The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business CRM Roundtable Discussion

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The University of ChicagoGraduate School of
BusinessCRM Roundtable Discussion
May 2, 2002
2
USG Company Background

• Manufacturer and distributor of building
  materials for the construction industry.
• Products gypsum wallboard and joint compound
  (Sheetrock Brand,) ceiling tile and grid, cement
  board (Durock Brand) and other industrial
  products.
• Fortune 500, 3 billion in sales.
• 14,000 employees.
• 50 plus manufacturing locations in North America.
  Headquarters in Chicago, IL.

3
CRM Initiatives

• Customer service consolidation (1996)
• Sales force automation (1997)
• USG.com (1998)
• Migration to web-based applications (1999-2000)
• Customer extranet (2002)

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Sales Force AutomationDriver Sales Rep
Productivity
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Sales Force Automation - Components

• Up-to-date customer information sales, orders,
  contact information, purchase records
• Team selling functionality
• Job leads and tracking
• Canned presentations
• Competitive and market information
• Complaint handling
• Call reports and notes

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Sales Force Automation - Challenges

• 450 remote users
• Wide variance of computer skills
• First sales and marketing enterprise technology
  endeavor (i.e., email)
• Executive commitment and understanding
• Lack of standardized business practices
• Legacy integration and data integrity
• Training

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Sales Force Automation ProjectHard Benefits
(Metrics)

• Sales force productivity increase of 22
• Increase revenue by 31.9 million
• Increase gross profit by 10.9 million
• ROI of 59.2

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Sales Force Automation ProjectSoft Benefits

• Enhance customer communication and information
  flow
• Improve knowledge of customers, markets,
  competition
• Better informed decision making
• More professional sales organization
• Utilize future technology advances

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Report Card - Results

• On-time and on budget
• Soft benefits accomplished
• Hard benefits could not be tied directly to this
  project
• Over-the-hump fears of technology faced
• Set up for future e-business initiatives (i.e.,
  customer extranet)

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Lessons Learned

• Simple vs. complex
• Phased vs. big-bang
• Mandate vs. buy-in
• Biggest cost components implementation
  integration
• Business drives project
• Business process change drives success

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Future Customer Extranet
Future Customer Extranet