Improve Process Management and Control of Sales Information
Lantaren, the only Spanish consulting firm specializing in implementing business intelligence solutions and information management, has been implemented in the real estate developer Taylor Wimpey Spain IBM Cognos BI solution, obtaining the complete, integrated and updated of the management key areas of sales, marketing and finance, can optimize the allocation of resources to locate in areas where they obtain a higher return, increase sales and ultimately profit and stay aligned with the performance of tactical objectives and strategic.
Subsidiary of the leading UK developer Taylor Wimpey PLC, the company operates in Spain for 50 years, building quality homes on the shores of the Balearic Islands, Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca.
After implementing an ERP and CRM to meet their growing needs regarding information management, the company decided to search for an advanced reporting and analysis to the various departments provide relevant information based on the large amount of data entered in their management systems. Until then, many reports critical of business were made up by hand and given the complexity of the investment required much time doing low value-added and high probability of incurring inadvertent errors, which are not could ensure the reliability of the information. Other reports were automated and made available on a simple Web application.
In a changing environment and dominated by the economic crisis, in which resources are scarce and management tools are critical to efficient allocation of investment, marketing management expressed the need to analyze the best interests of your prospects. “We needed to identify the best recruitment channels depending on the product, and measure the effectiveness of employees and sales force, among other priorities,” sums Pedro Moya, director of Information Systems in Taylor Wimpey Spain. Moreover, financial and general directions also demanded a lot of information due to the requirements of the parent newspaper in the UK.
Therefore, it was decided to implement IBM Cognos with standard modules Ad-Hoc Query, Reporting and Analysis, which was added scorecarding tool (control) Metric Studio. After a first experience with another partner of Cognos, Lantaren chose to implement the solution which provided guarantees to successfully address a Business Intelligence project such as Lantaren “had the highest certification and its core business is Cognos” Moya highlights. Next to human capital allocated to the project, strict compliance by Lantaren and budget objectives set, as well as performing in term (nine months) and no deviations have been key to the success of implantation.
After detailed planning from the gathering of requirements for development and testing, the project has covered the areas of sales, marketing and finance at Taylor Wimpey, these departments providing the analysis and reporting tools that facilitate fast extraction of the necessary information for both daily operations and for the management, control and decision making. On the other hand, is automated execution and weekly delivery to the address of the financial reports and key business marketing. It has also improved communication and relationships with partners of the company, poderles provide regular and updated monitoring their contacts. The application suite provides, in short, the management and development of reports.
In recent years, Taylor Wimpey has developed a great job of streamlining their sales channels and measurement of the entire process from contact until the visit and closing the sale. With the new BI environment, “now everyone in the organization speaks the same data base and information and not on data that could not match being obtained by different means,” says the director of Information Systems.
“The benefits of using IBM Cognos for Taylor Wimpey Spain ranging from employee retention, with a consequent increase in sales, with the agility to establish marketing strategies, as we now have clear information on indicators such as channel acquisition, the conversion ratios, “says Oscar Hernandez, director general of Lantaren.