At the AFNOR Group, customer relations also comply with very strict standards
Since the end of the 90s, the AFNOR Group has entrusted Selligent with the management of its customer relations. Meanwhile, the CRM project has matured and the technologies have significantly improved, allowing the Group to migrate from a Client/Server version to a 100% Web-based version in 2005. This upgrade turned out to be a huge success, borne out by the growing enthusiasm it excites amongst its users.
Stéphane DelysseIT Project Manager
“We have noted that it results in better information sharing and an improved overall awareness of our clientele. With CRM, we now have a total overview of key accounts from a regional to a Group viewpoint”
“The way information is organised in the CRM base has allowed us to set up the management charts, which are key to efficiently monitoring contracts and sales rep activity.”
The AFNOR Group has the distinction of being involved in four major business lines: standards, which consists of defining standards in association with socio-economic organisations (e.g. the international ISO standards or the French NF norms); publishing, which is dedicated to issuing printed editions of the standards and distributing the products associated with them; company certification, based on standards or a set of references; and finally training. Each of these activities is represented by a subsidiary or unit, which has its own individual sales department. Altogether, the Group employs over 900 people who are dedicated to assisting businesses in everything related to their «quality» approach, both in France and worldwide.
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Flexibility first
In 1997, the AFNOR Group began implementing a new master plan designed to totally revise its information system and, in particular, introduce CRM and ERP tools. At that time, the Group was working on large systems and wanted to modernise its software infrastructure. Stéphane Delysse, IT Project Manager responsible for the CRM project, attached a great deal of importance to the new solution’s flexibility. «The tool had to fully satisfy the different needs of our four business lines. Each of them not only involves highly specific and diverse processes, but also a very wide range of sub-procedures within the same business line. For example, certification is subdivided into four different types (system certification, e.g. ISO 9001 - products, such as the NF label - people and services), each of which have their own specific processes associated with them.» Following an invitation to tender, Selligent was chosen both for the appropriateness of its solutions and its superior flexibility, as well as being within a perfectly reasonable budgetary framework.
A long story
Although there are now almost 600 Selligent users in the AFNOR Group, its use was introduced in several stages. «We wanted to exploit CRM’s possibilities to the full from the outset. However, we soon realised that the very comprehensive scope of the Selligent solution meant that it was better to proceed step by step. Four or five years ago, our CRM system was still mainly used as a client database, but not yet fully exploited for keeping track of operations and customer relationships,» recalls Delysse.
A highly beneficial migration
With the arrival of the Web-based version of Selligent, the AFNOR Group saw other horizons opening up. So it decided to embark on a process of migrating from the client/server solution to a 100% Web version. This coincided with the moment when Stéphane Delysse joined the team and took over leadership of the project. He confirms that, «the AFNOR Group had defined a large number of business scripts. We took advantage of the migration to the Web to completely rethink the management rules and streamline the system.» This process of simplification, associated with the advantages inherent in a Web-based solution, proved beneficial in terms of response time. «It was therefore natural for users to start exploiting Selligent more extensively, which enabled us to extend the functionalities used. Switching to the Web really had a galvanising effect on our project and sales teams.»
A cross-division communications tool
Selligent is currently used intensively by the sales teams. They need an accurate and updated overview of all their clients across the different businesses. AFNOR sales representatives only deal with one business line, meaning that the same clients can be in contact with several members of the team. This is where Selligent has a key role to play, having become an invaluable communications and information sharing tool between the sales representatives. For example, they can find out if a client who is beginning a certification process has already followed a training programme or purchased a standard. After sales service agents also use Selligent to process requests coming into the call centre. It enables them to see all the products previously purchased by the client in question. Similarly, marketing teams use the Selligent data to target and implement their campaigns and (e-)mailshots.
Aiming for unified client base management
To make sure data remains consistent, the AFNOR Group has set up a team of four people dedicated to updating the client database. They are the only ones with the authority to perform this function. From the outset, this company database, managed by Selligent, has fed all the other business applications. In reverse, the process that is currently being set up for managing contacts is sourced from the various business applications. This means that each application manages its own nominal database (for example, the «training» application stores the names of trainees who attend the courses, while the «certification» application manages the names of company quality managers, etc.). All these names are now purged and merged before being transferred to the CRM. This means that the AFNOR Group can also monitor operations, purchases, contracts, etc. both at company level and individual level. This will enable it to better target purchasing decision-makers and not merely corporate entities. Interfaces have been developed between Selligent and the various business applications used by the Group’s subsidiaries to facilitate this centralisation. Until now, this system of interfaces did not allow information to be made available in real time in the various applications. This disadvantage is currently being eliminated by setting up an application bus to constantly monitor updates made in the CRM and immediately copy them to the other applications.
Many projects underway
Apart from centralising its teams and setting up this application bus, the AFNOR Group still has a large number of projects underway involving Selligent. First of all, integration with the CTI system should be deployed in the course of 2008. This will enable information about a caller to be retrieved from the Selligent database and summarised on the customer service and sales reps’ screens. The Group is also thinking of extending its use of Selligent to other modules, such as quotation management. Not forgetting the LDAP directory, sourced from Selligent, which will permit single client identification (user account and password) whichever Web application is used for the connection.
