in a month. Of these, roughly 15-20% are converted into opportunity, which in a business scenario means a project confirmed for further processing. One of the immediate benefits of the system has been in choosing the right projects for bidding. Now they have long term pipeline visibility.

Transparency has increased, as now, the person who is responsible for a project, stays in touch with the client, and the same person can now be held accountable for everything. Improvement in customer satisfaction has been achieved. Because of better proposals given by the team, they have a better chance to win a project. Two years back, each department had its data, communication wasn't streamlined and data sharing was a problem. Any lack of communication on one's part meant poor quality proposals, lowering the chances of winning a tender. Management of clients has improved, as their objective now includes customer focus as well. Their concerns, problems and feedback has all been integrated within this solution.

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