AMIR Ltd: CRM Implementation in Russia - Strategies and Challenges

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in Russia, focusing on strategies for successful implementation and the challenges faced by companies operating in the Russian market. The report, prepared for the board of directors of AMIR Limited, a British financial company aiming to expand in Russia, examines various aspects of CRM, including strategies for CRM project implementation, reasons for project failures (such as cost overruns, data transfer issues, and inadequate user training), and the current state of CRM practices in the Russian market. It also addresses additional challenges like strategic planning, customer management problems, the need for backup plans, and business culture differences. The report highlights the importance of customer-centric strategies, mobile CRM implementation, and adapting to the specific demands of the Russian market to achieve CRM success. It offers insights into the telecommunications and financial sectors, the significance of CRM in business expansion, and the potential for future growth in the Russian CRM market.

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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Task 1: Strategies for CRM project implementation...................................................................................3
Task 2: Reasons of failure for the CRM project implementation.................................................................5
Task 3: Current state of CRM practice in Russia.........................................................................................6
Task 4: Additional Challenges in Russian Market.......................................................................................7
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................9
References.................................................................................................................................................10
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Introduction
Customer relationship management is the term which can be defined as the strategies and
technologies that companies adopted to analyze and manage the relationships with the customers
as well as data throughout the customer lifecycle. This report is a presentation on CRM in Russia
for the board of directors of AMIR limited that consists of the strategies that company can use
for the CRM project implementation as well as analysis of the challenges that company might
face in future and also the current state of the CRM practices in emerging markets. AMIR is
British financial company having a large telecommunication division. The main aim of the
company is to expand the business operation and grab the opportunities in the Russian market.
Also, the Mashkin group incorporation which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Amir Limited
faced number of challenges during the implementation of CRM. This is the reason that we are
writing this report to find out the best strategies as well as the additional challenges that
companies might face in the future(Rogers).
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Task 1: Strategies for CRM project implementation
Being a project advisor of the AMIR limited, there are some of the strategies are suggested to
implement the CRM projects. Some of the strategies are given as below:
1. Customer Strategy for billing modernization project in Russia
This is the most important strategy which can be used for the identification of the target
customers by focusing on the mission and the business model of the company. According to this
strategy before implementing CRM projects, it will be better if the company identifies the type of
customers they are going to serve in future. The company has an opportunity to use that
customer centricity business model in order to identify the target customers(Arthur). The process
of the customer segment management involves the division and segmentation of the large
number of group members that belongs to same attributes and the mange all the customer
segments in order to gain the profits for longer time. There are many stages that included in this
process such as:
 Analysis of the products
 Customer Management
 segmentation on the basis of marketing
 Advisors for the customer segments
 Profit and loss for the customer centric approaches.
According to the structure of AMIR Limited, customer centric profit and loss stage should be
applicable, because this strategy is really useful to find out the services discounts and the level of
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the pricing and distribution available. It is very important to make use of the potential channels
available to the company.
2. Strategies for implementing wireless CRM
From the case study of AMIR Limited, it is clear that there are two types of CRM projects are
going to be implemented by the company in Russia. First one is related to the CRM billing
modernization project which is going to be implemented by the Svyazinvest. Second CRM
project is introduced by MegaFon-Moscow, a regional provider, in relation to the wireless
networks(Nguyen).
According to my viewpoint, mobile CRM must be very simple and plain. To implement the
wireless CRM in the organization, they are some of the basic rules that need to be followed
which are:
 Basic function: While implementing a wireless CRM projects in the company, it is very
important that our company should take care of the design factors which are highly
depended on the device. For example, there are many phones which are web enabled and
they have a soft key which can be used for the multiple functions by the customers.
Therefore, all the design factors should be considered for the convenience and reliability
of the customers.
 Basic structure: Simple and descriptive mobile based communications says the time of
the customers as well as provides data loss protection to the customers.
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 Basic content: The content of a mobile application should be very simple. Instead of
building a heavy application for the mobile phones, it will be better to build a Mini
application with proper design having fast navigation ability for the customers(Pavlov).
Task 2: Reasons of failure for the CRM project implementation
Mashkin group inc. is wholly owned subsidiary of Amir Incorporation. This consists of three
primary divisions including mutual fund Company, asset Management Company and Financial
Service Company. Despite of the careful planning at Mashkin, there are many major challenges
faced by the company during the CRM project implementation.
First challenge that is faced by the company is related to the cost of the new CRM system as it is
turn to be greater than it was expected. Moving further, another issue faced by the company is
related to the process of data transfer. In this process thousands of client files have been shared
with the contact notes, but it lacks chorology and somewhere that creates a problem for the
customers. All these customers are the long-term clients as they are working with the company
for the last 10 years. Because of this problem, user efficiencies are declining in this optimal
system(Trivedi).
Another reason behind the failure of CRM implementation was user training. It is observed that,
firm provided all its training and development programs through online mode in the new CRM
system. Because of the lack of structure for user training, most of the CRM projects failed.
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Moreover, the integrated CRM applications are basically designed for the financial industry but
it has been found that sales people and financial advisors were not utilizing this application
properly. The end users of these applications are still preferred the old technologies instead of
using the new comprehensive CRM system(Griffin, Curtis and Barrere).
