NatWest selects Microsoft Dynamics CRM ahead of Salesforce.com and Oracle

Dynamics was preferred because of its on-premise option, says RBS head of CRM

NatWest has selected Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution ahead of alternatives from Salesforce.com and Oracle, as it looks to replace its aging systems.

The bank said its systems were being stretched to provide CRM functionality, and so it looked for a new solution to keep up with business and customer demands.

David Russell, head of CRM for business and commercial banking for the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which owns NatWest, said that the bank wanted to improve its business banking division by creating a consolidated view of all customer touch points and by streamlining processes to free up employee time so that they can better focus on customers.

"We also sought powerful analytics capabilities that would allow us to further improve those customer relationships while driving cross-selling opportunities through value-added customer interactions," he said.

"CRM helps us to deliver a personalised service, which supports customers in achieving their ambitions," he added.

Ease of use was a key concern for the bank, said Russell. "We recognised that the main challenge in driving a successful CRM deployment was getting high user adoption. And in order to get the adoption we needed, we knew we didn't want a system that our users viewed as yet another software program that they had to learn and use; rather we wanted them to regard the CRM system as a part of a solution they already had," he explained.

A key reason for opting for Microsoft's solution ahead of Salesforce.com and Oracle was because of its on-premise option.

"Not all solutions had an on-premise option; with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, there was," Russell said.

The bank took a year to plan the deployment of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and implementation took four months, with the solution going live to 3,000 users in April 2013.

This has enabled the bank to ensure its staff have related customer information at all times, while also getting more insight into its customers.

"Before Microsoft Dynamics CRM, employees would spend around 30 minutes preparing for a customer meeting, as they had to print documents and make phone calls. Now all that information is in one system, and they can prepare in a matter of minutes," said Russell.

NatWest is also using the solution for pipeline management, marketing campaigns, and task and queue management.

Russell said he doesn't want the bank to complicate the platform by customising it, but instead wants NatWest to leverage what the solution already has built-in.

"We view Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a development platform that will help us meet our various business needs now and in the future. However, we believe that the most effective way to do that is to limit bespoke development and instead to leverage the out-of-the-box functionality of Microsoft Dynamics CRM as much as possible, for example by fully utilising the built-in workflow engine," he said.

According to Microsoft, 95 per cent of NatWest's user base has adopted the CRM solution.

NatWest's Russell said the business case for implementing Dynamics was based on increased cross-selling.

"We built our business case on increased product cross-sells. Our ROI analysis informed us we would have a payback period of five years," he stated.