Upgrade to SAP CRM 7.0 with Considerable Benefits for Marketing, Sales, and Service Rodenstock: 360 View of the Customer With expertise in both eyeglass lenses and frames, Rodenstock is the only brand in the eye care industry that can offer the complete glasses system to wearers of glasses, from one source. Customers of the Munich-based company include both independent opticians and optician chains. The holistic view of the customer helps the company to quickly and reliably respond to requests and requirements of demanding clientele. The replacement of locally installed software for field sales and the release upgrade to SAP CRM 7.0 and SAP BW 7.0 allow an even more efficient focus on customers. Corporate Business Solutions
About Rodenstock Rodenstock is Germany s leading manufacturer of ophthalmic lenses and spectacles frames. The company, which was founded in 1877, is based in Munich and has a worldwide workforce of approximately 4,000 and is represented in more than 80 countries with sales subsidiaries and distribution partners. Rodenstock maintains production sites for ophthalmic lenses at a total of 14 locations in 12 countries. With expertise in both eyeglass lenses and frames, Rodenstock is the only brand in the eye care industry that can offer the complete glasses system to wearers of glasses, from one source. At the heart of all activities is optimization of the optical reproduction properties, increasing the wearing comfort, and providing a design that highlights the personality of the spectacles wearer. In other words: improving the vision and the look.
Initial Situation Customer knowledge plays a central role at Rodenstock understand your customer better, serve him best! The smooth and effective collaboration between the marketing, internal sales, and field sales staff, as well as comprehensive service to the customer, contribute significantly to the success of the long-established company. To ensure optimal customer management, Rodenstock therefore endeavors to provide a uniform view of the customer and integrated access to the relevant data and transactions, to everyone involved at the company. This the exact focus of the Upgrade SAP CRM 7.0 project. The aim of the project was not only to carry out the technical release upgrade from SAP CRM 4.0 to SAP CRM 7.0 and from SAP BW 3.5 to SAP BW 7.0, but also to migrate the previously locally operated offline mobile sales application with around 500 users to a centralized, Web-based solution. The marketing, sales, and service departments were to be given a uniform view of the customer across all areas by means of integrated online access to customer data and transactions. The aim was to restore existing business scenarios in line with the SAP standard as far as possible, while optimizing existing processes and using enhanced standard functions of SAP CRM 7.0. The switch to target release 7.0 of the SAP CRM system made it possible, however, to replace additional programming with new standard functionality as part of the technical release upgrade. This allowed certain specific and cross-system CRM processes to be migrated to standardized SAP processes, resulting in greater efficiency and transparency, fewer user interfaces to the required solutions, and shorter IT response times to business requests. Replacing the offline mobile sales application with a Web-based centralized system today enables more efficient use of the CRM system and faster response in terms of implementing new requirements. Business Drivers of the Project Establish a 360 view of the customer and thus greater transparency for sales, marketing, and customer service Tap new flexibility through centralization of the field sales application to be able to respond to business requirements and ensure that data is up to date and secure. Streamline to only the required solutions to offer users better support Enhanced and flexible reporting options through upgrades and better integration of SAP BW
More Flexibility, Shorter Response Times, More Benefits in Day-to-Day Business Rodenstock continuously strives to further develop its range of products and services. The relevant processes therefore need to be adapted or enhanced on a regular basis. Due to the interlinking of processes across different areas, these changes can now be made with more flexibility and speed. The benefits of increased CRM integration, however, are evident not just from an overall perspective. Those involved in the processes also experience specific benefits in their daily activities. Here are a few examples: Marketing and sales staff prepare customer campaigns. To facilitate a target-oriented approach, customer groups are segmented on the basis of certain characteristics. In addition, sales figures from the data warehouse flow into the segmentation. Field sales employees, who are responsible for lens consultation or selling frame collections, are able to prepare, carry out, and follow-up their customer visits more easily. For example, a field sales employee can see immediately whether a specific optician uses a Rodenstock 3D video centering system for sales consultations or whether another Rodenstock colleague has recently visited the optician. Internal sales staff can process incoming requests in a more targeted manner since they have integrated access to data that originates from the different areas of the company. In addition, all services for the optician consulting system developed by Rodenstock are processed using SAP CRM. An integrated, SAP CRM-based business solution for marketing, sales, and service thus places Rodenstock customers at the heart of processes, information, and applications, at all times. Technology Drivers of the Project Expiring service agreements for SAP CRM 4.0. Options to restore custom programming to the standard due to the advanced functionality of SAP CRM 7.0 Upgrade of SAP BW from 3.5 to 7.0 Existing software not compatible with the new version of Internet Explorer, high maintenance effort, and parallel system operation, few possibilities or very time-consuming to handle business change requests
