That’s where Claudio Muruzabal, chief business officer of 51·çÁ÷SE, steps in.

Muruzabal is responsible for supporting the Customer Advisory, Solution Area and Services Sales, and Customer Success Management & Engagement teams at SAP. For more than eight years, he has played an important role in understanding not only an increasingly complex technology landscape but also how businesses actually use the technology at their disposal. He supports teams that help bring 51·çÁ÷customers closer to their goals by leveraging 51·çÁ÷solutions. This begins with advising customers through honest conversations about how they can apply the intelligent capabilities now included in many 51·çÁ÷solutions, such as generative AI.

I sat down with Muruzabal to find out more about his role, how 51·çÁ÷customers are winning with intelligent technology, and the growing impact of customer success management at SAP.

Q: AI is all the rage today, so let’s start there. What are the biggest opportunities for businesses to use AI?

Muruzabal: Opportunity is everywhere for AI. And it’s bigger than just automating processes to increase efficiency, which is what was talked about for the longest time. At SAP, we’re seeing how AI can support relevant business processes to instill innovation and competitiveness. While many players in the industry are focused on developing AI engines and large language models, we are focused on accelerating business value through generative AI. I could talk all day about how AI is transforming data analytics and decision-support systems as well as supply chain optimization, predictive maintenance, and HR. Every day we are discovering new opportunities for customers to leapfrog their competition when they combine the power of generative AI with the context of their business data and processes.

What are some examples of how 51·çÁ÷customers are using AI, and what value have they realized so far?

There’s really so much to get excited about when it comes to how our customers are using the AI capabilities included with their 51·çÁ÷solutions. Across industries, workers everywhere are using natural language to instantly get the data insights they need using the 51·çÁ÷Analytics Cloud solution. I like how busy recruiters can tap into generative AI with 51·çÁ÷SuccessFactors solutions to create compelling job descriptions and interview questions in less time. Joule, our AI assistant and copilot, can support end users in getting the right answers on how to get the most of our cloud solutions. With Joule already embedded across the portfolio – generally available in 51·çÁ÷SuccessFactors HCM, 51·çÁ÷Start, and 51·çÁ÷S/4HANA Cloud – we are all excited about the opportunities for our customers.

All industries can get this unique value, including professional soccer clubs FC Bayern Munich and Hertha BSC that are using a scouting prototype powered by AI to find and develop the next generation of star athletes.

AI can solve a lot of problems, but what about the underlying foundational technology stack companies have today? What conversations are you having with businesses about their technology investments?

Early on in our conversations with customers, it’s important to understand how businesses can set up their core, foundational enterprise technology platform running in the cloud. This is critical to establish a journey of innovation including . Coming back to the foundation, many of our customers have built numerous modifications on top of their core ERP. In order to build a true cloud operating model – essential to embrace innovation including AI – it is critical to move to a clean core model. This means that any modification to the ERP functionality offered by 51·çÁ÷is built outside of the core, using extensibility solutions. This is not a technical topic only. Although clean core contributes to the cost-efficient operation of the platform, the true contribution is bringing flexibility and adaptability to the business, converting the cloud operating model into a unique “innovation as a service” platform.

What makes 51·çÁ÷unique and stand out to customers with its value proposition?

51·çÁ÷has the unique value of being the global leader in best of suite solutions built with more than 50 years of industry knowledge and ERP technology leadership. On top of this, our leading “best of breed” solutions, such as in HCM, customer experience, intelligent spend and business network, and more, can provide the best functionality and the right integration into the core. Only 51·çÁ÷can offer this value proposition. When we combined this with the cloud operating model – widely adopted by our RISE with 51·çÁ÷customers – we provide exponential value for the innovation as a service proposition.

How can customers get the most from their investments? What kind of support is there to help them transform and innovate?

Customer success management is essential in the cloud. It is the end-to-end engagement with our customers, from advisory to sales execution to onboarding, adoption, and consumption. We provide the tools, assets, and content to help accelerate adoption and consumption so as to maximize the value from first use of the solution to full and future use. 51·çÁ÷Preferred Success services can accelerate the time to value even more. To support this motion, deep telemetry being built into our cloud solutions allows customers and our customer success management leaders to better understand how the solutions are being used while identifying opportunities to expand usage.

