Real-Time Business Metrics and Customer Data on BlackBerry Handheld Devices Sparks Productivity and Efficiency of Sales Managers Case Study: DIRECTV Installs Antenna s AMPower Sales to Mobilize Oracle s Siebel CRM On Demand Solution organization Challenge solution Results Products and Services Headquartered in El Segundo, California, DIRECTV is the industry leader in satellite service, delivering satellite-based services to more than 16 million US homes and businesses. To provide Area Sales Managers (ASMs) with consistent and reliable, up-to-the minute marketing and account information for more productive sales meetings and more profitable customer relationships without consuming valuable IT resources. Deploy Antenna AMPower Sales mobile CRM solution to give DIRECTV s sales organization access to essential information stored within Oracle s Siebel CRM On Demand in real-time using BlackBerry handheld devices. Smarter selling through improvements in information quality and consistency, greater efficiency of sales operations, and a 360-degree view of the customer. Antenna Software Antenna AMPower Sales mobile solution Oracle Siebel CRM On Demand AT&T Wireless network and BlackBerry 8700c, 8800 and Pearl devices introduction Headquartered in El Segundo, California, DIRECTV is the industry leader in satellite service, delivering satellite-based services to more than 16 million US homes and businesses. With complex operations that include some of the world s most advanced technologies, DIRECTV s mission is to provide its customers with a seamless viewing experience and a superior level of support and service. In this highly competitive market, DIRECTV continually strives to improve the quality of its content and programming, and also the profitability of its valued customer relationships. Whether it s the products and services they deliver to the market or their internal systems and infrastructure, DIRECTV aims to capitalize on the latest and most innovative technology to help drive its success. That s why the company recently implemented a new Siebel CRM On Demand system for its sales and marketing organization. The CRM On Demand system has helped to improve the quality of account and opportunity information throughout its sales and service organizations. But they didn t stop there. In the spirit of innovation that permeates the company, DIRECTV pushed the envelope further to make their CRM On Demand solution even more powerful. How did they do that? They mobilized it with Antenna Software.
Antenna Software Case Study DIRECTV The Challenge DIRECTV sells subscriptions to satellite service. It has Area Sales Managers (ASMs) throughout the US, each with his or her own coverage area for managing and supporting dealer networks, helping them to make sales to end customers. There are more than 5,000 dealers in the retail channel in the US, from big companies such as Best Buy and Circuit City to smaller independent electronic shops. To manage their sales and service operations effectively, it is imperative that each ASM has the most current and up to date information about the dealers in the field. According to Erik Walters, Manager of Technical Operations for DIRECTV s Sales Operations Organization and project manager for the CRM On Demand deployment, they were looking for a solution that could provide each ASM with pertinent sales information about each dealer so they could manage their accounts more efficiently and effectively, even while being mobile. Instead of lugging around cumbersome notebooks and folders, we wanted to give ASMs the ability to sit down with a dealer and pull up metrics quickly and easily, such as number of activations, financial data, open service requests, and so forth, said Walters. With these metrics and other key customer data literally at hand, the ASMs can spend more face time with dealers, nurturing those relationships and making them as profitable as possible. Benefits of Antenna AMPower Sales Solution and Oracle s Siebel CRM On Demand: More consistent, reliable, and up-to-date information on accounts and contacts Increased visibility into sales operations Improved communications between sales managers and the sales branch Accelerated responsiveness to service problems Reduced the time required to update the CRM system from months to minutes Improved accuracy of product and promotional information Maximized the value of the Siebel CRM system Choosing the solution Primarily, the Sales and Sales Operations groups took responsibility for evaluating and selecting the CRM solution. A VP of Sales had previously experienced the benefits of on-demand CRM and recommended it for DIRECTV s needs, which led them to implement Siebel CRM On Demand. For the mobility portion of the project, they compared several products and chose Antenna Software s AMPower Sales for Siebel CRM On Demand mainly because it provided the most mobile functionality and flexibility, permitted the greatest amount of customization, and required the least amount of support from the IT department. Because AMPower Sales can be deployed as a fully hosted mobile solution, Antenna manages DIRECTV s mobile deployment from end to end, guaranteeing the delivery of transactions and monitoring the network around the clock. The beauty of the on-demand model meant that DIRECTV s business users could make changes themselves on the fly without tying up valuable IT resources, which were already committed to other high priority DIRECTV projects. The fact that our sales organization could deploy this sophisticated system without burdening internal IT was a huge benefit, asserts Walters. Clearly, an on-demand model was crucial to the success of the project. Stages of Deployment The Antenna mobile CRM solution is currently deployed to DIRECTV s Area Sales Managers, Sales Directors, and VP of Sales. The system was rolled out in January 2007 at the national sales meeting, after being piloted to a select group of ASMs for about 6 months. They piloted the system to find out exactly what kind of information and transactions the ASMs and the sales organization needed before rolling out to the entire direct sales force. As Walters says, We didn t want to just dump all the data on the device, but rather recognize the context of how the information will be used by our ASMs. If you put too much on the device, it s not user-friendly. The Antenna AMPower Sales application runs on BlackBerry 8700c, 8800 and Pearl devices with data connectivity powered by the AT&T wireless network. AMPower Sales delivers comprehensive, actionable data from the Siebel CRM On Demand system in real-time to DIRECTV s sales team whenever and wherever they need it.
