Surado and Koç.net Introduce Fully Localized Turkish Online CRM Solution for SMEs

Aiming to increase its market share in both corporate and personal products and services through strategic international partnerships, Koç.net has recently partnered with Surado to offer SMEs Localized Turkish online CRM solutions for the first time.

Riverside, California and Istanbul Turkey, April 13, 2011 – Surado and Koç.net today announced a strategic international partnership and agreement to offer Turkish SMEs Surado CRM Online Türkiye, the first completely Turkish online CRM solution, with a flexible model including a range of packages suitable for different budgets and requirements as well as offering ease of use and implementation. This partnership makes Koç.net Turkey's first and only telecom operator a master distributorship to offer online CRM services of Surado.
Mehmet Ali Akarca, General Manager of Koç.net, and Sundip R. Doshi, Chairman & CEO of Surado Solutions, Inc., introduced Surado CRM Online Türkiye at a press conference in Istanbul, Turkey. “We have witnessed that under the new normal conditions when consumer habits change and consumers are more cautious, big companies who focus on customer satisfaction give priority to CRM services, ” said, Mr. Akarca, General Manager of Koç.net. “But SMEs traditionally do not make the necessary investment in CRM services when they don’t find these services easily accessible or applicable, and which they consider a major cost item. As Turkey's leading alternative telecom operator, we have come together with Surado to offer solutions suitable for the requirements and budgets of SMEs wishing to make use of the power of CRM.”

A CRM Solution designed for SMEs in Turkey, Online and in Turkish!
Noting that Surado has been able to provide customized solutions to many companies, big and small, across the world thanks to its flexible service model, Mehmet Ali Akarca went on to say: “Offering products based on these skills of Surado, we have focused on developing solutions that can best meet the specific requirements of users in Turkey by launching a product that meets the requirements of SMEs operating in different industries and in different ways. To this end, we have developed the “Group” and “Professional” packages which can be suitable for the industry that SMEs serve, their scale and number of employees, and meet different requirements and solutions applicable in Turkey.

Listing the most distinctive features of Surado CRM Online Turkey, provided under Koç.net assurance, as its availability online, completely in Turkish and at a reasonable cost and its ease of use while offering a comprehensive service, Koç.net General Manager Mehmet Ali Akarca said, “To make an analogy, using solutions provided by Surado CRM Online Türkiye is as easy as using Facebook. You simply enter the appropriate page, write your user name and password, and start using the services offered by the system. Companies do not need to allocate any extra budget for hardware, maintenance or human resources as an initial investment. As a result, the system offers cost advantage to the company,” and highlighted the benefits of the service they provide.

Target: 25% of all SMEs in Four Years!
Describing how the system works, Akarca said: “With Surado CRM Online solutions provide by Koç.net, companies can enter customer data and store any information from meeting reports to emails and to all quotations provided to their customer, and easily access this information later. For this reason, the system becomes independent of any individuals. In addition, companies can easily divide their customers into different categories using this system, and consequently make different analyses to prepare customer-specific campaigns or promotions. Its main benefit is better identification of the customer and easier contact with them. This constitutes the main benefit offered by CRM services and ensures customer satisfaction if implemented properly.”

Mehmet Ali Akarca added that they plan to provide services to 25% of all SMEs in four years and to approximately 10% through 2011 with Surado CRM Online Türkiye offered under Koç.net assurance. Underlining that the cooperation between Surado and Koç.net will also expand outside Turkey, Akarca said, “We'll also provide Surado CRM Online services in Turkic Republics very soon.”

Tailor Made CRM Solutions
Underlining that the next step in the partnership with Surado would be providing hosted solutions for institutionalized companies, Koç.net General Manager Mehmet Ali Akarca said, “To this end, we aim to ensure integration with the companies’ own systems and provide “Tailor-Made CRM Solutions” as SaaS (Software As A Service).”

Global Success
“No Global Company Can Ignore Turkey If They Want to be Successful,” said Surado CEO, Sundip R. Doshi. “Turkey has a number of characteristics such as its young and dynamic workforce, increasing investment opportunities in conditions of growing competition, and the fact that it has become the world’s 16th and Europe’s 6th largest economy that have attracted our attention. We therefore identified Turkey in our global business strategy as one of the markets that we wanted to enter as a matter of priority. All research we conducted in keeping with this decision pointed out that there was an increasing interest in Turkey in more sophisticated software and IT applications. We also saw that the IT adoption rate among SMEs was 80 percent in Turkey. Another major factor that motivated our decision to come to Turkey was the fact that we would enter into a strategic partnership with Koç.net as one of the most important telecommunications companies in Turkey.”

In response to a question as to why Surado preferred Koç.net, Mr. Doshi replied “We needed a strategic partner who knew the industry and market well, who had the necessary technological infrastructure and who had a strong reseller network. As a result of our research, we knew that Koç.net was the right partner to offer our products and services to SMEs in the best possible way.” Surado has plans to provide services in more countries, and will announce similar partnership in Brazil, China, Russia and the Middle East in the coming year.

About Koç.net
Koç.net, a division of Koç Holding, Turkey’s largest conglomerate, is the largest independent alternative operator in corporate data market and telephony services. It provides telephone and data services to (access and security services, hosting and ASP services, campus solutions, multi-media and telephony services) to its corporate customers, including more than 2,500 large corporations and 75,000 SMEs via its infrastructure covering the whole Turkey. Koç.net provides ADSL and phone services to the personal communications market under the BiRi brand, which was launched in August 2008 as “the alternative in communications”. Koç.net works with local operators and all GSM operators in Turkey, and with more than 100 international operators across the world as part of telephony services. For more information: Koç Information Technology Group Corporate Communications Directorate / Nilgün Unur / 0216 556 1110 / nilgun.unur@kocbilgi.com. Websites: www.kocnet.com, www.kobiline.com.

About Surado Solutions, Inc.
Surado Solutions, Inc., founded in 1995, is headquartered in the University Research Park, Riverside, California. Surado celebrates 15 years of CRM Success with on-premise and cloud SaaS CRM product lines for small to medium sized businesses. Having sold CRM solutions in more than 64 countries worldwide in the English language, Surado recently announced localization initiatives including local language support for its Cloud SaaS flagship product, Surado CRM Online. Surado CRM Online is a solution for small to medium sized businesses around the world. Surado CRM includes all core CRM functionality including Contact and Account Management, Sales Automation, Marketing Automation, Customer Service and integration for a complete 360 degree view. Surado offers specific editions based on size, complexity and regional localization needs. For more information about Surado CRM products, services, and to utilize Surado CRM products for education, please visit www.SuradoCRM.com. For more information on Surado CRM Online Türkiye, please visit www.Surado.com.tr . Media Contact: Marian Prigmore at 951-682-4895.