Strategic CRM Implementation Plan for Audi Australia

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategies for Audi Australia. It begins with an introduction to CRM and an overview of Audi's business, followed by an analysis of the company's current state, focusing on sales force automation. The report then outlines CRM objectives, including increasing customer loyalty and sales. It proceeds to evaluate CRM vendor product suites, specifically HubSpot CRM and Siebel system, highlighting their analytical capabilities and advantages. The report also addresses infrastructure requirements for CRM implementation, emphasizing the importance of silo structures. Furthermore, it discusses the crucial role of training employees for CRM adoption, along with budget considerations. The report concludes with a summary of key findings and recommendations for Audi Australia's CRM strategy. The report emphasizes the importance of CRM in the automotive industry and provides insights into how Audi can leverage CRM to enhance customer relationships and achieve its business goals. The report also provides recommendations and suggestions for implementation.

RESEARCH ON AUDI
AUSTRALIA

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Introduction of company........................................................................................................3
Current state analysis of the company....................................................................................4
CRM program or project objective.........................................................................................4
Selection of CRM vendor product suite.................................................................................5
Determining the infrastructure requirements..........................................................................7
Training..................................................................................................................................7
Establishing a timeline...........................................................................................................8
Budget.....................................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Customer Relationship Management is a technique which is used by different companies
in order to manage the interaction of company with its actual and potential customers. CEM is a
set of different practices and strategies which are used in order to analyse the customer and their
needs and preferences and work in accordance with the same. For conducting the present
research Audi have been selected. It is a German manufacturer in field of automobiles which
designs and produces luxury vehicles within the market (Abedin, 2016).
The report will start by analysing the current internal and external analysis of the
company. Further the research will outline some objectives for improving the CRM. Next the
assignment will select a CRM vendor product suite and will outline the advantages of the
selected CRM suite. Furthermore, the report will determine the requirements relating to the
infrastructure to support the new CRM system. Next it will discuss about ways in which training
can be provided to employees for adopting these CRM systems. Further the report will focus on
analysing the requirement of the budget for implementing these systems into practice.
MAIN BODY
Introduction of company
The automotive industry is a type of industry which consists of different companies
dealing in designing, manufacturing, developing, marketing and selling of motor vehicles. This is
a very large sector within an economy. Audi is an automobile manufacturer which is German
based and is founded by August Horch in the year 1910 headquartered in Ingolstadt, Germany.
The company provides a wide variety and range of different types of cars generally luxury cars
which are unique as compared to other companies. Audi has been majorly owned by
Volkswagen for more than 40 years. The use of Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
initiated because of the reason that there are frequent changes in the buying behaviour of the
consumer and also there was a huge competition which led to creation of difficulty in managing
the customer relationships (Payne and Frow, 2017).
The two factors that motivated Audi to invest in CRM are
 The company believed that the acquisition and loyalty from customer side will increase.
 More consumers were seeking direct contact with the car manufacturers; therefore, the
customer experience was no more dependent on the dealer. Now the company needed
more systematic approach to develop customer lifetime value.

Current state analysis of the company
In the current scenario the company is mainly focussing on the sales force automation
which mainly dealt with sales cycle that is from converting the potential customer into an actual
consumer (Badwan and et.al., 2017).
Strength and weakness of sales force automation
The sales force automation is a software program of CRM which is designed to collect,
analyse, evaluate and distribute the data relating to the sales of a company. The aim of using this
software by Audi is to get right data at right place and at right time and in hands of right person.
This is necessary because of the reason that if the data will not be collected by right person then
it can be misinterpreted and if not collected on time then it may lead to delay in decision making.
Strength
 The major strength of this software is that this is easy to customize. Company in
accordance with its needs can customize the way of using this software.
 Another positive thing with this method is that this software can be developed for vertical
industry needs or it can also be selected from among the increasing number of sales
automation software products like Shuttle, Zendesk and many other.
Weakness
 The major weakness is that this software is very expensive to be installed within the
business.
 One more negative aspect is that a lot of training needs to be provided by the company
before installing this software in practice.
 Another weakness is that this only focuses on developing new customers and not on the
existing customer.
CRM program or project objective
Therefore, it is very essential for Audi to improve this problem of the existing CRM
strategy (Abu Amuna and et.al., 2017). This is majorly because of the reason that just focusing
on developing new customer is not enough because if more focus is laid on developing new
consumers then the interest of existing consumers will decrease as they are not much focussed.
Therefore, it is important for Audi to use such strategy which focuses on both the existing as well
as potential consumers. For this the focus should be on sales force automation (Maggon and

