 Home  Business Decision MakersCase Studies Essem Group gets 20% productivity boost with new CRM system | |
| Essem Group gets 20% productivity boost with new CRM system Situation The Essem Group is a Malaysian-based entity involved in trading and services, and has made a niche in the country's oil and gas (O&G) sector. Established in 1989, the group comprise Essem Corporation Sdn Bhd, Matco (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd and Essmart Systems Sdn Bhd. The group has about 70 employees and has branches in Penang, Johore, the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, and Sabah and Sarawak. With its headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, the group has an annual turnover of about RM30 million of which between 60% and 70% comes from the O&G sector. The Essem Group is driven by a commitment to provide its customers with products and services that are in line with its objective of providing solutions for better performance. Buoyed by the expansion of its O&G-related business, the group has been experiencing double digit growth over the past few years. With the rapid expansion of its business, the company faced the challenge of building capacity to provide a high level of customer service and support to its growing clientele. In particular, it was handicapped as it did not have a customer relationship management (CRM) solution to bring its customer service to the next level. Previously, its sales and service staff recorded dealings and transactions with customers on log books, disparate files or their own personal notebooks. There was also no system for filing emails which contained customer and business-related information. Often, when the sales staff resign, they take with them the records containing information such as customer contacts and history of dealings with customers, according to Jonathan Loke, Executive Director of Essem Corporation. "We then have to start all over again and it is very tedious and tiring. Sometimes, the sales staff don't record the information in the company's system. And even if there's a file somewhere it will take a long time to find it," he says. Loke adds that "everything was dependent on the salesman", and there was no effective system to ensure that customer requests or complaints were followed up on. This semi-manual system also meant the management could not get real-time information on key operations as reports were usually delayed. "Previously everything was logged, so when management wanted some information, the staff would have to take days to compile it. It was very time consuming. Often logs were not updated, so they have to look for the files to get the details," says Ramesh Rajendran, Executive Director, Matco (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd. This made it harder for management to monitor the business and make decisions and eventually prompted the group to have a CRM system which would enable the management to "see down the line and make decisions," says Ramesh. Solution In its bid to improve its level of customer service and to have an in-depth visibility into the sales and business operations of all its subsidiaries, the group looked at several CRM offerings including Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The Essem Group subsequently opted for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Small Business Edition running on a single hardware server and on Microsoft Small Business Server Premium Edition. Loke explains that Microsoft Dynamics CRM was chosen because its comprehensive features was able to meet the group's requirements, and being a Microsoft product, it seamlessly integrates with the Windows platform and Microsoft applications such as Microsoft Office Outlook which the group was already running. He adds that other competing offerings required a separate interface to integrate with Outlook, adding to the complexity of deployment and requiring the purchase of an additional software license. Being part of the Microsoft software environment meant that getting technical support from Microsoft partners was not an issue, he says. "With Microsoft, we don't have to worry about support and service," he says, adding another incentive for the Essem Group was the attractive payment terms offered for the solution. The group engaged Microsoft Certified Partner CWT Consulting Sdn Bhd to oversee the Microsoft Dynamics CRM deployment which started in November 2007 and was ready for the soft launch in February 2008. The sales and service modules were deployed for all three group subsidiaries with a total of 35 users. In December 2008, the group upgraded to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Professional, increasing the number of users to 41. Unlike previously where customer information were input into the databases of the various subsidiaries, all customer-related information are now input into a single Microsoft SQL Server 2005 database, says CWT Consulting Director Then Keng Huat. This has helped to eliminate redundant double entries of customer information by the different sections as well as subsidiaries. Loke acknowledges that one of the biggest challenges in the deployment of Microsoft Dynamics CRM was to change the mindsets of the sales staff to use the system. "We still need to put in more effort to encourage employees to keep their data up-to-date as sometimes they do not update the records," he adds. Benefits Increases productivity by 20% By automating and streamlining its work processes through Microsoft Dynamics CRM, the Essem Group has been able to achieve a 15% to 20% improvement in the productivity of its sales and service