Hello Everyone!!
I thought of sharing some high level key functions/benefits of a Cloud for Customer system. The focus area is Account & Contact Management, Lead Management & Opportunity Management...This is not a complete set of benefits/functions, neither this specifically covers integration related things, but, it definitely gives an idea for evaluating the pros of using a Cloud for Customer Solution, specially for beginners...
Account & Contact Management
- Central place to store the Account/Contact Data in C4C as opposed to distributed systems like Outlook, Excel sheets, Mobile devices, etc.
- Account ó Contact Relationship, along with relationship to Operators, sellers, suppliers, etc. maintained in C4C system which simplifies work of Sales People in finding the relevant Accounts & mapping the Contacts/other relationship against them.
- Enterprise Search functionality which offers quick search for Accounts/Contacts, & other Objects, also search Accounts/Contacts based on filters like: Account Owner, Sales Area, Sales Employee, etc. These search filters can be saved on the Search screens for a one click access to filtered information.
- Account Feed information offers visibility into ALL activities that take place on an Account, like, Opportunity created on Account, Contact/Address information updated, any Appointment/Task updated on the Account etc. in one single screen
- Reps can mark the Accounts as Favorites to get instant access to their frequently visited Account & can keep themselves updated on the activities happening on the Account, they do not need to go through several channels to get updates on Key Accounts they work on.
- Capability to maintain multiple Sales team members at Account , which ensures every active contributor from the sales team on the Account is maintained & tracked.
- Seamless integration of Account/Contact Master data from SAP ECC to C4C system, to keep the Master data & its integrity intact in C4C System.
- No repetitive/manual effort needed for updating Account/Contact information in C4C as along with the initial Account/Contact data, any changes (Delta) performed on ECC Master data automatically flow to C4C Account/Contact data.
- Key information about the Account like:
- 1.Account Hierarchy information
- 2.Industry Type
- 3.Account Classification
- 4.Active Pipeline revenue information on the Account available right on a single screen for a complete 360 degree view of the Account along with Address & Bill-to, Ship-to address information.
- Access to all follow up items, like Leads/Opportunities/Appointments/Tasks created against an account can be accessed from within the Account screen, this provides end to end information from a single screen to every activity created/performed on an Account.
- Account/Contact information accessible on Mobile devices makes the On-the-Go Sales rep job simpler & enables them to better manage their Accounts/Contacts while on the go. They can perform Opportunity creation, Schedule Appointment or create and assign Tasks in the Accounts while on the go using the mobility feature of C4C for Account/contact management on the go.
- All critical attributes of an Account & Contact are reportable, so running Analytical reports on the Account & Contacts now becomes much simpler using the embedded reporting functionality to derive intelligent information on the data maintained in C4C system
- Standard integration using Outlook Add-On enables seamless connection between your Outlook & C4C system, which makes multitasking simpler, so reps can now works from Outlook & access Account/Contact data residing on c4C from the Outlook itself.
Lead Management :
- Single place in C4C to capture information about your Leads, which you get from various sources like Email campaigns, road shows, business card exchange, phone calls, web Leads, etc.
- Leads provide capability to maintain information about the potential Customer like Customer name, its contact details, address information, etc. which are key things to communicate with the prospect further, also capture information on Customer interest on your Product.
- Maintain the team members involved like Sales team member, Marketing team member information, etc.
- Maintain key information against the Lead like:
- 1.Lead Status, ex: Open, Qualified, Converted, etc, post Lead qualification process.
- 2.Lead source like: Campaign, Road-show, Telephone call, Event, card exchange, etc.
- 3.Lead category to specify what kind of Prospect is it like: Prospect for: Consulting, Product Sales, Service, Training, etc.
- Add Products in the Lead to specify the Prospect’s interest in the Product.
- Create Activities against the Lead like scheduling appointment, creating a task for some other team member to do some R&D & follow up. All these functionality from within the Lead provide a single platform to perform end to end Lead Management process right from Lead creation to qualification, Product addition, scheduling appointment/tasks all the way through conversion to an Opportunity.
- Leads can be converted to an Opportunity from within the Leads itself in C4C, this allows you to track the efforts on New Prospect.
- All attributes of a Lead are reportable, so analytics on Lead for example by Source, by Category, by rep, etc. is easily configurable.
- The converted Opportunity can be accessed from within the Lead itself which provides a document flow to the rep which gives them access to all activities in a sales Lead management process from one single screen.
Opportunity Management
- Managing your end to end Sales Process is simplified by C4C’s Opportunity Management Process.
- Create your own Sales Cycle and assign different Sales Phases against the Sales Cycle. Each Sales Phase can then have further Probability (%) assignment to it. This provides a very process oriented approach to manage the overall sales process from Lead to Opportunity Management to your organization.
- To bring in further details to the Processes, every Sales Phase can be assigned one or several Activities/Tasks, which ensures that the reps adhere to every single critical step in the Sales Process laid down by your Organization. This is the guided selling process via the Sales Advisor function in an Opportunity.
- Critical key figures like the Dollar Amounts (Expected revenue), Timelines (Start & End Date), Probability (%), account for critical KPI analytics over an Opportunity.
- Adding Products to get the revenue information is a key capability on the Opportunity, which drives the revenue analysis of an Opportunity.
- Maintain information on an Opportunity like involved Sales team members, Involved parties like Operator, supplier, Partner, etc. to ensure every involved person be it external or internal is correctly captured in the Opportunity. The Opportunity can be analyzed based on these roles as well, which gives insights into individual performance management on Opportunities & the involvement of external people in the Opportunity.
- Maintain different Opportunity status like Won & Lost and also maintain the reason against the Opportunity status to analyze the root cause or drivers for a Loss or Win. This analysis helps in better planning and alignment of the focus area for future Opportunity management.
- Several standard reports/dashboards available in C4C offer logical & useful data, ex: Opportunity Analysis, Opportunity-Activity analysis, Opportunity-Product analysis, Revenue Analysis, Performance analysis, etc.
Hope beginners to Cloud for Customer find this information handy.
BR
Ankur
