NYK (Nippon Yusen Kaisha) owns more than 700 ships and is one of the world’s largest global shipping, logistics, and cruise line operators, providing worldwide sea, land, and air transport.

The company’s enthusiasm for deploying leading-edge technology at every level has included installing environment-friendly, electronically controlled engines developed by its parent business, Mitsubishi, on many of its new ships.

While NYK embraces technology, the New Zealand office recently came to the realisation that its CRM systems were somewhat less than leading edge.

The office had no formal CRM in place and was using Lotus Notes as a sort of de facto system. Although the operation had recently started working with an ERP system called Oscar, it didn’t include any form of CRM.

“Our information was everywhere. We needed a central place where data on our clients could be shared effectively,” says Robert McGoram, NYK NZ’s IT manager.

“Our operations are now requiring a greater degree of teamwork and accountability than ever before and yet there was no centralised, single, shared view of communication touch-points with our customers,” he says.

“Add to that the need to monitor KPI’s for the sales team and provide management for the data they require to analyse the business, and you’ve got a compelling case for introducing a robust CRM system – not to mention giving our staff the chance to take a holiday with less worry about the handover.”

A tailored solution
Because the need for a CRM system was driven mainly by the sales team, they set up the initial requirements. The question then was which software supplier to engage? NYK chose Crossware, which it viewed as a trustworthy vendor in the CRM business with a good mix of well-known customers.

“We thought if these companies are working with Crossware then it must be good,” says McGoram.

“Crossware is a local business that understands the kiwi way of getting things done and very rapidly discovered the way in which we work. We’re a typical New Zealand-sized company and organisations our size often purchase a standard, off-the-shelf CRM solution – we didn’t want that,” he says.

“We had looked at popular entry-level CRM solutions and at first they seemed fine. However, ours is a dynamic industry subject to change and we needed more flexibility and future-proofing."

Crossware’s response was a tailored CRM solution featuring automated alerts and bring-ups organised by client account and by contact person. It's also included email based on templated stationary (which has proven very useful for repeated text), KPI reporting based on sales activity with clients and on activities with prospects. Included also were call cycle management and reporting.

The CRM package has enabled NYK’s sales staff to improve their relationships with existing customers, says Crossware’s director of sales and marketing, Kenneth Fairgray.

“Our solution ensures that all of the market intelligence that was formerly housed in organic systems – that is, people’s brains – is now easily accessible to the entire team,” says Fairgray. “Crossware’s CRM system has finally spelled the end of the stacks of business cards and private local address books that employees used to rely upon. It provides the management team with the data they need to analyse the business and make fully informed decisions.”

Facing up to greater efficiency
McGoram says it can be a challenge for sales managers to get the “face time” they need with NYK’s very mobile sales team so they can catch up and discuss individual accounts and strategies.

“The reporting tool gives us an overview of what the sales reps have been doing each week. That’s a very valuable feature of this solution,” he says.

“So meeting time at NYK is now more productive because the information sharing has happened prior to the face-to-face meeting. We can now move directly to more valuable customercentric discussions.”

Now that all customer information is centrally stored and very easily accessed, staff are finding they can save time, work more effectively, and focus on the fundamentals of the business. “CRM brings its own form of efficiency to NYK,” says McGoram.

“Our business is about maintaining relationships with existing customers and building on these relationships. Now, with such a wealth of client information at our fingertips, we are all better equipped and our sales team is now more professional than ever in its approach.”

Approval for the project had to be sought from NYK’s Australia office. They liked what they saw so much, they decided to replace their existing in-house MS Access database with the CRM solution. At that point, the project went from six users to a 30-plus user base.

All up, the CRM solution took two months from sign-off to completion and McGoram says he was impressed by how painless the process was. “Crossware’s people were very skilled at listening to us and understanding what our business required. Not only that, but they understand their own product very well so they knew exactly what modifications where required for the software to be a perfect fit for NYK.”

Staff get behind the change
Before NYK went “live” with the new CRM system, Crossware provided training across the board to ensure everyone was up to speed. Now that staff have settled into using the system, they have discovered that the more they put into CRM, the more they get out of it.

“It is only a success when other people are feeding all of their information into the system as well,” says McGoram.

“I was very impressed with how enthusiastic staff were about working with the new system. They had to change the way they worked but they were willing to do so because the software delivered everything that was needed and Crossware supported the transition well.”

Staff particularly like the “Crossware” button that features in their email applications and allows them to copy incoming emails directly into the appropriate client file in the CRM system.

“And if someone is going on holiday or on maternity leave, the handover of information goes much more smoothly now,” says McGoram. “All the information is in the CRM system so you don’t really need to do a handover. So we can continue to provide the same quality of service even if staff leave because we can read back everything we did with each customer. That’s a huge improvement for us.”

Although the Crossware CRM solution fits the current size of NYK’s New Zealand business and has integrated well with its existing IT systems, McGoram knows that it is also scalable for future growth.

“And the licensing is quite different in a positive way. Crossware have a very pragmatic model that made the buying decision much easier. They didn’t try to tie us down either,” says McGoram. “Crossware CRM has really proved itself. We’re happy with it and this year we will improve the usage so we gain even more benefit from the system.”

For more information
Crossware
www.crossware.co.nz

Paul Graham
General Manager
paul@crossware.co.nz
ph 09 379 7044

August 2007