WALLDORF, Germany–(BUSINESS WIRE)–March 14,
2001–
mySAP CRM Shaves Off Low-Value Time That Gillette’s Sales Force
Spends On Administrative Tasks, Thereby Increasing Productivity,
Creating a Competitive Advantage
SAP AG (NYSE:SAP) today announced that The Gillette Company has
successfully rolled out mySAP(TM) Customer Relationship Management
(mySAP CRM) to its German and U.S. sales forces, increasing
productivity and improving the usage of sales processes and
tools.
As part of a global, phased rollout, Gillette outfitted its
sales force in Germany with pentop PCs, rather than laptops, for
greater flexibility in the field and chose mySAP CRM to provide
remote order entry; calendar and activity management for easier
planning of customer visits by sales representatives; and
up-to-date information on customers, contacts and products any
time, anywhere. The implementation for the U.S. sales force is
focused on configurable displays and integrates the request for
displays in the field to the back-office operations and
systems.
„mySAP CRM has made Gillette a more nimble company, providing us
with greater efficiencies and the ability to better serve our
customers,“ said Dieter Timmermann, chief information officer and
vice president of Corporate Information Technology and Applications
for The Gillette Company. „By targeting productivity objectives in
our sales processes and tools and by shaving off low-value time, we
are already hearing from our customers that they’re noticing a
difference in the level of service we’re able to provide. Since
implementing mySAP CRM for our sales representatives, we have truly
accomplished our goal of establishing a single, integrated, global
view of our customers while providing a unified ‚One Gillette‘ to
our vendors and customers across business and geographic
lines.“
Why mySAP CRM?
First and foremost, The Gillette Company needed an easy-to-use tool
that would leverage its existing business processes and IT
infrastructure. As an innovative, world-class company in the
consumer products industry, Gillette required the latest in
e-business technology. Gillette’s new e-business solution needed to
fit in with the company’s Global Business Process Integration
(GBPI) program to standardize all business processes across all
brands and all geographies for greater efficiency, and increase
market power by establishing „one face“ to the customer. mySAP CRM
was chosen because of its ability to best meet all Gillette’s
requirements and leverage its previous IT investments.
Who’s Using mySAP CRM?
Gillette began its e-business implementation by rolling out mySAP
CRM to its mobile sales force in Germany. The German implementation
focused specifically on sales order and custom merchandising
management functionality, enabling mobile sales representatives to
create orders and update marketing queries offline while in the
midst of a customer visit.
„mySAP CRM has given us everything we’ve asked from it and even
more,“ said Stephan Fusti-Molnar, national sales director, field
and merchandising, Gillette Gruppe Deutschland. „A more informed
sales force, streamlined sales processes and faster
information-gathering at the point of sale mean we are able to
react much faster to market changes than ever before.“
The next phase of the rollout was to the North American Duracell
sales representatives in January 2001. The U.S. functionality
focused on product configuration using the Java(TM)-based Sales
Configuration Engine embedded in mySAP CRM as well as quotations
and Backweb integration for up-to-date graphics to support the
configuration of displays in the field.
mySAP CRM Is the Sales Front-Office Platform of the Future at
The Gillette Company
With the success of the mySAP CRM implementations in Germany and
the United States, The Gillette Company is planning to expand its
mySAP CRM program to include its European sales representatives in
Benelux, Scandinavia and Iberia by the end of 2001. The next
regions to be rolled out, starting in 2002, are Austria,
Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Italy and France.
The success of the initial mySAP CRM project at The Gillette
Company has spawned other CRM initiatives within the enterprise.
Along with the company’s mobile sales force rollout in Europe,
there is the expansion of the mobiles sales scope in the United
States to incorporate all other company brands (Gillette, Oral-B,
Braun). The Gillette Company has recently initiated a project in
co-development with SAP for implementing Key Account Planning and
Management as a global solution within the mySAP CRM framework that
heavily leverages the already built technical infrastructure
established by mySAP CRM.
About The Gillette Company
Headquartered in Boston, Mass., The Gillette Company is the world
leader in male grooming, a category that includes blades, razors
and shaving preparations. Gillette also holds the number one
position worldwide in selected female grooming products, such as
wet shaving products and hair epilation devices. In addition, the
Company is the world leader in alkaline batteries, toothbrushes and
oral care appliances.
About SAP
SAP is the world’s leading provider of e-business software
solutions. Through the mySAP.com(R) e-business platform, people in
businesses around the globe are improving relationships with
customers and partners, streamlining operations, and achieving
significant efficiencies throughout their supply chains. Today,
more than 13,000 companies in over 100 countries run more than
30,000 installations of SAP(R) software. With subsidiaries in over
50 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges including
the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE under the symbol „SAP.“
(Additional information at http://www.sap.com)
