Trane
International specialist in air conditioning
International specialist in air conditioning, Trane use Sage SalesLogix to automate, optimize and centralize the management of their sales force and Customer Service.
As a branch of the American Industrial group Ingersoll-Rand, Trane specialize in designing and marketing air conditioning solutions. This multinational company employs 29,000 people in almost 100 different countries and turns over €6.9 billion per year. In Europe, Trane's marketing strategy is put into action by in-house engineers and technicians and its field sales team. “The coordination of the work led by the various teams and the complexity of the projects means that we need an effective sales force management (SFA) solution” explains Tina Verstuyft, Sales & Distribution Systems Team Leader. “We were also looking for a solution in line with the development of our sales activity, as it is moving from product sales towards the sale of solutions and services. We need sales force management software that allows us to automate and centralize certain sales procedures such as opportunity management and sales forecasts. We hope to improve our project monitoring and management and to make it easier for our teams when working on more complex projects. Sage SalesLogix meets these needs."
17 countries equipped in 5 months
Once the specifications were defined, the choice of editor and software was determined based on the experiences of internal employees with other SFA solutions. “SalesLogix was chosen for its adaptability. The size of the editor and the software’s ability to integrate in to the tools we already use and into the structure of our business, as well as the price, were all key elements when making out decision”, says Tina Verstuyft.
In collaboration with Absys Cyborg, the rollout of the software in the 17 European countries concerned took only 5 months, between November 2006 and March 2007. “As well as the rollout, Absys Cyborg also trained our IT team, who then trained the solution’s 320 users”, she adds.
Automatic, centralized sales force management
Developing in the construction sector, Trane have experienced an especially varied, two-stage sales cycle. The influence cycle checks whether Trane have a technical solution to best meet the customer’s specifications. Only success in this initial approach will enable the second bidding step to get underway. “SalesLogix met the complex nature of these procedures and adapted to the exact specifics of our work. We have also synchronised all the procedures linked to our sales force", added Tina Verstuyft.
“These new procedures along with SalesLogix allow us to simplify and standardise opportunity management and our current projects in progress. As our sales force management is now centralized, the European directors are given a full view of the company’s sales activity and can also carry out analyses using the data managed. Through centralising information onto a single database, the Sales engineers are more aware of the customer’s needs. The possibility to manage targeted forecast campaigns and the sales forecasting tool allow us to significantly improve our commercial productivity", Tina Verstuyft explains.
An optimized technical support
Trane use the Ticketing module in SalesLogix to follow up the complaints received by technical support more closely. “This module allows us to track the calls made to Customer Service and to resolve problems” she states. "It means we can precisely trace the calls managed by technical support, and thus improve our customer knowledge and external communication. We use SalesLogix for all our sales procedures, from the creation of a project right through to an after-sales follow-up process” Tina Verstuyft concludes.
For more information about Trane, visit the web site at : http://www.trane.com/