Sales Champions Provide An Energizing Force "...Well On Our Way" Additional Links

Here in AT&T Business, we've been busy building a superstructure called eCRM. Its foundation is now in place: Release 1, incorportating service delivery enhancements and a common sales platform, has been successfully deployed to over 5,500 sales and marketing users in sales centers across the country. And while new phases of development are already taking shape, we have come a long way in the short year since the project started.

As the focus shifts toward Relase 2, it's helpful to look back over the past six months and think about some of the ways Release 1 got off the ground. How did it get started? What were the obstacles and challenges? What did we learn that could be useful in the rollout of Release 2? Who are the key people that energized deployment of Release 1?

To answer these and other questions, we asked Branch Deployment Champions Bruce Pace and Bruce Plotsky for their views on Release 1, a kind of "Release 1 Retrospective" from the Sales Champion's point of view.

Sales Champions Provide An Energizing Force
Bruce Pace, Branch Champion in St. Louis, MO, was one of over 100 champions who helped users and their sales centers make a smooth transition to eCRM.

"Release 1 put a great deal of useful knowledge into the sales force," he says. "The funnel is still somewhat complicated and does require some training, but feedback from my coworkers suggests that they like it a lot better than the earlier tools. Once they get rolling on the opportunities and how to input them, they find it much easier to use than the old funnel tools."

To help acclimate users to the new tool, Bruce arranged for in-branch training to complement the web based training offered to all users.

"Although part of the training was self-paced, a lot of people in the St. Louis branch preferred to take the training in a group setting," he recalls. "I set up a PC and projector and put the online training on the screen. They went through it as a group. Then everyone took the assessment test on their own. Everyone did very well. There was nearly 99% compliance in passing the test. I saw my role as a sort of conduit for the questions and answers posed by my coworkers. I relied heavily on information found within the Sales Forum."

	"They needed high-energy go-getters to get behind eCRM - people who genuinely wanted to make it successful."

"My initial thoughts were very positive. Since eCRM is a web-based tool and I do a lot of web reporting within the branch, there was good synergy there."

"As a company, we fell into the habit of changing funnel platforms every 3-4 years. Every time we did that, we changed the application, had to port over the data, retrain the users, etc… I was nervous about that but eCRM seems to be well worth the change."

"eCRM has many people that will be using it at different levels. I support Growth Markets. What we're interested in, for example, is 'How far along has an opportunity gone? Has it sold or not sold? If sold, how much money is in the funnel that can be booked?'"

"I was very happy with the help that came out of the eCRM Support Team, especially from folks like Laura Zeller, Tod Marburger, and Donna Cobb."

"I would have to say that the Branch Champions were key to the successful Release 1 Deployment. The Support Team was looking for Champions to help them make it successful. We were told, in effect, that 'If you feel you can't get behind eCRM and help us roll it out successfully and be a positive champion for this application, then please step away from this role and let someone else in your branch take it on.' What they were telling us was that in order to make the program successful, it was important to get the right people into the right positions. They needed high-energy go-getters to get behind eCRM - people who genuinely wanted to make it successful."

"...Well On Our Way"
In mid-September, with the last of four weekly rollouts, more than 900 new users were brought onto eCRM/Sales, a key component of eCRM Release 1. There are now more than 5,700 users of eCRM/Sales, and they have been busy. The numbers tell the story:

• New Opportunities Created:   2,183
• Revenue from New Opportunities:   $ 3.098 B
• Opportunities Moved to Proposed:    2,453
• Revenue from Opportunities Moved to Proposed:    $ 3.253 B
• Opportunities Moved to Sold:    631
• Revenue from Opportunities Moved to Sold:    $ 71 M

According to Release Manager Rich Lakin, "...We've put down a solid foundation on which our future success will be built. There's a lot left to do to produce the business transformation that has always been our goal, but there's no denying we're well on our way."

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