2010 Readers' Choice: Customer Relationship Management

Alan Langhals, principal at Deloitte Consulting LLP believes that the companies shown here represent the leading names in the CG industry customer relationship management (CRM) space. Each provider has shown that it can deliver new and value generating capabilities to its customers and has delivered results across a wide spectrum of companies.

CGT: How has the economic downturn impacted CRM initiatives?

Langhals: While the downturn has certainly made it more challenging for organizations to secure funding for major capital investments, it has served to increase the awareness and importance on growth oriented programs such as CRM. It has further created an intense focus on improving customer insight data and retail trade investment decision-making. These conditions have been a driver which has allowed CRM/TPM applications be more resilient to the downturn as the ROI on such projects is more easily justified. Those organizations that have invested in growth efficiency programs will be better prepared to capitalize on an improved economy.

CGT: What trends will impact CRM in the CG industry?

Langhals: A tighter alignment of consumer/customer demand signal information and sales, fulfillment and operating strategies of CG manufacturers will drive the business case for technology investment. Using insight information to drive product innovation decisions, consumer and trade marketing programs, and sales strategies will become core competencies for all CG companies.

CGT: How can CG companies leverage technology to improve collaboration and communication with retail customers and consumers?

Langhals: Collaboration is enabled through a variety of core technologies to leverage available demand and supply data. Consumer insights, driven from demand signal information and mined through advanced data aggregation and analytical tools create actionable insights that facilitate collaboration on product offerings, marketing and sales programs and consumer incentives. Collaborative planning in the Value Chain facilitates increased product availability and lower stock-outs while lowering CG manufacturers required working capital and inventory investments. The use of collaborative planning in the area of consumer and retailer incentives can be used to create volume accretive program structures that also optimize profitability for both the retailer and manufacturer. Advanced pricing optimization technologies can be extended through the Value Chain to determine optimal sales and promotional pricing between manufacturers and retailers.

"The big reason we chose CAS for our sales force automation solution was because it met our business requirements out of the box. In addition, a big point of differentiation for us was that they are very committed to the consumer products/goods space. They know this space very, very well, and the vision that they have of the product and where they're heading is very much in line with the vision we have at RJRT."
--Peter K. Hatch, Sr. Director, Information Management Demand, RJ Reynolds

SMB MARKET: MICROSOFT

"The whole company operates off the same set of data, which eliminates confusion and redundancy and speeds customer service. Marketing can share customer records with accounting, and salespeople can see inventory levels before they make commitments to customers. I use inventory data to launch promotions, which I can manage easily from within Microsoft Dynamics CRM."
-- Fran Richards, vice president of Marketing, Spy Optic