SAAB DIVESTS, SUPPORTS NEW CALL CENTER WITH HOSTED CRM SOLUTION IN ONLY 30 DAYS

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1 COLUMBUS CRM CASE STUDY SAAB DIVESTS, SUPPORTS NEW CALL CENTER WITH HOSTED CRM SOLUTION IN ONLY 30 DAYS Saab North American had 30 days to provide a solution for its call center staff after divesting from General Motors. When Saab divested from General Motors (GM) in 2010, it needed to build out its own IT infrastructure. As a part of this, Saab North America aimed to take advantage of Saab Sweden's custom-built customer relationship management (CRM) system to support its call center. Sweden's deployment didn't go live on time, however, so Saab North America faced the potential for paying the high fees of staying on GM's infrastructure or finding and implementing its own solution in only 30 days. Saab North America chose the latter and deployed Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online within its constricted timeline. In addition to realizing a rapid time-to-value, Saab North America now supports its drive to offer excellent customer service while benefitting from a powerful, lowrisk solution that has proven to be easy to adopt and flexible to meet business requirements now and in the future.

2 You always read about people doing rapid implementations, but it's not usually something you believe. With Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, we took a chance and accomplished it successfully - it's a reality. Craig Whaley, CIO, Saab North America Client: Saab North America Web: Number of employees: 50 Country: United States Industry: Manufacturing Automotive and Industrial CUSTOMER PROFILE: A manufacturing company had 30 days to provide a solution for its call center staff after divesting from General Motors to avoid hefty fees. CHALLENGE Originally a division of General Motors (GM), Saab was sold by its parent company in As a part of its divestiture, Saab would have to build out its own IT infrastructure and IT support capabilities-capabilities that GM originally provided. And, for Saab North America in particular, this move meant establishing a call center and rolling out a coinciding customer relationship management (CRM) solution to support its sales, marketing, and service efforts. To get up and running with its IT systems, GM provided Saab with an 18-month window during which the GM systems would still be available to Saab. However, taking longer than 18 months would result in hefty fees, because GM would need to maintain Saab's data and support the underlying systems. SOFTWARE AND SERVICES: Microsoft Dynamics CRM To support its call center, Saab North America initially aimed to use a custom CRM solution that its parent company in Sweden was developing. With a go-live date for its CRM implementation of August 2011 fast approaching, Saab North America found out just a month prior that the custom CRM solution would not be ready in time. 2

3 "We went from having a plan to having to completely change course, with only 30 days to find, deploy, and customize a new CRM system and train our new call center staff on that solution as well," says Craig Whaley, CIO of Saab North America. "And if we didn't succeed in the roll out, we would be forced to manually track customer tickets at our call center, resulting in bad data, poor customer follow-up, and an increased workload for our call center agents. Not having a system was simply not an option, and we were not looking forward to disrupting our customer relationships. We also needed to track the information for government reporting." Specifically, the company had to maintain all its customer service records so that it could provide quarterly reports to the government in compliance with the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability, and Documentation (TREAD) Act. "The risk was high," remarks Whaley. "We had to pick a CRM solution and it had to work. On August 1, calls would be rerouted to our call center, so we had to be up and running. Eyes were on us from across the company." SOLUTION For its new CRM solution, Saab North America looked at both Salesforce.com and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. Only Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online specifically met the needs of Saab North America, however. Explains Whaley, "As a part of our divestiture, we were switching to Microsoft Outlook from Lotus Notes. In addition, we relied heavily on Microsoft Office applications. Because Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online worked with and like those applications, we felt it would help us dramatically reduce training and meet our aggressive go-live date." Working with its Microsoft partner Columbus, Saab North America proceeded to roll out Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online in only 30 days, incrementally customizing the solution and providing training to its call center team as the solution became specifically aligned to Saab North America's unique business requirements. And in supporting these requirements, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online now includes a drop-down menu that enables call center agents to select specific government codes for TREAD Act reporting and associate that with a customer and support ticket. 3

