For sales it is crucial to have as complete a picture of the customer as possible. Even the smallest details are important. With SAP Sales Cloud strives ASICS to one identical customer view worldwide. The first region was partnered with SAP Acorel at the height of the corona pandemic, migrated completely online and remotely to this new solution.
The Japanese ASICS is one of the largest manufacturers of sports goods and accessories in the world. The products are marketed through well-known sports shops, among others, but increasingly also directly through our own web shops. A few years ago, this business transformation was the reason for the implementation of SAP Fashion Management Solution (FMS). This ERP system brings the wholesale and e-commerce business together in one corporate form.
Better support account managers
ASICS modernized its B2B platform to provide optimal service to wholesale customers online. “However, we came to the conclusion that we are not yet optimally serving our account managers, who visit stores, for example,” says Paul John Bakker, Vice President of Global Enterprise Solutions at ASICS. According to Bakker, it was difficult for these employees who are often on the road to quickly gain insight into, for example, the agreements made with the customer.
“Account managers want to work as a team towards the customer. To do this, they need to know in detail what agreements a colleague has made with the customer, ”says Igor Filart, Global B2B Solution Delivery Manager at ASICS. “Overview is crucial for sales. You have to be able to put even the smallest details somewhere and share it with colleagues. “
“SAP FMS is not very well suited for capturing and transferring that data,” continues Filart. “We needed a new solution for that. And then a solution that integrates both with our B2B platform and SAP FMS, so that our account managers have all the information available in one solution to serve their customers in the right way. ”
SAP Sales Cloud
After seeing a demo during SAP CX Live ASICS quickly established that SAP Sales Cloud is the tool ASICS needs. According to Bakker, this solution makes a new way of working possible. “You open SAP Sales Cloud on your mobile or desktop and you immediately have an overview of the customer and the possibility to communicate with colleagues. Here you can also provide new information, for example that there has been an adjustment in the presentation of a product line and that the adjustment works well. ”
ASICS worked out forty user stories together with SAP at an early stage. It describes what an account manager should be able to see in SAP Sales Cloud. For the implementation of a “minimum viable product” in six regions – starting in Ocean-Pacific – the sports equipment manufacturer hired SAP partner Acorel. “And then came corona,” said Filart. “We couldn’t physically meet and had to do the rollout in Australia completely remotely. Only after the go live in this first region did we meet and eat a Bossche bol at a safe distance. ”
Even better product
Corona wasn’t the only challenge the project team faced. For example, adjustments were needed on the SAP FMS side to ensure that the links with SAP Sales Cloud work optimally. These adjustments required a tight schedule within ASICS, which also had to do with other implementations at the same time. “And yet, together with the business, we managed to create an even more beautiful product with an even more beautiful scope than we had imagined in advance and that was enthusiastically taken into use by the first users,” notes Filart.
“The fact that ASICS had already defined a number of user stories has certainly contributed to this,” says Joost Goudriaan, account manager at Acorel. “But the starting point of not deviating from the standard as offered by SAP Sales Cloud also contributed to the project running smoothly and efficiently.” Stick to the standard will also be the starting point in the regions to follow, including Japan, Latin America and Europe.
Bakker sees the success mainly as the result of the close cooperation between ASICS and Acorel and the goal orientation of both parties. “Two companies that previously had no relationship with each other, traveled together from a lockdown situation. A journey with the final destination to implement a new solution for a user group twenty thousand kilometers away that was never served by Global IT before. And they managed to do that flawlessly in five months. Nothing really went wrong. ”