With Conferencing, Reliance Consumer Finance Estimates Rs. 2 Cr Annual Savings

Reliance Consumer Finance is part of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. With over 1000 employees, the company’s operations are spread across 20 branches, both in the metros as well as tier 2 and tier 3 cities. Smoothening out the communication challenges inherent to a geographically dispersed operation, conferencing technology has not only helped the teams collaborate more effectively but also emerged as a key business value proposition with projected annual savings of Rs. 2 crore.

Communication Challenge

Constant communication between the head office in Mumbai and the branch offices is a key business imperative for the company. The geographic spread of the operation presented with a significant communication challenge with executives required to travel frequently for weekly meetings, inter-branch interactions, HNI client interactions, product updates and launches, employee appraisals and recruitment. Thereby, resulting in loss of time and resources.

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The peculiarities of the financial services industry posed yet another communication challenge. Selling financial products is complex and sometimes clients need more detail on the product offerings, requiring intervention of senior peers who may not be in the same city.

Tipping Point

While the company already realised the need for a communication tool that could help cut down on the travel costs as well as streamline the entire communication process, the tipping point came when a senior product manager was urgently needed by the auditors for an important meeting. Complicated spreadsheets and excel files could not be left to be discussed on phone or email to resolve the issue. The logjam was finally resolved with a trial conference facility from WebEx.

The resolution meant that what started off as a solution to a one-off issue was extended into a comprehensive solution to cater to the overall communication needs of the company. The WebEx solution was implemented and went live in April 2009. “With the need for deeper market penetration and an overall increase in interaction across the board, we were looking at a cost-effective and efficient tool for communication. Traditional e-mail and telephony had their inherent restrictions and could not replace the advantages of a face-to-face meeting. WebEx helps us reach out to our target audience irrespective of where they are,” shares Sashikumar Ravulapaty, CTO, Reliance Capital.

Presently, WebEx is being used for meetings, conferences, BPMS audits, LSS (Lean Six Sigma), systems and other training needs. The company has also conducted a 2 day/8 hour training program for employees across branches. Other than the marketing department, the HR department also successfully uses the WebEx solution to conduct recruitment interviews and appraisals. Communication through WebEx has also stood the critical test through successfully enabling two significant product launches for the company.

Tangible ROI

The foremost benefit accrued by Reliance Consumer Finance from the WebEx implementation has been cutting down on travel time and costs, as all meetings and interactions between team members across the various branches happen virtually in the WebEx meeting room. The communication tool also enables to connect senior executives with HNI clients and lend support to branches to close deals.
The company has been able to calculate the ROI within a short time span of six months. The implementation has saved Rs. 38 lakhs in travel bills alone and Rs. 24 lakhs in manpower costs, totaling to a net saving of Rs. 62 lakhs within six months. The estimated annual saving is projected at Rs. 2 crores.

Besides the tangible benefits in terms of saving on time and money, the tool has thrown open vast opportunities for collaboration among the different teams, helping improve productivity, often up to 75%.

Conferencing technology has today become a key element of the company’s growth strategy. In fact, any new branches that will be opened in the future will have the tool in place even before it starts operation.