Antenna Software Case Study DIRECTV 3 DIRECTV s AMPower Sales Solution With AMPower Sales, they can easily and securely interact with essential information about their contacts, activities, tasks, calendars and opportunities and update pipeline and forecast data back to corporate instantaneously. The Importance of Training Some of the ASMs had more familiarity with computers and PDAs than others, which meant that training had to be designed to accommodate all levels of experience and skill sets so that no one was left behind. Walters says that the initial reaction from many people was What is this device and how is it going to help me do my job? This is a natural response to something new and different people inevitably want to know how it will benefit them. That s why training was (and is) so important. The overarching goal was to communicate how the mobile application functioned, and how it would make their work more productive and streamline job duties. Walters comments: First, the ASMs had to get comfortable with Siebel CRM On Demand, then you give them a BlackBerry and you need to go through the education process again. However, once people could see the correlation between Siebel on their desktop and Siebel on their BlackBerrys, they quickly recognized its value and benefit. As we were doing the formal presentation during the rollout, you could see the light bulbs coming on. Then as they started to use it, they were thrilled at how easy it is to navigate. DIRECTV believes that you need everyone on board for success. Sales management teams are driving the ASMs to use the tool to log calls, make meeting notes, document activities and tasks, and so on. It is critical that everyone understands how to use the application for the breadth and depth of its transactional capabilities and not just as a simple information tool, claims Walters. The Difference Between Current and Real-time Before adopting the mobile CRM solution, DIRECTV ASMs carried folders to every dealer meeting and waded through piles of potentially outdated reports. Timeliness of information could be in question depending on the last time an ASM was able to get an update of the information. Today, information is updated continually into the Siebel CRM On Demand system using both the traditional desktop application and the Antenna AMPower Sales mobile application on the BlackBerry handheld device. Previously, the sales organization had to wait for a monthly or weekly report now they are getting almost real-time information via the built-in analytics capability available in CRM On Demand. The Regional VPs and Sales Directors have visibility from all their
Antenna Software Case Study DIRECTV direct reports and can easily decipher and chart the exact metrics they want to see. They can spot potential issues and use that insight to make adjustments in real-time. According to Walters, Everyone has CONSISTENT information that s a huge improvement. Everyone from the three Regional VPs, the Sales Directors, the ASMs and the support team is looking at the same information they know they can rely on completely, whether they are in the office or on the road. And our customers get consistency and confidence with that. With the mobile solution, we can deliver all the sales information and marketing information needed to help the ASMs more effectively communicate our unique value proposition and differentiators. All the things you expect traditional sales people to use as resources they now have right at their fingertips. Erik Walters, Manager of Technical Operations, DIRECTV s Sales Operations Driving Business More Efficiently ASMs are now able to do their jobs faster, with better, more accurate information. By mobilizing the data in CRM On Demand, DIRECTV has reduced cycle times from monthly to weekly and weekly to daily considerable time savings on tasks such as reporting and analysis, which ultimately streamlines and improves the overall sales cycle. ASMs are spending less time and effort assessing their dealers, and the dealers, in turn, are benefiting from more frequent visits and better quality information. In fact, the complete package of DIRECTV s programs and services is now accessible via the BlackBerry, enabling the ASMs in the field to more easily help dealers understand the business of DIRECTV and the dynamics of selling subscriptions and services. We will have more HDTV channels than our competition by the end of the year, asserted Walters. With the mobile solution, we can deliver all the sales information and marketing information needed to help the ASMs more effectively communicate our unique value proposition and differentiators. All the things you expect traditional sales people to use as resources they now have right at their fingertips. Better Service Leads to More Loyal Customers Recognizing that customer service is a key differentiator in competitive markets, DIRECTV decided to mobilize the customer service portion of CRM On Demand. This provides mobile ASMs with a comprehensive view of the dealers including insight into service requests and service history and lets them call up pertinent and timely information that could affect the tone of a meeting, before they walk through the door. Just as important, it gives ASMs the power to input a service request directly on the BlackBerry to report new service problems. Previously, an ASM who was in front of a dealer that had a service issue would have to use his cell phone and try to find someone to help or go back to the hotel or home office and login to the system, which was a very time-consuming and cumbersome process. Now, the ASMs are actually solving problems in real-time with the mobile CRM solution and any problems are immediately addressed by the support team back in El Segundo. Being able to instantly spot any potential problems before a meeting with a customer is pretty powerful stuff, says Walters. It shows the dealer you ve got things under control and helps to foster more productive working relationships. Note: This feature is currently being piloted and will be rolled out in late summer 2007.
