Vertical Markets : Manufacturing / Distribution Benefits

Business Problem Definition

Manufacturing and distribution business are increasing the time and resources spent on the acquisition and servicing of customers. From prospecting, bid management, and order configuration, to the constant communication of order and shipping status and billing inquiry, cost effective identification and servicing of customer needs are the difference between profitability and loss. These business are often identified by:

• A combination of basic and complex and highly engineered solutions
• Mid to long sales cycles
• Different classes of customers with vastly different requirements
• Complex manufacturing processes with multiple steps and routings
• On-going customer relationships that are key to maintaining long term customer profitability
• Sales and support requires specialized skills and significant resource expenses
• Sales and customer support are fragmented into marketing, order processing,, accounts receivable, and shipping departments

Companies that meet these conditions provide the following opportunities:

• Significant sales opportunities through the use of a proven sales process supported by automation and existing customer data
• The ability to increase the number and effectiveness of bids through knowledge of products costs, margins, and automation support.
• Ability to significantly reduce customer support costs through effective use of current staff, integration of currently data, support for multiple communication channels, and the standardization of support procedures
• Significant automation support opportunities through improved use and integration of existing data and systems
• Ability to make every sales call count through knowledge of customers issues and detailed account activity

Solution Approach

A rapid analysis of the current processes and infrastructure to quickly identify candidate savings, measure the savings and revenue objectives , and implement the changes required to achieve those objectives:

Bid Management / Configuration Management - Requirements Definition

Objective: To reduce the cost and increase the effectiveness of the bid process

• Identify the sales process including key tasks, processes, customer contact networks, etc. Formalize the processes required for a successful bid and the associated data and resources required for each task.
• Identify the key configuration management tasks including identification of standard items, SKU's, and features associated with the items. Identification of standard assemblies and sub-assemblies, and identification of standard services and service bundles
• Optimize those tasks through identification of what is required to reduce the number of steps, increase the accuracy and repeatability of the steps, and reduce the cycle time and costs associated with those steps.
• For the key sales and configuration tasks identify the automation support required including access to consolidated information, access to information relationships, and support for standard workflows and sales task assignments.

Identification of customer Net Present Value (NPV) Relationship Value - Requirements Definition

Objective: To identify the total life cycle value of a customer for use in determining bundling and margin strategies, ensuring appropriate treatment of customers in billing and service matters, and focusing attention on the customer retention strategy.

• Identification of customers that require additional attention to ensure their retention due to competitive pressures
• Provide a guide to the sales and customer management staff for the bid process, scheduling, and customer payment process
• Development of rapid, order of magnitude, models. These models will be based upon existing data and cost figures, with identification of requirements, to integrate the models into the customer's information systems.

General Sales order management and customer support workflow / process optimization and automation support to reduce the cost and increase the quality of customer support management.

Objective: To ensure a customer can call one number, deal with knowledgeable representatives, and that the representative have access to the required information.

• Identify the key business objectives of the sales order processing and customer management process
• Identify all of the current departments supporting these functions and the processes associated with that support
• Identify the processes required to complete the sales order processing and customer management functions
• Optimize the process to reduce call cycle time, function completion time, number of calls required, etc. to reduce cost while maintaining or improving service
• Identify the automation support required that could include integration of available disparate data sources, support for inter-departmental communication, and formalization of departmental "hand-offs" and workflow.
• Develop the business, and automation support, estimated costs and work plan to implement the change. Aim for 30-60, 90, and 180 day milestones, implementations, and investment returns
• Implement the changes utilizing either internal, Coreclusion, or third party resources.

Implementation of the Contact Center Process Enhancements

Objective: To cost effectively implement the identified enhancements to the call center processes based upon the return to the business and process improvement task dependencies.

• Prioritize the identified enhancements and identify all enhancement dependencies.
• Develop the business and automation support work plans including estimated costs, durations, and resources to implement the prioritized enhancements. Develop 30-60, 90, and 180 day milestones, implementations, and investment returns
• Implement the identified enhancements utilizing either internal, Coreclusion, or third party resources

Benefits

Tactical

• Increased sales and total sales margin per customer
• Decreased sales cost allowing for increased number of bids and/or increased quality of bids
• Increased bid and sales configuration accuracy leading to increased margin
• Decreased customer service costs
• Decreased customer call cycle time leasing to reduced labor costs and increased customer satisfaction
• Improved customer pricing, based upon Customer NPV leading to increased competitiveness and retention
• Improved proactive customer issues management due to enterprise wide knowledge of customer activities, issues, and order activity
• Increased customer retention
  • More informed customer service, fewer calls
  • Less hassle, less entry of data required for key services

Strategic

• Alignment of investments with business critical processes and functions
• Enhancements integrated into a comprehensive architecture and plan

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