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Garima Sinha
Garima Sinha

Garima Sinha

Head - Marketing

Ramco Systems

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Company description & strategies in place
Ramco Systems, a part of the USD 952 Million Ramco Group, is a leading
software company focused on consulting, products, and managed services
business. Started as an R & D division of Ramco Industries Limited
in 1992, Ramco Systems was later established as an independent company
in 1999. Headquartered in Chennai, the company has 15 offices spread
across India, APAC, US, Canada, Europe, Middle East and Africa. The
company focuses on providing innovative business solutions that can be
delivered quickly and cost-effectively in complex environments. Ramco
has over 140,000 users from 950+ customer organizations, globally since
its inception. The company provides solutions to multiple verticals
including banking, insurance, manufacturing, supply chain, aviation,
transportation and logistics, healthcare, governance and more. Our
global marketing team, operating out of the corporate HQ located in
Chennai, India, drives the 360˚ marketing strategy globally encompassing
market research, marketing planning, marketing communication, PR,
Analysts relationship management, ATL marketing, Digital marketing,
Social media marketing, Thought leadership marketing and Customer
relationship management.
Differentiate Strategies in place with your Competitors
Uniqueness & Simplicity have been the key differentiators giving us
an edge in the marketplace. We follow a 360˚ marketing strategy spanning
across various marketing channels with an "outside-in" approach- there
has been a radical shift in our marketing communication from focus on
the features of our products / solutions to focus on what challenges of
our target audience can be addressed by our products / solutions. Our
brand has always focused on value delivery- understanding the challenges
from customers point of view and communicating value to customers on
using our solutions. We have built our brand by educating how
organizations can benefit by adopting innovative solutions for their
complex business environments. This strategy of not directly selling our
product has worked well to our advantage in terms of increased brand
awareness & recall and better connect with our target audience.
Unique strategies that gone unseen or a superhit
Ramco is an early mover and launched its ERP on the Cloud ahead of the
pack. To market our public cloud offering Ramco OnDemand ERP (RODE), we
could have taken the most commonly used approach of direct communication
using customer testimonials / technical description of the features and
benefits. But, we took the road less travelled approach (which has been
our DNA right from starting the first ERP Product company from India)
of using abstract communication- depicting the power of the cloud
through animals (e.g. Cheetah to symbolize "The Planets Most Powerful
ERP on the Cloud"). Typically, technology companies dont follow this
high risk - high gain approach mainly due to uncertainty whether people
will be able to understand and appreciate the marketing advertisements
which entails huge media investments. This unique and innovative
strategy of marketing RODE was a great success and paid rich dividends
by creating an everlasting impact on our target audience, of our brand,
our product and our communication method itself so that mind recall is
much higher.
Market share Captured
In a survey conducted by GfK Mode, a leading market research company,
Ramco ranked the top of mind recall among the Indian ERP Players.
Further, our public cloud ERP offering Ramco OnDemand ERP (RODE) had the
top of mind recall among the cloud players. This was the result of
intense and focused marketing efforts over the last 2 years.
Positioning products in market
Though the product positioning depends on the industry, geography &
the competitive landscape, our positioning has always focused on
end-benefits / value to our customers rather than positioning based on
the superior technology / product. Marketing communication through
various collaterals such as website, presentation, brochure, etc starts
with the customers challenges moving onto how we can solve their
business problems and deliver value.An example of how we have positioned
our product in the market: Ramcos Automated Data Flow (ADF) solution is
positioned on how our solution can help banks in India comply with RBI
regulations by automating the whole process with minimal intervention
from their part. It could have been positioned as the best-of-breed
product using superior technology but we chose to highlight what
problems / challenges can be solved by us enabling them to focus on their core business operations.
Brand Identity creation
Contemporary and resonating visual elements such as the logo, colors,
design, etc have played its part in creating a unique brand identity but
the marketing message has been the crux. Brand Ramco has carved a niche
for itself with the target audience being able to associate and
identify the brand from the message. This is the result of emotionally
connecting with them by looking from their perspective while following
brand guidelines from a visual perspective. RODE has become synonymous
with Cloud ERP in the Indian market mainly because of the message how
organizations can leverage the power of the cloud and reap huge benefits
of a full-fledged ERP on the cloud by moving from CAPEX model to OPEX
model.
Way to reach customers through sales force
Our marketing is driven towards brand building and demand generation.
Focused marketing efforts over the past few years have established Ramco
as a well known brand and increased brand recall. This has also
resulted in bringing more opportunities and a significant surge in
conversion from opportunities to sales for the sales force. In short,
the last mile conversion for the sales force has become easier now owing
to marketing.
Todays Marketing Trend
Marketing Communication: The status quo of marketing creatives earlier
focused on technology being content heavy. Now, the trend is moving from
communicating complexity through technical details to simple, pictorial
and easy-to-understand communication. Lesser and simpler the words, the
better it is.

