B. Ketterer Söhne GmbH & Co. KG

Since 2016, SMARTCRM supports the sales back office and field staff of the B. Ketterer Söhne GmbH & Co. KG. The employees working at the headquarters in Furtwangen, Germany, use the CRM solution in German, their colleagues in the USA and Canada in English.

Till the CRM implementation, all employees used to work with the ERP system. However, a complete all-round view of all customer-related processes was lacking. Thus, it was not possible, for instance, to search for a given contact or in a postal code territory. Addresses of prospective customers were stored locally in Microsoft Outlook by the employee in charge and were therefore not centrally available to all colleagues.

In order to achieve a full overview on all customer information, Ketterer has chosen to implement a CRM solution. SMARTCRM successfully convinced with expert advice and price-performance ratio. In addition, SMARTCRM scored with an implementation close to standard, since the CRM solution could already meet the important company’s requirements.

CRM with BI functionalities

An additional advantage was the existing standard interface to the Ketterer ERP system, Infor COM, which was quickly and easily set up. Over this interface, the CRM system imports customers, contacts, hierarchies and relationships as well as figures material: quotation items, order backlog items, incoming order items, invoice items and open items. SMARTCRM prepares these data in numerous evaluations on different levels and in different currencies and provides Ketterer these analyses with a single click.

Before the CRM introduction, the employees had to create reports manually in Microsoft Excel and send them to colleagues by e-mail. With SMARTCRM, the analysis options have considerably increased and have become significantly easier. Thus, the sales staff knows which product a customer has purchased and at which price or who belongs to the top customers at all times. Turnover overviews per industry and plus/minus lists allow Ketterer to promptly react to changes.

The sales employees also carry out the annual planning in SMARTCRM by defining the plan values directly in the CRM system. The direct comparison of the target-performance figures forms the optimal basis for targeted sales management.

This also applies to target agreements. Ketterer deposits them in SMARTCRM and therefore ensures the highest level of transparency. Since sales employees always know where they stand at a glance in the CRM system, sudden surprises are excluded.

Optimal visit preparation and follow-up

With SMARTCRM, the field service is ideally prepared for visiting customers or prospective customers: the CRM system guarantees a quick overview on all previous activities such as the complete communication, requests and purchases of customers or arrangements with colleagues.

Even on the go, field service employees are kept informed thanks to mobile CRM. They can access all CRM data on their notebooks and add new information such as visit reports, next appointments and tasks in SMARTCRM. These data are then immediately available to back office colleagues.

Quotation tracking with CRM support

SMARTCRM imports all quotation including items from Infor COM over the interface and documents them in the activity history of the corresponding customer address. This way, quotation shipping is completely traceable. Tasks linked to an activity, including due dates and reminders, support sales staff to catch up on offers.

Satisfied CRM users

Thanks to its user-friendly interface, SMARTCRM has turned into an integral part of sales work at Ketterer that employees no longer want to miss. Therefore, the company is planning to introduce the CRM system in other departments such as purchasing or development, in order to benefit from the use of SMARTCRM company-wide and to optimize cross-departmental communication.

In addition, the implementation of the SMARTCRM.App is envisaged. Using the app, the field service employees can access all important CRM information on their smartphone, consult analyses of the ERP figures or dictate visit reports per voice control.