Precision Landing Through Structured and Systematic Project Management For Thomas Preiss, Manager of CRM & Projects and Global Commercial Operations at Rodenstock, the success factors of a project always lie in the soft skills. In his view, this involves professional project management that integrates end users early on, collects their feedback, and conducts acceptance tests with end users, just as much as timely, continuous, and targeted communication, including project documentation. This is why the upgrade project was, in fact, a specialist project despite its technical background. According to Werner Rosenbaum, manager of the Munich branch of cbs Corporate Business Solutions, the excellent collaboration between Rodenstock s IT department and specialist departments, and also between the internal and external project members, was a key factor in the project s success. The fact that the project was a precision landing was, above all, down to structured and systematic project management. This included the exact allocation of responsibilities and project tasks to the phases and persons involved. The project resulted in a smooth go-live in the truest sense of the word: the phones in IT were silent after the go-live as if an upgrade have never even taken place. All of the users were familiar with the system and the application options. A high degree of user acceptance has been felt since the solution went live. User training was integrated into sales meetings, rather than being conducted in an isolated environment. Key users were trained in the markets outside of Germany, who then transferred their knowledge to the regions. Ten market organizations have been affiliated up to now, with more to follow. From the outset, continuous transfer of knowledge from the cbs consultants to the IT specialists at Rodenstock was planned to ensure the maintenance and optimization of the new Web-based technology and the implementation of future requirements from the specialist departments. This important project goal was delivered through a continuous coaching approach and various training sessions.
Technology Drivers of the Project Expiring service agreements for SAP CRM 4.0. Options to restore custom programming to the standard due to the advanced functionality of SAP CRM 7.0 Upgrade of SAP BW from 3.5 to 7.0 Existing software not compatible with the new version of Internet Explorer, high maintenance effort, and parallel system operation, few possibilities or very time-consuming to handle business change requests High Customer Acceptance from the Outset The centralized solution has considerable benefits for marketing, internal sales, field sales, and service staff. For example, users can today access all important and relevant information online and thereby provide optimum support to the customer. The IT department can respond to business requirements with high flexibility, speed, and little effort. Maintenance effort for the applications has been massively reduced. Users can customize their interface and simply access the information they require for their role. Project Benefits With the upgrade project and state-of-the-art technology now implemented in the CRM area, Rodenstock has established the basis for optimal IT support. Efficiency, effectiveness, transparency, and data security have also been improved. The next step for the near future is further optimization in the operational area. This involves key figures, data quality, data harmonization, and streamlining to what is required only. Why cbs? As consulting partner, Rodenstock opted for cbs Corporate Business Solutions, the Materna Group SAP Management Consultancy. The consultancy firm supported the project on site from its Munich branch. cbs was known to Rodenstock from earlier projects and had already proven its specific CRM expertise and technical expertise. Commenting on the project, Thomas Preiss said: The outcome was exactly what we had planned and envisaged. The project was scheduled to take 29 weeks, and it was completed on time, on scope, and on budget.
Effectivity Beneficial Aspects Common interface for sales, marketing, and customer service No division of systems one CRM application for all users Review and optimization of existing data and processes Efficiency System access on mobile devices via Internet browser Web-based, user-friendly system and fast application handling Real-time data for all user groups, data synchronization not needed Transparency Growing information exchange and transparency Improved reporting and monitoring Data security Higher data security Central database Preventive measures against data loss System support High software compatibility due to state-of-the-art technology High flexibility and fast response times for change requests No more parallel systems
cbs Corporate Business Solutions Unternehmensberatung The Materna Group Management Consultancy Im Breitspiel 19 69126 Heidelberg - Germany T +49 6221 3304-0 contact@cbs-consulting.com www.cbs-consulting.com