ALPHATECH INDIA LIMITED: B2B

CUSTOMER RETENTION
 Case Background
 Alphatech India ltd., a subsidiary of Alphatech Corporation, a
market leader in providing technology for AIMS
 Alphatech had the largest market share in AIMS market globally
& also in India, but lately its market share dropped from 65% in
2009 to 60% in 2011
 Zeta Corporation being the closest competitor was giving hard
time to Alphatech with competing technology for most of
Alphatech’s offerings
 Alphatech had been providing IT support to Neptune, an Indian
project consultancy for over 5 years
 Neptune was looking for vendors to upgrade its existing
Alphatech AIMS
 After some negotiations Alphatech got the order but later on with
a new appointment of new Director, Neptune looked inclined
towards giving Zeta corporation a chance to test its offerings
Neptune – Alphatech Deal
 Neptune had been using Alphatech technology based AIMS
since 2005 & awarded the deal to upgrade their AIMS to
Alphatech in 2010
 Alphatech was offering to complete the job for Rs. 105 million
after giving a 30% discount on list price
 Srikant Das, Alphatech’s sales manager- north region
handled the deal
 Later due to budgetary constraints, Neptune postponed the
implementation for 2 years
 In December 2012 when Das approached the newly
appointed Director-IT at Neptune, Das got a very meek
response from him & was left confused
 Later Das found that Swami, Director-IT was considering Zeta
as an option rather than closing the deal
Neptune Management

Satish • Swami & Rajeev both joined

Gopakumar Neptune in December 2011
(Managing • Das met with both Harish
Director) Swami & Rajeev Srivastava
for following up on the deal
• While Harish Swami showed
Venkat less interest, Rajeev seemed
Ramamurthy Harish Swami satisfied with Alphatech’s
(Director User (Director IT) proposal
Dept.)
• Rajeev’s promotion was
dependent upon his
feedback from Swami, so he
Rajeev could not go against Swami
Srivastava • Das had good rapport with
(General
Manger, IT) Venkat Ramamurthy
Key Concerns
Alphatech was still offering to provide the solutions at price quoted in 2010
even after price fluctuations

Still Swami was inclined towards testing Zeta’s offerings and was
postponing closure of the deal & Das was informed about the same by
Rajeev
Although Alphatech got the deal as their offering were technologically
superior than that of Zeta, further postponement could work against
Alphatech as Zeta would get more time to advance its offerings
Swami was amongst the decision makers, so Das had to get him on board
to close the deal

Das rejecting Xion’s (its implementation partner which also worked with
Zeta) proposal might have worked against Alphatech
 Purchase Portfolio Matrix for
Neptune
• AIMS
implementa High Leverage
tion was a Criticals
big &
Items (new technology)
(raw materials)
critical CUSTOMER
project for
Neptune
VALUE
• They were
Bottleneck
looking to Generics
minimizing
Low (MRO items)
Items
cost via (essential spare parts)
getting the
best quality
• Zeta’s
offerings Low CUSTOMER RISK High
were
competitive
Recommendations

Das should first try to understand what prompted Swami to suddenly consider
Zeta’s proposal by talking to Rajeev or other employees & then communicate
the advantages of going ahead with Alphatech to Swami

Alphatech’s products were already superior than that of Zeta & Neptune was
already using Alphatech’s Aims so the total cost of ownership would be less if
Neptune goes with Alphatech, as training & other costs would be less

Das should explain this to Neptune & try to convince them to consider T.C.O
rather than initial price

Das should leverage his rapport with Venkat to gain trust of Swami & try to
close the deal as soon as possible
Thank You