The system is up and running, the data is in place. We took the “fresh start” with SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer (C4C) as an opportunity to really clean house. For more information on how we did it, check back to Christian's blog article. Getting rid of bad data and bringing in valid data only – that is how I like to work. Now we just need to make sure that the data stays clean. And this is where the sales staff as owners of the data comes in.
Master data maintenance is a subject very close to our heart. Naturally, we in the sales organization rely on having the latest information at our disposal, but this becomes even more important as we move to integrate SAP Hybris C4C with our SAP ERP system. At that point, all of us along the sales process – from lead and opportunity to ordering and even invoicing – will get our data from the same source. Erroneous data could, for example, produce inaccurate invoices, which in turn could adversely affect the cash flow. And in that case, what is going to happen with my commission?
So, what do we do to get on top of it? First and foremost, implement a restrictive role and authorization concept. Work centers are given the exact authorizations they need for their daily responsibilities and will only work on data whose quality they can guarantee. For as long as the integration with the ERP system is still pending, we will be using the following user groups: inside sales, field sales, marketing, and power users. Authorizations are assigned per work center and allow for very granular settings in each field.
After we had coordinated with the other business departments and determined who owns what data and at what point in the process, it was just a matter of putting in the hours to translate it to the system. A tip of the hat to SAP – this was surprisingly easy. We have laid the foundation for clean master data, now and in the future.
Defining processes and data integrity in every single process steps has yet another advantage. We finally know which user group needs to be able to modify what data, for what data reading access is sufficient and which data may not bear any relevance on day to day operations. And yes, we too had a few voices demanding to "get the full picture" and advocating to make all data transparently available to (almost) everyone in the company. But we were able to quickly convince our colleagues of the merits of making the user experience in SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer as intuitive and therefore as efficient as possible, rather than overwhelming users with too much information.
It was very easy to implement too – by customizing the interfaces and including only those fields and views needed by the different user groups. We don't have to waste any more time searching for relevant information. Users can now custom-design their interfaces to further streamline their own tasks – myCRM is finally here. And as a side bonus, we were able to significantly reduce the time and resources spent on training and support. Users can now intuitively navigate the system and get started pretty much right away.
Oh and not to forget, the system – much to the delight of the sales team – can also be used on the go. Both on iOS and Android. It comes with a mobile app and it works beautifully. Just download it from the Apple App Store or Google Play, install it, and go!
Naturally, there are still some challenges ahead, among them single sign-on (SSO) and the integration of our Active Directory Service (ADS) with SAP Hybris C4C. But we will definitely let you know how that turns out – so don't go anywhere.