Where do advisory services fit into the customer journey?

Customer advisory services might be the most essential part of the journey with a customer. Successful projects start with the right business case definition, anchored in the best understanding of the industry and business of our customers. With that in mind, our Customer Advisory teams support building the right technical solutions that can support an enterprise architecture. This is the first step in moving in the right direction of building the cloud operating model.

The ability to innovate is a . Yet companies also have to be able to transform market innovations into value for their customers if they want to stay ahead of the competition. It is hard to imagine attaining this kind of performance today without cloud computing. to be one of the most effective tools of the digital age on the way to becoming an agile, highly innovative, competitive company. 51·çÁ÷has systematically embraced this technology since 2020 and is currently realigning its own organization to become a cloud provider. In my experience, it has become evident that the cloud is the only way to add value quickly at a manageable level of cost and effort.

Cloud computing is disruptive, however, and demands enormous changes. 51·çÁ÷users, for example, also have to switch to the new architecture of the 51·çÁ÷portfolio, with as the digital core, as the new environment for innovation and customer enhancements, and the portfolio as the foundation for more efficient business processes.

Overcome Mental Barriers to Cloud Transformation with Customer Success Partner

“The paradigm shift in IT to cloud computing has changed everything, especially the way I provide and deploy software at companies today,” explains Alexander Michnov, head of Strategic Sales, RISE with SAP, at SAP. To better support customers in this dynamic situation, 51·çÁ÷established the post-sales unit Customer Success Partner team in early 2022. Our role at 51·çÁ÷is to understand the business objectives our customers are pursuing in a cloud transformation context and helping to ensure they actually achieve them, above and beyond the technological implementation.

According to 51·çÁ÷experts, the greatest obstacle to fully capturing the benefits of the cloud – such as faster time to market and simple use of resource-intensive high-tech – is an outdated process mindset. Therefore, a cloud transformation must focus on holistic changes to the corporate culture and business processes, not only on the technology.

Smooth Transition from Contract Signing to Implementation

This change process is where the Customer Success Partner team comes in, assigning a customer success partner to every RISE with 51·çÁ÷customer as a complement to the 51·çÁ÷implementation partner. When an 51·çÁ÷customer starts a cloud migration project, they set off on a journey that can fundamentally change their organization – from their business processes to the way their employees collaborate with each other.

First, the customer success partner works with the customer to determine the business objectives. This is followed by developing a road map that defines what needs to be done for the customer to achieve these objectives soundly. In the early phase of a transformation project, the customer success partner also helps ensure that the transition from contract signing to the actual implementation phase goes smoothly. This transition is the first critical element. The customer success partner helps make sure that all the aspects needed to add value early on – maintaining a clean core first and foremost, ensuring that training schedules have been developed, and confirming the customer has the right contact person if they change their mind on a specific process, for instance – are taken into account from day one.

Looking Back and Looking Forward in the Post-Go-Live Phase

The next critical phase begins when the technical implementation is complete. This is usually when tensions start to ease after the exciting go-live phase. But it is especially important at this stage to ensure users use the system in the intended manner, no communication gaps have arisen, and people do not lose focus. That’s also the perfect time to start the evaluation. Have the business objectives been achieved? Has the initial problem that triggered the implementation been solved? And, of course, this is a great time to discuss the next wave of innovation with the customer.

Key Factors of a Customer Success Partner

Here are three key factors for a customer success partner’s work from the customer perspective:

• Early involvement of the customer success partner, ideally during the sales process, to help define the expected added value of the project
• Organizational networking of the customer success partner in the organizations of the customer, the implementation partner, and SAP
• The customer success partner’s ability to harmonize the customer’s road map with SAP’s strategy – for the customer, it’s extraordinarily valuable to have a counterpart with whom they can discuss SAP’s strategic direction and planned innovations in day-to-day business

As such, the customer success partner represents an ideal complement to the 51·çÁ÷implementation partner. The latter still bears overall responsibility for the system changeover during the entire transition process. In contrast, the customer success partner helps make sure that everything necessary is done so the implementation corresponds to the value targets defined in the beginning. They help ensure that all the aspects strategically important to the customer and 51·çÁ÷– starting with a clean core – are taken into account throughout the course of the project.

