Accenture: Manage mysales solution digitizes the sales process
The Manage mysales solution digitizes the sales process, improving efficiency and effectiveness 2
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Client profile Accenture s internal IT organization is charged with driving the company s digital agenda. Building on the legacy of a notable IT transformation, the organization is focused on three key roles: aligning IT with business priorities, enabling a digital Accenture and driving down the cost of IT. Accenture must put in place the technologies that provide its more than 336,000 employees with access to the information and capabilities to be a high-performance business. 4
Opportunity In a world that is more connected, more automated and more interactive and moving at an unprecedented pace, Accenture is driving differentiation for sustainable growth. To this end, Accenture is investing in a growth strategy to build an enhanced portfolio of five distinct businesses Strategy, Consulting, Digital, Technology and Operations to be the market leader in each. Accenture s internal IT organization, in turn, is helping Accenture become a more digital business. The ability to efficiently and effectively execute sales activities to support Accenture s growth aspirations is a crucial objective across Accenture. The existing environment consisted of both on- and offline tools and an end-to-end toolset was lacking. Additionally, one of the primary tools, Accenture s opportunity management solution, was nearing its end of life. The business needed one platform to manage sales from first client contact to signed contract to enable client account teams to be effective. These teams needed a solution that provided the rigor and analytical insights to help them move from sales administration to sales enablement. Solution Accenture s Global Sales and Pricing organization developed the overall vision for a new solution and collaborated with Accenture s internal IT organization to support the change required to make it happen. Together, the business and IT jointly defined the business case and actualized it by a shared business architecture team and an internal IT development and deployment team. Both internal IT and the Global Sales and Pricing organization set out to digitize how Accenture sells by digitally enabling the E2E sales process and improving efficiency through automation. The key to digitalization was bringing Accenture s sales processes online to create the intelligent connection points that connect our global account teams to the right people, the right assets and the right insights to be more effective in their sales pursuits, says Mike Maresca, IT Managing Director of Team Technology. The solution was also designed to fit within IT s overall Client Team Centricity strategy an integrated, digital and insightful set of business services to enable Accenture client account teams. Collaborating with Accenture s Global Sales and Pricing organization, internal IT outlined a three-year vision and road map for the new solution. For the first phase, the team developed Manage mysales, a customer relationship management (CRM) solution providing the core capabilities of account, contact and activity management, leveraging standard capabilities of Salesforce.com with custom enhancements made based on account team feedback. An equally important aspect of this foundational work was re-architecting the opportunity management solution. Underpinning all activities were three guiding principles: 1) Focus on what matters most to client account teams, 2) Enable one-stop shop for sales and 3) Use best-in-class capabilities. Implementation of the base Manage mysales solution involved integrating sales data across numerous applications to streamline, simplify and integrate the sales management processes. A new cloud-based infrastructure was also leveraged, enabling the solution to be managed entirely in the cloud and be used anywhere and anytime on mobile devices. Manage mysales was deployed globally over five months in three waves to five operating groups across each of Accenture s businesses. Deployment spanned all Accenture geographies, benefiting small and large client teams alike. Upon go-live, the previous opportunity management tool was retired. To enable a large number of users to quickly become familiar with the new Manage mysales solution, says Sean Freeburger, Manage mysales IT Program Lead, we developed extensive training in various forms from one-on-one to group sessions by team to online self-study with video demos. The project team also conducted webcasts and used Lync video during training. They embedded links in Manage mysales to training, job aids and videos to provide the user with direct access to just-in-time learning. Accenture s internal social media tools were leveraged along with in-application social media to provide learning tips. Additionally, live learning boards were used that grouped training by audience group to offer specialized learning. Initial feedback from users was extremely positive. 5
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During the base solution deployment there were no significant business operations or management issues because the team stayed focused on five key areas, which included strong leadership governance, strategic business and IT partnership, strong partnership with the cloud provider, continuous innovation for rapid releases, and dedicated engagement model for client account teams. After the first wave, lessons learned were incorporated into other waves. For example, the training delivery approach was adjusted to focus more on applying business process scenarios rather than solely on the Manage mysales technical capabilities. The next two phases of Manage mysales will continue to evolve the technology and processes. Phase 2 will focus on improving operations efficiency through automation and integration of additional sales capabilities to further enhance the user experience, enable campaigns and enable core analytics. The focus of Phase 3 will be on enabling portfolio optimization with analytics and insights, which will involve implementing predictive analytics and pricing intelligence and integrating Manage mysales with other Accenture applications. Results For the first time across Accenture, Manage mysales delivers all sales needs via a single platform that every client-facing Accenture employee can use anywhere, anytime. It provides a one-stop shop solution across all of Accenture globally for building and managing key client relationships, one place where individuals can go to view account status and priorities, and one platform for growing Accenture s sales pipeline, qualifying opportunities and developing best-in-class strategies. The new business management capability in Manage mysales is changing the way we qualify and approve opportunities, says Jo Deblaere, Accenture Chief Operating Officer. By bringing everyone onto a common, integrated platform, we will not only drive efficiencies in the process but also further standardize the way our deal teams develop winnable, profitable sales strategies. As of July 2015, approximately 20,000 individuals in 50 countries were using Manage mysales, with the solution in use by 6,500 client account teams. With more than 1,000 account plans, and over 7,000 opportunities and 1,000 contacts updated weekly, client account teams are harnessing the full strength of Accenture s digital CRM solution. Manage mysales is aligned with Accenture s top business priority of growing the business by providing client account teams with new, more robust and digitalized CRM capabilities. These capabilities include faster and streamlined opportunity forms, online qualification and win strategy tools, automated new business meeting materials and enhanced intelligence via account management. Moreover, this one-stop-shop solution, accessible on mobile or tablet, is much more interactive and more effective in achieving the sales required to support Accenture s growth and digital agenda by capturing what individuals used to do offline and putting it into one online digital platform transforming how Accenture manages client relationships. This is really part of the digital agenda, notes Sara Porter, Global Sales Effectiveness Lead. Taking our manual, paper-based processes that supported sales previously account planning, qualification, win strategy and taking them online in a truly digital way is going to enable us to do some pretty cool, new things. For Accenture s business, the platform enables better process control and flexibility, which helps client account teams to succeed in driving Accenture s growth. 7
About Accenture Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 336,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$30.0 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2014. Its home page is www.accenture.com. Copyright 2015 Accenture All rights reserved. Accenture, its logo, and High Performance Delivered are trademarks of Accenture. 15-3992