Bluhm Systeme GmbH

Since 1998, the SMARTCRM GmbH supports the employees of the Bluhm Systeme GmbH. It all started with the Sales Information System ivs, from which the current CRM software emerged. A change of ERP has been completed with SMARTCRM, this was implemented to full satisfaction. At first, the CRM solution imported the data from Baan, today the interface to SAP provides the central provision of current ERP data. The goal of the implementation of the CRM system was to improve cross-departmental work on projects as well as their tracking over all phases. Another goal was to measure the success of marketing campaigns using the CRM solution. The information in SMARTCRM available at all times should also allow the sales staff more targeted actions. Meanwhile, about 380 employees at Bluhm work with SMARTCRM in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The first three branches are represented with clients, so that all have access to a centralized system. Bluhm uses the German and the English CRM interfaces.

Optimal Sales Processes
In sales, SMARTCRM supports the employees in all processes related to customers or prospective customers. The CRM system allows a fast and well-organized information flow. This enables a competent and complete prospective customer and customer care and ultimately ensures high customer satisfaction. The representation of the sales projects in SMARTCRM guarantees a complete project tracking as well as evaluation options. The sales staff create the quotation directly from the CRM solution. So, all project steps, quotations and relevant figures, such as project volume, are accessible in the electronic files.

Offline Access for Field Service
The field service employees are also informed of current important data related to customers or prospective customers at all times.  The employees have offline access to the relevant CRM database over their notebooks. Thus, the complete activity history, the current turnover or the last service appointment of the device used by the customer are also accessible without connection to the Internet. As soon as online access is available, the information entered by the field service employees is promptly available to the back office staff. So, SMARTCRM enables an optimal cross-departmental communication.

Interface to SAP
SMARTCRM imports customer, product and machine data as well as turnover and order backlog through an interface to SAP. The addresses and contacts are in turn transferred to SAP over the bi-directional interface. In the CRM system, Bluhm can analyze at the press of a button the figures which are needed for example for the calculation of the marketing success. In addition, for instance the current analyses of sales activities are available at a glance.

SMARTCRM in Marketing
The marketing staff  at Bluhm benefits from the many possibilities of address selection in SMARTCRM for targeted promotional activities. The corresponding target group for a marketing campaign will be selected using the features which are assigned to addresses and contacts by the employees. The company measures the value of its marketing actions on the project tracking using the allocation of action numbers in SMARTCRM.

Conclusion
Since 1998, SMARTCRM is constantly adjusting to the changing corporate needs. A milestone was achieved with the jump from ivs to SMARTCRM. The interface to a new ERP system was a challenge that was implemented to the full satisfaction of the company. For the nearly 400 employees in sales, marketing and service who are supported every day by SMARTCRM, the acceptance of the CRM solution is high. The latest addition to the SMARTCRM installation at Bluhm is the SMARTCRM.Exchange.Sync. This allows the field service to easily synchronize appointments and contacts between the mobile terminals and SMARTCRM.