Flexibility Equals Sustainable Productivity
Ten years ago the
Wholesale Products Division of a large multinational banking
conglomerate was constrained by an inflexible CRM system that was
not designed to meet the unique needs of its income producers.
Furthermore, the Division was unable to modify this system because
it was part of a corporate-wide financial reporting system that did
not allow for modular upgrades to meet the needs of a particular
set of users.
The Division turned to
STI Systems (San Clemente, CA), a firm specializing in CRM process
development. STI worked with the Division to devise a flexible
system that would mirror its unique business processes; allow for
incremental modification, so that the system could change and grow
over time; and integrate with other applications so that the
Division could still function efficiently as a part of the
Corporation’s multi-level matrix sales organization.
Initial
Implementation: During the first stage
of the program, STI Systems conducted extensive interviews of
system stakeholders at all levels to model the existing business
process. This five-stage core business process was further refined
and incorporated into a highly flexible CRM system that is still in
use today. It is the foundation for a very complex team selling
process that initially supported 52 income producers, who sell 17
of the 47 products offered by the commercial bank to companies
whose sales range from $50-$500 million annually.
Others who have various levels of access to the systems information
include the manager, various branch managers, regional vice
presidents and relationship managers and line of business
managers.The 5-stage core process tracks the opportunity through
the close and to the ultimate hand-off of the customer and to a
relationship manager. It also tracks the primary users’
monthly requirements, including the number of calls made and number
of proposals submitted, thus impacting their
compensation.
Internal
and External Integrations: Once the activities of
the Division’s income
producers were effectively automated, the system had to be tied
back into the corporate financial reporting system so that none of
the original functionality was lost. Subsequently, the CRM system
was also integrated with the corporate Outlook application. STI
Systems is now helping the bank implement two additional internal
integrations: one with a bank-wide forecasting system, the other
with a do-not-solicit database.
There were also two external integrations. One of these was One
Source, which allows users to download information from the
Internet directly into their prospect database. Another was to Dun
& Bradstreet, allowing real-time access to financial
information about the Division’s customers and prospects.Over
the years, several other integrations have been implemented
allowing the Division’s users to communicate bidirectionally
with important internal and external entities without compromising
security or sacrificing the flexibility to modify its own core
business processes as needed to keep up with changing times.
Integral
Relationship: The Division’s CRM
system is such an integral part of its business process that
STI’s President and Chief Process Consultant Jay Bauer has a
phone conference scheduled with the system administrator every
Friday morning. He also meets with the Vice President of the
Division on a quarterly basis to report on progress and set
additional goals.
STI Systems has provided training to all of the initial and
subsequent users of the system, and Jay has personally trained all
of the users at the management level. This intimate familiarity
with the Division’s business processes makes it possible for
Jay to provide informed guidance on incremental system
modifications for improving the sales process and income producer
productivity.The Division has been making these minor
“tweaks” with confidence regularly over the past
decade, so they have never experienced any erosion in the
system’s performance or its value to the Division.
Continued
Growth: Since 2000 when the
system was first installed, it has grown from 50 to 102 users. It
has successfully transitioned through more than five upgrades to
the underlying CRM platform and many more service pack upgrades.By
corporate mandate all systems within the bank must migrate from
client/server based to web-based applications. This web-based
structure within the corporate firewall provides the bank and its
customers with far higher levels of security. This transition is
well underway and scheduled for completion by the end of
2010.
In addition, STI Systems is also engaged in the process of
implementing a Blackberry client so that all users can access
Opportunities and Accounts on their mobile phones. Initial testing
of the Blackberry client has been completed and the required
hardware requisitions are under review. Once the hardware has been
installed, STI Systems will conduct an expanded Blackberry pilot
with a group that represents about 10% of the user base. A full
Blackberry rollout is scheduled for completion before 2010 comes to
an end.
Ongoing
Value
Now entering its second
decade, the flexible CRM system implemented by STI has provided the
Wholesale Bank Division with numerous advantages:
- The flexibility to grow and change with the market or to take advantage of better productivity-enhancing technologies
- Excellent intelligence on the marketplace
- Accurate and efficient reporting
- A carefully constructed standard business process across the sales force
- Integration with internal corporate banking applications
- Integration with valuable, laborsaving external applications
- Precise mirroring of the Division’s core business processes
- Simple incremental CRM modifications to support continuous sales process improvements
- An estimated 10-fold increase in CRM system functionality.
- An estimated 20% to 30% increase in the productivity for the bank’s critical revenue producers.
- The ability to increase revenues with a significantly smaller percentage increase in support staff.
A survey conducted by the bank asked staff members which of the many systems they use were indispensable to them for performing their jobs. More than 85% of the respondents cited their CRM system.
As a result of the Wholesale Banking Division’s CRM experience, many other divisions of the bank have invited STI Systems to evaluate their business processes and recommend CRM solutions tailored to their unique requirements.
Thus far, 14 divisions of the bank have implemented such a system and some have maintained an ongoing relationship with STI Systems that has lasted for years. Others have brought the development and management of the systems in house while using STI for reviews and implementation of further refinements and expansions of their systems as needed.
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