Using CRM to provide a 360 view of Grenzebach's customers

"With all our different projects, we had accumulated a lot of know-how, but it was often tied to individual people. We still weren't using a CRM system, so we went looking for a platform where we could reconstruct all our dispersed stores of knowledge in a central system and make it available to everyone," explains Maximilian Pischel, Grenzebach Purchasing Department, who handled the commercial end of the CRM project. "A shared system should allow for synergies by synchronizing the activities of the individual business units," adds Michael Zehntner. "What we were missing was a 360-degree view of each customer, since the CRM should cover not only new sales but also after-sales activities." Service gets thousands of inquiries and hundreds of service projects for equipment maintenance or troubleshooting – that's a lot more business than Sales, where the company gets about 30 offers a year for new customer projects. The CRM project is also a step towards process digitalization in general.

Along with a CRM solution, Grenzebach was also looking for a suitable implementation partner, and they took their time to find the right one. The first step was to use input from the various departments to produce a tender specification and preselect eight CRM providers, including both big names and smaller companies. After that, they evaluated the technical and commercial criteria. This was followed by requests for tenders and an intensive testing phase in the form of workshops. Pischel adds: "We're thinking long-term. So the combination of CRM solution and partner needs to be a good fit for us. We decided on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM world, coupled with COSMO CONSULT, because it made the most sense to us both functionally and economically."

The implementation was very challenging. As a global automation specialist in     machinery and plant engineering, Grenzebach has complex processes that don't conform to any standard, as Maximilan Pischel explains: "The complexity and the unique issues we deal with added to the workload, which delayed the launch. Even though some of the project phases were not easy, COSMO CONSULT dug in, stuck by us and remained committed to the project throughout. Ultimately, we were very happy with the results." According to the Grenzebach team, the lead consultant played an especially important role: This is the customer's main contact at COSMO CONSULT who knows the overall system, brings in specialists for individual tasks and makes sure that the general construct works. "We have a healthy, mutually complementary and transparent relationship – I think that's the key to a successful partnership. We don't see it as employer vs. contractor – COSMO CONSULT is a real partner that works side-by-side with us," says Zehntner of the collaboration during the initial implementation of the CRM system as well as subsequent additions.

The CRM solution is used by nearly every department at Grenzebach, including Marketing, Services and Management – and this holds true across all their locations worldwide. To Pischel, this offers a crucial advantage: "We have large-scale projects. The only way to pull that off is for everyone, in all locations, to be able to work closely with one another. The Microsoft CRM platform is perfect for us, because otherwise, our business model wouldn't be possible." Having a 360-degree view of customer data means that knowledge is available to everyone. It allows all the various departments to better serve the customer. For instance, the company can offer upgrades and notify customers of any upcoming service that might be required, e.g. an oil change every four years to maintain the 500 different gearboxes in one of their plants. This generates additional revenue. "The platform transfers the knowledge of every employee into the database, and now we have a transparent view of the installed base. With this interdepartmental overview, we're able to offer the customer a lot more," adds Johanna Budweiser, Online Marketing at Grenzebach. Group-wide standardized reporting also adds transparency and assists Management with decision-making. The marketing module allows us to always keep our marketing and communication materials relevant and personalized for the customer. This module also now allows us to clearly segment our target groups. Plus, we can create detailed customer profiles. We're able to collaborate more effectively and, at the same time, we're also increasing interaction with our customers and potential customers.

The online world is taking on growing importance in customer service. The comprehensive marking module of the Microsoft CRM is going to be helpful in this regard. The idea is for marketing processes to be as fully automated as possible. This includes functions like newsletter subscriptions, mailings, website tracking and tradeshow management. As Johanna Budweiser explains, the company is phasing out its standalone systems as it fully integrates its marketing activities in the CRM:  "Before, if we did a customer mailing campaign, there was no way to see that centrally. But now, every customer communication is included in the 360-degree view." In future, the CRM will reflect each 'customer journey' in its entirety. From generated marketing leads to websites and social media or encounters with new contacts at tradeshows – the new module allows Grenzebach to follow current and prospective customers along their entire 'customer journey' and provide the best possible service experience. "Automating our marketing activities will enable us to optimize our marketing and communication distribution chain long-term, because we now have a unified system where we can represent various workflows such as lead generation, updating and conversion." Recently, recounts Mrs. Budweiser, the company created a prototype for a customer portal: "We have a clear goal in mind to improve the way we communicate with customers. This idea came from Management, and COSMO CONSULT helped us to implement the customer portal in just 80 days – 80 days from idea to technical golive." As Michael Zehntner confirms, this follow-up project was also a big success from an IT perspective: "The CRM has to continuously expand in accordance with our needs. We were able to put the customer portal together in a very short amount of time, and to us, that was proof of what we could achieve by working with COSMO CONSULT."