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CRM and The Financial Industry An Overview: Implementation Challenges and Lessons Learned Prepared by Wally Khalifa Wability Knowledge Center Table of Contents Section I. 4 1.0 Overview: CRM and the Financial Services Industry . 4 1.1 Why is CRM Important to FSPs? . 4 1.2 CRM Strategy Guidelines . 4 1.3 The Building Blocks of a Successful CRM Strategy . 5 1.4 How can the Building Blocks of CRM be used to Support the Strategy . 6 1.5 Challenges in Implementing an Enterprise-Wide CRM Strategy . 6 1.6 Vendors and Solutions that are Best Suited to Drive Technology. 7 2.0 CRM in Banks. 10 2.1 Preferred Banking Channels . 11 2.2 CRM Functionality Rankings In Banks (Survey Conducted by Gartner) 11 2.3 CRM Integration Priorities in Banks . 11 2.4 CRM Evaluation Metrics in Banks . 11 2.5 Why CRM Deployment Initiatives Fail in the Banking Environment . 12 3.0 CRM in Brokerages . 13 3.1 Why CRM is Important to Brokerage Houses . 13 3.2 Preferred Brokerages Channels. 14 3.3 CRM Evaluation
Metrics in Brokerages (Gartner) . 14 3.4 CRM Inhibitors in Brokerages (Gartner) . 14 3.5 CRM Functionality Rankings in Brokerages (Gartner) . 14 4.0 CRM in Insurance . 15 4.1 What will effect the adoption of CRM in the Insurance Industry? . 15 4.2 Insurance Industry Ranking of the Important Elements of CRM . 15 4.3 Why CRM is Important to the Insurance Industry. 15 4.4 Channels in Insurance . 16 4.5 Preferred Insurance Channels . 16 4.6 CRM Integration Plans . 16 4.7 CRM Evaluation Metrics in Insurance . 16 4.8 Inhibitors to CRM Initiatives in the Insurance Industry (Gartner) . 16 4.9 CRM Functionality Ranking in the Insurance Industry . 17 Section II . 18 5.0 Siebel Implementation Methodology: Challenges and Lessons Learned. 18 5.1 Overview . 18 5.2 The Siebel Implementation Approach . 18 5.3 Suggested Siebel Project Structure . 18 5.4 Potential Siebel Implementation Obstacles . 19 5.5 Why Siebel? Benefits. 20 5.6 CRM Solutions From ERP Software Vendors . 21 5.7 CRM Vendors- Criteria
of Evaluation: Sales . 23 5.8 CRM Vendors- Criteria of Evaluation Marketing . 24 5.9 CRM Products- Criteria of Evaluation: Customer Support . 25 6.0 Siebel Implementation Challenges and Lessons Learned . 27 Challenge 1 Real-Time Recognition of Siebel Events . 27 Challenge 2 Batch Data Loading into Siebel. 30 Challenge 3 Scalability and Integration Design . 31 Challenge 4 Error Notification/Activity Assignments . 31 Challenge 5 Data Insertion and “Update Logic”--- Standardize . 32 2 Challenge 6 The Need for Monitoring Scheduling and Logging Systems . 32 Challenge 7 Recycle Processing . 33 Challenge 8 Backup/Recovery Mechanisms . 33 Challenge 9 Interface Process Error Handling . 34 Challenge 10 Siebel Values Referencing . 34 Challenge 11 QA Testing . 35 References . 36 3 Section I 1.0 Overview: CRM and the Financial Services Industry CRM Definition Gartner has defined CRM as a business strategy designed to optimize profitability, revenue and customer satisfaction. CRM
should be conceptualized as an all-inclusive business strategy focusing on three key goals; optimizing profitability, growing revenue, and improving customer loyalty. Without careful planning and continuous monitoring, CRM initiatives can yield unintended results. Understanding potential negative consequences, and making pertinent queries will assist financial services firms in assessing potential areas of vulnerability Key Issue A key issue that should be considered is how Financial Service Providers, (FSPs) will leverage information architecture and emerging technologies to increase overall profitability and reduce risk. 1.1 Why is CRM Important to FSPs? The financial services market is highly saturated. Competition is growing in all segments of the markets as more providers transition into new lines of business, and as new market entrants, both traditional and non-traditional emerge. With decreasing margins, and an increasing number of competitors, each FSP is vying for a greater
share of each customer’s wallet. For customers competition means more choices in FSPs Despite shrinking margins and increasing client demand, FSPs face increasing market pressure to show increased profitability. To drive overall profitability, FSPs must increase their sales efficiency, expand their business with existing customers, and improve service quality, availability and market efficiently. 1.2 CRM Strategy Guidelines The following criteria are suggested guidelines for building a CRM strategy: 1. The CRM initiative should: • Not expose the enterprise to regulatory risk. • Not expose customers to theft or other unauthorized use of personal information either internally or externally. 2. The CRM initiative should adequately define a “customer” by capturing the entity to be acquired, retained, or grown. • It should not negatively complicate marketing. • It should allow flexible customer choices. • It should incorporate a user-friendly mechanism for garnering
