In order to enhance the transparency of the various channels and customers on the sales side, mgm technology partners joined forces with Lafarge Zement and developed a technical solution for sales oriented customer value management. The solution helps the company to gain a better assessment of customer sales potential as well as individually tailoring sales performance to the respective customer requirements.

Demands and special challenges

The starting point for the introduction of a customer value management solution at Lafarge Zement are the special services such as the determination of appropriate mixing ratios for cement types with special characteristics. While these services are provided free of charge, the aim is to make them increasingly available to customers with high sales potentials. The team comprising the Lafarge Zement sales experts and the technical consultants at mgm technology partners addressed the following tasks scope:

• Mapping and iterative optimization of the customer value calculation model in the data warehouse
• Integration of profit contribution information and qualitative figures and values from the ERP and CRM systems
• Presentation of calculation results in the operative systems of the in-house CRM and sales portal
• User support in the utilization of costumer figures and values in specific sales situations

“The implementation of a customer value concept calls for the smooth interaction between sales and technology instances. In mgm we have found a partner who understands our concepts and is able to realize results within a short time frame,“ explains Andreas Schmidt, responsible project manager at Lafarge Zement.

Comparison of profit contribution and estimated sales potentials

The system generates a high level of transparency and thereby helps in orienting processes and activities in marketing and sales. The reliable calculation of profit contributions forms the foundation of customer values. Within the project context, an essential complexity factor consisted of the identification of interpretation-free financial data from various ERP systems at Lafarge, as well as their consolidation in a calculation model accepted by the respective financial department.

The profit contributions form the central part of the analysis system, and are supplemented by the evaluations of the possible customer sales potential. All members of staff with sales responsibility assess future expectations, and document them in the Lafarge Zement CRM system that has been adjusted accordingly. Data consolidation is performed in a data warehouse provided that delivers its data to the reporting system mapped in Cognos and to the sales portal.

mgm competence – realized within the Lafarge Zement IT infrastructure

At the outset of the project, the mgm team defined the requirements for the customer value solution with client sales professionals in the course of joint workshops. This resulted in a technical implementation concept for the desired market and customer segmentation.

In order to help sales professionals in their annual planning rounds and facilitate their assessments as far as possible, special dynamic questionnaires were developed for potential assessments within the existing CRM system. These questionnaires are automatically filled with existing system data and thereby facilitate the individual follow-up processing by sales staff.

In order to enable the automated generation of profit contributions down to the product level, the mgm team devised a consistent data concept for the various calculation levels all the way through to EBIT contributions. With regard to implementation, especially the coordination for the authorized integration of various Lafarge Zement source systems entailed a key complexity factor for the project.
In the course of a test run it was ensured that the customer figures and values mapped the respective segments precisely, and that the defined values from the questionnaires provided decision-making support in the desired form. This fine-tuning, for example, called for the subsequent inclusion of data, and / or the adjustment of the defined calculations and data models.

Results

“The implementation of the customer value concept called for a comprehensive, all-inclusive understanding of our application landscape, due to the fact that so many different systems are involved as source systems for reporting,“ explains Andreas Schmidt, casting a look back to the technical expertise that flowed into the project.
Today, Lafarge Zement has a smoothly functioning customer value system in place. The system supports sales staff in gaining a better assessment of their customers, and adjusting sales activities and services to individual customer requirements accordingly.

* This reference has been officially confirmed by Lafarge Zement.