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CRM implementation at Pentair Gulf Valves

Need for CRM

Pentair Inc. implemented the Microsoft Dynamics as their customer relationship software which was apart of their ongoing campaign for better customer relationship. Pentair has 5 verticals namely: Energy,

Food and Beverage, Industrial, Infrastructure and Residential and commercial.

The company under discussion is Pentair Valves and Controls and more specifically Pentair Valves andControls Middle East FZE and Pentair Gulf Valve. CRM implementation started in 2011 and it completedin 2013 though not everyone was able to reap its benefits. Post implementation there is a stage called

Change Management. It was not done properly and staff is still on the lower side of learning curve.

The need to implement CRM software surfaced when Pentair acquired Tyco Valves and Controls andwanted to have a centralized control and database of global operations. Pentair, after acquiring TycoValves and Controls gauged that they had many customers (Industrial Customers) but the informationabout these customers was scattered. Especially in Mid East region, there was no standard way ofstoring customer information in computer software and there were many excel sheets which executivesused to maintain.

The CRM software zeroed down by the company headquarters was Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Sales andMarketing were the key modules. Employees were trained for Sales module and Marketing module.

With the CRM in place, Pentair Gulfs aim was to have a repository of customer i nformation, sales

forecasting and management, marketing campaign planning and customer service. Pentairs gulfoperations are sales and to augment sales a few marketing campaigns. Pentair Gulf Valves is in thebusiness of valve manufacturing and provides valves (which Pentair manufactures in UAE and importthem from different factories all over the world depending upon the requirement of the customer).

Therefore customer service and customer relationship are the most important components of Pentairsstrategy in Middle East.

For implementation, an implementation team was formed. The team consisted of Team leader, ProjectManagers, Department Managers (who were subject matter experts), IT representatives and a Microsoft

Dynamics consultant.

Another set of individuals were recognized from sales, customer service and marketing and theseindividuals were the part of implementation team, so that they understand Microsoft Dynamics from

the core and at later stages they would impart training to other employees.

At the end of CRM implementation and execution there was CRM Assessment where CRM expertswould talk to employees about the CRM and their views on the pre and post CRM effects on Sales,

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Marketing and Customer Service. Based on that CRM roadmaps were formulated. One such roadmap

which we got from the company documents when we visited Pentair Gulf Valves was:

SalesThe sales team needed more structure in how they approached and managed the sales activity.

Primitive forecasting was bad. A defined and consistent sales process, combined with a modern CRMapplication, could solve the forecasting problem. The planned partner channel would also necessitate amore robust application than Excel to track partner sales activity. From a personnel standpoint,the lack of knowledge about CRM (Microsoft Dynamics) was troubling, given the strategic goal aroundGCC Oil and Gas market. Lastly, the fact that small and large customers alike reported getting lots oftime from the sales team was a cause for concern . Were sales reps making smart decisions aboutwhere to invest their selling time? Did they have the information they needed to judge the potential of

their prospects? This seemed like another potential area for improvement via the CRM program.

Marketing

A combination of process modification on the sales side, asking reps to catalog the outcome of a leadbefore closing it out, and a shared CRM application between marketing and sales could solvem arketings l ead visibility problem. M arketings Access database would not cut it when the group wasasked to ramp up lead generation and distribute generated leads to the new partner channel. So, therewas clearly a role for CRM here. However, the company partner channel plans were later in the strategicplan, and the marketing director clearly needed some convincing to support the CRM program. It wasconcluded that marketing should not be the initial focus of the CRM program.

Customer ServiceThe lack of a structured issue management process and an application to support it was the

fundamental problem. Not only would this prevent issues from slipping through the cracks, but theincreased understanding of the types of issues most commonly faced could inform new rep training andshorten their ramp-up. Managing issues via the CRM application rather than in e-mail would also allowfor easier generation of metrics to monitor the groups operations. A knowledge base tool, which wouldprovide to reps a searchable place to pool their knowledge, procedures, and best practices, was also animportant need; it would help new reps ramp up and free some of the coaching burden from seniorreps.