vrijdag
30
jul
jul
| Interview John Glennane |
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| do 01 mei 2003 | |
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MR J. Glennane – Founder and CEO of Ventis
This edition,
already the fifth interview since we started, will be the first one in
English. We have had the exclusive opportunity to interview Mr. J.
Glennane, CEO of Ventis, a CRM consulting company with its headquarter
in Dublin, Ireland. Before we took this interview, we were able to
attend a lecture at the Univerity of Nijmegen, where he taught some
best practices on CRM. Some interesting remarks can be read in this
interview as well.
Profile Mr. John Glennane studied Engineering at the University of Dublin, Ireland. In 1986, after obtaining his Masters Degree, he taught for 2 years at this University College Galway. Between 1988 and 1996 he worked as a consultant with Andersen Consulting where he spent most of his time working on the development and implementation of UK government benefit and pension administration systems. In short, he was busy with computerizing a pension system in the UK. Glennane went to Holland in 1996, where he worked for ITT, a company busy with publishing directories like the ‘Gouden Gids’. From ’98 – ’99 he led the IT department for PriceWaterhouse Coopers. In this period, he began thinking of his own company and at the end of 1999, Ventis was founded. Ventis is a CRM consulting company with offices in Ireland, the UK and the Netherlands. Back in 1998, Ventis focused on information technology. The early emphasis on CRM technology was changed within Ventis as it became clear that the business, organisational and cultural issues for better CRM are more critical than the technology. This differentiates Ventis from its competitors in that Ventis focus a lot of attention up front in getting the business foundations for CRM right first. Then the technology issue can be addressed properly and the “right” technology chosen to meet the unique needs of the client. This well developed business focus of Ventis has made the company successful. Mr. Glennane is still CEO of Ventis. Are you an innovator? “No, not really. I’m ‘just someone’ who expands existing ideas. CRM is a jargon word. Look, in the early nineties parts of the CRM solution started to be developed. At this time, Information Technology (IT) and Cost management were linked to each other. IT was primilary used to reduce cost, to be more efficient, an inward looking approach. In the mid nineties, CEO’s began to focus more on creating shareholder value, growing and selling more. This can only be achieved by focusing on increasing market share and increasing the value of customers. “Right now, the problem is that people associate CRM with technology only. Vendors latch on to the term even where their solutions only address small parts of the equation. Blaming the technology is not right, or the only reason, when looking for reasons for failure. Also taking the view that CRM is successful because of the technology is not correct either. The success for CRM is more to do with people and commitment. Of course if this is right, then technology solutions can be an enormous help. IT can absolutely be important when solving a business problem, but it is very important to understand the business problem first and then to decide whether or where IT should be used or not.” “When we talk about CRM, the ‘R’ is very important: it is about relationships, getting a good feeling. CRM is about understanding customer needs, empathy, listening, action, responsiveness, loyalty and trust. In CRM we try to understand and control these factors, to be smarter than the competition. When you summarize it like this, CRM isn’t that complex at all: everyone wants to serve his/her customers very well. That is true, but the sophisticated world in which we live makes it very complex. Everything is tied up with everything, stakeholders (suppliers, stockholders, customers, employees, the employer, trade unions et cetera) have multiple relations with each other. When you make a picture of these relationships, you ‘ll get a drawing that looks like spaghetti and that makes understanding the customer a hard job. Managing all those relationships is what I call Total Relationship Management (TRM).” Could you describe some interesting projects you were involved in? We do three things: 1) Business Services, where we help companies articulate their unique definition of CRM, 2) Solutions Delivery, where we assist our clients in implementing CRM solutions and 3) Educational Services, where we work to deliver training, knowledge and insight into what CRM is, or can be. “ Most of the time we work for companies, getting the business problem clear and helping them to choose and implement CRM solutions. Solutions can involve business-only change, technology or both. “We worked for example for AIG. AIG is the largest Insurance Company in the world. This was a pure BI-project: info had to be analyzed to sell more. According to Mr. Glennane, BI is ‘insight into what’s going on, both internally and externally for better decision making and for competitive advantage’.” Another interesting project was for the Irish Electricity Company. In short, it was about implementing a CRM strategy. About raising the level of service for customers. “How we did that? By: - Talking to everybody in the organization; - Building the business ; - Defining information needs; - Defining the IT infrastructure; - Implementing the IT infrastructure; - Adoption: make it work.” This last step may be trivial, but it is crucial. “Implementing technology is one thing, but motivating people is something else! Eighty percent of the issue is people!” On the Educational services side, we have general executive training courses or tailored courses specific to individual clients. We work closely with industry bodies such as the Marketing Institute of Ireland and the Institute of Bankers of Ireland. I authored a complete CRM educational manual for the latter that is presented over 3 months as part of their industry certification programme. “Norman Manley, Vice President of Information Builders, says:” Failing of CRM implementations is due to lack of leadership and commitment. It is an organizations own fault. Do you agree?” “Yes, I do. When we talk about information needs, everbody says that everything is absolutely necessary. But is that so? Leadership should manage those issues.” Leadership is a cultural thing, “it is about vision, direction and discipline.” “It is about whether we should ‘do this, or do that’, to argue why it should happen, to ensure that it does happen and to demonstrate that it is of value to do later through constant review.” Our information about satisfaction in CRM software is a bit contradictory. Some researchers conclude satisfied customers (we would like to refer to a market research form Aberdeen), some researchers conclude something else (with referral to a research done by Siebel). What is your opinion in this case? “During my time at the university, there was a professor who could prove that wearing a seatbelt is more dangerous than not wearing one, based on the same research that concluded that wearing seatbelts is safer. You can interpret a survey any way you want”. “Some clients ask me: what is the best CRM software at the moment? This is an impossible question to answer.” Glennane compares this question with: “what is the best rock cd in the world? You can’t answer it, because there is no best rock cd, unless you specify and agree upon the criteria you use when judging a rock cd. The same goes for judging CRM software.” “Why? - There are many solutions; - Some call themselves CRM but are not; - Some software vendors have too big solutions, some too small for that specific company; - And so on.” In other words, it depends on the company and its problem. If you have a correct image of these issues, then you are able to find a proper (software) solution. In your lecture, you already mentioned that Return On Investment (ROI) is a hot theme in CRM-world. Why? "CRM is about protecting the business you have, growing it and maintaining a business that is better than that of the competition while delivering high customer satisfaction. ROI is important because nobody will or should invest in any change unless it brings value. The difficulty with ROI in CRM is that a lot of money can be invested in technology, from which companies then expect to see a rapid return. People must realise that the technology alone will not deliver the return. It is, rather, an enabler to the organisation. The people, the processes they operate under and the quality of products and service delivery are more important in realising a positive return on investment." How do you sell such a proposition? “Well, I get the foundation right. The big picture should be clear for the client. Then they know what is required to realise the benefits. Expectations must be in line what can be realised. That’s an important condition.” “Another important condition is that we start small, with a pilot project. Sometimes, companies want or expect too much in the beginning. CRM is evolutionary and incremental. It must be addressed in such a way that the organisation can easily handle. Then the benefits are realisable more quickly and the organisation’s mindset is more positive and is ready for more. Glennane uses the following equation to explain: “if I want to learn how to ride a motorbike, I might start by learning how to ride a bicycle, before I crash the motorbike!’’ |
