Two small companies in the B2B retail sector with cleaning and care products and a total of 105,000 customers were acquired by a holding company. Other companies were in the M&A process at the time of the interim mandate. The holding company wanted all companies to work with the same systems in future. The interim manager was tasked with supporting the introduction of these systems. The sales strategy required a cross-company ERP system (purchasing, accounting, materials management and HR) including tools for CRM, DM and BI.
Processes for digitalization not described
Lexware and DATEV were already in use, processes were not described. There was no CRM and no MaWi. The employees organized themselves via Outlook and partly via paper filing. The reporting system was based on information provided by the employees themselves using Excel. The commission statements were very different and in one case complicated and not standardized. From now on, orders were to be closed (previously on paper) using a tablet at the customer's premises. It should also be possible to complete the contract offline and, in exceptional cases, on paper. The customer relationships were documented using business notes (various formats including paper) and had to be transferred to the DMS, which the CRM had to access on a client-specific basis.
Utilizing synergy and purchasing effects
The two companies initially remained independent, but the sales process and later purchasing, accounting, materials management and HR were standardized (post-merger integration) in order to be able to utilize synergy and purchasing effects.
The two managing directors were also both sales managers. One-hour interviews were conducted with them (face-to-face) and two sales employees, both salaried and freelance as sales representatives (remote), and key documents such as order forms (formerly paper), xls commission statements, discount conditions and the like were handed over and subsequently analyzed.
On the basis of this analysis, a data model with entities, attributes and authorizations was developed according to the interim manager's own method, which is based on the simplified Cheng notation for the entity-relationship diagram. In doing so, the interim manager developed a knowledge database that turned the biggest competitive disadvantage into a huge advantage and significantly shortened the training period for new sales staff. Sales staff in the double-digit range were recruited (implementation of the investors' buy-and-build strategy).
The processes of closing sales (hard direct sales on site "impulse sales"), order processing and commission settlement were then documented in the form of a process map using a proprietary method based on SIPOC from Six Sigma. Particular attention was paid to the duplicate-free migration of master and transaction data. Commission accounting was refined by the interim manager and optimized for the many new employees.
The CRM reporting system was only used in the MVP on a transitional basis. All CRM and ERP reports were delivered from the BI system across all companies.
Release planning for the gradual introduction of the systems
Release planning was in place for the gradual introduction of CRM, BuHa, MaWi, HR, BI and DMS. The reduced range of functions for the CRM Most Valuable Product was documented. Eight further releases and nine test cases were defined for CRM. The implementation was completely remote and agile with question-and-answer and show-and-tell workshops.
The project manager is based in Spain and is a Nightingale time type. The interim manager is of the Lerche time type and is a project controller and test manager, using his own method based on PRINCE2 for both.
Specifications and mandatory specifications including knowledge database
The specifications including knowledge database were created in 15 project days. Two project days were required for supplier pitching and gap analysis specifications. The first MVP test case (migration of master and transaction data) was tested in an agile manner just 14 days after the order was placed.
After the CRM, the extended ERP was rolled out. Only the accounting data needs to be migrated. The migration processes have been established by then.
