CRM systems still remain popular among the financial sector consumers, as banks need ordering of the customer information, formalization of the relationships with customers, as well as transfer of these relationships from the area of personal knowledge and contacts into the area of business processes.

Today, the informational reasons for high-profile press releases about the implementation of some or other CRM system appear rarely. First, many suppliers have already come to the Russian market. Second, most of the banks that needed solutions of this class, have implemented the necessary functionality one way or another, and are now gradually improving the existing platforms. The need to use CRM was always sold by suppliers as a universal tool to improve the sales' effectiveness, and the organizations that could afford to buy it, have already done so.

MATURE MARKET

In the Russian CRM market, the main international solution providers with their own implementation histories, more or less successful, are represented, along with the local suppliers with effective developments for particular segments. Therefore, on the one hand, the degree of maturity of the domestic CRM market can be considered as meeting the needs of the customers, on the other hand -in its assessment it should be taken into account that the Russian banking sector is developing unevenly. For example, some lending institutions have already implemented and are actively applying CRM-models in their work, while many of their "colleagues" cannot afford that or do not feel the need for such solutions.

Interes to CRM appears when the struggle for the client intensifies. In the financial sector, market saturation tendencies can already be observed. For many organizations, this was a signal that the conditions for the introduction of CRM were brewing, so a bank, which at this point had a working tool in hand, would get a serious competitive advantage.

In general, the domestic market is following the track of the western one: the specialization of the offered CRM solutions is deepening. There appear systems for B2B, B2C, G2C communication. However, there are some peculiarities about the implementation of CRM in Russia. The analysts point out that the large Russian customers often prefer self-made software for system automation: the average ratio of the use of the commercial and self-made CRM systems in Russia is 50/50, whereas in the world it is 60/40 in favor of the commercial ones.

There is another characteristic trend noted by the researchers: at the moment, the Russian companies automating the CRM area prioritize their tasks as follows: sales automation is in the first place, the second place is customer service, then - marketing and e-commerce. While in the U.S., where most industries' markets are characterized by very intense competition, the automation of customer service is a priority for companies.

Experts are discussing the wider use of CRM according to SaaS model abroad. The emergence of new providers of CRM solutions based on cloud technologies will enhance competition in the market. However, in Russia, the practice of cloud technology application is not very popular in the financial sector. This is due to the fact that the banks are operators of personal data, and thus the use of cloud solutions may lead to the violation of the Russian laws. In addition to internal superstitions, there is a critical issue of confidentiality of data storage. Banking experts are accustomed to seeing and feeling the effectiveness of the protection of information against unauthorized access, which is pretty hard to imagine with the use of third-party cloud solutions.

According to some analysts, using cloud technology based CRM solutions in Russia could be potentially promising for small and medium lending institutions, but the question would often get stuck on the personal data security and bank secrecy. In addition, it so happened that historically the banks have apprehensions as to the transfer of their customers' information to third parties, therefore, even if this model is implemented in Russia, it will not happen soon.

IT IS TIME FOR ANALYTICAL CRM

It is necessary to distinguish between the systems for the implementation of analytical and operational CRM. In retail banking placing its stake on the increase in sales to the existing customers, the key systems are those supporting the analytical CRM processes. Some experts believe that now is the time for analytical CRM for retail banks: the "historical" clients' portfolios have significantly increased, many credit institutions have come to the conclusion that making additional sales to the existing customers can be somewhat cheaper than competing with other banks in the pursuit of new customers.

The objectives of the implementation of operational CRM are associated with the area of efficiency of the sales process, which includes the number of customers served per unit time, and the percentage of conversion of potential customers into real ones. In this paradigm, operational CRM as a system is a means of integration of the points of contact with the client and the various communication channels in order to achieve the maximum effect of the marketing promotions. In the absence of an operational CRM as a system, a direct integration of analytical CRM with the channels and points of sale is possible. But operational CRM is also required in retail business. It helps achieve maximum efficiency of the standard sales processes, which is very important for a constant flow of mass customers, which means it is capable of rapid and obvious output only in conjunction with the analytical CRM.

VARIOUS CRM STRATEGIES

The Customer Relationship Management system is a software application for the automation of the strategies of interaction between banks or companies and the customers. Thanks to this, in the future it will be possible to build analytics, perform data sampling and thereby increase the effectiveness of sales.

The basis of the CRM model consists in the fact that among the important areas of activity are the measures to support effective marketing, sales and customer service. The support of these business objectives involves collection, storage and analysis of information about customers, suppliers, partners, as well as the internal processes of the company.

It is rather difficult to characterize as a unified scheme the trends in the implementation of CRM systems in the banking sector, because CRM models are built on what the customers need at the moment, and in this regard the banks have different preferences. For this reason, credit institutions are implementing a variety of CRM strategies.

In the banking sector, there are no universal solutions - it all depends on the needs of the client a financial institution is working with. For some banks it is very important for the work with the customer base to be multi-channel, that is, the customer should be served using back- and front-office systems and should be identified as one and the same person in the array of clients.

Relevant for large retail lending institutions are the expansion of the parameters of the customer information collected, introduction of transactional components, expansion and amplification of analytics. For their smaller "colleagues", the problems may be of a different level.

Some financial institutions approach CRM implementation gradually: first the original customer information collection and processing functionality is implemented, and then sales efficiency improvement problems are tackled.

Many banks' analysts say that the initial expectations related to the use of CRM come true. At the same time, the system developers are forging ahead: there are new demands from the customers, and therefore, the process of CRM improvement continues.