customer and prospect feedback and correction. 3. The CRM initiative should have a clear, affordable, and flexible strategy 4. CRM processes and tool sets should not negatively impact the architecture of enterprise CRM goals. 5. Return on investment should be achieved 6. The CRM initiative should reflect the needs, concerns, and sponsorship of the entire stockholder community. 4 Fact FSPs who fail to develop CRM as a business strategy, will find investments do not match their goals for CRM, and as a result will face losses in profit. (Gartner Group) Fact FSPs that do not have comprehensive CRM strategies that include front-office, backoffice, and integration technology components will find lower than expected returns on their CRM investments. (Gartner Group) 1.3 The Building Blocks of a Successful CRM Strategy In addition to acquiring new business processes and technologies, FSPs must leverage existing processes and technologies to accomplish CRM. Key enabling technologies will
include: a. Front-end technologies Technologies that provide the mechanisms for delivering sales and services consistently, and across all channels. b. Back and mid-office technologies Such as customer databases, centralized customer information files, marketing customer information files, marketing data marts, and data warehouses are required to enable FSPs to pull information from a variety of internal sources, including core systems and external third party data providers, compile a complete customer profile, distribute information consistently across an enterprise and receive results from the use of this information. c. Integration Technologies Middleware, standards, and web-based technologies are required to integrate the different technologies and applications in the front and back offices. Technologies will be required for channel integration and data management. 5 1.4 How can the Building Blocks of CRM be used to Support the Strategy • • • 1.5 Channel Expansion
that will enhance sales. Predictive Modeling, consisting of a profitability analysis will enhance the overall marketing effort. Personalized Service Delivery: Customer information acquisition will help improve service. Challenges in Implementing an Enterprise-Wide CRM Strategy FSPs are recognizing the many challenges they face in implementing an enterprise-wide CRM strategy. Some of these challenges are: • Lack of adequate infrastructure to support the speed and volume of data that will be required, and to deliver complex and comprehensive data on customers and their relationships with a provider. • Lack of a clear understanding of who “own” the customer and how to establish ownership in order to enable an enterprise strategy. • Lack of skill sets necessary to support the business strategy and process and use the required technologies. • Lack of quality data and the capability to pull information together to form a single view of a customer. • Consumer and public
interest group privacy concerns and legislation that may limit the use of a customer’s non-public personal information. • Internal culture clashes that may hamper the movement found in CRM. • Lack of solid return on investment calculations for certain aspects of CRM including service delivery. Fact Once an organization has a defined CRM business strategy, they must carefully rework their business processes and tactics, otherwise CRM will produce unwanted results that decrease profitability and increase attrition. Without proper execution of their CRM strategies, FSPs will fail to find the improvements that their CRM strategies promised. 6 1.6 Vendors and Solutions that are Best Suited to Drive Technology A. When considering customer service and support suites you should look for: 1. Call Transaction Management Services: It is important to log all incoming calls and transactions as well as manage and track interaction from initiation through escalation and closure. 2.
Field Service and Dispatch: This should include: • CS (call transaction management, contract management). • Warranty Tracking. • Workforce Management, (forecasting, technician scheduling and dispatching). • Asset Management • BI, (reporting, data mining). 3. CS software should be integrated into the contact center and sales automation 4. E-Service (self-service for customers, partners, and prospects) should provide: • Tracking and escalation. • E-mail response management. • Universal queue management systems to integrate telephone, IVR, speech recognition, and the internet in order to standardize the handling of all customer inquiries. • Chat capabilities. 5. Contact Center To handle all channels of customer contact both inbound and outbound including: • Voice, (telephone, IVR, speech recognition, and voice verification). • The Internet, (the web, e-mail, fax, video, and postal mail). • When evaluating software you should make sure it provides: a. Tools for
