Tata Motors deploys Siebel CRM

Mumbai: Tata Motors (NYSE: TTM), India's largest and only fully integrated auto maker, and Siebel Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: SEBL), a leading provider of business applications software, today announced that Tata has deployed Siebel Automotive, a customer relationship management (CRM) solution, to enhance customer service, strengthen dealer relationships, and improve operational efficiency and effectiveness.

Currently in use by 500 sales and service personnel, the Siebel CRM solution is expected to be deployed to Tata Motors' entire network of 250 dealer organisations in India by the end of 2005, with more than 1,600 locations and 10,000 sales and service executives expected to use Siebel Automotive.

According to K. R. Sreenivasan, head, CRM and dealer management system, Tata Motors, "Within the first year of implementing the Siebel's solutions, we have seen improvements in customer satisfaction, revenue and operating cost reductions through productivity improvements, and these benefits are expected to increase further over time. This is helping us become truly customer-centric, since we can draw upon real-time, centralised customer and vehicle data and respond better to our customer and dealer needs."

Tata Motors, a flagship company of the Tata Group, is the world's fifth-largest medium and heavy commercial vehicle manufacturer and produces more than 150 commercial vehicle models with a range of light, medium, to heavy-duty trucks, buses, and tractor-trailers with revenues exceeding $3.5 billion (FY 2003-04) and is the second-largest player in the domestic passenger car market in India The company works through a network of dealers located across the country to sell its vehicles. In recent years, this number has expanded by 50 per cent to its current pool of 250 dealer organisations.

The Siebel CRM solution will enable Tata Motors to gather feedback on products to improve design or manufacturing quality as well as measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and programmes. The automaker selected Siebel Automotive because of its partner management capabilities to handle its large dealer network, the solution's zero-footprint web-based architecture and user-friendly interface-critical to support thousands of salespeople with various skill levels.