Task 3: Current state of CRM practice in Russia
Russia has completed its five years of CRM development and still continue to adopt the new
CRM applications. According to the data quest, the Russian CRM market accounted for $5
million in 2001,and then it is increased to $11 million in 2002 and $35 million in 2003. Now, in
the coming years, this value was estimated at $60 million. In Russia, basically the largest
segment is financial and telecommunication sectors in the CRM industry. The estimated
implementation price in Russia for CRM is around $1,000 to $5,000 for a single user. Recently,
in the conference of the Russian CRM forum, it is conducted by the speakers that the coming
years would be successful years for the vendors as well as the customers because of the growth
of CRM projects. Mashkin realize necessity of implementation of new CRM system because of
the growth of Russia industries and their business expansion. MegaFon-Moscow and its new
CRM system is a good example of fully integrated CRM. Because of the expansion of the mobile
phone market, company decided to implement the Amdocs CRM technology. The introduction
of new technology in the company provides a unified platform for consolidated MegaFone
Moscow which helps in motivating employees to provide high quality of customer services in
Russia(Mishra and Mishra).
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Task 4: Additional Challenges in Russian Market
There are many other additional challenges that can be faced by the companies in Russia except
cost and user training. Therefore, some of the strategies and the issues related to the CRM and
the implementation in the Russian market has been discussed as below:
Strategy: The major reason behind the failure of CRM implementation was identified by the 64%
of corporations during the survey was the improper strategy used by the companies on how to
use collected data. It is very important when management decided to implement CRM in the
organization then all the employees should identify the main objectives that the company want to
achieve through CRM implementation. For the successful implementation of strategy, it is very
important to define the processes and identifying the requirements of customers and making
decisions regarding the execution of CRM projects(Sutela).
Management: Another challenges for the CRM implementation in Russian market is related to
the customer management problems because of the new technologies. New technologies
introduced in the organizations are the best tool to help the management in decision making
processes in order to gain the comparative advantage as well as good amount of profits (Gordon).
Backup plan: It is observed that the Russian companies that are implementing CRM projects are
not holding any backup plan which is again a problem for the companies. Therefore, it is
suggested that the Russian companies should need to establish a backup plan in the case of
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problems arises with the CRM implementation. Moving further, another issue faced by the
company is related to the process of data transfer. In this process thousands of client files have
been shared with the contact notes what it lacks chorology somewhere that creates a problem for
the customers. All these customers are the long-term clients as they are working with the
company for the last 10 years. Because of this problem, user efficiencies are declining in this
optimal system(Kulpa).
Business culture: The CRM issues faced by the Western companies are related to the business
culture. Germany authors who stated that Russian market offer numerous opportunities but it is
difficult to analyze which practices are successful and which are not. Therefore, according to the
business forecast, Russia looks promising in the development of CRM systems in the future
period of time. According to the experts and specialist, Russia is a big country but its population
density is quite low. Therefore, to stay competitive in the Russian market, it is very important to
respond as per the needs of the customers because it has a big effect on the long-term business.
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Conclusion
Before implementing CRM projects, it will be better if the company identifies its target market
and customers to whom they will serve in the future. According to the structure of AMIR
Limited, customer centric profit and loss stage should be applicable, because this strategy is
really useful to find out the services discounts and the level of the pricing and distribution
available. It is very important to make use of the potential channels available to the company.
While implementing a wireless CRM projects in the company it is very important that our
company should take care of the design factors. It is very important when management decided
to implement CRM in the organization then all the employees should identify the main
objectives that the company want to achieve through CRM implementation. It is suggested that
the Russian companies should need to establish a backup plan in the case of problems arises with
the CRM implementation. It is concluded that the company should invest in the Russian markets
for CRM in order to gain the high amount of profits.
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References
Arthur, Lisa. "Implementing a CRM Strategy." 2011.
<http://www.moline-consulting.com/Reinventando/Pagines/CRM-strategy.html>.
Gordon, Ian. "Best practices: customer relationship management." 2002.
<https://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/best-practices-customer-relationship-
management/>.
Griffin, Tom, ed. "CRM in Russia and U.S. -- Case Study from American Financial Service
Industry." Journal of Technology Research (2008): 1-14.
<http://www.aabri.com/manuscripts/08028.pdf>.
Kulpa, Jason. "Why Is Customer Relationship Management So Important?" October 2017.
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/10/24/why-is-customer-
relationship-management-so-important/#57f09c5a7dac>.
Mishra, Alok. "Customer Relationship Management: Implementation Process Perspective."
2009. <https://uni-obuda.hu/journal/Mishra_Mishra_20.pdf>.
Nguyen, Thuyuyen. "Strategies for successful CRM implementation." Information Management
& Computer Security 15.2 (2007): 102-115.
<https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/4133/93305d34857567af72dfcf0c95828a308c28.pdf>.
Pavlov, Andrey. "The State of CRM in Russia: Five Key Trends." April 2005.
<http://customerthink.com/the_state_of_crm_in_russia_five_key_trends/>.
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Rogers, Paul. "The 7 steps to a successful crm implementation." 2014.
<https://www.hcltech.com/sites/default/files/resources/whitepaper/files/2015/04/02/
crm_7_steps_to_succsess.pdf>.
Sutela, Fanny. "Implementation of a crm system." 2016.
<https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/108032/Sutela_Fanny.pdf?sequence=1>.
Trivedi, Ashish. "Customer relationship management strategy (a teaching case study)." 2017.
<http://www.academia.edu/4970923/CUSTOMER_RELATIONSHIP_MANAGEMENT
_STRATEGY_A_TEACHING_CASE_STUDY_>.
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