Add Value Beyond The Sale

The phone rings. It's a cell phone service provider offering you a program that will cut your monthly cell phone bill in half. But, wait a second. It's your cell phone service provider. Why would it offer to slash your current rate? Something doesn't add up.

You tell your provider to send you the paperwork - expecting that this offer can't look nearly as attractive in black and white. But, it does. You sign the papers and send them back. You receive your next bill and, sure enough, the total is half of what you normally pay.

What sounds like a fictional account actually happened to Ken Walters, president of Impact Innovations Group (IMPACT). "My provider looked at my call history for the last six months and what I was paying for the service. The provider knew my rates were high. If it let me continue to pay these rates, a competitor would eventually make me a better offer," explains Walters. "If the provider wanted to hold on to me as a customer, it had to be proactive."

Ironically, one of the goals of Walters' company is helping its clients be proactive. In addition to proactive marketing, IMPACT designs and implements systems that help companies retain and attract customers. In the recently deregulated utility and telecommunication industries, the competition for consumers is especially fierce. Typically starting as a customer contact center (CCC) installation, IMPACT quickly expands the scope of the project to integrate document and image management, information warehousing, and Internet functionality.

IMPACT, a subsidiary of Medaphis Corporation (Atlanta, GA), is headquartered in Atlanta, GA, and has 650 employees. Medaphis reported gross sales of $575 million in 1997 and IMPACT is estimating 1998 gross sales at $80 million. In addition to its headquarters, IMPACT has offices at 12 other locations throughout the U.S.

Help Your Clients Help Their Customers
The bottom line is probably the single biggest measurement for judging the success of companies. Obviously, increasing sales will augment that bottom line. However, companies have also implemented enterprise-wide computer systems that integrate all facets of their business, including planning, manufacturing, sales, and marketing. These enterprise resource and planning (ERP) systems allow companies to increase their bottom line through better management processes within the supply chain. ERP systems have become common in companies that have annual gross sales of at least $300 million.

Almost all IMPACT customers have an ERP system in place. However, Walters says there is a shift among some companies from controlling management and material costs to increasing revenue through effective interaction with customers. His company has coined the term, "Delivery Chain Management" (DCM) as a way for companies to add value to each customer interaction. "DCM is a strategy for our clients to attract and retain the right customers for a lifetime," explains Walters. "Our integration helps companies gather information from customers every time they interact. That information can then be analyzed to produce better products, services, and marketing programs."

IMPACT has determined that companies interested in DCM solutions generally have two things in common. The first is that these companies have thousands of interactions with their customers each day. Secondly, the survival of these companies is largely based on their ability to attract new customers and retain current customers. As mentioned, industries such telecommunication, utility, and high-tech fit nicely into this niche. Additionally, IMPACT has targeted some government agencies that want to handle their customers/citizens more effectively.

Increase Sales By Integrating Technologies
A common entry for IMPACT into a company is through a customer contact center installation. Once in the door, IMPACT expands the possibilities of its current CCC project by proposing the integration of multiple technologies. For example, a packaged CCC application may allow users to check customer account history and/or seek resolution (credit an account, for example) for a customer complaint.

"The packaged systems are sometimes vanilla in nature and really don't take into account the business processes of an organization," states Joni Miles, marketing director at IMPACT. "As a result, we have to customize the system. And, then we start to identify the benefits of integrating additional technologies that give a company a lot more functionality."

In addition to CCC implementations, IMPACT also has three primary technological specialties that it can integrate at a customer site.

• Information Warehousing - This allows companies to view all of their customer-related information in many formats. Information can be divided into subsets and distributed to decision makers in a company. The information can then be used to create targeted marketing campaigns or pricing decisions.

   

• E-Business - It lets companies leverage Web-based solutions that include e-commerce (conducting business transactions over the Internet), e-service (providing customer service functions online), and e-automation (use a Web browser to conduct workflow or other business processes).

   

• Document Management - These technologies include image storage and retrieval, automated workflow processing, computer output to laser disk (COLD). One of the most common applications is to digitally capture externally generated documents such as invoices, and route these for processing. "For example, one of our clients is utilizing Input Software's image capture solution to digitally image invoices and route these for processing by their accounts payable department with integration to their call center to handle supplier inquiries," states Tom Delaney, IMPACT's director for document management services.

  Take Solutions To The Decision Maker
  There is little doubt that IMPACT considers the CCC to be a main point of entry into a company. However, the goal of IMPACT is to extend far beyond that original implementation project.

  "Part of our strategy is to have average engagements of between three to five years at a company. We used to enter the pyramid at the bottom and have nowhere else to go. Now we have a strategy to move up," states Walters. "If a company has made a decision to implement a call center, that usually means that more visionary and strategic decisions are being made up the line about DCM. We can now be a part of that process and add continuous value."

  Ultimately, Walters wants IMPACT to deal with C-level company officials more often. Once IMPACT is included in the strategic decisions, it can work with a company to improve its Delivery Chain Management. The ideal IMPACT solution starts with a CCC and grows to incorporate additional technologies.

  For example, a cell phone service provider will certainly need a CCC in order to communicate with its customers. Assuming that most cell phone users are generally more high tech than other consumers, cell phone users will likely have access to the Internet. "The Internet is going to be key to cell phone service providers. They can use the Web to let their customers access billing information and records detailing how many minutes they have used," explains Miles. "This allows the CCC to be a multimedia application."

  Additionally, IMPACT will integrate information warehousing technology that lets the cell phone service provider market to new customers. The data can be sorted so new service programs can be offered to specific customers. Of course, delinquent customers will also be identified and no marketing effort will be made to them. document imaging technology plays an important role as contracts are imaged, billing information is stored as COLD, and applications are routed using workflow.

  Vertical Focus Pays Off
  As the implementation of ERP systems become more common in medium-sized companies, Walters believes IMPACT is only now scratching the surface of potential customers. "Companies that have ERP systems are continually trying to find ways to run their operations more efficiently," says Walters. "And, as ERP vendors become more mature, their products are going to be much more vertically focused." While current ERP systems have solved the major problems for large companies, vendors are realizing that there are many mid-sized companies that have more industry-specific problems.

  "The competition in the markets that we target is very intense. Holding on to customers and attracting new customers can't be done totally through an ERP system," explains Walters. "Our clients have to put a proactive system in place that adds value to customer interaction points. Our clients typically have pretty good ERP systems in place. But, they look at what their competition is doing and they realize that an ERP system alone won't cut it. The market is dictating that they provide better products and services. We help them do that. IMPACT is about more than cutting costs. It is about increasing revenue through improved customer service."