Birlasoft Inc. — Sales Force Automation at Crisis: Software as a Service (SaaS) or Software as a Product (SaaP) (A) & (B)

Abstract

Case (A) Birlasoft, a Global IT major, had been facing massive challenges in monitoring its sales force spread over 20 global locations. Owing to the strong client base spread all over the world and the massive sales force, the organization needed to focus on a more efficient sales tracking system. Ravi Kathuria, Senior Vice president — Global Marketing & Alliances of Birlasoft was keen to align the organization’s dispersed sales force through Sales Force Automation (SFA) system. In this context, SFA was expected to provide transparency and clear visibility of the sales pipeline. There was also an expectation that SFA would help in improving efficiency of global sales force in terms of reporting and customer analysis. At first, the organization decided to implement a home grown sales force automation system, which turned out be a failure, owing to both internal and external factors. This led Kathuria to explore other options which could meet their system requirements and could be implemented in shorter time frames with minimum budget. They evaluated multiple options and are debating on which system to opt for. This case examines the various software delivery methods in the decision on new software procurement. Several software and vendor parameters and the analytical structure and process for evaluating software vendors are included for consideration. This case underlines an innovation which has introduced a complete paradigm shift in information application acquisition, that is, instead of buying software as a product, organizations are increasingly procuring it as a service. Case (B) Following from Case A, the team in Birlasoft appraised multiple options and the majority of the team members were inclined towards SaaS-based SFA. This case discusses various processes and parameters considered by Birlasoft while deciding on a new software vendor.