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SCMP Reporter

Backed by strategic partnerships, customer relationship management (CRM) software vendor E.piphany expects to carve a lucrative Asian niche for its Web-based applications as the mainland deregulates its financial services.

Company officials said China's admission to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) would first lead to the opening of the country's financial services, includes banking and insurance.

They said E.piphany's advantage over more established global CRM players, such as Siebel Systems and Oracle, was that its CRM applications suite was quicker to install, easier to maintain, provided a broader range of product, and offered competitive prices.

'Within three years, we expect to generate as much as 20 per cent of our total worldwide revenues from North Asia,' said Angus McDougall, E.piphany vice-president and general manager of Asia-Pacific operations.

The mainland, Hong Kong and South Korea would emerge as E.piphany's most significant Asia-Pacific markets over that period.

CRM applications and services promise companies the opportunity to weave together marketing, merchandising and customer service to target customers.

The company's flagship product, the E.5 System, is said to be the only CRM software package to blend analytical and operational applications to deliver personalised marketing, sales and service.

In the five years since it was founded, E.piphany has grown steadily, posting revenues of more than US$100 million last year. For the quarter ended June 30, the company reported revenues of US$31.1 million, up 27 per cent over US$24.5 million it recorded in the same quarter last year.

About 40 per cent of sales come from consulting, maintenance and related services.

'We provide CRM systems today for over 300 major companies in the retail, financial services, communications, technology, and travel industries, including over 20 per cent of the Fortune 100,' Mr McDougall said.

'Our E.5 system delivers a single, enterprise-wide view that helps global businesses better understand and pro-actively serve customers in real time.'

The California-based company started as a marketing automation vendor, but has acquired other services and sales application technologies to begin offering a broader CRM system.

Gartner analyst Scott Nelson said E.piphany offered a different selling proposition. It included real-time analytics and the ability to pursue personalisation across all sales channels of an organisation.

According to research firm International Data Corp (IDC), Siebel maintained its stranglehold in the CRM market, outperforming all competitors by a huge margin.

Siebel's worldwide market share last year was 23 per cent, compared with the 5.5 per cent of its nearest competitor.

Ming Wong, E.piphany's sales director for Greater China, said the company was eager to establish itself in the conservative, but lucrative, insurance sector.

'That is why we have forged strategic partnerships with traditional information technology vendors in this sector to better gain a firm foothold in this market,' he said. 'When China enters the WTO, the first sector it is expected to deregulate is its insurance industry.'

Last week, E.piphany forged a three-year partnership with global IT services firm EDS, which will resell the E.5 suite as part of its integrated CRM services.

EDS plans to provide outsourcing and act as service provider for the E.5 marketing, sales and service applications.

IDC expects the worldwide CRM services market to grow 25 per cent annually from US$48.4 billion last year to US$148.8 billion in 2005.

Worldwide CRM applications sales grew 84 per cent last year, to US$6.2 billion. By 2005, this market would generate sales of more than US$14 billion, IDC said.

E.piphany officials said the company had expanded its reseller and integration agreement with Hewlett-Packard to include Asia-Pacific opportunities in financial services, travel and leisure, e-commerce, manufacturing and high-technology.

The companies are testing the E.5 suite running on HP's Superdome and N-class servers. They plan to recommend the software and hardware configurations needed to handle customer requirements.

In January this year, Sun Microsystems signed an alliance with E.piphany to provide retailers with the E.5 CRM suite.



E.piphany claims its smaller size will be advantage over rivals as mainland market opens