forecasting, scheduling, call recoding, monitoring, and quality assurance. b. Analysis tools, (decision support, data mining, and customer satisfaction surveys). c. Connectivity tools including middleware, diagnostic tools, reward recognition programs. 6. Channel Automation to include branch teller platforms and agent automation Table 1 summarizes the customer service and support suites product offerings by various vendors. Call/Transaction Mgmt SW Clarify E-Service X FS/D X Contact Services X X Onyx Remedy Siebel People Soft(Vantive) X X X X X X X X X X 7 B. When Considering Technology Enabled Sales Solutions (TESS) you should look for software that provides the following: 1. Opportunity, territory and activity management 2. Content Management 3. Interactive Selling 4. Selling Channel Partners 5. Contract/Center/Inside Sales/Telesales/Ad Telemarketing 6. Sales Configuration Systems 7. Sales Compensation Software 8. Point of Sale Software Table 2 summarizes the TESS
product offerings by various vendors. Siebel Baan PS (Vantive) Nortel (Clarify) Promptu 1 X X X X 2 3 X 4 X 5 X X X 6 X X 7 X X X Oracle SAP Onyx X X X X Fact FSPs that do not expand their sales channels and use TESS solutions to manage and support the sales process will experience sales inefficiencies and retention in customer acquisition. C. 8 When considering Marketing functionality suites you should look for software that provides the following: 1. Customer Segmentation, (channel used transaction type, frequency) 2. Customer profitability Analysis, (activity based costing, funds transfer, pricing, and risk-weighted capital). 3. Predictive Modeling 4a. Campaign Management- Direct Mail 4b. Campaign Management- E-mail 4c. Campaign Management- Multi-channel 5. Real-time event monitoring and triggering 6. Personalization 7. Customer Database 8. Business Intelligence and decision tools (DSS) 9. House Holding 8 Table 3 summarizes the Marketing functionalities product
offerings by various vendors. 1 Broadvision Epiphany Oracle PS Vignette X X 2 X X 3 4A 4B 4C 5 X X X X X X X X X 6 X X 7 8 X X X X X X 9 X Fact There are no “complete” CRM tools on the market. Gartner expects the need to use a combination of best-of-breed solutions to continue. Many CRM initiatives have been taken on an individual channel or product-line basis, or some other basis that does not enable enterprise-wide coordination. As a result, various initiatives may include conflicting assessments of customer value and prescriptions for customer treatments. 9 2.0 CRM in Banks Fact CRM in banks lags behind other sectors in the financial industry and is shifting to broader enterprise strategies. Key Issue How will banks manage and leverage their customer information assets to increase overall bank profitability? Shifting from CRM point evaluation, from business line level or customer segment level to an enterprise-wide RM strategy; a strategy that
crosses the major business lines of retail and corporate. 1. The banking industry has many of the fundamental building blocks of CRM in place, for example customer data management, service/support, call centers, and ATMs. 2. Despite the presence of many CRM building blocks, substantial gaps have been revealed during the past 12 months, as Internet banking channels have exposed product-oriented silos. On-line sales and service channels demand seamless dynamic access to a broader range of real-time information. 3. Products, which are increasingly commoditized are no longer key differentiators Banks are maximizing the value of relationships by cross selling products and encouraging customer loyalty. Creating customer-centric integration of the front and back offices is the most important aspect of CRM strategy. This is true for both retail and corporate banking The most important CRM functions to retail bankers are: • Front office product/technology. • Customer-centric integration of
the front office. • Corporate strategy. • Business processes/organizational realignment. The implementation of service-oriented CRM strategies for customers will lay the foundation for expansion into customer identification, acquisition, expansion, and retention strategies, leading to a more mature industry that views CRM as a strategy to support a variety of goals including: • Identifying new customers. • Acquiring new customers. • Retaining existing customers. • Expanding business with current customers. 10 2.1 Preferred Banking Channels Customer experience across channels such as dial-up terminals, PCs, and voice response technology is far from consistent. The implementation of robust CRM strategies enables banks to track transition patterns. This will equip the bank with the information required to forecast future customer needs and to recognize and act on unusual changes in transactional behavior, thus maximizing channel use. Preferred channels were: • Phone.