Antenna Software Case Study DIRECTV 5 Best Practices and Smarter Selling For meetings with a dealer, ASMs typically have a distinct objective in mind. They need to be able to articulate what DIRECTV is focusing on as a business to drive business forward. To facilitate this process, the DIRECTV project team continually strives to improve the usability of the application and the relevance of the information on the device. At weekly meetings, they discuss 1) Business drivers, and 2) What they are trying to relay to customers. The key metrics that help them achieve that focus are what end up on the device. With Antenna AMPower Sales, DIRECTV sales managers can Review customer account and service history Record new service requests Call up key business and performance metrics Access the latest product and services packages and promotions Update the Siebel CRM system automatically all from their BlackBerry handheld device, anytime, anywhere. Antenna s AMPower Sales solution is built on the Antenna Mobility Platform (AMP) an open, flexible architecture for mobile application design and deployment. It gives DIRECTV dynamic control over what is presented to the end-users, ensuring that the application reflects current business needs and is simple to use, which leads to higher adoption that delivers results. With AMP, DIRECTV s mobile CRM implementation is completely future-proof and can easily be adjusted to adapt to changes in business process, workflows, end-user requirements, and modifications to back-end systems and mobile devices. For example, the project team is able to analyze the usage of a particular dealer metric over a certain period of time. If they find that people are not using that field, they will remove it and open up the valuable real estate of the mobile application for something that would be more useful. We are always looking to see if we are maximizing the benefits of Siebel CRM On Demand, said Walters. Are we capturing everything we need, are we providing the most accurate and timely data possible? At the end of day, that s all people really want. Benefits of Mobilization and Next Steps Since the roll out, DIRECTV has seen the following measurable improvements: A 30% increase in the number of accounts that can be visited in a week less time spent on administration and paperwork Over 90 hours a week saved by the sales team due to their ability to update calls anytime, anywhere Improved accuracy in managing dealers to sales goals Improved frequency of sales data reporting from 7 days to 1 day turnaround Service request resolution shortened from 5 days to 3 100% increase in visibility of application data from internal systems Accelerated pace of prospective dealer collection from weekly to hourly The initial roll out included the mobilization of three Siebel modules dealer records, activities and contacts. Phase 2 includes the roll out of additional modules on prospective dealers and service requests. Users were chomping at the bit for the new modules a sure sign that they are truly using the mobile solution and appreciating its impact on their day to day processes, says Walters. Next, DIRECTV hopes to be able to integrate internal IT systems into their AMPower Sales solution and mobilize data from certain home-grown systems. DIRECTV wants to dominate the market and provide the best TV possible, asserts Walters. This mobile CRM solution is a key part in helping us improve customer satisfaction and increase sales. Leveraging Antenna s Mobility Platform, we will focus on mobilizing the parts of our business that will contribute to that goal. Antenna Software, Inc., 111 Town Square Place, Suite 525, Jersey City, New Jersey 07310 Phone 888.723.2832 Web www.antennasoftware.com Copyright 2007 by Antenna Software, Inc. All rights reserved. All products and product names mentioned in this publication are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.