Chaudhry, 2015). This is because of the reason that this strategy focuses on just saling the
products and services and this is done for both the existing as well as target consumers.
CRM objectives
 To increase the loyalty of consumers by 20 % till end of 2019.
 To increase the sales with the help of program and campaign by 25 % till March 2020 for
promotion of goods and services of Audi.
 To eliminate the duplication of data entry to carry in work with minimum errors.
Selection of CRM vendor product suite
The customer relationship management is a technology which helps the business in
organizing, automating and synchronizing every aspect where customer interaction takes place.
Now Audi is focusing on sales automation and for this it is shifting its interest from marketing to
sales. This is majorly because of the reason that marketing covers all the aspects of the business
whereas the sales was focused only on the sales made by the company. Now the company knows
that it needs to focus on the sales force automation now the question comes that which CRM
vendor product suites. The best suited CRM vendor products suite are HubSpot CRM and Siebel
system. These are selected because of the following reason-
HubSpot CRM- this is one of the major leading CRM application currently available in
the market. This is an easy and smart option of CRM which mainly built to allow the sales team
to get started with making changes in the existing work culture and type. This is solution for
company which are still wanting to understand the importance of CRM and adopt to the latest
and the most efficient CRM software. Then for these companies HubSpot is a better option. This
is majorly because of the reason that this software helps in creating good contact and making a
good profile for the company so that it is very attractive for the consumers to watch at time of
sales of the products and services of Audi (Triznova and et.al., 2015).
Analytical capabilities
 This software collects and stores every little detail relating with the consumers and their
needs and preferences. This helps in analysing the needs and requirements of the
consumers in more analytical way and to focus on the need fulfilment of the consumers.
 Another capability of this software is that the interested users can also have a look on the
HubSpot selling which is an advance system which aligns the CRM and selling efforts of
the company (Ascarza and et.al., 2017).

Advantages
 The major advantage of this CRM software is that it integrates sales force system with
the CRM tool. This integration is very valuable because of the reason that it provides for
improvement of both the marketing and the sales of the company.
 Another advantage of this software is that with increase in use of social media and its
presence in the business environment. This software also connects the social media
networks and extracting useful details from the profiles of the consumers online and
selling the products and services through online social media networks.
Siebel system- this is yet another CRM software which is used by Audi for managing relation
with customers. This is a software which is mainly designed and developed for sales force
automation for selling the goods and services and supporting the queries and problems of the
consumers. This CRM software was developed by Thomas Siebel and Patricia House in the year
1993. On 12th September, 2005, Oracle corporation announced to buy Siebel system for $5.8
billion and now Siebel is a brand under the ownership of Oracle Corporation.
Analytical capabilities
 This software is the most widely used and operated CRM system in market today mainly
dealing in sales force automation and its solutions are applicable in more than 20
industries.
 This CRM software capabilities are basically in sales force automation and marketing of
goods and services and includes capabilities like managing and handling marketing
campaign, sales collaboration, taking orders, offering customer self-service and many
other capabilities too (Del Giudice, 2016).
Advantages
 The major advantage of this system of CRM is that it uses a format of DOM that is
Document Object Model which is a simplified method used to assemble using single
HTTP response and not multiple relays between the client and the server.
 Also, this type of CRM system which provides and option of additional elements to
improve the software working like use of web pages, web templates and many other
related things (Luftman and et.al., 2015).
Both the software is linked with the theories of CRM such as LTV which is Life Time Value
in CRM. This theory or model of CRM is applicable on the use of software because of the reason

