Following General Motors’ divestment from South Africa in 2017, Isuzu Motors South Africa embarked on a Digital Transformation journey that helped it to break down internal silos and gain a real-time view over each customer. Loren Meyer, Department Executive, Information Technology, Isuzu Motors South Africa, explains why the company had to build local capabilities to deliver a consistently superior customer experience.
In today’s age of the customer, companies that can offer a consistent, positive customer experience will often outperform their less agile peers.
For one of South Africa’s most beloved motoring brands, a divestment by a global parent company sparked a Digital Transformation process that has helped it break down internal silos and gain a real-time view over each customer to help it deliver a consistently superior customer experience.
“We had been reliant on the systems and processes of our US-based parent company until they divested in 2017,” said Loren Meyer, Department Executive, Information Technology, Isuzu Motors South Africa. “We had to build local capabilities and since it’s our aspiration to be a leader in the manufacture and supply of vehicles, and to exceed customer expectations, we needed a technology solution that would support our growth plans. We chose SAP technology and Dimension Data as our implementation partner and have achieved outstanding results to date.”
Divestment sparks innovation drive
Isuzu develops, produces and sells commercial vehicles, light commercial vehicles and diesel engines, of which it is the world’s largest producer, having sold more than 85 million diesel engines in the year to date. Isuzu sells vehicles in more than 120 markets and has manufacturing facilities in 30 countries.
After General Motors’ (GM) divestment from South Africa in 2017, Isuzu was restructured, with Isuzu Japan buying out GM’s production facilities. A new company, Isuzu Motors South Africa (IMSAf) was formed, which today employs 1,000 people locally and boasts a network of more than 115 dealers across Africa.
“During the GM divestment in 2017, an agreement was signed to allow Isuzu Motors South Africa to utilise certain GM systems for a period of time,” said Meyer. “However, as part of our localisation we had to develop our own local systems and in-source our resources. We had been working on a locally hosted Isuzu enterprise SAP system that incorporates both the commercial vehicle and light commercial vehicle business processes and wanted to complement this with an extended landscape that includes a unified SAP Service and Sales cloud solution.”
From spreadsheets to service cloud
Previously, Isuzu’s sales team were relying on Excel spreadsheets, CRM tools, emails and portals to log, track and manage customer enquiries. This left them without a complete view over each customer and unable to accurately track the progress of the sales pipeline.
“We wanted an integrated service solution with a single point of reference to create, update and track a customer enquiry,” said Meyer. “We chose to implement SAP Service Cloud, which helped us reduce the number of systems an agent has to use to resolve a call and enables our teams to resolve customer enquiries more quickly. The built-in analytics tool has empowered our managers to get a real-time view of each call to allow for personalisation according to each user’s preferences or role.”
The project was not without its challenges. The previous system that GM used was isolated outside of South Africa and the local teams had little control over the data. “We consolidated all our data in an SAP master database that is applied through to the call centre,” said Meyer. “Working off our own data set that we control and can access in real time has been one of the great outcomes of this project.”
Isuzu chose the cloud solution as it forms part of the business’ longer-term hybrid cloud journey. This provides the benefit of automated upgrades and patching provided by SAP. The full integration into the existing SAP system also gives call centre agents real-time access to accurate customer data.
“From a sales point-of-view, SAP Sales Cloud has given us up-to-the-minute information about each customer as well as insights into their preferences,” explains Meyer. “We now have full visibility over private buyers as well as our direct customers and can take a closer look at precisely who is in our system and who is interacting with the business.”
Partner support ‘invaluable’
The Isuzu team were supported throughout by implementation partner Dimension Data. Natasha Govender, SAP CX Manager, Dimension Data, said the implementation has enabled Isuzu to reduce the number of legacy systems and improve the overall customer experience. “By empowering users with a 360-degree view of each customer across both the sales and service teams, Isuzu is now better placed to deliver a seamless and consistent customer experience.”
Meyer added that the support from Dimension Data has been invaluable. “Having partners that understand our landscape, business challenges and pain points has been hugely beneficial, as we can collectively discuss, analyse and take action on any changes, allowing us to make more efficient decisions while minimising risk to the business.”
Robust and secure IT infrastructure
Given that Isuzu Motors South Africa is one of the largest developer, producer and seller of commercial vehicles, light commercial vehicles and diesel engines globally, it is important for the company to have robust and secure IT infrastructure and systems.
According Meyer, it is of paramount importance for Isuzu to invest in robust IT infrastructure to enhance the overall efficiency of the company while also ensuring cost savings and security of its critical business data. “Having partners that understand our landscape, business challenges and pain points has been hugely beneficial, as we are able to collectively discuss, analyse and take action on any changes, allowing us to make more efficient decisions while minimising risk to the business,” he said.
He explained that the implementation coincided with the global COVID-19 outbreak and South Africa’s first lockdown, which meant the user community were required to work remotely. “Call centre agents could access the SAP Cloud Service solution from their offsite working locations and seamlessly continue to provide the high levels of service and support to our valued customers,” he said.
Enabling Business Continuity in ‘new normal’
While there are still further developments and innovations planned, the implementation has already produced outstanding business results.
Other benefits provided by the SAP Service Cloud module included: the ability to effectively manage increased activity and numbers of customers showing online interest in Isuzu products and after-sales services, the ability to offer financial relief options as well as introduce several service support campaigns relating to vehicle warranties, roadside assistance and other technical services and the ability to route all enquiries and requests directly from the website into the service module where each lead and service request could be recorded, qualified by a customer care agent and sent through to the nearest or most convenient dealer.
“This proved invaluable to our national dealer network, who were able to contact and continue to service our customers during a challenging time when normal business was regulated by the national lockdown protocols,” he said. “The solution also afforded our fleet sales department the ability to continue engaging and building key relationships with our direct customers remotely during what is now a completely different – and very challenging – business environment.”
Meyer added that flexible accessibility and the ability to work off a centralised customer and product platform has greatly benefitted the operational teams. “As a company we are pleased that our business operations have been able to continue uninterrupted during these extraordinary times, resulting in a strong finish to the year.”
Cameron Beveridge, Regional Director, Southern Africa at SAP, pointed to Isuzu’s ability to understand each customer at an individual level and in real-time as a true differentiator. “In today’s ‘Experience Economy’, companies that can consistently meet and exceed individual customer expectations will outperform their less agile peers. The outstanding implementation achieved by Isuzu and their implementation partners Dimension Data will serve the business well as it looks to build on its proud legacy in South Africa and beyond.”
