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Oakwood Worldwide Leverages Best Practices with Siebel CRM Solutions to Improve Sales Efficiency
Siebel Systems, Inc., provider of business applications software, announced that Oakwood Worldwide, the largest global provider of corporate housing, has successfully deployed Siebel Sales and Siebel Call Center, bringing best-practice sales processes to its 300-member sales force around the world. Since completing the deployment in August 2004, the company has seen substantial improvements in sales efficiency.
"Siebel Sales and Siebel Call Center are giving us a comprehensive view of each client and enabling us to identify high-impact, high-payback accounts so that we can prioritize our sales efforts and focus on the most lucrative opportunities," said Ric Villarreal, Senior Vice President and Special Assistant to the Chairman. "Ultimately, we will be able to provide better service to our clients and increase our market share."
Prior to implementing Siebel CRM applications, Oakwood's sales force relied primarily on a home-grown contact management system for tracking prospects and customers and scheduling activities. During the past five years, Oakwood's customer profile has changed dramatically -- a service that was once primarily used by relocating employees has now expanded to include consultants and project managers on long-term assignments, trainers and trainees, film crews, government and military travelers, families displaced from homes, temporary office staffers, and other mobile professionals who spend a substantial amount of their time on the road. These changes, combined with shifts in the corporate housing marketplace, made it essential that Oakwood implement a strategic sales approach based on best practices. Specifically, management wanted to gain a 360-degree customer view and implement effective sales processes and tools to facilitate team selling and increase penetration in major accounts.
Oakwood is already benefiting from Siebel Systems' sophisticated tools for managing opportunities and understanding customer needs. Account executives can now quickly identify top accounts, and better determine their customers' temporary housing requirements. In addition, Oakwood can more effectively determine how they can better serve key customers at top accounts with additional offerings such as maid service or Wi-Fi Internet connectivity. The Siebel solutions also help Oakwood's sales force by guiding them through a standardized set of proven sales steps that reduces the sales cycle and improves close ratios.
"Now that our salespeople have consolidated customer information, they can walk into accounts with a better understanding of who the customer is and what the customer needs," said Villarreal. "They have much more customer-centric conversations and are better able to present the value Oakwood provides -- for example, a single point of contact, centralized invoicing, and consistent quality and service."
Sales management also has better visibility into individual performance. Easy-to-access reports provide information on each account executive's activities, wins, and losses. Consequently, managers can provide training and mentoring to improve skills, thereby increasing individual success.
The ability to integrate with other systems was a key factor in Oakwood's selection of Siebel CRM solutions. The company needed an offering that would integrate seamlessly with its tenancy management system, which handles reservations for its $3 billion portfolio of housing in locations throughout the U.S., UK, and Asia. The integration enables the smooth flow of information between these two critical business systems. Initial contacts are captured in the Siebel applications, where opportunities are managed to the reservation stage. At that point, the information is passed to the legacy system, which records the transaction and handles the financial aspects of the order. Information is then passed back to the Siebel applications to provide historical information to the sales force.
Oakwood expects to achieve additional benefits in the future as a result of the enhanced visibility that Siebel Systems' solutions are providing into its overall business. For example, the ability to review both wins and losses will help uncover demand for products of a certain type or in untapped geographic areas. Management can leverage this information to develop strategies for growth and expansion, further enhancing business success.
Siebel Systems pioneered the industry-specific application model and today delivers 23 industry applications and more than 100 industry-specific solution sets. These solutions, which include Siebel Hospitality, enable companies to establish a single, enterprise-wide view of their customers and execute key customer-facing business processes more efficiently and effectively. For more information on Siebel Hospitality, please visit www.siebel.com/hospitality-crm/software-solutions.shtm. 16.12.2004, Siebel Systems, Inc.
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