APTECH Ltd

Customer Relationship Management at

APTECH

SUBMITTED BY:

NIKHIL GUPTA

(MFM – 3rd SEM)

About APTECH
Aptech Limited is a global retail & corporate training solutions provider headquartered in
Mumbai, India, with a presence across 5 continents. The company commenced its IT training
business in 1986. Over the years, Aptech Limited has trained over 5 million students.

Aptech prepares students for global careers in IT, multimedia & animation, hardware &
networking, aviation, hospitality and travel & tourism. Corporate solutions include corporate
training, assessment solutions for corporate & universities/ academic institutions and custom
content development for overseas & domestic customers.

Aptech is one of the two largest computer training and education companies in India with
revenues of Rs.3.2 billion (US$65.2 million) in calendar year 2002. Aptech has a network of
2,449 training centers spread across 52 countries and has trained over 2.5 million students
across the globe. Aptech was the first IT training and education organization to be awarded the
ISO 9001 certification (International Organization for Standardization) for Education Support
Services in 1993. This has ensured consistent high quality standards in delivering world-class
curriculum. The company measures its performance against several benchmarks. As a public
company, the first metric is return to shareholders. Given Aptech’s vision is to become a
premier provider of computer education and training globally, it also measures its performance
in terms of corporate citizenship. Several of Aptech’s initiatives are aimed at increasing financial
opportunity through IT empowerment.
The company has grown & diversified into various education-related businesses & its stock is
listed on the BSE & the NSE.

The three basic tenets of APTECH’s vision are:

 To be an education and informational technology megacorp.
 To be the preferred choice of customers world - wide.
 To be the best place work in.

SBUs function as independent business entities and have their main research and development
activities headquartered in India.

Global strategic business units (SBUS) are as follows:

Retail businesses
 Aptech Computer 
Education 
IT training & education

 Arena Animation 
Animation & 
multimedia training

 MAAC 
High-end 3D animation & VFX education

 Avalon Academy 
Aviation, Hospitality & Tourism education
  N-Power 
Hardware & networking

 Aptech Worldwide 
International IT &
multimedia training

 English Express
English language training

Corporate businesses
 Aptech Training 
Solutions 
Corporate training & training outsourcing

 Attest 
Assessment solutions for universities & corporates

 Learning Services 
Customised content
development
Competitors of APTECH
Major competitors are Educomp Sol, NIIT, Everonn Edu, Edsev Softsyst. A comparison is given
bellow in the table:

Last Price Market Cap. Sales Net Profit Total Assets

(Rs. cr.) Turnover

Educomp Sol 568.30 5,424.73 832.11 218.33 920.25

NIIT 67.90 1,121.00 625.17 31.17 644.59
Everonn Edu 636.35 962.19 210.65 43.40 339.57
Aptech 151.95 719.07 120.21 86.35 251.02
Edserv Softsyst 201.00 245.89 52.12 18.02 34.85
Before CRM was implemented
 Documentation problem :- It is found by qualitative and quantitative research that eighty
percent of the students enrol at APTECH because of word of mouth but what experience
was shared is not documented.
 Lack of system:- There were no such system that will capture any suggestion, complaint
or query made by a student.
 Reusable templates can be widely used in e – commerce and ERP solutions.
 E-link template can be used for an ERP solution which reduces development time by
sixty percent.
 Problem in access : It will provide unlimited access to any one in organisation.
 Since APTECH was in the Knowledge Management Business. There was a need to be able
to practice what one preached.

CRM AT APTECH
There are two units of CRM are used at aptech

 CRS
 CAS

CRS

CRS is a customer service solution and not a data crunching operation. Using CRS students can
gives feedback on Centre, Product, People, and Specific Issues. R.O., Product Design, And General
Management for Monitoring Centre Performance, Improving or Revamping the Product, Making
policy decisions and for overall improvement in delivery process uses this feedback.

It covers three locations: Centre, Regional Office and Head Office. In the Centres and Regional
offices CRS consists of the Client Server Modules, while in the head office it consists of the
Client Server as well as the Knowledge Management modules.

CAS

CAS (Centre Automation System) is the data base of students. This data base is used by Centre
personnel for student tracking and by the R.O for monitoring centre performances. Plan is there
to extend a call centre and data base for Alumni.

Objective CRS at APTECH

 Provide sufficient information, through a easy to access interface, to the customer for
judging their current status and make a plan for the future based on same.
 Provide an interface for the customer to communicate his\or her views on the service
received by them.
 Have a mechanism in place to capture warnings signals at an early stage to enable
proactive preventive action.

