SAP is one of the world’s leading producers of software for the management of business processes; developing solutions which facilitate effective data processing and information flow across organisations. Collaboration is critical at SAP where there is an extensive product portfolio, a huge breadth of services and many customer relationships in one strategic account.
Challenge
Bill Doyle, Paul Logue and Franklin Herbas were part of a global strategic insights team, sponsored by the office of the CEO, who were challenged to transform SAP. With a team of data scientists and developers, the goal was to create a state-of-the-art system offering a single view of each customer, across all SAP businesses, which would elevate customer experience and outcomes, and enable data-driven decision making.
Approach
Simplicity was a guiding principle – ‘how do you take daunting amounts of data and insights, distil them and then organise them into a single view of the customer that can be used by sales and marketing and customer success?’ Crystal Ball, is now a global account intelligence and insights platform, based on modern digital analytics, delivering real-time insights and predictability both in terms of what the customers have now, and what they might want or need. Running on SAP technologies, including AI and machine learning, it offers:
- Combined first and third-party data, e.g., firmographic, technographic, behavioural, and intent
- A single view of the customer through the entire customer journey
- Platform integration across marketing, sales, and delivery
- Self-serve insights via a mobile app, desktop, plus opt-in alerts
- Custom dossiers created for priority accounts and executives
Results
- Deal sizes have increased by 200-300%
- Conversion rates from pipeline to revenue have improved by two-to-three times
- Key customer metrics including experience and outcomes-based metrics can be tracked
- Internal user engagement can be monitored
Looking ahead, the team continue to make improvements to the AI and machine learning model and its predictive capabilities. The goal is that Crystal Ball is SAP’s single source of truth for account intelligence.
Read a full description of this SAP case study in Account-Based Growth by Bev Burgess and Tim Shercliff, published by Kogan Page.