4 Currently, call center staff use Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online to open and track customer service tickets and to capture and follow up with prospective customers. In all, the solution helps the call center agents track more than 200,000 prospects and customers-a number that continues to grow as call center agents add new prospects as the calls come in. When call center agents receive calls, they use Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online to track customer history, customer vehicle information, and issues raised, entering detailed notes so that other agents can have a comprehensive view in future interactions with the customer. At Saab North America, usage of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online spans beyond just the call center, however, and includes the company's director of service, field staff, and legal staff. This expansion of the user community helps call center agents effectively escalate issues to the proper individuals, if necessary, and ensure a rapid and proper resolution of customer issues. What's great about Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is that it works just like other Microsoft products. People already know Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Outlook and are familiar with the Microsoft Office Fluent interface, so there is a base level of learning that people already understand. Craig Whaley, CIO, Saab North America BENEFITS By choosing to deploy Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, Saab North America successfully provided its call center with a powerful CRM system in only 30 days. With the new solution, the company benefits from an easy-to-adopt, lowrisk solution that meets its business requirements now and in the future. "You always read about people doing rapid implementations, but it's not usually something you believe," says Whaley. "With Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, we took a chance and accomplished it successfullyit's a reality." In addition, when call center agents at Saab North America receive calls from prospective customers, they can enter those prospects into Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online as a lead. Sales and marketing staff can then use this information to more effectively transform that prospect into a successful sale. Implement Rapidly with Low Risk Critical to the success of meeting an aggressive deployment time frame of 30 days was the fact that Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is a solution hosted by Microsoft. Because of this, Saab North America saved time and avoided the risk that comes in establishing its own IT team to support 4

5 the solution, building out an infrastructure, and then implementing an on-premises solution. Although Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online provided a lot of functionality out-of-the-box, which helped us go live quickly, it is also extremely flexible Craig Whaley, CIO, Saab North America "Just 30 days after beginning to implement Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, we took our first call in the call center," says Whaley. "It blew everyone away. The executives and other individuals across the company who were initially very nervous about the project were now thrilled and beginning to look at the prospect of taking advantage of the Microsoft solution for the European market." Whaley adds, "With Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, I knew Microsoft would handle the infrastructure and maintain high availability so that we wouldn't have to worry about it." Ease Adoption Helping the company meet its aggressive go-live date, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online also proved easy for staff to learn and use. Says Whaley, "What's great about Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is that it works just like other Microsoft products. People already know Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Outlook and are familiar with the Microsoft Office Fluent interface, so there is a base level of learning that people already understand. Even for employees who lack strong computer skills, it only takes a few hours to become proficient in using Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. 5

6 WANT TO KNOW MORE? For more information on Columbus, including case studies, videos and white-papers, visit Provide Solid Customer Service Although Saab North America never had a call center of its own before its divestiture, the company is now confident that it provides excellent service to its more than 1,600 callers every month. In providing a high level of service, the company has made particular use of the ability to provide alerts to call center agents regarding common issues in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. Call center agents also take advantage of the solution to manage a customer queue. Through the queue, agents know which agents own certain cases and they can ensure a timely resolution of those cases by distributing them across team members. Align to Business Needs With Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, Saab North America deployed the solution quickly and customized it to meet specific, critical requirements, including the complex TREAD Act reporting. "Although Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online provided a lot of functionality out-of-the-box, which helped us go live quickly, it is also extremely flexible," says Whaley. "We can decide how we want it to work and then make a change in the system to support that. Because of this, we are highly confident the solution will continue to support our needs as our company continues to change." ABOUT COLUMBUS: Columbus currently employs over 1,000 dedicated professionals working out of 41 offices in 21 countries. With more than 20 years experience and 6,000 successful business cases, Microsoft recognizes Columbus as a top global partner and has presented the company with virtually every award and certification available. Columbus is a part of the registered trademark Columbus IT