Excellence in Customer Service
The ultimate goal Jaguar Land Rover was pursuing when they started their global CRM project, came a step closer with the successful completion of the rollout for the Benelux region.
To get there, however, JLR needed to harmonize and merge over 70 sources of customer and prospect data. A perfect opportunity for data migration specialists Type 2 Solutions and Armada Consulting to put their experience to good use.
JLR partners up with Type 2 Solutions and Armada Consulting to clear the path for SAP CRM.
Clean, Improve and Enrich Customer Data
David van As, CRM Manager for the Benelux, describes the challenges of the project: “Quite a few requirements were added while the data cleansing and migration projects were already on their way. One of them was to enrich the available data at three different levels. Right from the start, the business rules that were defined for that purpose took the requirements of SAP CRM into consideration. The result is now available in the Selligent marketing automation fulfilment platform, the tool that will be used in combination with SAP CRM to communicate with our customers.”
The decision of JLR’s leadership to move to a single SAP CRM system created the need for globally coordinated CRM processes. Van As saw the change as an opportunity to improve current customer data, to enrich it wherever possible and to make it a key factor in the project, which lasted for almost nine months.
Clear the Path for SAP CRM
The CRM manager realized that the undertaking required a thorough, detailed approach. He insisted on collecting, cleansing and unifying all the Benelux customer data so that it could be used in the Selligent platform even before the implementation of SAP CRM was completed.
“If you want something done right, you cannot focus on too many projects at once, you need go about it step-by-step. Which means getting the data right first, setting up Selligent next, and only then continuing with the CRM rollout.” The combination of Armada Consulting’s SAP skills and Type 2 Solutions’ data migration platform have been the key to walking that path.
Single View CRM for 360-degree View
Correct and rich customer data has never been more important. In an era where companies have an abundance of communication possibilities, it is essential to choose the correct manner of contact rather than relying on a shotgun approach. In the high-end segment in which JLR operates, mistakes in customer communication are particularly unforgiving. “The trigger for this data quality project was that I believed the current levels of data quality to be inadequate. Although of course, SAP CRM has sped up the process a bit,” offers Van As. Until recently, both customer data as well as customer contacts were handled country-by-country. “The new SAP system is called SV-CRM as in Single View; it is a single system which will provide us with a 360-degree customer view.”
Integrating more than 70 data sources
A thorough evaluation of the numerous available datasets revealed that the different data sources were either not or not well enough integrated, says the CRM manager. “We selected a limited subset of the data and sent this to a select group of suppliers of country-specific address and moving information, to see if they were able to significantly enrich it. We needed several vendors because of the various cleansing and enrichment methods we chose, by target group, market segment, but also by country. This greatly increased the complexity of the project.”
- Integrating more than 70 data sources
- Type2Solutions’ platform was crucial for the integration and deduplication of the data
- The data migration went smoothly through the excellent preparation and knowledge of SAP
- T2S and Armada thought ahead about data formats, enrichment methods, data quality and data upload
The Result: More Relevant Customer Communication
“ The advantages of the improved data are self-evident. The steps taken were needed to get to a more efficient and relevant communication with our customers. The new possibilities have opened a whole new world for us. We now have a much clearer understanding of who our customers are and how many of our vehicles are out there. ”
Consolidated Data
Now that fragmented data sets have been combined into one set in Selligent, the basis for future marketing fulfilment is set. The enhancement of the data quality enables JLR to import lead data from local data sources. Each future data import carried out by JLR will make use of the Armada / Type 2 Solutions platform. Data will only be uploaded to Selligent and SAP after the platform and the Data Quality Monitor has checked the import.
The configuration of Selligent was predominantly modeled on SAP. “Selligent is freely configurable. We decided from the start that we would use the same setup as SAP. This has prevented unnecessary changes prior to the CRM release.” Van As indicates that his colleague Gerton Hoogerwaard, General Manager Business Systems at JLR, played an important role in shaping the decisions for the configuration of Selligent.
High-end Customer Experience
Looking back on the project Van As is highly content. While JLR used to have their address data cleaned externally whenever needed, Van As now realizes that a well-thought-out, reusable process is much better suited. “Cleansing data ad hoc increases the risk of using inadequate tools and an uncoordinated approach. The process needs to be uniform. I would certainly recommend enriching data country-by-country: it greatly increases the value of your data. We want to offer a high-end customer experience, and that requires attention to detail. We have most certainly achieved that.”