The Client/Server module includes . . .(Advantages)

  Software designed to be very efficient in handling large volumes of data, but without
requiring expensive specialized computers 
 The same efficiency in processing that large corporations use to process billions of
records daily. 
 The ability to increase the speed of nearly all data access functions from 50 to 500% 
 Capabilities to reduce network "traffic" and increase the speed of other programs
using the network 
 A design to reduce the possibility of corrupted files when there is a system failure on
the network (such as a loss of electric power) 
 Availability on several platforms including peer-to-peer networks, Novell NetWare,
and Windows NT/2000/XP servers 
 A very low cost for the gain in productivity! 

How the Client Server Module Functions

Client module server module has a back end developed in Oracle and a front end developed in
Powerbuilder. In each centre CRS are linked to Centre Automation system. In regional Office it is
linked to Regional Automation System.

The Client Server module has various screens like review categories\notifications – Exception,
Today’s feedback, Awaiting Ratification, Ratified, and Pending Closure.
CRS INTERFACE
There are three levels of interacting or interfacing with the system.

 At central level – in this student, student relationship officer(SRO) and administrators

interface with the system.
 At regional office level – the regional head, regional SRO, and the administrator interface
with the system.
 At head office – the administrator and the knowledge integrator interface with the
system

CRS can generate Different Report

Reports such as:

 Complaint category wise frequency analysis

 Cycle time for redressal analysis
 Status report
 Status statistics
 Complaint detail
 Exception report
 Complaint recurrence analysis, and root cause analysis

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT MODULE

It can be viewed from two perspectives – user and knowledge administrator\ integrator.

From the users perspective it consists of six links:

 Discussion group
 Knowledge repository
 Latest update
 Best practices
 FAQs

Provides easy access to the answers your end users need most. Help to documentation, answers
to frequently-asked questions, product briefs, all the latest essential information.
This central information repository offers your users 24/7 customer support, reducing your
service requests while improving your support team’s efficiency.
Organize the content any way you wish – even invite your end users to get involved by helping
to identify the most valuable content.
 The architecture of the knowledge management module

CRM implementation improved Aptech in various way, such as:

1. Improved Organisation Performance and Productivity

The centralisation of data results in faster customer service, improved data accuracy and the
ability to quickly and easily access and share information to boost your productivity.

2. Improve Decision Making Through Better Client Knowledge 

Have a sharper competitive edge, enabling you to sell more effectively and attract new
customers.

3. Improve Call-Centre Efficiency and Service: 

In a call centre, a CRM system enables employees to quickly and effectively access the client
information to decrease the time of the call. Call Centres can also automatically identify
incoming calls and instantly loads a complete client history ready for the employee.

4. Anytime Information Access:

The web access option gives mobile employees instant access to the centralised data to support
their all their activities to improve their time efficiency while also being more prepared and
knowledgeable when interacting with your clients.
5. Improve Client Profitability
Have the information to create and sustain individual client relationships and boost client
satisfaction to maximise profits. A CRM system can also help you identify and market to your
most profitable customers. This approach allows you to increase your marketing efficiency
while reducing the cost.

6. Store, Report and Analyse Customer Feedback

Including quality control and evaluation results, to ensure a prompt reaction to any scenario
that may arise.

7. Professional Quality Controlled Documentation

When templates and documents are held in one location your organisation improves and you
can easily achieve a consistent brand image.

8. Better Management Information

Parameter driven reports, history tables, instant data field creation for the information you
didn't know you needed yesterday.

9. Enhanced Quality Checking

Including a range of built-in features, such as a the Automatic Version to check you are working
from the latest version and full audits of all actions between your organisation(s) and your
client.

10. Minimise Delays

CRM systems become the focal point of all client activities within your our extensive
performance optimisation developments and an intuitive interface ensure that users experience
the minimum delay when operating a mission critical operation.

11. Greater Accountability and Improved Team Working

CLIM8's unique multiple organisation structure for data means separate partner organisations
or external organisations can safely share core data. Each organisation can be optionally made
aware of each other's activities, but security features allow them to remain autonomous on
selected data and information.

Students started using the CRS system in the fourth week of April 2000 and have found it very
useful. They were satisfied with the system response to a particular issue. Action were taken
very fast.

CRS at APTECH benefitting in many ways:

 In carrying informal networks within the organisation to link with expertise employees
and would be consulted on the particular subject.
 Measuring the performance of employees.
 Best customer service
 Creating a well-knit network among employees.
 Improving the quality of response to feedback