that LTV refers to as the value generally in terms revenue is achieved during the entire process
of customer relationship of the company. This model is supported by the use of CRM software
like HubSpot and Siebel as this software ensures that the customer is attached with the company
for lifetime. LTV outlines the monetary value of the consumer relationship on the basis of
present value of the projected future cash flow from the customer relationship.
Determining the infrastructure requirements
The infrastructure is very important for establishing different CRM software within the
company. This is because of the reason that some support is needed in order to establish this
software within the company. For this the company uses silo structures. This is the best practice
which outlines the way how a website must be structured. Siloing is defined as the activity of
dividing the content of the website into different categories and further sub- categories.
Adoption of this structure is necessary because these structures provides for a 360-
degree view of the customer. This 360- degree view of the customer provides for a single end-
to- end picture of the whole journey and the experience in the journey (McPhail and et.al., 2015).
This is a strategic approach which helps the business in offering the best experience to the
consumer across all the stages comprising of the experience of the whole cycle of customer
experience by allowing for all the unified way of viewing the touchpoints of the consumers.
Training
Just the implementation of the different CRM software is not enough. Rather it is very
important for the company to first get the full knowledge of the system and then provide this
knowledge to the other employees within the company (Kunz, and et.al., 2017). For employees
of Audi it is very necessary to gain the knowledge and expertise relating to the use of the new
software. Training is the most crucial and important thing at time of installing the software
within practice in Audi. This is majorly because of the reason that if the employees do not know
how to operate this software then they can perform disaster in operating this software.
Therefore, to overcome this problem of lack of knowledge of employees in field of these
different types of software there is a great requirement of providing for training and development
programs for the employees (Meng and Boyd, 2017). Thus, arranging for the different types of
training programmes is very necessary for Audi. This is mainly because of the reason that these
training programs strengthen and improves the knowledge of the employees relating to the use of
the new CRM software.

Providing for these training programmes will help Audi in improving the level of
knowledge of the employees and this will increase the skills and expertise of the employees in
direction of using the new and advanced software. This training will result in increased employee
performance because of the reason that increase in the knowledge of the employees in ways of
using the software and this will improve the performance of the user of the software (SHAH,
2017). The underlying reason behind this fact is that with increase in the knowledge of the user
they know in advance how to operate this software optimally. Therefore, this will increase the
productivity of the employees as they know well how to operate the different CRM software.
Establishing a timeline
The planning for the establishment of the CRM software within the company is very
necessary. This is because of the reason that if the planning is not good then the implementation
will also be not good. Therefore, Audi must have a systematic plan for establishing the CRM
software in company. The timeline defines all the activities or steps which are used in
establishing the software within the company.
The plan of establishing the CRM software will take around 110 days and last to last 120
days. The plan will start by analysing the need of this software within the company. Then the
company will assess the different ways with which this software can be updated within the
company. Further the plan will outline the analysis of different types of CRM software which
can be used for the purpose of simplifying the work of business.
Budget
This refers to as the estimated amount of money which will be needed on order to
implement the establishment of the CRM software. The budget outlines all the estimated sources
of income and the possible areas of expenses (Dekoulou and Trivellas, 2017). The cost is
generally categorised in two ways that is implementation cost and the annual cost. The
implementation cost is the type of cost which is incurred at time of initial implementation only.
On the other hand, annual cost is a fixed cost which will be levied on the business once the CRM
software is applied. The budget for Audi to implement the CRM software is as follows-
Element Cost
Implementation cost
Researching for CRM software
Hiring of expert for selection of CRM
500

software
Implementation cost
Training cost
Technical and user support
450
850
400
200
Annual cost
Software maintenance
Electricity charges
500
600
Total $3500
CONCLUSION
In the end of the research on Audi it can be concluded that using the Customer
Relationship Management is very important for the company to face the competition. This is
because of the reason that the competition is very high and intense and to get a competitive
advantage the company needs to have something distinct which attracts the consumer over the
competitor. In the present study it was highlighted that CRM software is very beneficial for the
company as it helps in meeting the objectives of the business. Further it highlighted the different
options of CRM software like HubSpot, Siebel and many other different types of CRM software.
Also, it was outlined that some infrastructure is needed to establish the software like silos
structure and 360-degree view of customer. It was also highlighted that training is the most
important part in implementation of the CRM software.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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