• Face-to-Face. • Internet. • E-mail. • Fax . • Kiosk. 2.2 CRM Functionality Rankings In Banks (Survey Conducted by Gartner) • Marketing Automation (29%). • Sales (18%). • Customer Data Management/Analysis (18%). • E-Commerce (18%). • Customer Service/Support (17%) 2.3 CRM Integration Priorities in Banks The integration of CRM components with internal systems (including the internet) is the highest priority for banks. CRM integration in was ranked as follows in terms of importance: • Internal systems and the Internet. • Across front office. • With legacy systems. • Front office/back office. • External Database. • No integration. Fact A substantial effort will be required for integration among the various CRM point solutions, components, channels, and critical bank systems. It is best to start with a single vendor-suite approach, which will ultimately move to best of breed overtime to accommodate unanticipated channels, information sources and business
practices. No single vendor-suite includes complete CRM functionality. 2.4 CRM Evaluation Metrics in Banks When evaluating the success of CRM initiatives, banks often consider focusing on revenue improvement rather than expense reduction. Although this evaluation metric is closely aligned with industry objectives to expand business with existing customers, banks are generally reluctant to justify investments on the basis of revenue alone. 11 Customer loyalty across products, geographies and time is difficult for banks to measure without CRM solutions. Establishing a baseline for evaluating the impact of CRM initiatives will be challenging for many banks. Banks visualize CRM accomplishing the following with respect to CRM channels (in terms of importance to the banks): • Increase customer loyalty. • Increased revenue per customer. • Increase market share. • ROI. • Reduced inventory in fixed assets. • Reduced marketing, selling, service costs. • Other. 2.5 Why CRM
Deployment Initiatives Fail in the Banking Environment In a survey of banks conducted by Gartner Group, the following reasons for why CRM initiatives failed were given: • Considered as a low priority (27%). • Lack of clear ROI (16%). • Poor IT infrastructure (15%). • Absence of comprehensive packaged solutions (10%). • Lack of vision (10%). • Resistance to change (8%). 12 3.0 CRM in Brokerages Overview CRM continues to be misunderstood and underdeveloped at most brokerage institutions. CRM is seen as a way of complimenting client relationships, increasing customer acquisition and retention as well as growing individual customer value. The primary goals of CRM in brokerage institutions have to be to improve service, provide for product customization, client targeting, cost reduction, and increasing efficiency and effectiveness both internally and with clients. Facts • • • CRM goals have been met only partially, and there is substantial room for improvement in
the deployments and processes. Many brokerages deploy CRM in a vacuum, without a core stakeholder strategy in place. Most brokers and vendors position CRM as a front office solution, instead of taking a more holistic view of the enterprise and its various stakeholders. This conflicts with the desires for a more integrated approach that takes into account changes in the workflow and work practices that require heavily customized solutions. This problem worsens by the different definitions of CRM that vendors use to skew favor to their own products. Most brokerages lack understanding of their competitive positions with respect to CRM. This view is borne out by circumstantial evidence suggesting that CRM solutions are deployed and integrated from a mainly tactical standpoint, and do not form key components of overall business strategies. This is a misguided approach that is likely to lead to continued customer dissatisfaction and stakeholder mismanagement as a result of unclear
technology adoption processes, channel conflicts, and ownership conflicts, among other factors. Vendors are not addressing their holistic enterprise needs of a broker in terms of customization and workflow, but rather are supplying point specific functionality. Without integration between front and back offices, delivery touch points will not have actionable information with which to manage customer relationships effectively. 3.1 Why CRM is Important to Brokerage Houses • Expanding business with current customers. • Acquiring new customers. • Retaining Customers. • Identifying new customers. 13 3.2 Preferred Brokerages Channels • Phone. • Internet. • Face-to-face. • E-mail. • Fax. • Kiosk. 3.3 CRM Evaluation Metrics in Brokerages (Gartner) • Increased revenue per customer (89%). • Increased customer loyalty (86%). • Increased market share (81%). • Acceptable ROI (74%). • Reduced marketing, selling, and service costs (53%). • Reduced Investment
in fixed assets (31%). • Other (3%). 3.4 CRM Inhibitors in Brokerages (Gartner) • Low Priority (13%). • Resistance to change (10%). • Absence of comprehensive packaged software (8%). • Poor IT infrastructure (7%). • Lack of vision (7%). • ROI (3%). 3.5 CRM Functionality Rankings in Brokerages (Gartner) • E-Commerce (36%). • Marketing automation (20%). • Customer data management (16%). • Sales (15%). • Customer service/support (13%). 14 4.0 Facts • • • 4.1 CRM in Insurance Insurance Carriers view CRM as a method of focusing on customer service. As competition within the financial services industry grows more intense, insurance providers must rapidly evaluate existing business models and make key modifications to enable success in the new marketplace. One these modifications is the adoption of CRM strategies to enhance marketing, sales, and services across the enterprise. The journey toward a customer-centric organization will be difficult.
