We are pleased to feature an interview with Mr. Raghunandan, CEO of Servion Global Solutions. Servion^t provides contact center solutions that enhance the Business response of a company. They have over 200 clients across the Telecom, Banking and Insurance, and Call Center and Technology verticals. Servion^t is an aggressive product company and we are very grateful to Mr. Raghunandan for readily agreeing to this interview.  

1.       Mr. Raghunandan, to start with the basics, can you tell our readers why Servion^t decided to focus on products?  

There were actually two reasons to focus on products. Firstly, we felt that India was performing miracles in the IT services segment. And we felt that we had to prove ourselves in the product space too. Large software companies in India do not generally have product brands except for the occasional Finnacle or Flexcube. So, to that extent we wanted to be different from the other Indian companies. Also, product companies offer high returns to the stakeholders, besides adding tremendous economic value.  

The second reason for getting into the product space was to do with the challenge of marketing a software brand. Imagine competing with world class products – it is both challenging and exciting. Can we challenge our field force in the area that we understand well i.e. in Call Center Solutions? In the Call Center space, there is a need to deploy solutions quickly, as opposed to customized solutions. So, this market need also contributed to our getting into products and that drove the challenge to sales and marketing.

2.       We all know that the market worthiness of the idea is key to success as a product company. For the benefit of our readers, could you explain how the founding team honed in on the product idea? Did you formally validate the idea?

There were three stages to the product launch.

·         First - conceptualization of the product which helped answer questions like what is the use of the product to the end user.

·         Second - package the offering by making it better than custom software. We also developed a quick deployment process and built a positioning around that.

·         Third - evolve a licensing model. We originally had custom solutions that eventually evolved into products because of a market need. The next step was to slowly introduce the concept of licensing to customers.  

There was a common end use for the offering and so we married the branding of the concept to that of the offering.  

3.       What, in your view, are the important prerequisites for building a successful product company, and specifically for Servion^t, how did you put these building blocks in place?

Market need is the primary focus – the questions to be asked are is there a need, are there pain points that your product could solve and so on.  

We have a product called RAP (Response Application Platform) that integrates all customer access channels and business applications into a single response system. The immediate benefits from RAP are: getting more customers, increasing productivity, increasing usage of the system, and faster response time. The offering should satisfy the internal and external needs of the customer.  

Understanding the digestibility of the product concept is also important, i.e. is the market ready for such a product?

Competition in a similar space - We have to extrapolate the learnings from our competitors’ activities and methods. For instance, when we started out, we first analyzed the actions of Genesys and Quintus– our global competition.

Genesis had channel partners like IBM. Genesis has been since taken over by Alcatel. Quintus was the acknowledged market leader and eventually filed for Chapter 11 and was finally taken over by Avaya.  

Servion^t realized that to be successful, we had to do things differently.

4.       Can you relate some of the challenges you faced as a growing product company, and how you overcame them?  

One of the biggest challenges that we face is establishing internal belief – getting your own sales, marketing and technical teams to believe that they can do it. To elaborate, we build a case and repeat it. When a customer questions it, the confidence drops and rebuilding the defenses is a big challenge. 

The other issue is getting customers to endorse your product. There is nothing like a customer speaking for your brand – we had this case when a leading bank in Mumbai had implemented RAP CTI. A person from the Delhi branch literally demanded for RAP CTI to be implemented at his branch also. Now, that is gratifying. 

The other challenge is in growing the brand – knowing how much money to put in and where, whether it be media, alliances, etc.  and what investments to make and so on.  

5.       How receptive are foreign markets to “Made in India ” brand?    

I would say, based on my experience, pretty receptive, and especially to IT brands. There is no negative reaction to the Made in India tag in the IT field. There is a tendency to look at the company behind the brand. So then you talk about SEI CMM certifications, and, of course, bringing in good references is crucial.  

In terms of the size of deals, for small and mid-sized deals, the usual guerilla tactics of telemarketing, direct mailers and so on do work. On the other hand, for a larger piece of the action, like what the Siebels and Oracles manage, branding is very important and for that again the spend is much more.  

6.       What steps are you taking to market your products outside of India ?  

We are currently following a staid organic process. We are planning to make investments only after the economic recovery and adopt a “wait and see” approach.  

Product-wise, technology upgrades is the least that we can do. Packaging, re-branding and repositioning is a big challenge in terms of knowing where, who and what to spend on.  

7.        What is Servion^t’s road-map for the future?  

Our vision is to be the preferred global partner in enhancing business response for our clients. We want to be preferred because of the value that we add with our solutions and not because of price. Our products should be acknowledged as far superior.  

Partnering implies constantly telling the customer how to enhance their business response, what method to adopt and how our products and services address that.  

We are planning to use a variety of methodologies to transform customer satisfaction to customer delight. Also, our goal is to hit $50 Million top-line and $15M as bottom-line by 2005.  

8.       What do you recommend to aspiring product companies from India ?  

Companies have to first figure out how to sell the product. They will have to go through several gestations in sales cycles in India as the cost of selling is not too high here. Also, every IT manager is quite aware of technology and products out in the market. So, the product has to be referencible.  

Secondly, the advantages and features of the product should translate to ROI and revenue enhancements so as to justify the investments made in them. If a company says that their product enhances productivity, it sounds very generic and customers are looking for more tangible benefits. In general, IT companies are obsessed with superior technology, platforms and so on. Companies should realize that quantifying the benefits is more important to the customer rather than the cutting-edge technology used. It is essential to remember that technology is just a means to an end. Once this is done, segmentation, repackaging and so on needs to be taken care of...  

Finally, please keep in mind that in the products game, a company has to be more patient as when compared to IT services.