Content is essential to commerce

Transcription

1 Content is essential to commerce IBM ECM helps organizations improve the efficiency of buy, market, sell and service processes Highlights: Analyze customer and operational data and build business processes to optimize buy, market, sell and service activities Enable a single, secure access point for all unstructured content and communications associated with suppliers or customers Provide accurate, consistent, current information about products, suppliers and support across the entire organization Smarter Commerce: Redefining the value chain in the age of the customer It all starts with the customer. In business, this statement has always been true. But today, a new breed of customer is dictating a fresh set of terms in the dynamic between buyers and sellers. IBM Smarter Commerce addresses this changing dynamic by putting the customer at the center of all operations, analyzing critical client and operational data from multichannel buying behaviors to social media content and building business processes that help companies buy, market, sell and service their products accordingly. It reaches deep within the business-to-business supply chain, integrating business partners, suppliers and vendors, enabling the entire value chain to anticipate customer needs, not react to them. And it identifies and addresses the unsustainable inefficiencies of our global systems of commerce. Smarter Commerce depends on content A broad spectrum of activities fall within the definition of commerce. At one end, simple transactions involving the immediate exchange of goods or services for cash or credit take place millions of times each second. At the other, complex commercial transactions involve months of planning, scores of individuals (or organizations) and the coordination of international resources. Regardless of the type of transaction, content management plays a foundational role, providing value long before a product or service is sold. Before raw materials are delivered to a factory. Before you purchase

2 a carton of milk. Before you take possession of a new home. Before you decide what type of dishwasher is best for your kitchen. Before you establish a retirement account. Before you purchase life insurance. Before you invest in a stock. Before the loan for your car is approved. Before you obtain the information you need from a customer service center someone, somewhere has signed an agreement with a supplier. Someone has submitted a purchase order. Someone has prepared mortgage documents. Someone has written a user manual. Someone has prepared loan documents. Someone has created marketing collateral. Someone has written and published customer support information. Content is essential to commerce. Without these documents, forms, correspondence, content and the processes to manage them, commerce transactions buy, market, sell and service could not take place. Documents define business agreements and guide daily operations. Business process management brings greater efficiency to transactions. Content analytics provides rapid insight into customer needs, concerns and opinions. All of these capabilities enable smarter commerce. support inquiries can be resolved more efficiently when customer service representatives have immediate access to all relevant customer correspondence, billing information and documents that provide a complete context for understanding a customer s situation. The Buy process Buy: The sourcing and procurement of goods, materials and services in order to deliver products and services to meet market demand. Smarter Commerce optimizes supplier and partner interactions based on changes in shopping/buying behavior across the supply chain, and reconsiders partner roles and relationships to generate new and differentiating customer value. IBM ECM enables greater efficiency in buy, market, sell and service activities IBM (ECM) solutions can facilitate greater efficiency in virtually every area buy, market, sell and service of a Smarter Commerce initiative. Supplier evaluation, selection, contract negotiation, onboarding and acquisition of product information can be accelerated using ECM case management capabilities from IBM, which enable a single, secure access point for all unstructured content and communications associated with a supplier. Marketing activities deliver more impact when quantitative market and customer data is combined with insight obtained from , call logs, chats and text to create offers carefully targeted at relevant market segments. Sales efforts can be more effective when sales associates, as well as customers, can access current, accurate and consistent product or service information across channels. Customer on-boarding can be streamlined to reduce, if not eliminate, manual processes associated with delivery and fulfillment. Customer 2

3 Manage suppliers more efficiently The buy process begins with the identification of a market requirement to develop a new product or service, or to improve an existing product or service. Once the business case has been established, the process of identifying appropriate suppliers begins. The complexity of this procedure varies by industry and the type of products or services brought to market. By taking advantage of case management capabilities, companies can accelerate supplier evaluation, selection and on-boarding activities, as well as enable a greater degree of efficiency in managing the supplier life cycle. ECM case management capabilities from IBM provide a single, secure collaborative environment featuring content, process management, business rules, ad hoc tasks and social networking capabilities that can help facilitate: Development of the request for quote and any supporting materials such as product specifications or processing requirements Creation of the criteria or scoreboard used to evaluate suppliers Capture, aggregation and systematic review of the supplier responses Contract development, negotiation and finalization Capture, processing and management of unstructured product information provided by suppliers payable operations are inefficient processes involving paper invoices, printing, rekeying of data, and manual routing and filing. IBM ECM helps organizations automate these procedures by capturing invoices from attachments or scanned paper documents to quickly and easily classify, route and process them often without human intervention. When intervention is required, IBM ECM helps minimize processing time and reduce errors that can prevent timely processing and payment. In addition, integration with ERP systems can further improve the efficiency of the accounts payable process. And finally, converting from paper-based invoicing to electronic systems can help reduce physical document storage costs as well. The Market process Market: The targeted marketing of products and services across multiple channels to drive sales. Smarter Commerce takes advantage of deep insights into customers gleaned in large part from conversations taking place online and through social media sites to deliver timely and targeted promotions across multiple touch points. With IBM ECM, organizations can link content, contract, product information and correspondence associated with a supplier to enterprise resource planning (ERP) or other systems to facilitate fast, accurate supply chain decisions and processes. In addition, any communications ( , fax, paper) and supplementary content shared between buyer and supplier can be captured and retained as corporate records to create a detailed history of supplier performance and compliance giving businesses additional negotiation strength during the contract renewal process. Streamline accounts payable Although the vast majority of supplier invoices are commonly handled via electronic data interchange (EDI), many accounts 3