The Value of Long-Term Relationships

“The customer success partner is the guardian of the clean core and customer lifetime value,” summarizes Michnov, bringing a further dimension of the new post-sales organization into play. In the new cloud world, innovations and enhancements take place continuously and become available to customers extremely quickly, thanks to short release cycles.

Cloud migration is like a journey from one milestone to the next. In this world, the commitment never really ends; it’s a world of long-term relationships. As such, my team’s mission is to support customers from day one and in perpetuity. The customer success partner enters a lifelong commitment with the customer. The customer success partner is there before the implementation, they are there after the implementation, and they are there even when no implementation is needed at all.

Ara Aguzumtsyan is head of Customer Success Solution Areas, CSS MEE, at SAP.

The challenge of modern life may not be a scarcity of technology, but a failure to make full use of the capabilities already available to us. This holds equally true in business as it does in our personal lives. Consider that, by some estimates, organizations 7.7 septillion (that’s 7.7 trillion trillion) gigabytes of data every day but analyze a mere 10% of it. How much value is left uncaptured when data accumulates unexamined?

With the shift from on-premise systems to the cloud, many businesses are beginning to find out. Particularly as organizations navigate the ongoing disruption associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the trend toward cloud-based platforms has unlocked tremendous value – and unparalleled visibility – across the interconnected operations of trading partners.

Cloud technologies enable access to integrated digital business networks and the data-driven insights they reveal, typically reducing many of the costs associated with core business processes ranging from procurement, supply chain, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) to finance, payments, and external workforce management. But the ease-of-use with which cloud technologies lend agility to these operational processes can actually obscure the immense scope and scale of the digital capabilities they make possible. After all, if the average smartphone is a than the Apollo Guidance Computer that landed men on the moon, then imagine how transformative the cloud-based systems that shape the digital infrastructure of today’s global enterprises are.

Most businesses have yet to uncover the enormity of value inherent in the cloud-based networks that facilitate many of their mission-critical operations. That’s why, to deepen competitive advantage to its fullest, businesses seek out not only robust, integrated digital solutions but also unmatched services, support, and expertise to ensure their optimal application.

Years ago, when business technology systems were largely self-contained, organizations could rely on a small, dedicated team of specialists to manage their technology needs internally. But the terrain has shifted since then. Today, everyone in an organization requires technology skills to perform their role effectively. Software providers must cater to the varied personas throughout the enterprise. In a cloud environment, where innovations arrive digitally and collaboration occurs likewise, enterprises must decentralize their approach to managing technology infrastructure, aided by services and support offerings from external providers and partners, tailored to match the diverse personas responsible for key operational processes.

The cloud is both a repository for innovation and a means for creating it in tandem with trading partners. Services and support offerings can augment returns on an organization’s investment in cloud software at the same time that they extend the lifetime value it delivers, effectively countering the cycles of planned obsolescence to which enterprise software often fell victim prior to the advent of increasingly integrated digital business networks.

In these uncertain times, when capturing the value bound up in data can mean the difference between growth and falling short on promises made to customers, businesses are wise to explore software providers’ wide range of services and support options aimed at reinforcing the enduring, favorable business outcomes that cloud solutions accelerate.

Claudio Muruzabal is president of Cloud Success Services at SAP.

Today, that is simply not enough. Whereas IT used to be seen as a cost factor, technology now drives the value chain. “On-value” has become a criterion for customer success.

This is the view held by Derek Prior from Resulting IT, an independent 51·çÁ÷consultancy in the UK. He looked at the importance of premium-level engagement for 51·çÁ÷customers and presented the results of his study at the 2020 51·çÁ÷MaxAttention Summit, which took place November 9-10.

