CRM in a Multinational Environment

CRM in a

Multinational

Environment

CRM in a

Multinational Environment

CRM enjoys the dubious reputation of being easy to envision, but

extremely difficult to implement. The future relevance seems clear, but

decent business cases and especially solid ROI-prognoses are rare if

not absent. These statements hold true for CRM in the broadest sense,

when analyzing CRM-implementations in a cross-channel multinational

environment things look bleaker still.

In the typical situation General or Marketing management formulates the need for ‘a CRM-system’ and since it is described as ‘a system’ the hapless IT department starts writing specs and listing functionalities to formulate RFI’s, RFP’s and RFQ’s in order to select a vendor. In this typical situation failure is near certain.

In this paper MMIT will go into the root problems listed above. Following this discussion we will show what we consider to be a preferable approach. Finally we will show that MMIT has a proven track record of implementing CRM systems in a cross-channel multinational environment.

We see there are seven fundamental chal lenges at the root of this difficult start:

1. Companies change their systems but do not change their marketing plans accordingly

2. Companies change their systems, but do not change their organization accordingly

3. Companies start haunting their customers (because they can!)

4. Companies underestimate the complexity and relevance of maintaining the necessary data quality (This is not an IT, but a business matter)

5. Companies assume that the Financial or Production System can be easily extended to a CRM system

6. Companies underestimate the complexity and relevance of the necessary data logistics (This is only partly an IT matter)

1

Einstein wrote: “If you always do what you did, you will always get what you got.” MMIT has experienced more than once that even though an implementation was complete, budgetary pressures, or simple resistance to change, lead to a situation in which the CRM-environment was maintained, but not used. The marketing team had no experience in developing CRM programs, how to split CRM budget between departments or what partners to use. Therefore, a formally updated view on the company’s marketing strategy and an indication of future budget allocation is in our view essential in order to be able to make the decision to implement any program, system or environment.

2

Typically the implementation of a CRM environment within a company is supported by a relatively small number of visionaries and fans. These people tend to be able to see the benefits of the use of correct, relevant and reliable customer information. Many others in the organization do not see as far ahead, many miss the abstraction level in combination with the business knowledge to see the benefits. It takes an effort to maintain a CRM-environment: somebody or some team has to make that effort. CRM asks for new forms of data gathering, analysis and marketing communication: somebody has to be accountable for this work. This means the organization has to change, not everything can be outsourced.

3

Give a little boy a hammer and he will think everything needs pounding. We have seen it happen. Do not mail customers or prospects just because you can. Do not expect them to fill out a two-page questionnaire just to please you. Always respect their privacy and think: “What’s in it for my client?” This may sound absurdly simple, but this is a rule that is forgotten very, very regularly.

4

Data quality is a quintessential part of CRM in order to be able to:

- Address people correctly (in every country)

- Analyze data (‘Ampera’ on its own, ‘Ampira’ and ‘Opel Ampera’ can, if not treated correctly, result in three different counts instead of one)

- Match records (‘AkzoNobel Coa tings Car Refinishes’ and ‘Akzo Car Refinishes’)

We’re against loading a single record into a database if data quality is not ensured. By data quality we do not only mean address data, but also all other data that relates to reference tables in the database. The assessment of the quality (complete, correct, uniform, standardized) of available data and the

Seven Fundamental

development and enforcement of strict data capture rules to enforce data quality in the future is one of the first steps that should be taken. Decisions on what data to collect, how to collect it and how to ensure the quality need to be taken in very close cooperation with Sales, Advertising agencies, IT-partners and end-consumers testing the interface. Daily updates of cleansing rules and regular maintenance of referential tables in the database is of key importance. An example from automotive: if a customer or prospect expresses his/her interest in a new Chevrolet Trailblazer the form design makes sure that this individual cannot write ‘Trail blazor’, but in the case that this could occur (e.g. on a handwritten form), it would be caught by data cleansing rules (correct ‘Trail blazor’ to ‘Trailblazer’) and referential tables.

5

An often made mistake especially in Business-to-Business situations is to think, that since all the clients are in the Financial System it would be sufficient to bolt on a CRM module, not realizing that: - Financial Systems only contain

(former) clients, whilst Marketing and Sales generally use several separate databases containing suspects, prospects and clients which can be really difficult to match, because of name changes, typing errors, take-overs, etc - The person or company respon sible

for paying the bill (and therefore logged in the Financial system) is generally not of interest to the Marketing and Sales team. Besides that they can be located at a complete different physical or postal address.

- Getting the bill paid doesn’t mean that the name is correctly spelled, which is a must for any CRM-program.

6

Most people implementing systems are aware of the complexities of creating interfaces with legacy systems and the vulnerability of these interfaces. Most people do not yet realize the number of other data suppliers and vendors that actually need subsets of their data: selections to be used in direct mail, selections to be used in personalized e-mail, input from data entry partners, data from the field force, batches of bounced/ undeliverable (e-)mails, exports to marketing analysts. There are hundreds of files per year per country. Keeping track of what is where in order to link information is a Herculean task and needs smart and simple solutions.

7

Even though one would say that the market should have learned not to make this costly mistake MMIT sees large companies spending money on systems that will never work, every single day of the week.

MMIT generally starts with a

relatively short, painless audit that

touches on points such as:

- Which goals have been set and can they be met by using CRM and a CRM system?

- What data is available? What is the quality?

- Does the organization realize the implications of CRM?

- Is there internal support for such an enterprise?

- Is the IT-department up for it and are Marketing and Sales really involved?

- Do we feel that the client could really make money on this initiative or significantly reduce vulnerability and/or costs?

On the basis of this audit MMIT advises on the go/no-go decision and on the immediate next steps. More than once MMIT has advised to absolutely not invest in CRM yet, because the acceptance and support was lacking completely. On other occasions we helped major companies by accompanying them on their journey towards implementation and successful, profitable use. This path usually starts with:

- Briefing and involving agencies, partners and stake holders in the company itself

- Developing data capture standards - Gathering already available data - Tuning data quality tools - Marketing planning, budgeting

The next phase typically consists of:

- Developing a CRM-program - Developing a data capture strategy - Redefining roles and responsibilities

of employees touched by the program

- Building interfaces

- Building data exchange platforms - Developing necessary web services - Developing communication coding - Creating a shortlist of vendors - Cleansing available data - Development of first versions

reference tables

Only then should one start with:

- Purchasing a system - Loading data

- Testing marketing automation - Analyzing data

- First marketing pilots - Analysis of results - Production of metrics - Change of program

We hope this simple sequence reflects our opinion that the business, the organization and the data are of utmost importance and should therefore be taken into consideration from the very start.

MMIT’s expertise lies in:

- Data quality and logistics - Interface and web services

deployment - Data analysis

- Marketing and IT-consultancy

MMIT has the people and the tools available to immediately start making the first steps along the road map sketched above. This leads to a situation in which we feel confident that if we were to work for a new client in a market – any market – MMIT can go from scratch to start of marketing within six months. Furthermore we have found that a pilot project using an external tool set (SaaS or hosted by you), so that the IT vendor selection and the decisions on IT infrastructure can be postponed, often results in the shortest route to insights into what CRM can do for a company and what it takes to get there.

MMIT credits

A multinational approach is more difficult than a national one. Languages

play a role, but also – just to name a few – differences in address

structures, diacritical characters, salutations and communication coding

are prone to create complex problems. MMIT has been there and has

helped clients through those problems in over 70 countries.

mmit.com MMIT Boston Independence Wharf, Suite 4032 | 470 Atlantic Avenue | Boston, MA 02210, USA | T. +1 617 261 9950