The fruits of successful Business Process Reengineering for CRM are reduced costs, shorter cycle times, improved quality and -- arguably most important -- happier customers.

1. Cognizant CRM Insights
BPR for CRM: Driving Business
Performance to the Next Level
By Christina Pruitt
If you are like most executives, chances are you processes that are chronic pain points for
would love to get more value from your customer customers.
relationship management (CRM) investment. One
proven way to increase the returns is to For example, in the retail banking industry, the
reengineer CRM business processes. Most process of bringing on new customers has
companies conduct a business process traditionally been problematic, both for banks
reengineering (BPR) effort when embarking on a and for their customers. The on-boarding process
CRM installation. But even if you are years into can be made quicker and easier for the customer,
your CRM implementation, it pays to stop and take signaling that the bank respects the customer’s
a closer look at your customer-related business time. And since this exchange is likely to be the
processes, reengineering where necessary. consumer’s first exposure to the bank, the
process could be designed to emphasize
Fundamental analysis and customer preferences. Of course, consumers
The fruits of successful BPR
radical redesign of customer- won’t stay with a bank just because the account
for CRM are reduced costs, related business processes will creation process went smoothly. But getting the
shorter cycle times, improved help you achieve significant very front end of the customer experience right
quality and -- arguably most improvements in process will go far toward creating loyalty.
performance. That’s because
important -- happier Another case in point: the processing of
business processes are the
customers. engines of enterprise value healthcare insurance claims. Often, claims are
delivery and the key drivers of still processed by agents with minimal training
business performance. The fruits of successful working on antiquated applications. The agent
BPR for CRM are reduced costs, shorter cycle may not understand the nuances of a particular
times, improved quality and –– arguably most patient’s coverage, and it is not uncommon for
important -- happier customers. different agents to come to different results,
leaving customers confused and anxious.
Business processes require constant scrutiny to Similarly, each agent may interpret a doctor’s
remain fresh, responsive and flexible. This is even visit or hospital procedure differently and
more true when it comes to customer-facing reimburse for the same item at a different rate.
processes. Customers who struggle with any Obviously, BPR can’t solve all of the ills in our
aspect of your business are not likely to stick country’s healthcare system, but streamlining
around for long to figure it out. BPR for CRM can processes in which agents interact with patients
help by pinpointing (and then revamping) and providers is a step in the right direction.
CRM Insights

2. BPR for Multiple CRM Systems tomer delivery. Then, you take an objective (such
as “improve the customer experience”) and
Though organizations of any size can benefit
determine which related
from BPR for CRM, global enterprises may have a
processes are ripe for reengi- BPR for CRM can help by
special need. Often, these large organizations
neering. The processes most pinpointing (and then
end up with complex, nonstandard, inflexible
likely to be targeted are any-
business processes and multiple, disparate CRM revamping) processes
thing involving a customer
systems. This complexity arises from mergers
touchpoint (including the Web that are chronic pain
and acquisitions and organizational
restructuring, as well as from business processes
site, e-mail and call center). points for customers.
that cross time zones and cultures. The
BPR analyzes business processes at different
challenge, therefore, is to define CRM processes
levels to find improvement opportunities. In our
that represent an appropriate level of
client engagements, we use the following steps in
commonality across the organization.
our process reengineering methodology:
The best approach for CRM multi-system process
I Project planning and kick-off
consolidation reviews duplicate processes and
integrates the disparate CRM systems across the I Understand current processes
enterprise to deliver effective support to I Analyze current processes
activities such as sales, marketing and service. I Design improved processes
The aim is to reduce duplication of effort and
streamline customer-related activities. When
I Implement improved processes
finished, the BPR effort should result in an all-
To this end, we recently helped companies in the
around view across all customer touchpoints with
financial services and security products
corresponding improvements in customer
industries to reengineer their CRM processes.
experience.
Toward Business Process Management BPR in Financial Services
The focus of this engagement was to assess and
BPR is one component of business process
enhance this client’s member satisfaction
management (BPM), a new way of looking at a
measurement process. We first examined the
business operation. BPM merges the technology
company’s customer satisfaction data to pinpoint
that enables the process with the business side
areas of importance to
for which the process exists. BPM pulls
members and to discover
everything together, providing a way of looking at
where focused performance When finished, the BPR effort
the business from a work rather than an
improvement efforts would should result in an all-around
organizational perspective.
increase overall member view across all customer
For example, the genesis of a new product satisfaction to meet its target
touchpoints with corresponding
offering may be marketing or R&D. Then it will go of 95% satisfaction. We
through ideation and, ultimately, a service or analyzed the client’s improvements in customer
product will be created. At that point, the task is current customer satisfaction experience.
to figure out how to deliver the product or measurement data for its
service. Product delivery will involve sales, credit card offering and identified those metrics
marketing, manufacturing production, with the strongest potential impact for increasing
warehousing, logistics and call center, as well as the overall member satisfaction rate.
virtually every other company group. The process
We developed a roadmap of recommendations to
usually starts in one part of the organization and
guide the client in optimizing its member
then flows to other parts in a semi-controlled or
satisfaction measurement process, as well as a
uncontrolled manner.
new data architecture for effective issue analysis,
BPM refers to the management of a set of inter- including tracking and reporting issues, as well as
related processes, such as new product delivery. monitoring trends. The data architecture allows
You look at the whole chain, from ideation, to the client to effectively identify process
implementation, to production, to sales, to cus- inefficiency for ongoing improvement. The
CRM Insights 2

3. operational area processes and sub-processes significant reduction of effort, labor, time to
are linked to satisfaction metrics for immediate quote and speed of sale, which, in turn, drove an
root-cause analysis. impressive increase in sales.
As a result of this BPR effort, the financial servic- To remedy the situation, we Happier customers are
es company was able to raise customer satisfac- identified enhancements to the most significant
tion rates to the target level of 95%. The improve user adoption by
benefit of successful BPR
company expects to continuously improve its removing unused fields in the
measurement process to enable further increas- application, matching list and for CRM. Reduced costs,
es in customer satisfaction. form applet fields, removing shorter cycle times and
general complexity, pre- improved quality are the
populating common fields,
Security Industry Company icing on the cake.
reducing the number of items in
A leading provider of security products came to the list of values (LOVs), and
us for help when employees complained of poor matching screen and data flow to end-user
CRM application usability. Specifically, users had workflow. After the usability improvements, end-
difficulty with screen navigation, data entry, user adoption rose considerably, enabling more
workflow issues and coping with the application’s consistent customer service and leading to a more
overall complexity. In short, they were unhappy satisfying customer experience. Other benefits
with the usability of the application and were not included overall streamlined processes for pricing
using it. and service delivery.
We conducted an end-user analysis, reviewing Wherever you find yourself in your CRM journey,
the application from the end-user perspective reengineering customer-related business
and how they actually used the application. We processes will help you achieve significant
reviewed end-user workflow processes and improvements in process performance. Business
compared these to the application workflow to processes are the engines of enterprise value
identify gaps. There were significant gaps in the creation and the drivers of business
use of best practices, such as with its Quote-to- performance. Happier customers are the most
Cash process, which took some users days to significant benefit of successful BPR for CRM.
complete instead of a few minutes to do online. Reduced costs, shorter cycle times and improved
Redesigning this business process resulted in a quality are the icing on the cake.
About the Author
Christina Pruitt is Cognizant's Director of CRM Strategic Consulting. She has 25 years of experience in
the CRM space. Christina can be reached at Christina.Pruitt@cognizant.com.
About Cognizant
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