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SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer at Koelnmesse

With SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer, Koelnmesse is able to optimize its sales processes.

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SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer at Koelnmesse

Koelnmesse opts for transparent trade fair management with SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer

Each year, Koelnmesse GmbH brings together some 3 million visitors and 50,000 exhibitors at over 80 trade fairs and exhibitions all over the world. The key task of the trade fair business has not been limited to renting exhibition space for some time; it now comprises all the services required to ensure the perfect trade fair appearance for the customer, from the journey there to stand construction to marketing and follow-up. The company’s strategic orientation currently focuses on process digitization and infrastructure. Assisted by Sybit, Koelnmesse has laid the foundations for this strategy and integrated SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer into a complex IT infrastructure. The result: faster, well-structured, and flexible sales processes, a clear  360° view of customers, events and sales opportunities, efficient processes for collaborating with partners, as well as an automated and innovative area management for over 100 subsidiaries and foreign representatives.

 “We set ourselves ambitious goals with the AMK Fit project – one of them being the implementation of SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer. The only way we could realize these goals was by working with a partner such as Sybit, who has a comprehensive understanding of the processes and provides consistent support as we strive for efficient sales processes and successful trade fair management.” 

Achim Stolzki, Head of Data Processing, Koelnmesse GmbH

Task

With an ever-increasing number of trade fairs, events, exhibitors, visitors, and services, it had become necessary to introduce a CRM solution for the employees in Marketing, Trade Fair Management, Sales, and Customer Service that would provide sustained support for all relevant processes. Over time, individualized processes had developed for managing customers, trade fairs, visitors, and partners that no longer enabled full transparency. To optimize the workflows, the challenge was to maintain over two million pieces of data relating to customers and business partners plus the associated documents as well as attributes in a single system in a well-structured manner. Trade-fair-specific processes and rules were to be established.

Integration with the SAP ERP system and the configuration tool HAPLA for planning exhibition stands was to guarantee a permanent overview of all quotations, sales opportunities, and the status quo of the trade fairs. Connection to SAP Hybris Marketing / SAP HCP was one component that would enable the mass creation of documents in SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer.

One challenge was to map the area management for over 100 subsidiaries and foreign representatives including an automated system of allocating leads and opportunities as well as responsibility for customers to the appropriate members of staff. Creating intuitive reporting functions on the basis of SAP Hybris C4C Analytics and the associated display of real-time data via dashboards complement the end-to-end process from the perspective of Controlling.

Solution

  • Global harmonization and simplification of all data in one CRM system through the implementation of SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer
  • Replacement of the existing SAP CRM on-premises solution (CRM 4.0)
  • Data migration from SAP CRM 4.0 and SAP ERP
  • 360° view of customers, contacts, trade fairs, events, and products through
    • mapping of the trade fairs in SAP Hybris C4C and linking trade fairs with exhibitors 
    • mapping of the events associated with each trade fair incl. custom opportunity types differentiated by industry and segment
    • differentiated mapping of national and international trade fairs
    • mapping and linking of internal contacts, including responsibility allocation and deputizing arrangements
    • developing a cockpit for the transparent display of all relevant customer details 
  • Creation of a comprehensive authorization and role system: individual access rights depending on trade fair, event, region, and industry in line with the underlying area management (automated)
  • Establishment of the lead-to-order process for all sales areas and roles
  • Connection of SAP ERP, SAP HCP, SAP Hybris Marketing, HAPLA via SAP HCI

 “Sybit supplied the appropriate concepts for our needs. This reflected a deep process and solution know-how that also convinced the stakeholders. From my perspective, that constitutes the basis for our successful project.”

Achim Stolzki, Head of Data Processing, Koelnmesse GmbH

Highlights & benefits for the customer

  • Enhanced data transparency and quality
  • Consistent sales process across all systems
  • Shortened sales cycles
  • Integration of subsidiaries and foreign representatives with automatic allocation via customized area management
  • Better trade fair planning possible through mapping of cross-system processes
  • Improved quality of event analysis
  • Efficient end-to-end processes thanks to integration of SAP Hybris C4C, SAP ERP, SAP HCP, and SAP Hybris Marketing
  • Thanks to the replacement of individualized processes by standard SAP structures Koelnmesse can now maintain the system independently
  • Complete replacement of SAP CRM 4.0 by SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer including migration of over two million customer data items within 15 months
  • High level of user acceptance thanks to comprehensive training delivered by Sybit
  • Transparency and efficient project management using agile methodology

Profile

Koelnmesse GmbH

Koelnmesse is the No. 1 trade fair venue for numerous industries. Visitors and exhibitors from all over the world come to Cologne to present products and trends and do business worldwide at the world's sixth-largest exhibition center. Each year, Koelnmesse organizes and manages around 80 trade fairs, exhibitions, guest events and special events in Cologne and in the most important markets worldwide. Nearly 50,000 exhibiting companies from 123 countries and around 3 million visitors from 209 countries take part in Koelnmesse's events, which are held regularly at varying intervals. In addition, around 2,000 congress events with more than one million visitors are held in Koelnmesse's Congress Centers North and East and other Cologne locations.

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