Customer Connect: With cut-throat competition
vying to take a larger share of the pie, emphasis now is on emotional
and personalized connect with customers. This has become a norm with
every seller trying to get the attention of the buyer amid the lot of
noise that is being generated through a plethora of marketing channels.

Customer
Engagement: Customer retention & references are playing a crucial
role to an organizations growth by increasing the existing revenue pie
as well as growing the overall pie through new order wins. This in turn
is changing the rules of the game from buyer-vendor relationship to
working together as a partner- we need to be in constant touch very much
after the implementation and go live phase through a two-way
communication channels such as surveys, newsletters, periodical product
updates, whitepapers, etc.


Biggest pain point
It has been quite difficult to make people understand what marketing can
do for the organization - the value we can bring by looking at it as a
strategic investment rather than a tactical, one-time discretionary
expense. It is a myth that a B2B organization is all about selling. But,
the reality is that marketing plays a much more important and
challenging role in B2B organizations in terms of building the brand,
creating an ecosystem for the sales force and ensuring the whole
organization speaks one language. We have transformed from just creating
& executing marketing communication to a full-fledged function with
a 360˚ marketing approach.
Matrix to Long sale cycle and multiple Buyers at same time
We have strived to be in constant touch with our prospects / customers
and are measuring the engagement on an ongoing through a customer
survey. This feedback is not just limited to the sales cycle but
measures metrics in the following phases - implementation and support.
The survey questionnaire is quite detailed covering the following:


  • What are the management objectives / challenges before ERP / Analytics implementation?

  • What were the key reasons for choosing Ramco?

  • What are the key business benefits on using Ramcos product / solution?

  • What new features they would like to see in the next version of the product / solution?

  • Overall, what has been the experience of associating with Ramco?

In
a recent study conducted among our customers to study the benefits of
using our cloud ERP, we are delighted with the following key findings:
Over 40% of our customers witnessed a growth of at least 30% in their top-line and bottom-line
Over 55% of our customers were able to reduce operational costs by at least 30%
58% improvement in order fulfilment time
63% improvement in time for monthly financial closure
57% improvement in inventory reconciliation time
Accurate model of customers buying process
Our experience with customers worldwide over the past 20 years has
helped us with a good understanding of our customers buying process. The
process lead time is variable depending on the geography, product
company size but the typical sales cycle for a private cloud offering is
around 9-12 months whereas for a public cloud offering is around 3-6
months.
Relationship of Marketers with the CEOs
Marketers are the right hand for the CEO - starting from understanding
what the customers want through market research, marketing planning
& execution to reach out to the customers, building brand equity
among the target community (prospects, customers, analysts, media,
investors and employees), enabling everyone in the company to speak the
same language to the external world through corporate communications,
and customer engagement throughout the life cycle. Marketing plays a
cross-functional role cutting across teams (Sales, Product Development,
R&D, HR and Finance) and helping them achieve their respective
objectives of reaching out to their internal / external customers. Thus,
being the Go-to-Team for the CEO in achieving his objectives i.e. the
organizations goals and plans.
From a customer point of view Purchasing of a product Is
In a recent survey conducted among our customers, the top reasons for partnering with Ramco for their business are:


  • Product Functionality- Comprehensive, end-to-end

  • Domain Expertise

  • Flexibility - Tools & utilities for end users direct use

  • Compliance with local statutory requirements

  • Reliability in terms of support & training

  • Faster Services - Quick response to change requirements

  • Value for money
Some of the Marketing Appeals & Tactic
A key learning out of understanding our customers buying process is
timing our promotions with the market dynamics. For example, we run more
tactical promotional offers during the last quarter of the year when
our prospects usually decide on new IT initiatives and plan the next
years budget accordingly. This tactic of timing our promotions has
greatly appealed the prospects and the hit ratio is much higher.
Past, present and future of Marketing for marketing experts
Customer has been the main focus irrespective of the time frame but with
the proliferation of new marketing channels and intense competition in
the market, we expect the following action in the present and future of
marketing:


  • Simplicity in marketing communication

  • Glocal approach to customer engagement

  • Green marketing- shift towards online & mobile medium
Opportunities for Business in 2012- the ways to take advantage of them
With organizations looking for innovative and emergent technologies like
cloud computing, we are already witnessing a strong traction for our
cloud offerings. Our enterprise products and solutions available on the
cloud is enabling businesses increase efficiency and reduce costs at the
same time. This will hugely benefit our customers through our elastic
commercial and delivery models as opposed to conventional high
investment / time dependent models. We are poised to take advantage of
huge market potential owing to this "win-win" business model that suits
companies either large or small across verticals.
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