4 Exploit content analytics to accurately target customers Among the many factors contributing to business success is the ability to efficiently identify, develop and deliver the products and services that the market demands. Effective use of market and sales information greatly affects an organization s capacity to capitalize on existing or nascent trends. To develop an appropriate marketing strategy, organizations depend on copious volumes of customer, product, sales and market information. By providing an additional dimension of insight into trends hidden in unstructured data customer s, call center logs, blogs and customer surveys ECM content analytics from IBM helps marketing organizations refine their strategies and more carefully target customer segments. Combining this perspective with that obtained from other business intelligence activities, companies gain a more detailed and accurate perspective of market needs and segment understanding. Using this data, they can create more targeted, accurate and cost-effective marketing campaigns, promoting products or service features to certain customers or positioning products or services to address new market segments and open fresh revenue streams. Bring consistency to marketing materials ECM collaborative, business process and content management capabilities from IBM can also be applied to manage the creation, review, approval and publication of marketing collateral and materials (including digital assets such as photos, video and recordings) so that consistent marketing, product and service information is provided across all channels. IBM Business Partner solutions bring additional capability to transcode video files into multiple web formats and generate alternative versions (with different bit rate/video sizes) for users with varying Internet connection bandwidths. The Sell process Sell: Selling and fulfillment of products and services across multiple channels to drive revenue. Smarter Commerce enables customers and partners to shop, exchange information and collaborate across all touch points, spanning human, digital, social and mobile modes of access that are optimized according to their preferences. A vast portion of global commerce takes place online. Millions of transactions are executed every second, the majority involving the simple exchange of cash or credit for products or services. At the other end of the spectrum, transactions can be very complex, involving lengthy sales cycles, multiple organizations, and detailed plans and specifications regarding the products or services to be provided. No matter how complicated the transaction, all depend on content management to play a vital role in their successful execution. Provide accurate, current, consistent product information Before a product or service is sold, a significant amount of associated content is created: product data sheets, pricing, brochures, illustrations, technical literature, user manuals, 4

5 environmental information, photos, videos and more. This content, whether provided by the manufacturer or developed by the seller, is critical to sales associates responsible for promoting and selling the goods or services. It is equally important for customers who wish to make well-informed buying decisions. IBM ECM enables organizations to capture, create, review and publish accurate, current and complete product or service information across all channels so that sales personnel are well versed in the company s offerings and competent in their ability to advise clients, and customers are provided with the information they need to make their purchase choices. Consistency, accuracy and completeness of product or service information across all channels of consumer interaction contribute positively to a business s reputation and help engender customer loyalty ultimately affecting top-line revenue. Manage complex sales processes Many businesses face the challenge of sales processes involving long sales cycles, complex product or service offerings, and multiple parties or organizations involved in decision making and contract negotiations. IBM ECM enables sellers to establish a collaborative environment that provides a single point of secure access for managing the documents, content, communications ( , fax, paper), meetings, tasks and processes involved in the sales process. Participants can quickly determine the status of the sale, automatically be notified of activities that need to be completed, initiate ad hoc tasks as needed, and capture and retain comments and conversations relevant to the sales process creating a complete history of the sales process from initial contact through closure. In addition, the collection of customer information acquired during the sales process facilitates efficient interaction with and support of the customer in the future. Control the contract life cycle From simple, one-page agreements that define a standard relationship between seller and buyer to complex documents linking multiple parties, contracts are an essential part of many sales processes. IBM ECM capabilities enable sellers to capture a contract agreement and any supplementary content at the point of sale and retain it as a record of the sale. IBM ECM can also be applied to manage the entire contract life cycle, beginning with the draft-review-approve cycle, integrating with ERP and customer relationship management (CRM) systems to make the contract easily accessible to key line-of-business personnel, and automatically notifying the account manager prior to the contract renewal period. Additional documents, content or customer communications associated with the contract can also be easily retained and managed as part of the overall contract life cycle. Make it easy to become a customer In many industries including insurance, finance, banking and telecommunications the process of becoming a customer can be tedious and time-consuming. Detailed information and form completion is required, often duplicating data that has already been requested from the would-be client. Paperwork may then be sent to another location for processing, verification, credit approval, provisioning or fulfillment. In some situations the process may take days or weeks, causing frustration and a poor initial customer experience. ECM can help streamline these processes, making it easier for potential customers to become actual, revenue-generating clients and ultimately creating positive customer experiences and building loyalty. With IBM ECM, electronic forms can replace paper. Information that already resides in a customer database can be easily referenced, thereby reducing the amount of information requested of the client. In situations where paper still dominates, completed forms can be scanned to eliminate physically mailing the paper to another location for processing. Completion of electronic or paper forms can immediately initiate business processes to establish new customers and provide them with the products or services requested. And finally, IBM ECM helps organizations retain forms as corporate records and link them to customer data in the CRM system making that information readily available to customer service representatives and improving their ability to serve consumers. Reduce the cost and risk of retaining transaction documents Despite the prevalence of electronic commerce, many businesses still depend on large volumes of paper receipts, invoices, proofs of delivery, contracts and other documents associated with daily sales transactions. IBM ECM enables 5

