CRM Software

In today’s slow-growth and hypercompetitive environment, every opportunity to attract, develop and keep customers and cut costs must be identified, seized and acted on instantly. That means having the right tools, at the right time, to accomplish the necessary tasks.

Yet, one of the big knocks against full-featured CRM and other similar software such as supplier relationship management (SRM) and business communications management (BCM) for these needs is that by the time they are installed and debugged, the drivers for buying them often have radically changed or disappeared. Firms owning these solutions may then be faced with pouring more scarce money to be spent on reconfiguring these products, or worse, having to buy new ones.

Speed of solution implementation is therefore “king.” And SAP has raced forward to capture the crown with its SAP (News - Alert) Rapid Deployment solutions -- initially for CRM, SRM and BCM and down the road for other products.

The SAP Rapid Deployment software, which targets specific line-of-business needs, can be deployed as fast as within 12 weeks. In the first wave, just announced by SAP — covering processes for sales, marketing, procurement, customer service and contact center operations — the solutions comprise fixed-price, pre-defined software for companies to address business priorities and gain time-to-value quickly while also paving a flexible path toward future growth. Initially available in North America and German-language countries, SAP Rapid Deployment supports existing and new customers.

SAP Rapid Deployment solutions are a ready-to-use combination of software, predefined services and pre-configured content at a predefined price. They are available "out of the box" by traditional, hosting and subscription licensing models, via partners or from SAP. To meet the increasing need to find the fastest time to value for customers, SAP Consulting and a growing ecosystem of partners offer pre-defined, fixed-price services to implement the packages.

The first SAP Rapid Deployment solutions are based on SAP Business Suite applications. Further solutions spanning the SAP portfolio are planned for release at multiple stages over the next year across diverse industries and in areas such as analytics, finance, manufacturing, mobility, recruiting, supply chain and sustainability.

Here are the SAP CRM Rapid Deployment offerings:

-- SAP CRM rapid-deployment solution for sales helps companies accelerate new business and improve sales productivity with better visibility into the sales pipeline. It gives managers the intelligence needed to assign sales representatives with the right opportunities, track their progress and prepare for customer meetings, which SAP says “helps sales teams close deals faster, collect revenue quickly and ultimately provide better customer service.”

-- SAP CRM rapid-deployment solution for service helps companies to increase agent productivity, first-contact resolution rates and customer satisfaction while reducing cost of service.

-- The SAP CRM rapid-deployment solution for marketing provides marketing professionals with the tools to create and drive effective marketing campaigns, coordinate sales activities, generate and manage high-quality leads and track leads through conversion.

-- The SAP BCM rapid-deployment solution taps IP telephony capabilities contained in the SAP BCM software for inbound contact center management. The deployed solution enables real-time visibility, flexibility and control for contact center operations, which helps resolve customer inquiries quickly.

-- The SAP SRM rapid-deployment solution helps accelerate, simplify and optimize procurement and sourcing processes by enabling end-to-end self-service procurement, direct and indirect sourcing and supplier relationship management

“With SAP Rapid Deployment solutions, we understand our customers’ need to quickly turn their requirements into a portfolio of tangible offerings that drive continuous value,” said Robert Viehmann, senior vice president of solution assembly and packaging at SAP. “Customers now have a tried-and-tested, low-cost way to quickly address their most pressing business demands without making compromises in terms of adding new features as needs evolve.”

The announcement, made at the SAP World Tour event being held in Chicago, Ill., revealed several early customers that have successfully entered the race with the SAP solutions. These include Altra Industrial Motion, Bildungswerk der Bayerischen Wirtschaft (bbw-Gruppe), FirstEnergy, VCNA Prairie, Springer SBM and VEKA. SAP and its customers said that companies are looking for “future-proof investments” that solve today's challenges with the flexibility to extend their IT landscape as business priorities change.

For example, Altra Industrial Motion, which designs, produces and markets a wide range of mechanical power transmission products, needed a 360-degree view of its customers. Its legacy IT system could not keep pace with its growth and was expensive to maintain. With numerous brands offering more than 40 product lines with production facilities in eight countries and sales coverage in over 70 countries, Altra required a customer management solution that could easily integrate with its ERP application, SAP ERP, and address manufacturing-specific business issues. Altra chose a rapid-deployment solution from SAP for customer service to replace its existing system.  

“Altra has a long-term vision for CRM, and SAP Rapid Deployment solutions will support our immediate and future path by allowing us to replace our existing solution, generate immediate value and implement additional functionality quickly,” explained David Brooksbank, director of Marketing, Altra Industrial Motion. “The solution-specific software, services and content out of the box made for a quick and easy implementation. Native integration with our SAP ERP application and reduced service-to-software costs helps us holistically address our CRM needs and takes us a big step forward in attaining our customer service vision.”