Challenge

A major telecommunications company’s global sales force targeting their largest and most strategic multi-national clients was spending too much time dealing with administrative tasks, thus limiting the amount of time available to generate sales.  In order to meet aggressive revenue goals, the client wanted to automate a variety of administrative tasks thereby freeing up additional time that could be dedicated to closing business.  At the time, many of the business processes associated with this particular sales organization were disorganized and not well-defined.  The client had chosen to implement a new sales force automation system, but wanted to be careful not to design automation over broken processes, as that could be counter-productive and exacerbate the current problem. TMNG Global was engaged to identify the critical business requirements for the new system.

TMNG Global Solution

TMNG Global’s objectives in undertaking this engagement included capturing the current sales force automation (SFA) and e-enabled Customer Relationship Management (eCRM) requirements and gaining a better understanding of the sales force’s business needs.  TMNG Global identified gaps between business requirements and the sales force’s needs, taking into consideration impacts to other sales channels.  TMNG Global documented and prioritized the business requirements to influence the delivery of future SFA/eCRM capabilities, including eCRM on Oracle and Siebel.  Finally, TMNG Global prepared a User Acceptance Test (UAT) Plan to ensure that the system was field-ready, a vital step that had been skipped in earlier system implementations in this company.

TMNG Global began by conducting individual and group interviews with the sales force to gather their requirements.  Special interviewing templates were developed and utilized for each specific sales job function and title to ensure completeness and consistency in the information obtained.  A standard format was developed and used for the write-ups for each interview, again to ensure consistency and completeness of information. During the group interviews, TMNG Global utilized presentation decks to illustrate the requirements generation process and facilitate more focused and detailed discussion around SFA requirements.

During the course of the engagement, TMNG Global identified several general business process problems, which were carefully separated from general SFA requirements and documented in a separate communication to the client. Final requirements were tested and re-tested with the client for clarity, to eliminate duplication, and to ensure they stated the sales force’s requirements.

TMNG Global delivered a final set of requirements that covered account management, Design/Price/ Propose/Contract (DPPC), stewardship and customer service, quota and commissions, international, reporting and general requirements, that were both clear and actionable.  ‘Quick-hit’ benefits were also documented for the client to help them overcome pressing reporting issues that had been caused by earlier poor implementations of new systems.

Benefits to the Client

Due to the clarity and detail provided by TMNG Global’s requirements documentation, the development group was able to successfully translate the requirements into systems and design requirements.  The new systems will save the client millions of dollars in improved productivity and reduced cost of sales. Ultimately, as sales time becomes much more focused on selling and less focused on administrative tasks, the client will see revenues increase as well. In addition, the ‘quick hit’ information provided to the client enabled them to immediately address reporting inaccuracies and enabled them to get an immediate benefit from their investment.