ACRM Case Study

From lead to opportunity at high speed: CRM project at Rosenberger OSI

The technologies behind broadband, 5G and autonomous driving all combine speed and efficiency with the reliability of modern communication systems. All three aspects stand or fall, among other factors, with the cables and connections used, all of which must meet the exacting demands of innovative technologies.

The requirements of a successful CRM system are similar: Efficiency can only be achieved with well designed processes and tailored functions, while reliability presupposes clean implementation and smart interfaces. This being so, Rosenberger OSI GmbH & Co. OHG and ajco quickly found common ground for their CRM project.

Experts in fiber-optic cabling and service solutions

Since 1991, Rosenberger Optical Solutions & Infrastructure (Rosenberger OSI) has been an expert in fiber-optic cabling infrastructure and service solutions in Europe, serving for data centers, local networks, telecommunications and industry. Its products and services are found wherever very large amounts of data need to be transferred swiftly and securely. In addition to developing and producing a comprehensive portfolio of fiber-optic and copper cabling systems, Rosenberger OSI offers a wide array of services such as the planning, installation and maintenance of cabling infrastructure.

Lead management between marketing, sales and service

Rosenberger OSI’s sales representatives are frequently on the road, visiting regular customers, attending trade fairs and winning new customers. As they do so, their conversations often throw up potential leads – contacts who, ideally, express some degree of interest. The first challenge faced in lead management is to collect the relevant contact details quickly, but also in sufficient detail.

Before coming to ajco, Rosenberger OSI mainly used an external marketing automation program for this purpose, delivering the data to Aurea CRM through a preset lead process. This required sales reps to fill out compulsory fields, an exercise that they found unnecessarily complicated and the service department considered dispensable. However, it did allow the marketing unit to access a large range of data for analysis. A joint workshop subsequently revealed, though, that all this data was not being used.

Standardized lead process

The situation at Rosenberger OSI posed an unusual challenge for ajco: Instead of implementing a new lead process, they were to take an existing, highly complex process and reset it to a results-driven form. The standard process supplied with the Aurea CRM system was identified as the benchmark, with details adapted as required in line with the requirements of Rosenberger OSI.

Instead of requiring multiple compulsory fields to be filled in for each new lead, the new process is a pragmatic one that aims not to interrupt the conversation between the sales rep and their contact. Only the truly essential details are compulsory, leaving just two fields to be filled in. The other fields have been replaced by open input options. All details are immediately transferred to the CRM, where they can be further processed in-house.

Customized opportunity process

The next major step following lead entry is the opportunity process, and this reveals the full potential of Aurea CRM, which facilitates the creation of highly complex process routes. Again, Rosenberger OSI and ajco took the company’s sales requirements as their guide and implemented an efficient process that is fully aligned with the sales pipeline.

Special consideration was given to keeping the existing user interface for the benefit of the sales personnel, but simplifying it as appropriate. So, for example, five steps were whittled down to three, significantly reducing the time required for data management.

Comprehensive evaluation of commercial data

Initial rollout of the project successfully achieved the first goal: The opportunity process for the sales pipeline worked well and followed seamlessly from the lead process. The sales and service units were happy, but it was now time to consider the needs of marketing and management. The second milestone, then, would be the implementation of an analytics dashboard in Aurea CRM. This enables marketing and management to request up-to-the-minute data from individually created graphs using customized templates. In this way, all stakeholders were on board and ready for the go-live.

Direct communications with no overheads

Rosenberger OSI and ajco were keen to establish a direct, straightforward channel for communication concerning the organization of the project. In addition to the weekly status calls, Theresa Khoury, In-house Consultant and Project Manager at Rosenberger OSI, was connected into the Jira project management system, known for the simplicity of its task management and for its well-developed comment function.

“From the very first workshop on, we took meaningful steps with ajco to prepare for our goals, starting with the lead process and the sales pipeline, and proceeding to the analytics dashboard. Still to come is an overhaul of our permissions and access system. We are delighted with what we have achieved to date and are looking forward to the next rollout”, says Khoury.

Rosenberger OSI employs about 740 people und has been a part of the globally operating Rosenberger Group since 1998, a worldwide leading provider of high frequency, high voltage and fiber-optic connection solutions headquartered in Germany.


Theresa Khoury, In-house Consultant and Project Manager at Rosenberger OSI

This case study originally appeared in the ajco Courier newsletter.

ajco solutions is a German consultancy which provides sales solutions from strategy and conception up to process design, and IT implementation. ajco partners with Aurea to provide its customers with the optimal CRM platform to meet their business requirements. They combine their expert CRM knowledge, and many years of consulting experience, to drive business success for their customers from sectors such as banking, insurance, media, and industry.