Harro Höfliger Verpackungsmaschinen GmbH can look back on almost 25 years of using the CRM system SMARTCRM. At that time, they started with the sales information system ivs from which the actual CRM software emerged. Such a long period of time comes along with changes within the company, employees and processes. Therefore, for the last 2 years, Harro Höfliger has taken on the topic CRM once again intensively and has brought a wind of change into the use of the CRM solution with an upgrade of the SMARTCRM version as well as with additional modules and functions. The aim was to adjust it to current sales processes, thus integrating them better and ultimately facilitating sales work. This was achieved, among other things, with the help of an enhanced user interface and functionality aligned to current needs, as well as the standardization of terminology and its adaptation to the corporate language.
Requirements
- Partnering collaboration
- Overview on forecast
- Incoming order prognosis
Optimal project management and forecast analyses
Project management in SMARTCRM is key for the sales department at Harro Höfliger. So, all projects across all phases are mapped in the electronic project file. Project participants as well as the complete communication are also bundled in the file. For this purpose, e-mails are automatically imported from Microsoft Outlook to SMARTCRM via Microsoft Exchange and assigned to the respective project.
Project goals
- Optimized project management with project hierarchy
- Simplification of sales work through the CRM system
- Improved field integration
Since projects relating to development and manufacturing of customer-specific machines can be complex, Harro Höfliger articulates them into main and following projects in the CRM system. If a packaging machine is to be manufactured for a customer, for example, a main project is created for this. If the same machine is to be modified or extended over time, following projects are created for the follow-up offers, which are linked to the main one. In an overview, SMARTCRM shows all related main projects and subprojects at a glance. Such a project hierarchy enables the overlook on current projects and makes always completed projects traceable in retrospect.
The forecast based on the corresponding quotation volumes can optimally be evaluated, which was an important criterion for the company.
Harro Höfliger manages likewise all machine information in the CRM system. When converting a quotation into a contract, the relevant machine file encompassing all corresponding technical data as well as the concerned activity history is created.
Incoming order forecast
Another major advantage offered by SMARTCRM to the sales staff is the overview of the incoming order forecast, which was created especially for Harro Höfliger. This tool is available directly on the start screen of the CRM solution, the so-called SMART Board. Whereas the data were previously maintained in Excel spreadsheets, the employees can now see in the CRM system at any time in which phase which projects are currently in, as well as the expected development of incoming orders, the optimal basis for targeted sales work and valuable information for the project-dependent resource planning of the departments involved in the project processing.
Always up-to-date even in the field
If sales employees are on the road out of the office, they do not have to work without SMARTCRM. Because then all important CRM information is available to them on their smartphones in the SMARTCRM.App. This allows them, for example, to record visit reports directly using the dictation function, call up customer information or send tasks to colleagues. New contacts are also recorded directly in the app. For example, business card information can be transferred directly to the CRM system by simply photographing it – a helpful function and a key component for optimum data quality.
Data quality and compliance
This also applies to the module SMARTCM.Compliance which automatically compares the complete Harro Höfliger‘s CRM database with all black lists required by laws and alerts the company to any potential hits.
Outlook
Harro Höfliger already has concrete plans. So, for instance, the BI analyses are to be significantly expanded to simplify forecasting. SMARTCRM also offers a standard interface to proALPHA, the ERP system deployed at Harro Höfliger. This could be used to import the ERP figures into the CRM system and make them available centrally in a variety of BI analyses. The cooperation between Harro Höfliger and SMARTCRM has intensified in the past years and the employees actively work with our CRM solution. It is therefore not surprising that the company is very satisfied with the support and that the acceptance among employees is high.
Our wishes and requirements regarding new functionalities were quickly and competently implemented. We work well and intensively together, also because the SMARTCRM team knows and understands our company’s processes. We are partners at eye-level which makes the collaboration fun!
Christian Kollecker, Sales Director Aseptic Technologies at Harro Höfliger Verpackungsmaschinen GmbH