6 such organizations to capture and convert these documents into a digital format, helping to eliminate the cost and inefficiency of storing paper documents, making it significantly easier to access the associated data and enabling businesses to retain these documents as corporate records only as long as legally required improving compliance and reducing associated storage costs. The Service process Service: Servicing customer needs across all interaction channels to drive repeat sales and enhance lifetime value of customers. Smarter Commerce helps businesses deliver exemplary customer service across all touch points, anticipate client behavior and take action to promote customer satisfaction and loyalty. Accurate information and customer context are critical to quality service. To retain profitable customers, encourage customer loyalty and influence future sales, organizations must continue to provide quality customer service long after the initial sale takes place. IBM ECM provides powerful capabilities to help organizations improve the quality and efficiency of customer service across five main areas, outlined below. Provide accurate, current, complete support information A key factor in delivering such service and support is the accuracy, currency and completeness of the product, service, policy and procedure information provided to employees and customers alike. Today s data-rich business climate generates ever-increasing volumes of information from a wide variety of sources. By adopting a disciplined approach to managing this content and its life cycle, organizations can realize significant business benefits such as improved customer loyalty and lowered service costs. ECM content, collaborative and business process capabilities from IBM help organizations acquire information from suppliers, create company-specific product information, and develop policies and procedures with the ability to carefully review, index and classify content before it is published or distributed across service and support channels. As new versions of content are produced, they can automatically supersede previous versions, giving employees and customers access to the most current information available. If necessary, previous versions may be retained in conformance with company, industry or legal regulations. Ease access to relevant support information In many organizations, service and support documents are contained in multiple locations or applications, greatly hampering the productivity of personnel who must search multiple sources as they attempt to resolve customer inquiries. IBM ECM can help companies analyze, classify and index isolated sources of support information to identify valuable, relevant content and eliminate duplicates and outdated information that takes up valuable disk space. By creating a single point of access for support content, IBM ECM helps businesses make relevant information available to employees and customer self-service channels facilitating the overall support process, improving employee efficiency, lowering storage costs and enhancing the customer experience. Accelerate resolution of customer inquiries Speedy resolution of customer inquiries is a critical factor in delivering quality support and service. Unfortunately, there are multiple deterrents to rapid resolution, especially in 6

