Build On Better Relationships
The Age
Tuesday October 13, 1998
CONTINUOUS relationship management is about to make its mark in the public sector in the wake of the federal election and Victorian gas crisis, a visiting vendor predicts.
CRM, now entrenched within many big corporates, has been widely adopted by financial institutions and telcos around the world, especially the ``Big Four" banks in Australia.
It is this success that has attracted the interest of government departments as they struggle to contain costs and better service customers.
Allen Swann, CEO of Prime Response, a $30million-a-year CRM consultancy and software developer based in the UK, sees potential growth for the technology outside traditional private sector clients.
``Classically, CRM has been limited to financial institutions initially and then followed by the telcos and the retail organisations," Swann said.
``I don't think anybody has really looked at the application of this style of software to what I would call the public sector industry.
``Taking into account the recent gas crisis you're having here an ability to understand one's customers a lot deeper would mean that a communication could be specifically designed for certain segments of that customer base."
Swann sees potential for enterprises such as VENCorp to provide targeted communications to better inform its affected customers of what the crisis meant to them, how they could ameliorate any difficulties, and to better understand the safety and health issues involved.
Further, CRM would find its niche growing in the realm of public and private elections.
The recent federal election was an example of a perfect test bed to trial new, innovative ways to better inform voters and for political parties to keep and broaden their support base, Swann said.
Health care is another area that could benefit from CRM systems, especially in the areas of regular testing and check-ups.
Swann's consultancy specialises in an area of CRM known as enterprise campaign management.
ECM is an evolving field that concentrates on establishing closely targeted marketing and communications campaigns based on a series of triggers that are pre-set in software.
If 10per cent of customers in a particular geographic area suddenly withdraw large amounts of money from their bank accounts according to a datawarehouse, ECM tools extract this information and tailor a communication response.
Swann's flagship product, Prime Vantage is in use with about 40 corporates around the world.
It came out of early research into when Prime Response was a campaign management bureau.
Swann was concerned that the lack of data privacy protection schemes in Australia could hold back the industry here.
On Thursday, Prime Response along with Hewlett Packard and SAS Institute will hold a public briefing on the future of CRM systems, Closing the Loop.
According to Prime Response's Australian general manager, Bryan Rowe, more than 400 delegates have already signed up, many from government departments.
Several modem and car makers are also on the list.
© 1998 The Age