'All-For-One and One-For-All!' - How Automating CRM and Creating Shared Sales Processes Transformed a Force of Many Into a Team of One (page 3 of 3)

Today, the entire sales cycle is tracked automatically, from campaign creation to qualified lead and opportunity, and finally to an order on the Oracle Store. This information is analyzed and fed back from the system as business intelligence. Marketing now receives specific, quantifiable feedback on a list of 20,000 prospects. They can study the disposition of the leads and see how many translated into sales. Not only can they calculate the marketing costs per sale, they can evaluate every campaign's effectiveness by market, media vehicle and/or target demographics. Best of all, they do not have to wait for the complete results to come in. During a campaign, they can test market receptivity at regular intervals, and refine their strategy accordingly. Marketing and sales now function as discrete parts of an integrated business flow, which has strengthened relationships across these groups.

Trade shows are another example of how Oracle's CRM solution has smoothed interdepartmental working relationships. Oracle hosts many critical customer trade events, at various locations throughout the world. Before we moved to one CRM platform, customer requests and leads were collected at the shows and manually distributed. Some leakage inevitably occurred. Today, leads are entered into the system directly from the trade floor and instantly routed to OracleDirect for evaluation and follow-up.

The ability to see into the pipeline across departments and groups supports real-time management decision-making and forecasting. At Oracle, like most companies, sales forecasting was handled using spreadsheets. Each sales manager would consolidate the information provided by their salespeople into a spreadsheet, apply some judgment and then send it to the next level. That supervisor would collate the managers' reports, apply some more judgment and submit it to their bosses. By the time the forecasts reached the top, the information was not only dated, but had been filtered through so many times as to be of dubious value.

At Oracle today, the same single instance of CRM is used in every region where we do business. This gives us a cohesive, unified view of our sales performance worldwide. Sales executives can make informed forecasts, market by market, about competitive quotes on the street and deals in progress, including when they are expected to close. They can drill down to a specific region, sales representative, Oracle customer or opportunity. Moreover, role-based portals allow us to provide each sales representative and manager with information relevant to what they do and "need to know." In fact, OracleDirect sales managers have a second computer monitor on their desk devoted to performance metrics and business intelligence. At any time, they can see their real-time pipeline, sales, and progress against forecasts.

In summary, modern sales organizations can take a lesson from Alexandre Dumas's Three Musketeers' rallying cry, "All-for-one and One-for-all!" To operate profitably and efficiently across sales channels, companies need to establish a collaborative culture where sales leads, customer information and collegial support are freely shared among all customer-facing groups. Finally, teamwork and cooperation must be rewarded. With the Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle's marketing and sales organizations have learned that sales success starts with an all-for-one process. With shared, automated e-business flows, closing a sale is a true cross-departmental, team effort.