Paper is patient, and trade fair leads?

The invention and production of the first ring immersion heater in a backyard workshop in Berlin in 1924 marked the beginning of the corporate history of Stiebel Eltron, a manufacturer in the fields of hot water and renewable energies.

Stiebel Eltron regularly presents its product range at trade fairs and events. While many processes work very quickly and automatically, the lead capture at trade fairs used to be done on paper.

The paper sheets were then sent to a central back office, where they were laboriously typed into the system - taking up to six weeks: a lengthy process with a lot of manual work.

Due to the after-the-fact capture, the company could not measure the success of leads in a timely manner. A direct response was not possible due to a lack of information. There was also a significant delay in sending important information materials to prospects.

Investment in innovation

Stiebel Eltron decided to replace the paper-based way of working, which was proving cumbersome and time-consuming - with the aim of establishing structured capture processes and at the same time taking advantage of mobile devices when acquiring new customers at trade fairs and events.

In December 2014, for example, Stiebel Eltron introduced the it.mobile InfoCollector app from Itelligence, a full-service IT provider based in Bielefeld. This mobile solution will allow trade fair forms to be filled out effectively and intuitively on a tablet in the future.

The forms are provided centrally in the CRM system for the app. Employees can select the most up-to-date forms for each application from the released forms and enter the data quickly thanks to the input help.

All relevant contact persons are already loaded on the iPad and can be assigned accordingly without rework. In addition, the app allows data to be preassigned via a call-off in the worklist: This saves time.

The completed sheets can then be saved in groups and are thus easier to find again. With the practical photo function, pictures and camera shots can be easily integrated.

Employees are thus able to assign business cards to the corresponding sheets, among other things. An important aspect was the offline capability of the app.

Unfortunately, employees have no guarantee that the on-site Internet connection will always work properly. If it is not stable and fast enough, the lead capture can be impaired and, in the worst case, the first customer contact does not leave a good impression.

With the it.mobile InfoCollector, employees can now easily capture, store and retrieve data even without an Internet connection - which is essential for trade fair operations.

For Stiebel Eltron, the processing of captured leads is also indispensable. In the backend, daily trade fair evaluations can now be carried out and structured reports can be created, for example, with a view to the number of contacts or topics discussed.

This functionality enables a direct and quick response on the very next day of the trade fair as well as an assessment of the concept and the activities carried out.

The prospective customer benefits from shorter response times; because he receives the requested information material and a direct sales contact immediately after the trade fair visit.

For Stiebel Eltron, the app offers the opportunity to exploit the full potential of a trade fair exhibition and generate more business. As a next step, an expansion to the international locations is planned.

Facts & Figures

Solution: it.mobile InfoCollector App
Number of users: 100 users
Project duration: 3 months
System Landscape Backend:
ERP system with SAP NetWeaver gateway component (embedded)
Frontend: iPad

Advantages

• daily updated measurement evaluations
• Reduction of manual rework to a minimum
• easy data acquisition
• Improved data quality

Stiebel Eltron

Branch: House and system technology
Size: 3000 employees worldwide
Turnover: 460 million euros total sales (2013)
Headquarters: Holzminden
Branches: six distribution centers nationwide, its own subsidiaries worldwide, and numerous partners