Over 700 sales representatives, 300 managers and 1,200 sellers from Inter Cars company are using cloud solutions in their daily work. The Company, which is one of leaders on the European automotive spare parts distribution market, continues its business transformation based on cloud computing technology. Inter Cars has implemented yet other improvements in the area of Microsoft Dynamics 365 system, which supports the process of building customer relations. The result is an innovative system for sales representatives recommendations, multi-dimensional customer segmentation and marketing automation.
Tools for innovators
For several years Inter Cars has been carrying out digital transformation activities using Cloud service. The company introduced a number of solutions that are part of its dynamic development on an international scale. Inter Cars created, among others, a digital version of the product catalogue, which collects information about 2 million spare parts and accessories for the automotive industry through the Microsoft Azure cloud. Each day it is used by over 35 thousand customers of the company, in automotive repair garages in multiple European markets. Inter Cars also carried out a pioneering project, transferring its key business system SAP Hybris to the Microsoft Azure cloud. Inter Cars has reached full autonomy in managing business applications directly from the cloud. As a result, business-critical changes can be implemented in as little as 15 minutes, which is one of the advantages of the cloud model.
„Transformation with the use of the cloud is in the first place the change in thinking. We are not focusing on system maintenance, but on creating new solutions to improve the satisfaction of customers, sales representatives, development of the company and increasing its efficiency” – says Wojciech Gembalczyk, IT Director for Business Solutions.
Digital solution, stronger relations
Inter Cars has taken another step forward in development, using Microsoft Dynamics 365 for communication with thousands of garages and 250 branches. With the move to the cloud version, the users gained everyday access to up-to-date data, which increased transparency of information, streamlined processes and increased customer satisfaction levels.
The users pointed out that the on premise version had a delay of 2-3 days. The cloud has eliminated this problem, giving the drivers, managers, sales representatives and sellers of Inter Cars access to up-to-date information about individual areas of business activity of the company, its customers and sales levels.
"Due to a delay in the old CRM, we did not have up-to-date data at the time of the closing the month. This made the work of sales representative much more difficult and was irritating also for the customers. Now we can actually see the settlements with customers in real time. Not only it helped us eliminate the bottlenecks, but also to speed up work, increase motivation of sales representatives and customer satisfaction” – says Przemysław Szulejewski, Sales Deputy Director of PKW market.
Small improvements, great effects
Dynamics 365 in the cloud also provides access to the system of recommendations. It provides an automated process of generating sales leads by suggesting next activities to the user. When sales representatives discuss with customers, the system indicates particular areas of products by analysing current level of purchases. The recommendation functionality is currently basic tool for Inter Cars sales force activity management in Poland.
"The system allows sales representatives to handle customer visits, so it becomes the main tool for their daily work. They have a possibility of setting appointments in a convenient way, using a meetings schedule and combining the meetings with recommendations and tasks from the managers. As the CRM system easily connects with Microsoft Teams application, a version for 1,200 salesmen has been launched. This way we have involved them in the process of dealing with customers, supporting sales representatives” – added Przemysław Szulejewski.
An important added value of the CRM are the motivation systems, thanks to which the salesmen and sales representatives are able to verify realization of their tasks and sales plans which have influence on their remuneration. The application also supports the process of contracts selection, approval and processing contracts, as a result allowing to eliminate the flow of paper in the organization. The users can quickly obtain a reply from various departments and confirm electronically a number of applications e.g., regarding customer promotions. Tags and multi-dimensional system of convenient customer segmentation are yet another advantage of the system. They allow better adaptation of sales representative activities and improve cooperation with customers.
„Inter Cars is on a digital changes highway and is not afraid to speed up. It is an example of a company that has long ago stopped to offer only automotive spare parts and today offers its customers multiple possibilities. Thanks to trust in cloud solutions and the use of Collaborative Apps, which are part of the business development strategy, it is possible to make quick changes - happening in less than a quarter of an hour - not only in the area of internal processes, but most of all in the contact with customers. It is for them that Inter Cars, an innovator in the Polish Digital Valley, makes hundreds of deliveries a day from as many as 11 Midi Hubs in Poland". - says Dariusz Fila, Enterprise Commercial Senior Account Executive at the Polish branch of Microsoft.
The company has also made a number of improvements in the area of marketing process automation. Automation combined with the segmentation system allows the employee to indicate a specific group of recipients and prepare individual promotions for them. Inter Cars has the possibility to manage a comprehensive customer journey, providing the customer already at the beginning the necessary information in a specific cycle leading to the finalisation of the sale in an automated way. Dynamics 365 also allows organization of on-line trainings, starting from registration of the customers, through organization, to management of the trainings.
The Power of Power Apps in the hands of employees
Inter Cars wanted to transform more ideas of the team into specific business applications. The company decided to use the Microsoft Power Apps, low code/no code tools, which provide the possibility of creating various solutions without knowing the programming code or having technical knowledge. Some functions have been created, which, among other things, simplified the process of getting information about lacks in the offer.
„A sales representative, going to the customer, can easily use the Power Apps in CRM. He/she can quickly enter information about any lacks in product portfolio which the customer indicates. It is than sent to CRM for verification. This allows us to manage stock levels in a better way in particular locations, and to provide better pricing when the price of a given product is diametrically different at competitors” – confirms Piotr Dyrda, Inter Cars IT Systems and Solutions Manager.
