"The availability of more information will lead to a greater chance of cross-selling of products" explained Mr Chan. The areas, according to him, where cross-selling will be important are Internet banking facilities and loan facilities. Mr Chan said there would be three basic forms of personalisation - data controlled, provider-controlled and end-user controlled. Mobility and wireless, he said, is one area where advanced personalisation is a huge opportunity. This becomes necessary because of the "anytime, anywhere nature of business transactions."

"Today eCRM is clearly customer driven" emphasised Ravi Chakravarty, sales director, Asia Pacific, Talisma Corporation. He said electronic customer relationship management (eCRM) today is largely a factor of customisation. According to him, the difference today is that each customer is an individual and the success of eCRM would be in keeping and growing the customer base. The Internet, said Mr Chakravarty, would be the most important channel for eCRM. "We will need to understand the Internet value chain since it is an interactive medium" he added. According to him, the customer will have to experience the product before taking a decision. In that sense, eCRM, he said, was "the management of all electronic interactions between a company and its customers."

Vinod Narapareddy, practice manager, Broad Vision, said the biggest problem faced on the Web today is that there is not enough knowledge about the customer. "We will need to know the customer and eventually his needs" he explained. Mr Narapareddy said the stages in knowing the customer would consist of profiling, content management, matching, transacting and dialogue. He said the real objective would be to have an "e-business strategy which would result in more profitability per transaction."