CASE STUDY
BY EMPOWERING USERS WITH A 360-DEGREE VIEW OF EACH CUSTOMER ACROSS BOTH THE SALES AND SERVICE TEAMS , ISUZU IS NOW BETTER PLACED TO DELIVER A SEAMLESS AND CONSISTENT CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE .
“ During the GM divestment in 2017 , an agreement was signed to allow Isuzu Motors South Africa to utilise certain GM systems for a period of time ,” said Meyer . “ However , as part of our localisation we had to develop our own local systems and in-source our resources . We had been working on a locally hosted Isuzu enterprise SAP system that incorporates both the commercial vehicle and light commercial vehicle business processes and wanted to complement this with an extended landscape that includes a unified SAP Service and Sales cloud solution .”
From spreadsheets to service cloud
Previously , Isuzu ’ s sales team were relying on Excel spreadsheets , CRM tools , emails and portals to log , track and manage customer enquiries . This left them without a complete view over each customer and unable to accurately track the progress of the sales pipeline .
“ We wanted an integrated service solution with a single point of reference to create , update and track a customer enquiry ,” said Meyer .
“ We chose to implement SAP Service Cloud , which helped us reduce the number of systems an agent has to use to resolve a call and enables our teams to resolve customer enquiries more quickly . The built-in analytics tool has empowered our managers to get a real-time view of each call to allow for personalisation according to each user ’ s preferences or role .” we control and can access in real time has been one of the great outcomes of this project .”
Isuzu chose the cloud solution as it forms part of the business ’ longer-term hybrid cloud journey . This provides the benefit of automated upgrades and patching provided by SAP . The full integration into the existing SAP system also gives call centre agents realtime access to accurate customer data .
“ From a sales point-of-view , SAP Sales Cloud has given us up-to-the-minute information about each customer as well as insights into their preferences ,” explains Meyer . “ We now have full visibility over private buyers as well as our direct customers and can take a closer look at precisely who is in our system and who is interacting with the business .”
Partner support ‘ invaluable ’
The Isuzu team were supported throughout by implementation partner Dimension Data . Natasha Govender , SAP CX Manager , Dimension Data , said the implementation has enabled Isuzu to reduce the number of legacy systems and improve the overall customer experience . “ By empowering users with a 360-degree view of each customer across both the sales and service teams , Isuzu is now better placed to deliver a seamless and consistent customer experience .”
Meyer added that the support from Dimension Data has been invaluable . “ Having partners that understand our landscape , business challenges and pain points has been hugely beneficial , as we can collectively discuss , analyse and take action on any changes , allowing us to make more efficient decisions while minimising risk to the business .”
Robust and secure IT infrastructure
Given that Isuzu Motors South Africa is one of the largest developer , producer and seller of commercial vehicles , light commercial vehicles and diesel engines globally , it is important for the company to have robust and secure IT infrastructure and systems .
According to Meyer , it is of paramount importance for Isuzu to invest in robust IT infrastructure to enhance the overall efficiency of the company while also ensuring cost savings and security of its critical business data .
The project was not without its challenges . The previous system that GM used was isolated outside of South Africa and the local teams had little control over the data . “ We consolidated all our data in an SAP master database that is applied through to the call centre ,” said Meyer . “ Working off our own data set that
“ Having partners that understand our landscape , business challenges and pain points has been hugely beneficial , as we are able to collectively discuss , analyse and take action on any changes , allowing us to make more efficient decisions while minimising risk to the business ,” he said .
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