Phoenix Contact: Globally connected thanks to Salesforce
Thanks to a centralized Salesforce platform at Phoenix Contact, more companies than ever before can now work together globally and innovatively.
About the project
In partnership with Salesfive, Phoenix Contact has succeeded in creating and rolling out a globally standardized CRM as part of its strategic digitalization portfolio.
Thanks to the new opportunities for global collaboration and increased transparency, the global CRM project creates a crucial basis for Phoenix Contact to achieve its ambitious growth targets for the coming years.
What we have implemented
Technologies
This is Phoenix Contact
Under a global umbrella brand, Phoenix Contact offers innovative products, solutions and digitalization expertise for the electrification, networking and automation of all sectors of the economy and infrastructure. The family-owned company thus supports industry and society in the transformation to a sustainable world with long-term growth prospects for all.
The core business is organized into three business divisions. In new business areas, the potential of digitalization, electrification and changing mobility is also being tapped beyond the core business.
Phoenix Contact currently employs around 22,000 people and generated sales of EUR 3.6 billion in 2022. Production takes place worldwide in a manufacturing network in 11 countries with varying degrees of vertical integration. The Phoenix Contact Group has more than 50 sales companies worldwide, which ensure proximity to the markets and customers.
The challenges
The company had to solve the following problems:
Complex sales processes
Rapid growth led to complex sales processes that needed to be managed collaboratively with a cross-border CRM solution.
System with global relevance
The company was required to develop a system that had global relevance and at the same time achieved maximum user acceptance.
Change management
The biggest task here was to implement long-established, local processes globally and to make users receptive to the overarching goals.
International rollout
The system was to be rolled out quickly and without major disruption to all international subsidiaries.
Complexity of the countries
The company needed a template that was flexible enough to take into account the different complexities of the countries.
The solution: This is what we have implemented at Phoenix Contact
Marketing: Marketing automation thanks to Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
Salesfive introduced Marketing Cloud Account Engagement to map marketing automation processes. Clusters were formed for this - taking into account the local proximity of the national companies to each other - in order to exploit synergy effects. With the introduction of Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (formerly Pardot), we were able to provide a standardized solution for lead management and at the same time replace analogue manual processes with automated digital ones.
Salesforce thus forms the central platform for lead management at Phoenix Contact, on which the marketing and sales departments can work even more closely together and a seamless transfer of prospect data is ensured.
Change management: from the SME to the corporate mindset
In this project, we were not only required to design the corresponding IT architecture and introduce the necessary software solutions, but also to support the internal change management at the traditional company in its transition to a global group.
In particular, this involved demonstrating the advantages of the new "IT world" and closer cooperation to the employees in the national companies, even if this meant the end of familiar procedures.
How Phoenix has also revolutionized sales and service with Salesforce?
Download the full Phoenix Contact success story as a PDF now and learn how Salesforce has minimized sales complexity and improved service.
Get even more detailed insights into the project and inspiration for your own transformation journey.
Training: Salesforce key users as success factors
A key success factor for a successful rollout and good user acceptance is a methodically targeted training concept. In addition to our experts, Phoenix Contact employees were also actively involved in the training sessions in the countries in order to explain local processes and their implementation in Salesforce in the best possible way. We therefore defined "key users" in each country at an early stage, who played a decisive role in the development of the country-specific template from the outset.
Project management: cooperation at eye level
Our program management team has overall responsibility for the project. This includes, for example, managing the entire Salesfive project team as well as cost control and coordination of all cross-project control measures. These are tackled in close cooperation with the relevant counterpart at Phoenix Contact. In addition, the project management office provides support with project organization, controlling and other administrative tasks.
The result for Phoenix Contact
The company benefits from these advantages:
IT foundation for further growth
As part of a digitalization initiative, Salesfive has made a significant contribution to bringing Phoenix Contact much closer to its vision of the "All Electric Society".
Optimized global collaboration
A central platform was created that is accepted and globally networked in use. This enables national companies to work together more efficiently.
Automated processes in all departments
Thanks to process optimizations in numerous departments, manual steps have been replaced by automated and digitalized ones.
Salesforce experts in the company
With the help of a well thought-out training concept, employees in all countries were trained to become Salesforce experts within the company.
Sustainable mindset shift
The rethink from a medium-sized company to a corporate group was orchestrated by means of conscious change management.
Let's shape the future of your production together. Contact us now!
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Your contact person for the manufacturing industry
Steffen Garbe
Senior Account Executive
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