German car giant Volkswagen is deploying SAP's customer
relationship management platform across its main business
groups.
The move follows pilot projects last year where mySAP CRM was used
for a service centre supporting the launch of a new car and in a
call centre for the Audi division serving 480,000 customers.
VW is implementing a uniform CRM solution across the entire
organisation but will customise the mySAP application to suit the
needs of its various divisions. The car company's own IT staff will
carry out the implementation with the support of SAP Consulting.
During pilot projects, VW IT staff were supported by German systems
integrators Syskoplan and Ecenta as well as PwC Consulting.
Three years ago VW ran into trouble with the rollout of an SAP R/3
enterprise resource planning platform at its main spare parts
warehouse in Kassel. The implementation was meant to be the
cornerstone of the car maker's efforts to extend its "just-in-time"
procurement of spares from all the company's component suppliers.
However, problems with modifications to the system and with the
quality of data conversion and synchronisation led to delays in
deliveries of up to a fortnight.
Kevin Lucas, senior analyst at AMR Research, said VW's deployment
of mySAP CRM made sense because of its existing SAP systems. "If
you have got the back systems in place, going to the same vendor
for your CRM makes sense, but it doesn't guarantee success," he
said.
He added that history of earlier systems implementation had in some
cases a major impact on future procurement. "Some users that had
troubled ERP implementations have told me they would not look at
going to the same vendor for CRM," said Lucas.
