The company chose to deploy SatMarketing, a geo-coding tool that helped the insurance firm get in touch with its target customers.
SatMarketing, a product developed by Hyderabad-based routing and global positioning system technologies provider, SatNav Technologies, is able to geo-code addresses, identify target customers and analyse existing types.
Earlier a part of Satyam Computer Services [ Get Quote ] Restricted, SatNav was spun off into an independent entity within 2004.
Geo-coding is the process of converting street handles, or locations like postal codes, city, district and condition codes, ones with definite latitudes and longitudes, which could be entered into a GPS device or a geographical software program.
SatMarketing, developed on the PHP and Java platforms and copyrighted 6 months ago, takes customer information like address from an insurance provider, compares it with map data, and ensures the particular location is within the point of interest with SatNav.
The tool geo-positions the customer's data into digital data. An insurance company may also add other customer demographic information available with them such as per-capita income and lifestyle.
It can also create a good affinity group (high-premium generating individuals) for better premium deals.
The insurance company can also geo-code an agent to the process. The tool puts customer data on the chart. It can then bisect it, overlay it with the actual demographic information, and then package the information at grid-levels, agent-levels as well as region-levels.
"No organisation can afford to stay complacent by offering an identical product to all sections of society, without considering the identify of the key target customers.
"The need of the hour would be to embrace this change and ride on it, rather compared to fighting back with outdated tools. The key is customisation, that's, micro-marketing, " says S Selvamuthiah, co-founder and senior vice-president, SatNav.
How accurate may be the information the geo-coder provides? Selvamuthiah says even if an address is 50 percent incorrect, the SatMarketing tool places the agent within the two-three kilometre radius.
"Currently, the tool is being offered online so that as a desktop application. It is currently used by multiple insurance providers through our partner, Mumbai-based Micro Marketing Services India.
"We are actually looking at extending this to fast-moving consumer goods, digital retail chains, banks, telecommunications and automotive, " he states.
SatNav has also developed other tools, SatNavigator and SatTracx, that, besides a multinational FMCG major with a strong foothold within India, is also being used by the Adani Group because of its fruit business in Himachal Pradesh.
Adani is now attempting to extend this tool to its other divisions like exploration and power.
These tools help firms improve their submission and routing efficiency, sales force routing and work percentage, leading to higher sales.
"Based on the store data supplied by the companies, these tools generate delivery routes for product sales teams, depending on their order books…If there is a big change in the stores or addresses, there is a user-friendly user interface, through which the company can add new information, inch says Selvamuthiah.
SatNav has developed a mobile application with regard to GPS-enabled Android, BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows phones, through that the companies can put a scheduler in the app, which already has got the map data.
The scheduler tracks the sales person actually hour, or according to the time period set previously.
"Typically, the app gets cell-tower information, or the coordinates, and puts that within the server. It then puts it back into our chart. At the end of the day, the company gets a map about the movement of the sales person, " he says.
Selvamuthiah states currently, nine leading insurance companies and two FMCG companies are utilizing its tools.
Source : Rediff