What will effect the adoption of CRM in the Insurance Industry? Growing Competition: Multiple sources of new competitive entries, including start-ups, and financial /non-financial providers that want a piece of the insurance market. Shifting Sales and Service Strategies: Traditionally, insurance providers have concentrated on product creation, with distribution/sales considered a different basic focus. Most aspects of customer relations were supported at the channel level, and were not a concern to the provider. As direct channels emerge, carriers have more interactions with customers, and require better methods of communication and support. Changes in consumer behavior: More transactions are live. Fact Overall, there is a lack of understanding in the insurance industry of the potential of CRM to promote growth through customer retention and acquisition. CRM is viewed as a project that integrates front and back offices. 4.2 Insurance Industry Ranking of the Important Elements of CRM
• Customer-centric integration of front and back office (41%). • Components of corporate strategy (32%). • Business process or organizational realignment (14%). • Front office Product/technology (11%). • Do not know (2%). 4.3 Why CRM is Important to the Insurance Industry • To retain customers. • To Expand business with current customers. • To acquire new customers. • To identify new customers. 15 4.4 Channels in Insurance Facts • There is a decline in importance in face-to-face interactions • There is a decline in the utility of the telephone • The Internet is viewed as an important channel strategy. 4.5 Preferred Insurance Channels • Phone. • Internet. • Human Resources. • Fax. 4.6 CRM Integration Plans Facts • The integration of CRM initiatives will be a difficult and costly endeavor for insurance providers because they will have to integrate systems with a variety of internal systems and external systems of partners, suppliers, and
customers. The lack of consistency in internal infrastructure and the disparity of internal systems will require that, carrier’s first focus an internal integration plans. • The creation of a CRM business strategy is likely to be difficult, and decisions about building the technological framework to support a CRM initiative are also challenging. 4.7 CRM Evaluation Metrics in Insurance • Increased customer loyalty. • Increased market share. • Increased revenue/customers. • Acceptable ROI. • Reduced marketing, selling and service costs. • Reduced investment in fixed assets. • Other. 4.8 Inhibitors to CRM Initiatives in the Insurance Industry (Gartner) • Low Priority (22%). • Corporate culture/resistance to change (12%). • Lack of clear ROI (12%). • No comprehensive packaged solutions (11). • Poor IT infrastructure (9%). • Lack of vision/leadership (6%). 16 4.9 CRM Functionality Ranking in the Insurance Industry • Marketing Automation (25%) •
Customer data management/analysis (21%). • E-commerce (21%). • Sales Automation (18%). • Customer Services/Support (16%). 17 Section II 5.0 5.1 Siebel Implementation Methodology: Challenges and Lessons Learned. Overview Siebel defines a successful e-business project based on the achievement of these outcomes: • Increased Revenue. • Increased Profits. • Customer Satisfaction. • Increased Productivity. In order to achieve the above, the implementation team must: 1. Address and understand business requirements 2. Complete implementation on schedule and within budget 3. Gain acceptance by the user community 5.2 The Siebel Implementation Approach The Siebel approach consists of the following 4 elements: 1. Understanding and adhering to Siebel e-business critical success factors, including: • Aligning business requirements with IT. • Obtain executive sponsorship. • Define business benefits clearly. • Leverage Siebel functions. • Involve users. • Used a
phased implementation approach. • Define end-user training. 2. Divide the overall project into key phases 3. Follow Siebel e-roadmap methodology • Definition Stage. • Discover Stage. • Design Stage. • Configuration Stage. • Validation Stage. • Deployment Stage. 4. Utilize a production pilot for the implementation of each phase 5.3 Suggested Siebel Project Structure The benchmarks for the average Siebel implementation, (based on the Siebel Approach) is approximately 13 weeks, utilizing 12 people, 5 of which are consultants. 18 Stearing Committee Sponsors Project Managers PM 1 PM2 Project Advisors TAM Technical Account Manager (From Siebel) Siebel PMO For Quality Review Expert Services (Siebel) For Archetecture and Configuration Review 5.4 BA Team Configuration Team System/Data Training Archetecture Deployment Potential Siebel Implementation Obstacles 1. 2. 3. 4. Requirements not defined, (Can add 2-3 weeks during discovery phase). Complex interfaces to
ERP systems Interfacing with existing logic “outside of Siebel environment”. Implementing Siebel Quotes Module, (depends on the gap between the current quote system and Siebel quote functionality, about 2 – 3 weeks extra). 5. e-configurator: Implementation time depends on the number of product combinations which is based on: • Business Rules. • Relationship between products and services. 6. Siebel Reports- additional 7. Data cleansing and conversion 19 5.5 Why Siebel? Benefits 1. Transformation of the business into a customer-centric organization by consolidating customer-facing process around a single customer relationship management platform. 2. Migrating multiple customer databases will enable sales and marketing personnel to exchange contact and lead information. 3. Provide customer information to field sales personnel 4. Provide accurate, timely, consultative answers to questions 5. Increase customer loyalty and staff effectiveness by building a knowledge base,
