The people of London, East England, and the South East rely on EDF Energy for the provision of low-carbon electricity. As one of the largest producers of this essential utility in the UK, EDF energy takes its relationship with customers seriously. Maintaining strong customer relationships is a top priority for the company. That’s why the company turned to SAP Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM) when it wanted to take customer service to a higher level.
The SAP rollout at EDF Energy was part of a grand business transformation programme called Programme Orchard. The main focus of the programme was to improve billing and EDF Energy customer service. At that time, the managing director for business improvement and technology, Nigel Stevens, had just succeeded Benoit Laclau who was the initiator of Program Orchard.
Benefits of using SAP CRM
- 1The service allows the energy company to streamline service operations and reduce service costs. The result is an excellent customer relationship and enhanced customer satisfaction. The SAP CRM capabilities include an interaction center, business communication management, partner channel management, and E-service (such as electronic money transfer). EDF Energy customer service improved. Now, customers can easily and quickly contact the energy company and receive quotes for new connections or other services.
- The service management software from SAP provides field service support in various ways. With the system, it is easier and less costly to manage comprehensive field service processes – on-site service execution, service order planning, billing, resource scheduling, and call taking. Field engineers can access data while they are working in the field and this improves their productivity. EDF Energy now benefits from the advantages of automating field services.
- With the SAP CRM application, EDF Energy can utilize customer-related information to improve other lines of business such as marketing and sales. By continuously monitoring and analyzing customer’s habits, the application provides useful information about customers’ consuming habits. Such information gives a better understanding of customers and helps to improve marketing strategies as well as the effectiveness of EDF Energy customer service. In the end, customers are more satisfied with the product and service.
The decision to go for SAP was a critical one. As Nigel explained, settling on a highly-customized bespoke system instead of an out of the packet software required careful balancing of options. He said that EDF Energy thought of the system not just as a technology but a key business driver. Going for a leader in this technology’s market also shows how EDF Energy values customer relationship improvement.
Capgemini designed and built EDF Energy’s SAP CRM system using the Rightshore delivery model. Basically, the model enables collaboration between the experienced IT designers and clients. It is preferred because it enables the design of tailored solutions that address the needs of specific clients. Benefits of the Rightshore model include cost reductions and increased innovation that help clients to gain competitive advantage. EDF Energy was the first energy company to use the service. Soon after the results of the projects were evident, other power distribution companies started evaluating the service.
EDF Energy customers no longer need to go through tiring paperwork processes as the SAP CRM system mostly involves paperless processes. For the company, the system is a great stride towards achieving high flexibility and efficiency around IT and business development projects. The energy company is able to reach its ambitions of being the most trusted energy provider in the region by providing simple and yet highly reliable energy solutions for homes and businesses.
Proper CRM implementation improves relationships with customers. A well designed CRM system allows for better organization of sales and marketing processes and should translate to increased revenues or savings. For best results, a CRM project must be integrated into a larger business transformation model but not isolated as an IT project. At EDF Energy, the SAP rollout was part of Programme Orchard, whose main goal was business transformation.
In-depth knowledge and practical experience is required to prepare, plan, and implement the SAP CRM project – especially to evaluate the necessary organizational changes that need to be made. This approach focuses on the business. Thus, business goals should be prioritized. The professionals who carried out the implementation of the SAP CRM project at EDF Energy understood this and that’s why the project succeeded. Every business should consider these factors when implementing CRM systems to ensure that the project provides a good ROI.
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