Technology services company Mastek has replaced its legacy customer relationship management system with an internally developed AI-native platform, using its own sales and marketing operation as a test of a broader enterprise software strategy.
The company announced the deployment on 5 October as the first operational example of its Services as Software approach, under which conventional application functions are increasingly delivered through a combination of specialist services, enterprise data and artificial intelligence.
Developed by Mastek’s AI Centre of Excellence, the replacement CRM is operating in production across the company’s global sales and marketing teams. Mastek says it tested and refined the platform internally before presenting the approach to prospective customers.
The launch is more substantial than a conceptual product demonstration because it identifies a legacy application already replaced in day-to-day business use. It does not, however, establish that customers outside Mastek have realised comparable savings or sales improvements.
Mastek has set a goal of improving the probability of winning sales opportunities by 10% through the use of contextual information. That figure is an intended improvement, not a measured result already achieved by the live CRM deployment.
The new system incorporates information from Mastek Hub, an internal knowledge platform containing customer case studies, project experience, proposal materials and business intelligence. Mastek says it can help employees prepare for meetings, retrieve relevant experience, support forecasting and capture knowledge that might otherwise remain dispersed across teams.
Such functions depend on the accuracy, currency and accessibility of the underlying material. Where project documents and customer records contain sensitive information, the value of AI-assisted retrieval also depends on ensuring employees can access only the information appropriate to their roles.
The company describes its strategy through three principles: demonstrating tangible business results, using organisational information to generate useful intelligence, and reducing software complexity by concentrating spending on workflows that deliver value.
Its argument is that conventional enterprise applications can accumulate functions and subscriptions without equivalent business use. Rather than replicate every feature of a legacy platform, Mastek proposes identifying the processes employees need and delivering them through more focused AI-supported services.
That differs from simply adding a conversational assistant to existing software. Replacing a core application requires organisations to reconsider how records are created, how work is approved, which systems exchange information and who is responsible when automated recommendations prove incorrect.
Mastek is extending the same approach into procurement, accounts payable and expense management. It has developed an AI-native intelligent document processing solution that is being used to replace legacy SAP applications supporting those functions.
The distinction between the projects is material. The CRM replacement has been described as live in production; the procurement and finance technologies are being used in an ongoing replacement process. The company has not confirmed that every relevant SAP function has already been switched off.
Finance processes also impose demanding control requirements. Invoice handling, payment approvals, expenditure policies and accounting records must remain auditable, including when software extracts information from documents or recommends the next action.
Businesses replacing established applications must therefore assess more than the subscription cost. Implementation work can involve historical data, integrations, security permissions, reporting obligations, business continuity and employee training. Removing one product does not automatically remove those requirements.
Nor is lower software expenditure the same as a positive financial return. Organisations need to compare licence savings with development, integration, operation and oversight costs, alongside any reliably measured change in productivity or service quality.
Umang Nahata, Mastek’s chief executive, has emphasised the need to redesign processes and develop employees’ capabilities instead of using AI merely to accelerate existing tasks. The company is presenting that change as a continuing services relationship rather than an attempt to become a conventional packaged software supplier.
Its chief technology and innovation officer, Ritwik Batabyal, described the importance of connecting internal context to the new CRM so that employees could obtain recommendations informed by Mastek’s own work and customers. The supporting material is company-reported and has not been independently audited.
The strategy has relevance to organisations facing growing enterprise software costs and pressure to demonstrate practical returns from AI investment. Its internal deployment shows one way to redesign a defined operational function, while the more demanding test will be whether the approach works across different customers, data structures and compliance environments.
Mastek has not disclosed a verified percentage reduction in subscription expenditure or an independently assessed improvement in win rates. Those outcomes will need to be established through performance evidence as the internal systems mature and external deployments develop.
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