WebFOCUS Heats Up Sales for Bosch Thermotechnik

Bosch Thermotechnik, a German manufacturer of home heating equipment, uses WebFOCUS to track and meet its sales and performance goals.

Heating Equipment Manufacturer Taps Business Intelligence From Information Builders to Meet Future Goals

Since 1894, when the company applied for its first patent for a heating boiler, Bosch Thermotechnik GmbH has been keeping people warm in their homes with products such as condensing boilers, water heaters, solar heating systems, geothermal heat pumps, and other products. Bosch Thermotechnik (BT), based in Germany, has about 150 sales agents who serve approximately 1,300 wholesalers and 10,000 installers.

The company has set lofty goals for itself over the next few years, objectives that can only be achieved through good customer support and an efficient sales department. For the sales force to operate efficiently, it needs easy access to information about customers, product orders and deliveries, and planned building/installation projects.

Using Information Builders WebFOCUS business intelligence (BI) platform, the BT sales division now has an information system that lets users retrieve data in real time via customized reports that can be accessed via the Web or any desktop. A few years ago, however, BT employed four individuals who were charged solely with collecting data, compiling it for the distribution staff, and sending it via e-mail or fax. This not only took up extensive amounts of time; it slowed down the performance of underlying production systems.

“Our former approach was not only costly, prone to errors, and time-consuming, it also put a strain on our operational systems,” says Frank Neubauer, a project manager at BT. Distribution staff had to wait until lunchtime to receive the previous day’s performance data, which often delayed any reaction to current developments and significantly hampered the ability for action and reaction at the end of the month.

“To meet the requirements of our customers, and to reach our own goals in terms of distribution and growth, we had to automate this highly manual process of data collection and distribution,” adds Neubauer. “It was important to us that the [BT] sales staff, from then on, had constant access to up-to-date distribution and customer data. At the same time, we wanted to make sure that our operational systems, such as SAP R/3, would not be affected.”

Automated information processing, real-time sales data retrieval, and minimal impact on production systems were the three central requirements for BT’s IT specialists as they searched for a new sales information system. They took a close look at several solutions and at the end of the evaluation process, project managers selected WebFOCUS because it best fulfilled their requirements and provided the desired functionality.

WebFOCUS is a comprehensive and fully integrated enterprise BI platform that allows different user groups throughout an organization to quickly and easily access the information they need. It can read data from more than 300 different source types, including relational database systems such as DB2, Informix, Oracle, and MS SQL Server, as well as VSAM files on a mainframe. Furthermore, WebFOCUS offers interfaces for all standard software application systems, like SAP R/3, Siebel, and PeopleSoft while processing data in diverse formats such as ASP, JSP, Java™, JavaScript, HTML, and XML. The Web-based architecture of WebFOCUS allows for easy integration with enterprise portals, and enables customized access to information for different user groups inside a company. Additionally, reports can be generated on a scheduled basis, or when specific events occur.

WebFOCUS’ primary task at BT is to access an Oracle database and SAP R/3 to retrieve data that is required by the sales staff. The information can include up-to-date customer information such as addresses, contact details, contracts, price lists, discounts, new and existing orders, inventories, and delivery times.

Information access is conducted in two phases so the systems are not overly taxed. First, WebFOCUS sorts out the desired data from SAP R/3, and it is indexed and optimized within a few seconds. That information is then recorded into its own cache memory. Data is then assembled into various reports with ReportCaster, a WebFOCUS component, and then distributed automatically to the appropriate sales staff members.

WebFOCUS ReportCaster is a cutting-edge report delivery engine that facilitates the dynamic distribution of any corporate information to anyone, anywhere, inside or outside an organization. With ReportCaster, reports can be automatically run, then instantly sent to Web browsers, e-mail addresses, fax machines, printers, or mobile devices.

Access rights for BT’s sales staff is determined by a hierarchy of roles used to define which report is received by each staff member, and which information he or she can access through the enterprise portal. The company’s sales processes are similarly structured. Sales management receives consolidated sales information from all over Germany, while regional managers receive an overview for their sales areas. Sales staff members have a view of the individual customers they serve.

In earlier days, the shipping department only received standard reports about incoming orders once a day. But with WebFOCUS, at least ten real-time reports with up-to-date numbers are disseminated each day. WebFOCUS’ drill-down functionality enables staff members to view data at different levels of detail, allowing them to react quickly and in the most appropriate manner. This becomes especially important when staff members are trying to achieve the company’s end-of-the-month objectives. Thanks to the depth of the information they can retrieve with WebFOCUS, sales management is now able to control sales processes with greater accuracy and precision.

In addition to using the enterprise portal to run up-to-date reports and queries, sales representatives can also generate WebFOCUS reports on their mobile Palm devices. This option empowers them to access all the latest shipping data in real time, even while traveling.

Converting sales information into real-time WebFOCUS reports leads to a shorter reaction time from members of the sales staff. Furthermore, the greater depth of analysis allows for a clearer focus on the highest priorities, as well as improved customer support and interaction.

“Sales information systems are only successful if the sales staff is really using them,” says Neubauer. “For our sales staff, WebFOCUS grew to be an indispensable tool. They profit from the data always being up to date, as well as the depth of the information. The reports created with WebFOCUS help to precisely analyze and control the sales scenario. Therefore, we can treat our customers better, while reaching our projected sales goals with more ease.”

In addition to employees in the company’s sales division, workers in the logistics and customer service departments have recently started to recognize the benefits of data that is collected and presented in real time. Currently, more than 300 BT staff members receive the information they need in the form of WebFOCUS reports. The business intelligence system even managed to cross international borders within the BT sales division, with regional branches in Spain and Portugal now using the information that WebFOCUS provides.