Andrew Industrial gets boost from Siebel CRM system

Auckland-based chemicals distributor Andrew Industrial says it is getting increased productivity after installing a Siebel customer relationship management (CRM) system on top of its Navision business management system.

The 60-person firm was the first Navision customer in the world to buy the mid-market version of Siebel.

Andrew CRM manager Vinney Kumar said that in exchange for acting as a guinea-pig the company did not have to pay for the connecting software Navision had to develop, bringing the cost down to about $150,0000.

It expects to get its investment back in less than 18 months.

"What we wanted to do was use CRM processes so we can better understand our customers and our opportunities by being able to share information around the business," Mr Kumar said.

"Productivity has already increased 10 to 15 per cent across the board through better communication and use of resources. It is used by all the account managers, the call centre and the general manager, and we've planning to put it into more of the operational areas as well."

Because all information about a customer now resides in the system, call centre staff do not have to track down a particular account manager when a customer rings with a query.

Andrew Industrial mostly provides chemicals for further processing, although some products such as swimming pool chemicals are sold to retailers.

"Our customers expect us to know on-the-spot what they ordered last time, the product pack size, the price and delivery date of their current order.

"They don't have time to wait and we can't afford to let them wait. If we can't answer their questions quickly and accurately, then they will go elsewhere," Mr Kumar said.

Before Siebel was put in, sales quotes were done manually with no automatic flow from the account managers to the sales coordinators.

The customer service group missed opportunities because they could not see any of the information until the actual order was processed.

Mr Kumar said that because Siebel as keeping track of requests for items which Andrew might not supply, or for different services, the company was better able to track market trends and opportunities and respond to them.

The system has also been set up so when sales staff synchronise their handheld Palm computers with their desktop PC, Siebel feeds in appointments and information they may need.

Andrew Industrial looked at systems from Vantive (now Peoplesoft), Pivotal and Saleslogix before settling on Siebel, known mainly as a high end solution.

The mid-market version is restricted to 225 users, something Andrew, which took a 30-user licence, isn't too concerned about.

The implementation was done by Mr Kumar with help from systems integrator Avanti, which had earlier put in the Navision system.

Andrew Industrial

Navision