which can be referenced by both support staff and customers. 6. Provide sales staff with more information about customers/accounts 7. Enable cross selling and up selling of products and services 8. Track customers and prospects more accurately 9. Improve management decision-making 10. Avoid duplication of effort 11. Develop better control of territory assignments 12. Improve sales pipeline, contact, and visit report 13. Provide a single solution for corrective action when problems occur 14. Provide a framework for information sharing among the business groups 15. Provide a consistent level of service Note: In order to secure a customer’s lifetime value, successful companies are offering their customers optimum products, perfect communication channels, and comprehensive services along every step of the business relationship. 20 5.6 CRM Solutions From ERP Software Vendors SAP, PeopleSoft, Baan, and Oracle have begun to offer products in the CRM space However, Siebel is the only
CRM software vendor that has a product that addresses the demand chain needs (sales, marketing, service, support and channel partner management) of global enterprises. Smaller companies with departmental requirements, as well as those seeking best-ofbreed point functionality or deep industry specific functionality requirements and workflow with back-end systems, may be better served by solutions other than those from Siebel. The potential solutions to the following issues should be addressed: 1 Does mySAP.com offer a true integrated e-business solution? No, SAP does not offer a truly integrated e-business solution and relies on marketing relationships with CRM and Supply Chain vendors to round out their e-business story. Only Oracle offers a truly integrated e-business solution. 2 Has SAP transformed themselves to an e-business? As of yet SAP has not moved to a true e-business environment. Whats more, there have been no announcement that SAP plans on using their own software to
transform themselves to an e-business. Oracle utilizes its own e-business software and has saved over $1 billion doing so. 3 Can you tell me how Clarify and Commerce One are integrated with R/3? There is no seamless integration between Clarify and SAP, or Commerce One and SAP inhibiting the flow of transactions and requiring costly integration projects to implement, upgrade and maintain. Oracle offers a completely integrated solution from front to back office- one simple and complete suite. 4 How flexible is R/3? R/3 is highly inflexible. For example, it is very difficult to add to or change GL hierarchies, something that is easily accomplished with Oracle. 5 Can I import non-SAP data into the SAP Business Information Warehouse (BIW)? The SAP BIW can only facilitate the storage and management of SAP data from SAP applications, limiting the user’s ability to view external and non-vendor specific information. Oracle enterprise data warehouse (EDW, is designed to facilitate the
management of data from multiple vendors, enabling a true enterprise-wide view. 21 The following chart will describe some of the high level functionality offered by some of these other vendors. Insurance SAP PeopleSoft Oracle Banking CRM Products mySAP-CRM has Customer Engagement Specific Product exists: Specific Product exists. Order Fulfillment SAP-Insurance SAP-CRM Banking Business Transaction Customer Service No Specific Product: No commission No Specific Product management. No claims management No Specific product: No Specific Product Sales, Support, Field Services, Help Desk, Quality, Analytics e-business Suite e-sales, e-support, e-field services, e-helpdesk e-Business suite i11 Product, Sales, Marketing and Support 22 5.7 CRM Vendors- Criteria of Evaluation: Sales Product Opportunity Territory, Activity Management System Content Management Interactive Selling Selling Channel Partner Contact Center-Inside Sales--Tele Sales--Tele Marketing Sales
Configurator Sales Compensate Software Siebel 2000 X N/A X X X X N/A BAAN X PeopleSoft (Vantive) X X X X Oracle iR11 SAP JDA X Point of Sales Software X X X X 23 5.8 CRM Vendors- Criteria of Evaluation Marketing Product Campaign Order Advanced Tracking Surveys Management Planning Customer Profitability Predictive Event Segmentation analysis Marketing Modeling Personalization Reporting Siebel 2000 BAAN X PeopleSoft (Vantive) X Oracle iR11 Next Next Version Version X SAP X JDA X X X X X X X X X X 24 5.9 CRM Products- Criteria of Evaluation: Customer Support Product Transaction Management E-services F S/D Contact Center X X X X Siebel 2000 BAAN PeopleSoft (Vantive) X X Oracle iR11 SAP JDA 25 A complete CRM solution must address each of the following areas: • Effective customer segmentation Companies must have a total customer view and divide their customer populations into discreet groups that share similar
characteristics. • Integrated multi-channel strategy Organizations need to synchronize their channels and balance the cost of each channel against other factors, including value to the customer, the customer’s preferences, and each channel’s profit potential • Well-defined business processes Organizations must ensure that business processes are clearly defined and are based on customers’ perspectives and needs. • The right skill sets and mindsets Organizations need to carefully manage change and provide the right training and incentives to bring about desired behaviors. • The right technology Organizations require technology that provides a single view of customer information across all customer touch points, addresses specific industry requirements, works seamlessly with other technologies, supports multiple devices, scales easily, and provides support for global operations. The key to creating business value with CRM is remembering that business strategy and
technology strategy are inextricably linked. Companies that fall into the trap of thinking they can implement CRM capabilities based only on technology will fail Those that take a more holistic approach will be able to achieve the greatest success in driving greater customer satisfaction, and ultimately, shareholder value. 26 6.0 Siebel Implementation Challenges and Lessons Learned Challenge 1 Real-Time Recognition of Siebel Events 1. Events based data integration in Siebel requires a uniform mechanism of real-time event recognition that resides on the Siebel Application Server. 2. Any activities related to interface design should be constructed with a bias against client-based solutions. 3. Real-time events occur with the help of database triggers This is a solution that is provided by middleware; tools such as Vitria for example. Another recommended way to achieve real-time data extraction is accomplished by way of polling Siebel business components at fixed intervals. Either