7 industries where support involves complex customer requests. However, IBM ECM can address three key factors affecting the quality and speed of customer inquiry resolution: 1. Need for optimized business processes to manage customer service and support requests 2. Lack of a detailed (or complete) understanding of the customer history or situation 3. Inability of qualified, experienced employees to easily participate in resolving the issue To help companies achieve this necessary goal, ECM business process management capabilities from IBM can help enterprises categorize customer inquiries and assign them to qualified, experienced customer service representatives who can review, resolve and respond to the issue. The status and progress of the resolution process can be tracked, and in the event of delay, escalated to management for immediate action. To help give service representatives a complete context for understanding and resolving customer issues, ECM case management functionalities from IBM enable support organizations to aggregate all relevant customer information including application forms, , contract, invoices, fax, billing statements, scanned documents and more. When combined with customer information contained in CRM applications, this overall picture can provide valuable background ultimately facilitating resolution and improving customer satisfaction. In addition, the collaborative and social capabilities of ECM case management from IBM can foster easy participation of subject-matter experts in resolution activities. Ad hoc task and chat features enable representatives to quickly and easily consult with others to gain clarification or address an unexpected issue. Comments and additional information relevant to resolving the customer issue are automatically captured and retained for future reference as part of the case. Manage mailroom inquiries efficiently Although the majority of customer service and support inquiries today are directed to call centers, in some industries and geographies a large volume of customer inquiries and requests continue to arrive via postal mail and . IBM ECM can be equally effective in accelerating the resolution of customer requests arriving through these channels by capturing and classifying the customer correspondence and assigning it to the proper process for review and resolution. Documents captured in the mailroom as well as any communications created during the resolution process are retained by IBM ECM and linked to customer records in the CRM system to establish a single view of the customer and facilitate faster resolution in future interactions. Uncover insights hidden in customer correspondence By applying ECM content analytics from IBM to customer correspondence ( , call center logs, blogs, chats and so on), organizations can discover unexpected insights contained within those sources. These channels can deliver early warnings around emerging support issues pertaining to certain products, geographic locations and more. Armed with this information, businesses can proactively address potential problems and assign additional support resources before they escalate into costly, damaging service issues. In addition, this information can help companies identify frequent support or service questions for which no standard answer yet exists. Utilizing ECM content, business process and classification capabilities, service personnel can develop appropriate answers and publish them across all channels to accelerate customer inquiry resolution and encourage greater use of customer self-service resources. Facilitate electronic billing operations A final area of consideration with regard to customer service is statements or bills. Despite the growth of the Internet and an increasingly connected population, relatively few customers choose to receive electronic bills or statements. Encouraging clients to make the transition from paper to electronic statements has three major benefits. First, it immediately eliminates the recurring cost of printing and mailing statements. Second, allowing customers to access their statements on line reduces requests for reprints of lost statements. Third, making electronic statements available to customer service representatives contributes to providing a complete customer context and facilitates faster customer inquiry resolution involving billing inquiries. 7

8 About IBM Enterprise Content Management IBM solutions can facilitate greater efficiency in virtually every area buy, market, sell and service of a Smarter Commerce initiative. IBM ECM software enables an organization to make better decisions, faster. By gaining control of unstructured information, marketing and customer service departments can access, collaborate and influence business decisions in new ways, making content a first-class source of insight. With IBM ECM solutions targeted to specific line-of-business needs, organizations can capture, manage and share critical content associated with suppliers, products, services and customers throughout its life cycle to help ensure compliance, reduce costs and maximize productivity. The IBM ECM portfolio includes a wide array of capabilities that integrate with existing systems to help organizations maximize the value of information, including document capture and imaging; social content management; advanced case management; information life cycle governance; and content analytics. More than 13,000 global companies, organizations and government organizations rely on IBM ECM to improve performance and remain competitive through innovation. For more information To learn more about how IBM ECM solutions can help your organization utilize business content to create a commercial advantage, visit ibm.com/software/data/content-management Join in the conversation by visiting the worldwide IBM ECM Community at ibm.com/community/ecm Copyright IBM Corporation 2011 IBM Software Group Route 100 Somers, NY U.S.A. Produced in the United States of America September 2011 All Rights Reserved IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com and Smarter Commerce are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. Other product and service names might be trademarks of IBM or other companies. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the web at Copyright and trademark information at ibm.com/legal/ copytrade.shtml Other product, company or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. References in this publication to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them available in all countries in which IBM operates. The information contained in this documentation is provided for informational purposes only. While efforts were made to verify the completeness and accuracy of the information contained in this documentation, it is provided as is without warranty of any kind, express or implied. In addition, this information is based on IBM s current product plans and strategy, which are subject to change by IBM without notice. IBM shall not be responsible for any damages arising out of the use of, or otherwise related to, this documentation or any other documentation. Nothing contained in this documentation is intended to, nor shall have the effect of, creating any warranties or representations from IBM (or its suppliers or licensors), or altering the terms and conditions of the applicable license agreement governing the use of IBM software. Each IBM customer is responsible for ensuring its own compliance with legal requirements. It is the customer s sole responsibility to obtain advice of competent legal counsel as to the identification and interpretation of any relevant laws and regulatory requirements that may affect the customer s business and any actions the customer may need to take to comply with such laws. IBM does not provide legal advice or represent or warrant that its services or products will ensure that the customer is in compliance with any law. All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM products and the results they may have achieved. Actual environmental costs and performance characteristics may vary by customer. Please Recycle ZZS03023-USEN-00