Sud-Ouest Mutualité - a solution tailored to each member, thanks to Selligent
Sud-Ouest Mutualité is a cross-professional mutual fund covering the south-west of France. It has always prided itself on anticipating its members’ expectations. Its desire to stand out in an increasingly competitive environment led Sud-Ouest Mutualité to set out a strategy with the aim of becoming the first mutual fund to offer its members genuine “made-to-measure” coverage. To support this strategy, it needed to introduce an integrated technology solution. It entrusted Selligent with the CRM component of that solution.
Philippe DelordAssistant General Manager
“As soon as we have created a new offering, we can integrate it immediately into the system and market it without delay. This ability to get innovative offerings to market quickly has enabled us to strengthen our competitive position. We have a three-year lead over our competitors and we aim to keep it that way.”
“With Selligent, we have a better knowledge of our members – and that enables us to better target our campaigns. We can extract quantitative and qualitative statistics and analyse the information collected to determine all the possible improvement areas.”
For over 60 years, Sud-Ouest Mutualité has manifested a spirit of innovation. In 2002, the mutual fund sector was opened up to competition, and with growth forecast to be between 8% and 12%, the healthcare market is attracting more than a little ardour. To maintain its position in what has become a very competitive market, Sud-Ouest Mutualité has been listening to its members and responding to their expectations, as Assistant General Manager Philippe Delord explains: “Nowadays, members wish to be treated as individuals with unique needs in terms of healthcare coverage. Because we are aware of this shift towards more personalised demand, we have designed a tailored offering comprising over 20,000 different guarantees. Then, to be in a position to advise members on their best choice of coverage based on their situation and individual needs, we needed to leverage innovative tools to help select the appropriate guarantees.”
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CRM and sales configuration
Sud-Ouest Mutualité already had a CRM tool and they wanted to keep it. So their initial thinking focused on re-designing the management system. But, As Operations Director Philippe Gaspel explains, “the new management tool was based on Internet technology, but our CRM wasn’t. We soon realised that this was not going to satisfy the needs expressed.” So a customer relationship component was grafted onto the original project during first quarter 2005. Other than the classic needs, the solution selected="selected"was to include a sales configurator to enable the sales representatives to advise the members in their options and configure tailored healthcare coverage offerings. It was also to offer a more detailed marketing functionality and assure real-time communication with the other systems to guarantee up-to-the-minute sales information.
An original approach
At this point Sud-Ouest Mutualité set out in search of a software package that would respond to these demands. With Selligent, they found the ideal solution for their CRM system and with Cameleon’s Access Commerce, the solution to its issue of tailored configurations. “The fact that Selligent managed to find a global approach with Access Commerce was a decisive factor. Now we had our all-in-one solution. The really innovative facet of our system is based on the integration of these two solutions,” Gaspel points out. “Another software developer offered a solution with an integrated configurator, but the project seemed huge. Yet to be up and running within our deadline, we needed a flexible solution allowing us to implement within our tight schedule and with a powerful integration capacity.”
On your marks!
Yes, the time line was tight. The decision was taken in May 2005, and the system had to be operational in the following December. Which left seven, maximum eight months to implement the integrated solution, including the transfer of the existing data. “To set up a system of that nature in such a short time was a major challenge,” Gaspel underscores. “But we didn’t hit any technical hitch. The tool was flexible, turned out to be able to cover all our business processes, and the data migration was very smooth. I have to say that the Selligent teams were very responsive, available and efficient. Personal relations are also very important in a project of this kind.”
A solution adapted to all the users
Today, Selligent is the stepping stone to the commercial system and is fully integrated in the back-office system and the configurator. All the contacts – members and prospects – are managed in the CRM system. From this single source, the sales force can find all the member information directly, whereas before it was spread across various systems. To calculate an estimate in Selligent, the sales representative uses the Cameleon functions to define the ideal solution that takes into account the member’s needs. The transition between the two applications is totally transparent. Once the estimate is signed by the member, the sales representative can convert it into a contract with a single click and immediately deliver the direct-payment card thanks to the integration with the management system. In addition, Selligent enables the sales representatives to create their own marketing campaigns. The telemarketing platform – a team of agents responsible for telephone prospecting – also uses the system on a daily basis. Michèle Marquise, who heads up this group, explains how it works: “Every day we pick up the files from an Internet comparison engine and import them into Selligent. The people are then contacted by our phone operators, whose prime objective is to set up an appointment with our sales reps. But we are also authorised to issue estimates.” Apart from this on-going activity, one-off campaigns are also developed for specific targets. According to Marquise, “the big step forward that Selligent brings is that it gives a very accurate picture of the consultants’ diaries and enables us to share information in real time.” Automated functions facilitate the coding of new elements, simplify the organisation of appointments and generate the necessary actions, opportunities and estimates. “With Selligent, we have a better knowledge of our members – and that enables us to better target our campaigns. We can extract quantitative and qualitative statistics and analyse the information collected to determine all the possible improvement areas.”
Next step – business intelligence
Today, the users have really adopted the solution and are eager for further developments. In response to their expectations, Sud-Ouest Mutualité has more plans for Selligent. CTI integration is on the books, and the installation of Selligent AnalytiX is programmed for next year. This new stage will make the sales representatives even more efficient and help them make the right decisions in their work. They are also thinking about setting up a portal which, for example, will enable member companies to access their employee portfolio and issue estimates on line.
A three-year lead
Once again, Sud-Ouest Mutualité has demonstrated its innovative ability and now has the right tools to enhance member loyalty. Philippe Delord has the final word: “as soon as we have created a new offering, we can integrate it immediately into the system and market it without delay. This ability to get innovative offerings to market quickly has no doubt enabled us to strengthen our competitive position and avoid customer churn, despite increasingly aggressive competition. We have a three-year lead over our