personnel, says Muffadzlee Ahmad Sufian, Essem Corporation Executive Director. This is reflected in the speedier response to customer queries and complaints, and shorter product delivery times to customers. Internally, Microsoft Dynamics CRM has eliminated the need to rekey in customer data into separate databases at the various subsidiaries. Now all customer information and service-related data is keyed in once into a single central database (Microsoft SQL Server 2005) and the information is shared across the group. Sales personnel can also access the web-based Microsoft Dynamics CRM even from outside using their notebook computers or smart-phones. "We are often on the road, and when we meet customers we are able give a proposal on the spot as we can access the Microsoft Dynamics CRM server and pull out the required information. We no longer need to go back to the office to get the information," says Muffadzlee. Faster response to customers One of the biggest benefits for Essem Group accruing from Microsoft Dynamics CRM is that that their sales and service staff has significantly speeded up their response time to customer queries and complaints, says Muffadzlee. The pain point previously was that the manual method of capturing customer-related information often resulted in delays in response to customers. "With Microsoft Dynamics CRM, there is now faster response to the customers. That system allows the tracking of the history of customer dealings which enables us to know what is happening and what to do when the customer calls," he adds. This in due in part to the fact that Microsoft Dynamics CRM enables the group to standardize the workflow processes of its salesmen and service staff. Given that previously there was a lack of standardized procedures, this is a major improvement as the standardized workflow provides guidance on the appropriate steps to take in dealings with customers, thus improving response time and customer service levels. "Previously, staff could keep dragging their feet in dealing with customer issues. However, with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, staff will be prompted with alerts as long as a customer-related activity is not closed, and now the management can also see that this activity is not closed," Muffadzlee explains, adding this motivates staff to improve their response to customer queries. Improves management of customer data By replacing the previous semi-manual system of recording customer and service-related information with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Essem Group has consolidated and significantly enhanced the management of customer information. This ensures that important customer data is not kept by the individual salesman but input into the Microsoft Dynamics CRM system and shared across the group. This means that details of communication between Essem staff with a particular account or contact will be accessible through the system and this helps management and other employees to get relevant information about the customer and understand the customer better, says Loke. Previously, if staff from another department wanted information about a particular account or customer they would have to get the salesman concerned to provide the details or do a tedious search of both paper-based or softcopy files in various locations. "Now, we tell them they can find all the information just by looking for this account in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM system," he adds. With the new system, the resignation of any sales or service no longer creates panic. "Recently when one of our engineers resigned, we could transfer the information from the accounts under his purview to the new staff. This made the transition for the replacement much easier and shorter," adds Loke. Enhances decision-making The wealth of customer information contained in the new Microsoft Dynamics CRM system has become an information treasure trough for the management, greatly improving its decision-making process. Previously, without a comprehensive CRM system, the management had little access to updated customer data, and could not easily track business trends. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM system has various dashboards which provide the management with detailed information relating to its customers and its service operations. "With the dashboards available, the management can take one look and know exactly where the business is right now. They can see what cases are pending and what is the lacking, and immediately decide on the required measures," says CWT Consulting's Then. Previously, it took between three to four days for the respective departments to compile reports to any management query. "Now with the Microsoft Dynamics CRM system, most of the information is available to management anytime they need it," says Loh Yu Kuan, Essem Corporation's Manager (Technical Services). | Overview Country or Region:Malaysian Industry: Trading and services Customer Profile The Essem Group is a Malaysian-based entity involved in trading and services, and has made a niche in the country’s oil and gas (O&G) sector. Established in 1989, the group comprise Essem Corporation Sdn Bhd, Matco (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd and Essmart Systems Sdn Bhd. For More Information For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com/malaysia For more information about CWT Consulting Sdn Bhd products and services, call +603 77264632 (KL office) or +607 3591018 (Johor office) or visit the Web site at: http://www.cwt.com.my/ For other case studies in this series, visit www.microsoft.com/malaysia/casestudies |