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Driving Dealers

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DQI Bureau
New Update

Founded

in 1945, Tata Motors is India's largest and only fully integrated automaker,

with 22,000 employees; 1 mn customers; and annual sales of approximately $3 bn

in commercial vehicles, utility vehicles, and passenger cars. Tata Motors holds

a major share of India's market for medium and heavy commercial vehicles, with

global sales that rank it among the top six manufacturers of commercial vehicles

worldwide. Although the company only entered the passenger car business in the

late 1990s, it has already captured a 16% share.

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“Globalization has

changed the entire business environment for our organization,” says KR

Sreenivasan, head of the CRM and dealer management system project at Tata

Motors. “We have developed strategies to pursue our goal of becoming a more

global company, while continuing to grow domestically.”

At a Glance

Issue:

Dealer management

Reason: To

provide a 360 degree view of individual dealerships from inventory

management and credit reporting to calculating commissions



Vendor/Solution: Siebel/CRM solutions

Benefits

  • Streamlined transactions

  • Dealers capture customer data as

    part of their normal operations

  • Distribute sales targets to

    dealers and roll up sales numbers

  • Improved customer service



To address its

competitive challenges, Tata Motors began standardizing its customer-facing

business processes company wide, laying the foundation for stronger dealer

relationships, improved operational efficiency and effectiveness, and a better

customer experience. This posed serious challenges, as it involved working with

250 dealer organizations and more than 1,600 locations staffed by over 10,000

sales people across India.  In

conjunction with its reengineering effort, Tata Motors deployed a robust

technology platform to improve the flow of information across the enterprise.

The platform consisted of an innovative dealer management system, which helped

individual dealerships with everything from inventory management and credit

reporting to calculating commissions, and Siebel Automotive, a comprehensive CRM

solution designed specifically for companies in the automotive industry.

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By tightly integrating

Siebel Automotive and its dealer management system, Tata Motors has streamlined

transactions and ensured that dealers capture customer data as part of their

normal operations. The solution provides a 360-degree view of customers to the

extended organization, with appropriate visibility controls to ensure that one

dealer is not privy to information from another. To further enlist dealer

support, Tata Motors involved dealers throughout the solution configuration and

deployment process.

Tata Motors has taken a

phased approach to the implementation, with the goal of achieving success in

each phase before moving forward. Phase 1 focused on capturing customer and

vehicle data and automating routine tasks.

Phase 2 focused on leveraging data to improve customer interactions and

streamline product development and planning. The focus in Phase 3 was on tuning

the system and delivering additional value-added services to customers.

Siebel Automotive has

been closely integrated with a wide array of SAP back-office applications,

including applications inventory management, fulfillment, and parts location.

Pricing and tax calculations can be adjusted for each dealer's requirements.

In addition, comprehensive sales and reporting functionality built into the

solution enabled Tata Motors to distribute sales targets to its dealers and roll

up sales numbers across the country.

The solution has

delivered benefits for Tata Motors' dealers throughout India. “Overall, the

solution has transformed our organization and made it truly customer-centric,”

says Sreenivasan. “We have overcome the challenges of relying on disparate

sources of information, as well as having inconsistent business processes.

Team DQ 



mail@dqindia.com

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