scenario allows interfaces to operate exclusively at the server level. 4. Server-based Siebel integration processes have the following advantages over client-based processes because they: • Allow simple conversion to thin client. • Facilitate easy rolling out of process upgrades. • Operate within the scope of Siebel application server, which ensures good performance. Siebel Client Based Interface 1 Interface 2 Siebel Application Server Siebel DB Interface 3 27 User Report Recognition: The Polling Mechanism A polling mechanism sends a query to a business component at a fixed interval in order to detect a new request. The diagrams below illustrate various polling mechanism options. Option 1 Interface POLL DB Query Siebel Database Siebel Application Server Option 2 Interface POLL DB Query Siebel Application Server Siebel Database New Message Poll ID Base Table Use Triggers External Table Row ID 28 Option3 Interface POLL DB Query Siebel Application
Server Siebel Database User ID Base Table Use Triggers DBMS PIPE Once a process has recognized a new request, a proper meta database must be referenced in determining field level data extraction. If you use middleware, (publish/subscribe) all fields will generally be extracted with subscribing systems’ mining needed fields. Application logic also derived from meta data must be applied as well. This includes: • Field-to-field mapping. • Transformations. • Field look-up translations into Siebel. • External database look-ups. • Formatting into accepted transport protocol (XML). 29 Challenge 2 Batch Data Loading into Siebel When addressing data conversion, a common pitfall is to leverage existing messaging middleware applications rather than duplicate meta data for batch processing. This is not recommended. Rather, a high-volume batch mechanism such as Siebel EIM or Informatica ETL should be configured to draw upon the same meta data. Lesson Do not use messaging
middleware tools to do the job of an ETL tool. Legacy Request All Data Requests Request to Third Party Request to through TCP/IP ODS-Siebel Business Component Middleware Message Queue Response to 30 Challenge 3 Scalability and Integration Design Interface processes must be scalable in order to accommodate unexpected peeks in data volume. Integration processes must be designed and constructed with the following capabilities: • Load Balancing---Multi-threading, Multi Processing. • High rates of throughput. • Error handling, Process Monitoring, Match Logic. Application processes should concentrate on integration tasks and allow system-wide applications handle the mundane. Lesson Though EAI tools may claim to have high speed throughput, bottlenecks will occur when processes require heavy Siebel interaction using the COM API Challenge 4 Error Notification/Activity Assignments Meta Data Database Look Up- To Assign, To Correct User ID Interface Process I Process Messages
Application Interface Process II Error Assignment Messages Activity/ Business Component Siebel Data Insertion • A primary benefit of using a Siebel solution includes the assignment of activity and error notifications to specific users. • Interfaces can strategically utilize this by adhering to rules applied to erroneous transactions that do not have clear owners, (such as user name, user id). • This becomes a powerful exception handler in that human intervention can be leveraged to complete an automated process. Since many interfaces will use these mechanisms, a single process fed by a message queue should be responsible for error assignments. This will release interface processes for non-essential task. 31 Challenge 5 Data Insertion and “Update Logic”--- Standardize Since updating in Siebel will include modifying existing records, an acceptable standard for data insertion must be followed. 1. If fields in the insertion record are null or empty, Siebel must not be
updated at all, (this is to avoid deleting meaningful data). 2. When blank data is sent through the interface, update logic must translate this to overwrite Siebel fields with either null or blank. 3. When you have business specs that sometimes require field updating only after pre-existing values are confirmed for certain conditions, (e.g, does account number in Siebel match the number from the interface?). EAI tools (or data cleansing tools) must not only have the ability to insert data into Siebel business components, but must also decipher a proper method for field updating such as: • Fields requiring simple updating. • Fields containing outdated or incorrect data. • Fields that need not be updated at all. Lesson When processing Siebel transactions includes referencing existing fields, look-ups should take place immediately before updating Siebel records. In this way excessive Siebel querying is avoided. Challenge 6 The Need for Monitoring Scheduling and Logging Systems
Complex middleware infrastructures require an enterprise-wide monitoring system for processes, message queues, network traffic, system usage levels, and other sensitive points of failure. A tool is needed to define system thresholds, alert conditions, automated process criteria, and automated paging systems. Process and massage logging is used for debugging, backup/relaying services to enable process monitoring, and to allow system administrators and developers to determine system progress relative to dependent services in order to identify bottlenecks. Application developers and system administrators must come to a consensus and appropriate logging information for mutually beneficial purposes. On-line processes that run all hours of system “up-time” generate log files, and are continually monitored by enterprise monitoring systems. However, processes that execute based on a standard timetable must generate reports that will notify administrative personnel of successful, (or
