The client base of any Ukrainian business in the early 2000s was usually kept in an excel file with each person’s name and phone number. Yet, Terrasoft has now provided an alternative: customer relationship management, or CRM.
CRM is a complex system for marketing, sales and service, and arranging all kinds of information about the client – from gender to hobbies and purchasing habits.
About 99 percent of Ukrainian companies have switched to using CRM systems in their work, according to Alex Kharchyshyn, the chief operating officer of the Digital Future investment company.
In his words, CRM helps businesses to better understand their clients’ needs, and in turn to increase their loyalty and the companies’ revenues. The software also ensures the company doesn’t lose ties with the client if the salesperson in charge of the account leaves, as the new employee could easily catch up just by reading the CRM files.
Terrasoft’s team has more than 500 people, working in the company’s offices in Kyiv, Moscow, Boston and London. (Volodymyr Petrov)
According to Taras Talimonchuk, chief operating officer at the Digital Bee marketing agency, Terrasoft ’s partner, advertising systems built to transmit commercials to the user have already started integrating with the CRM systems. Such cooperation enables marketing managers to target the audience more precisely, and thus decrease the cost of advertising.
As a pioneer in the post-Soviet region, Terrasoft designed its own CRM software from scratch. More than 10 years later, after several modifications, the program is called bpm’online. At a webinar on Nov. 20, Terrasoft presented its latest version of the product, bpm’online 7.7.
In its motto, the company says “it is inspired to create the world’s best technologies for business management.”
The company’s team has more than 500 people. Terrasoft has offices in Kyiv, Moscow, Boston and London, as well as 400 partner companies in 35 countries.
Ukraine’s biggest online retailer, Rozetka, leading employment service HeadHunter and Kyiv-based law firm Arzinger are among Terrasoft ’s clients, according to the company’s website.
The company has been focusing mostly on the U.S. market lately, since at least 51 percent of the world’s CRM market is located there, Katerina Kostereva, Terrasoft ’s CEO, said in an interview with AIN earlier this fall.
The Nucleus Research international agency described bpm’online as a leader on the CRM-vendors market in its latest report, CRM Value Matrix, published last September.
“Bpm’online moves from facilitator to a leader because of continued investments in both usability and functionality, largely delivered in the 7.6 release,” Rebecca Wettemann, the agency’s vice president, was cited as saying.
Terrasoft ’s software has also earned a mention in another rating: last August, CRM Magazine ranked bpm’online among the CRM market leaders.
Kharchyshyn, also a former Terrasoft employee, championed bpm’online, saying it had “a combination of a wellthought-out interface and decent set of functions.”
“There happen to be complicated systems that are difficult to start working with,” he told the Kyiv Post. “Terrasoft ’s CRM was designed so that the user does not get lost or scared.”
While Terrasoft is one of the world leaders of the CRM industry, he said, its leadership in Ukraine is uncontestable.
Kyiv Post staff writer Alyona Zhuk can be reached at [email protected]
