Microsoft Dynamics Case Study

Microsoft Dynamics Case Study - Volvo Baumaschinen Osterreich GmbH

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Machinery Distributor Uses CRM to Enhance Customer Service, Improve Marketing Efforts

Companies that operate in highly competitive fields face a distinct challenge: providing high-quality customer service while keeping costs under control. That was the case for Volvo Baumaschinen Österreich GmbH, an Austria-based distributor of Volvo-branded construction equipment. The company’s heavily customized, homegrown customer relationship management (CRM) system was aging, which made finding and sharing customer information across the organization difficult and sometimes even led to customer-service issues. With Microsoft® Certified Partner Unidienst GmbH, Volvo Baumaschinen Österreich implemented Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM 3.0. This solution helps the company streamline business processes, increase sales efficiency, boost marketing efforts, and improve customer service levels. The initial rollout of Microsoft CRM was so successful that the company is deploying it for all employees whose roles directly affect customers.

Situation

Volvo Baumaschinen Österreich GmbH, based in Bergheim bei Salzburg, Austria, is a leading distributor of Volvo-branded construction equipment, including loaders, haulers, excavators, and graders The company sells its products in Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

The company prides itself on providing high-quality customer service that helps improve sales and ensure repeat business. “In order to offer our customers excellent service, we want to establish a real partnership with them,” says Dr. Thomas Schmitz, Managing Director, Volvo Baumaschinen Österreich.

For the past five years, Volvo Baumaschinen Österreich had used a highly customized, homegrown system, called Volvo Front Office (VFO), to handle its customer interactions. However, the solution was becoming obsolete, which made information sharing difficult. In addition, the company had problems creating quotes for its customers. “In terms of technology, VFO has shown its age, and a decision was made to replace it with a new system that could utilize the advantages of modern system technology,” says Peter Glück, IT Manager, Volvo Baumaschinen Österreich.

Volvo Baumaschinen Österreich sought a powerful, flexible, and cost-effective solution that would support its sales process, help streamline marketing efforts, and efficiently manage its customer relationships. “Our business is a highly complex one with unique customer needs,” Dr. Schmitz says. “We needed a CRM [customer relationship management] system that supported the necessary teamwork in a flexible and efficient way.”

Solution

Working with Microsoft® Certified Partner Unidienst GmbH, Volvo Baumaschinen Österreich spent approximately two years evaluating CRM systems before choosing Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM. The company was particularly impressed with the demonstrated ability of Microsoft CRM to serve as a stable environment for doing business across Europe, Dr. Schmitz says. “We operate in seven countries, and, for cultural reasons, there are slightly different business approaches in each country. This is why it’s essential to have a flexible tool like Microsoft CRM to unify our database and maintain core process workflows.”

According to Glück, other reasons for selecting Microsoft CRM included the flexibility to easily change and adapt the software using internal resources, compatibility with other Microsoft software applications, full integration with the Microsoft Outlook® messaging and collaboration client, and the strong support provided by Unidienst.

The company first deployed Microsoft CRM in a phased implementation to sales representatives, sales administration, and bookkeeping. The implementation has now progressed to its aftersales department. Although the rollout is still ongoing, more than 100 employees—from sales representatives and company executives to workshop managers and mechanics—will use Microsoft CRM 3.0 when it is complete.

User reaction to the system has been highly positive, Glück says. He credits this to intensive training and extensive user involvement in the development process. “We involved our sales staff and back office people during the development phase and customized Microsoft CRM as near as possible to their daily workflows,” he says. “That way we were able to hand over a solution that, in the end, fit their needs.”

Benefits

Microsoft CRM 3.0 enables Volvo Baumaschinen Österreich to more easily share information across the organization, which provides the following benefits.

Increased Sales Efficiency

Using Microsoft CRM, the company can more effectively manage every aspect of its sales process, including tracking and following up on leads, customers, contacts, and business opportunities. The extensibility of Microsoft CRM makes it easy to integrate with additional internal systems. For example, Unidienst developed a custom quotation system, called Unidienst Product-Configurator, and integrated it with Microsoft CRM. “Unidienst Product-Configurator and Microsoft CRM help Volvo Baumaschinen Österreich avoid mistakes in product configuration and help the sales team create quotes very quickly, with technically perfect configurations for the quoted machines,” says Robert Feichtinger, Senior Consultant at Unidienst. “This has turned out to be a key point in customer satisfaction.”

Improved Customer Service

Microsoft CRM also helps Volvo Baumaschinen Österreich provide excellent customer service. “With the improved knowledge Microsoft CRM gives us about the customer and a better, more efficient information flow from our sales force to the back office functions, we are improving our competitiveness, customer service, and saving costs due to higher efficiency,” says Glück.

Klaus Längauer, Sales and Marketing Manager at Volvo Baumaschinen Österreich, adds: “With Microsoft CRM, we can spread customer information in the salespeople’s Filofaxes through to the whole organization. That makes contact with the customer much more professional and more personal, and it supports teamwork between departments.”

Streamlined Business Processes

Volvo Baumaschinen Österreich has integrated Microsoft CRM into its core business functions, which helps the company streamline processes and increase efficiency. “One of our main goals when starting the project was to make our jobs easier,” says Längauer. “The high flexibility of Microsoft CRM makes it easy to achieve that.”

Improved Marketing Efforts

Microsoft CRM 3.0 provides Volvo Baumaschinen Österreich with powerful marketing functionality the company didn’t enjoy previously. “We think the campaign management in Microsoft CRM 3.0 fits our needs perfectly,” says Glück. “We have set up a new team to develop business in special market areas, and these people are using this tool for their letter, postcard, and e-mail campaigns.”