Top-Shelf Customer Service Adds to ABN AMRO's Bottom Line
This business supports the information technology and operational needs of ABN AMRO in North America. Capgemini helped improve customer relationship management(CRM) processes.
Business operations were targeted to become more integrated, more synergistic and better able to identify, reach, understand and care for customers. Capgemini was engaged to help AASC ‘s cash management operations by improving customer relationship management (CRM) processes and for the concurrent implementation of Siebel CRM technology.
On the sales side, cash-management representatives now have a complete view of the customer, sales people are more in control and effective. AASC also acquired the ability to analyze the substance and nature of customer calls. Management can monitor customer service and sales activity. Customer service concerns can be addressed promptly. The overriding benefit of this initiative has been the ability to maximize profits via more strategic pricing of its products. It’s all part of AASC’s new ability to identify, serve and satisfy today’s and tomorrow’s customers
Client Profile
ABN AMRO Services Company (AASC) supports the information technology and operational needs of ABN AMRO in North America. AASC is a subsidiary of ABN AMRO North America, Inc., which is headquartered in Chicago and has USD 90 billion in assets and more than 19,000 employees. Subsidiaries also include LaSalle Bank in Chicago, and Standard Federal Bank in Michigan.
Business Issues
AASC has been working to establish business operations that are more integrated, more synergistic and better able to identify, reach, understand and care for customers.
A key focus of those efforts has been the company’s cash-management operations. Existing systems were unable to provide the information needed to understand and track customer interactions throughout the value chain. And because no single repository of customer data existed, callers often had to resubmit the same information they already had furnished on previous calls.
Customer management shortcomings also meant that the company’s sales organization had no visibility into the service center, so staff members often were unaware of customer concerns prior to making sales calls. Nor could sales people immediately initiate assistance for customers in the field; they could only ask the customer to call the help desk directly.
Lastly, the lack of integrated, available customer information meant that cross-sell and up-sell opportunities frequently were missed.
Fixing the Problem
Clearly, AASC’s cash management operations were a candidate for the development of new, customer relationship management (CRM) processes and for the concurrent implementation of Siebel CRM technology. To pull the whole initiative together the company engaged Capgemini. with which AASC had a strong and longstanding relationship.
Solution
Right from the start, it was clear that project success depended on the coordinated infusion of new CRM applications and business processes. Simply put, an implementation of this magnitude could not be all about software; nor could major changes in the way the cash management team does business be sustained without a serious infusion of leading-edge technology. Everything and everyone had to work together.
With this priority in mind, Capgemini conducted several rapid development workshops, to gather business and technology requirements, and promote open, constructive communication across business units and geographies. From there, a number of design sessions were held to map current and idealized. business processes to Siebel CRM applications.
Next, the project team prepared a proof-of-concept to confirm that the new designs would support the transactions, interactions and operational constructs that the cash management business needed. A myriad of new processes and procedures were put in place to support and be supported by the incoming Siebel CRM systems.
For example, a team-based selling model was implemented to replace the former single-contact mode of operation. This approach was taken to increase the visibility of high-profile opportunities, improve information capture and enhance service. New sales-pipeline reporting methods also were installed along with more efficient means of dealing with customer- related problems.
Implementation of Siebel technologies followed, beginning with beta and general releases of the Siebel Financial Institution product. This effort provided a platform for sales force automation and call center service, along with a common desktop hub through which all transactions could be channeled. Key capabilities/tools accompanying the application included account management, contact management, opportunity management, trouble ticket tracking, legacy system automation and customer profiling.
Benefits
Sweeping Improvements
The resulting benefits were swift and dramatic. On the sales side, cash-management representatives now have a complete view of the customer, along with automated assignment capabilities and the opportunity to merge back-end account data with billing data to form a complete, integrated view of all customers and customer activity.
As a result, sales people are more in control and effective with unfettered access to rate sheets, pricing and product lists, and new abilities to capture, leverage and disseminate customer and event-related information.
On the service side customer service agents now enjoy real-time monitoring capability, up-to-the-minute information presented in a graphically elegant display about callers, call types, activities, severity, priority and financial products. The result is faster problem resolution, tight linkage with the sales force and the opportunity to deal effectively and immediately with high-priority callers.
This same level of readily available information allows management to monitor customer service and sales activity, and adjust the call center operational model as necessary. All in all, cash management customers are more connected and better served because background information and interaction histories are contained in a centralized repository that is accurate, accessible and up-to-date.
Customer service concerns can be addressed promptly, with virtually no redundant information required.
Also, customers dealing with sales representatives now find them well-informed, with full access to account records, trouble histories and previously documented needs and concerns; and with the ability to transfer callers directly to customer service, if required.
AASC also acquired the ability to analyze the substance and nature of customer calls, thereby providing better insight into customer problems and experiences, and producing new opportunities to improve service and product delivery. For example, it can now be determined what types of calls are driving work in the call center.
One such analysis demonstrated that most calls actually were call transfers - directory-type questions that could be addressed more effectively by developing an automated directory capability.
Adding Value
A year later, another benefit came to the fore: the ability of a well-conceived technology implementation to support additional initiatives. In AASC’s case, it often was not clear if cash-management products were being packaged in the most profitable way. Nor could it be determined if add-on products and services were contributing sufficiently to the company’s overall profitability. Capgemini thus was re-engaged to help AASC:
- understand the profitability of its quotations
- determine the precise extent and impact of exception pricing on quotations
- establish policies for quotation approvals
- streamline the process for creating quotations.
After assessing the problem, Capgemini put forth three recommendations:
1. Implement a Siebel 2000-based,
guided-pricing tool that would integrate easily with existing sales, service and customer information systems. While quote-management
capabilities had been resident in the initial Siebel implementation, the company had opted not to deploy them. In the interim the system also had upgraded from Siebel 99 to Siebel 2000.
2. Provide sales executives with insight into profitability at the transaction level.
3. Increase profits by developing tighter workflow-management processes for cash-management product/service approvals and escalations.
Following approval of the recommendations, Capgemini re-implemented the quote functionality in Siebel 2000, using its established systems integration methodology to capture requirements, translate those requirements into a design and implement the new capabilities in an efficient manner. Concurrent changes also were made to the company’s business processes.
Consistent with Capgemini’s recommendations the first process change required sales representatives to obtain management approval for quotes falling outside stated profitability parameters. A second process change was that the new system (not the sales representative) actually generates a formal, template-driven quote for the customer’s review.
The overriding benefit of this initiative has been the ability to maximize profits via more strategic pricing of its products. For example, management can control unnecessary discounting, as well as review historical quotes on lost proposals, and the actual profitability of lost/won quotes to determine when exception pricing is appropriate.
In addition, the sales organization now has a pricing tool that is fully integrated with sales and customer information systems, thereby making it possible to rapidly construct realistic competitive quotes using standard templates. Automated approval and routing processes then accelerate the approval/rejection of quotes that fall below profit thresholds.
A Smoother Path Forward
But adding value. also means that the stage is set for initiatives that remain under consideration. For example, AASC’s new CRM capabilities have made the cash management account team more aware of (and responsive to) customer needs and concerns; so
there is fresh potential for focused work-flow programs that introduce existing customers to new solutions or add-on features. Those new capabilities also represent new cross-selling opportunities within the cash management area, identifying the right potential customer for initiating new business.
It’s all part of AASC’s new ability to identify, serve and satisfy today’s and tomorrow’s customers.
Written in co-operation with ABN AMRO.