New milestone in digitization offensive

In June 2021, Sirius, the new customer relationship management system at SAP's existing customer Caramba. "For our economic success, it is essential to create a common database across all locations, which above all also enables detailed forecasts - based on structured data from a central system.", says Marco Grüter, Head of Key Account Management at Caramba.

The centralization of data management is primarily intended to sustainably improve efficiency in day-to-day business. Due to the various market
segments, their sales models and the different product lines - as for professionals and end consumers - a challenging task.

"Everyone involved should have a 360-degree view of the customer at all times, whether in traditional direct sales, sales via retail partners or in the private label business, in which we supply major automotive manufacturers with individually branded cleaning products for vehicle care", explains Marco Grüter.

Apart from the technical requirements, the solution also had to fit the group's general IT strategy, as Angelika Schöneberg, Head of IT at Caramba, adds: "In the Group, we have already been using SAP solutions for a long time and in many places along the entire value chain, from the purchase of raw materials to production and sales. SAP Sales Cloud has fitted in perfectly here. Above all, the extensive integration options with the ERP play into our hands.."

Key users from the respective sales teams were involved right from the start, as were the IT specialists, and that despite Corona. The commitment on everyone's part was a decisive driver, according to the IT specialist. Smaller prototypes were built step by step for the individual, diverse process requirements and presented to the users. These were then scrutinized with the key users and further optimized based on the feedback from the weekly virtual voting sessions.

In this context, the support of the IT consulting and implementation partners also paid off in the long term. For this project, the existing IT service provider Consenso Consulting had specifically brought the experts from SAP partner Cronos on board. 

For Jürgen Rüth, Head of Sales at Caramba, responsible for the customer segments vehicle washing and industry, the introduction of the CRM system Sirius is already paying off: "The interaction between the individual protagonists is much smoother. Time-consuming coordination telephone calls, as we knew them from the past - for example between internal sales and field sales - are a thing of the past."

The data from SAP and Sirius is available to everyone involved in real time. Thanks not least to the integration with Outlook, SAP user Caramba has access to comprehensive documentation of all processes and employees can provide information at any time.

Angelika Schöneberg also draws a positive conclusion: "Caramba has made it its mission to convince customers with holistic solutions. Of course, this must also be reflected in the sales system, and we have succeeded in doing so."

Head of IT Schöneberg already has ideas for further expansion stages with regard to customer complaint processing, innovation management and campaign planning. This is intended to develop completely new ways of addressing customers, which will be implemented step by step in the future.