unsuccessful) execution. These reports should detail unprocessed batch messages and abnormal program termination. 32 Challenge 7 Recycle Processing Messages originating from legacy systems and downloaded in a “fire and forget” fashion, that have corresponding Siebel entries, must contain context setting fields to ensure proper data insertion. Many systems have unique keys that span multiple systems in order to secure a reliable context for integration purposes. In these environments, applying legacy transactions is as easy as matching key fields. However, in cases where uniqueness does not span multiple systems, “matching logic” must be defined that will couple transactions between legacy and Siebel. In a system that depends upon user definition for uniqueness, it is impossible to guarantee processing of every transaction. Business specs must address cases where automated legacy transactions are dependent upon manual entry into Siebel. How? • A temporary storage location
must be created to house “unmatched” data. • Notifications to appropriate users must be created in order to “direct” unmatched transactions. • Recycle processes that re-invoke match rules must be created and executed at fixed intervals. • Purge criteria must be incorporated into the recycle process in order to avoid any unnecessary build-up of garbage data. *Most recycle transactions have no appropriate location in Siebel, and are truly garbage. Challenge 8 Backup/Recovery Mechanisms A mechanism for backing up and recovering records and transactions must be created to address system outages such as system shutdown, process exceptions, middleware interruption, and Siebel errors. Backup and recovery processes must be resident within multiple layers of the integration environment. One must exist at the transport layer in the form of persistent messages, one at the application layer in the form of two-phase commit, and one at the message broker layer in the form of temporary
message storage in the case of a network outage. Backup/recovery mechanisms must distinguish real-time, synchronous, asynchronous, and batch/bulk integration. 33 Challenge 9 Interface Process Error Handling • • • Interface processes must operate based on the premise that data cannot be lost. For batch processing, this is not difficult. Records should not be committed until the batch cycle is complete, and data should not be purged until a successful transformation process has been completed. For message oriented middleware, whether processing high volume “batch” transactions, or real time synchronous/asynchronous messaging, numerous failure contingency plans must be in place to guard against the loss of transactions. Failure Scenarios Backup Mechanisms Message Transport Failure Enable persistent messaging Recovery Mechanisms Actions to take upon failure Middleware tool should Sleep, until transport resume context transmission mechanism is restored Siebel Error
Handling Two-phase commit update Human intervention via method activity notification Application Server Shutdown Utilize persistent messaging Process Failure Two-phase commit update Re-process uncommitted method transaction Transaction rollback and recycle. If Siebel shutdown, throw unhandled exception Re-process uncommitted transaction Challenge 10 Siebel Values Referencing As a result of Siebel business component development, as well as far the benefit of workflow manager, there will likely be a significant portion of metadata stored within Siebel rather than in the metadata database. As a result, interfaces are required to heavily interact with Siebel when transforming the interface to the Siebel database. In order to prevent unnecessary Siebel querying when referencing lists of values, middleware tools should have the ability to store the values in internal caches or buffers for quick reference and for limited Siebel querying. Middleware tools used for integration in a
Siebel environment should have up to date adapters for the following systems: • • • Databases: Oracle, Sybase, Informix, SQL Server, MS Access, Mainframe Systems, CICS, IMS, and MVS. Message Oriented Middleware: MQ Series, COM, COBRA, and MSMQ. Data Communications: TCP/IP, IIOP, and SNA. 34 Challenge 11 QA Testing As with any EAI implementation, a good QA testing design must be created concurrently with development. Stress Testing Each interface must be tested for maximum throughput, excessive transaction data, peak hours of operation, and data accuracy under these conditions. Regression Testing With each new release of interface processes, retesting existing features must be done. Unit Testing With each new feature developed into an interface, process testing should take place. It should be at least thorough enough to account for each central flow within process modules. Systems Acceptance End-to-end system wide testing is a prerequisite. Testing Advice • There
is no such thing as too much testing. Spending more time testing today will invariably result in fewer headaches tomorrow. 35 References 1. E-CRM: Understanding the Internet Opportunity- Gartner Group 2001 2. SAP Banking/ Customer Relationship Management – SAP web site white paper2001 3. CRM and Enabling Technologies in Financial Services- Gartner Group 2001 4. MySAP- Customer Relationship Management for Insurance- SAP web 2001 5. In Search of the Elusive Promise of Financial Services CRM- Gartner Group 2001 6. PeopleSoft- Customer Relationship Management – PeopleSoft web site Publication 2001 7. CRM and CRM-Enabling Technologies: The Difference – Gartner Group 2001 8. Siebel- Project Implementation Benchmark – Siebel 2000 9. CRM: The Bright Side and the Dark Side- Gartner Group 2001 10. CRM – the Difference – WABILITY Inc 2000 11. CRM in Banks- From Silos to an Enterprise Approach – Gartner Group 2001 12. E-Business and Financial Industry- WABILITY Inc 2001 13.
Brokerage CRM: Strategic Needs, Tactical Deployments – Gartner Group 2001 14. Insurance Providers: Begin the CRM Journey- Gartner Group 2001 15. Marketing: Functionality and Vendors- Gartner Group 2001 16. TES in Financial Services: Components and Vendors- Gartner Group 2001 17. FSP Customer Services/Support: Components and Vendors- Gartner Group 2000 36