51·çÁ÷wants its most strategic customers to gain from its own transformation as a company.

He concluded that 51·çÁ÷Services played a pivotal role in sustaining customer success. 51·çÁ÷MaxAttention helped companies generate value-based outcomes – and innovate incrementally – again and again. Businesses with their own Global Center of Expertise (CoE) are best placed to do this.

But there is a message of caution here, too. Namely, if you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward. Too much has happened in the last few months. Paul Kurchina, who has many years of experience as an independent 51·çÁ÷expert and guru of the 51·çÁ÷scene in North America, recommends that customers look very closely at their Global CoE models.

When describing the most significant change, Kurchina said, “Remote business has become the norm.” That might mean that neither a company’s CoE concept nor its tool landscape is equal to new, emerging challenges.

Greater Impact

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the first 51·çÁ÷MaxAttention Summit in the era of Customer Success was a virtual event this year. Presenting in tandem, Prior and Kurchina interacted adeptly to create a compelling online exchange.

Adaire Fox-Martin, member of the Executive Board of 51·çÁ÷SE and head of Customer Success,  explained that 51·çÁ÷had brought all its customer-facing services and sales roles under one area.

“Our name is our mission,” Fox-Martin explained in her welcome address. Under the new organizational structure, some 40% of SAP’s workforce was now focusing directly on customer success by following the LACE (Land, Adopt, Consume, Expand) operating model – though the “customer first” mantra, of course, applied equally to all of SAP. According to Fox-Martin, 51·çÁ÷was unique among its peers in the way it has organized to make customer success its key mission.

Having opted for a strategic partnership with SAP, 51·çÁ÷MaxAttention customers in particular need to consistently “feel” the benefits of this close cooperation in the shape of business outcomes.

Tangible Results

As the subsequent presentations showed, that is exactly what is happening. In 30-minute slots, long-time 51·çÁ÷customers spoke about how they benefit from SAP’s premium engagements – in a variety of ways.

With help from SAP, an industrial conglomerate from Turkey has made a slew of improvements after embarking on its digital transformation. These include productivity and efficiency gains in multiple divisions. The company has driven costs down and minimized risk while increasing employee satisfaction and improving its environmental footprint.

According to its chief information officer (CIO), almost all of the company’s 850 individual projects have been completed, and it now has around 40,000 51·çÁ÷users working with products that include 51·çÁ÷Analytics Cloud, 51·çÁ÷SuccessFactors, and Qualtrics solutions.

An operations manager from a telecommunications company reported on his experiences with 51·çÁ÷MaxAttention. The telecommunications giant switched to 51·çÁ÷S/4HANA Finance in under two years, implementing various cloud solutions –– 51·çÁ÷Concur and 51·çÁ÷Ariba software among them –– at the same time.

An urgent need for real-time reporting coupled with mounting volume issues were key reasons for transforming the in-house enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, EVO. By achieving optimal levels of standardization – an 84% improvement – and automation – a 73% increase – the company now has better control over its hybrid IT landscape, while adding refinements to accelerate month-end closing were still ongoing.

For their part, IT experts from a multinational IT company provided initial insights into their cooperation with 51·çÁ÷on business operations self-healing. Here, they plan to use chatbot technology to more rapidly remedy errors commonly made by its internal IT users and implement a more consistent approach to automating routine tasks.

New Offerings

Innovations like these are possible because 51·çÁ÷often trials and enhances new ideas together with customers – and thus in the real world.

In this context, Peter Harkin, senior vice president of Premium Engagements at 51·çÁ÷and host of the 2020 51·çÁ÷MaxAttention Summit, announced the founding of the Intelligent Enterprise Institute, where customers will be able to work together in various labs on new processes and much more. EMEA North has been selected as the pilot region for this cooperation.

Harkin also announced extensions to the 51·çÁ÷MaxAttention portfolio for 2021. These include back-office 51·çÁ÷applications and the Mission Control Center.

With regards to expanding its technology for the benefit of customers, 51·çÁ÷would be investing chiefly in the 51·çÁ÷Business Technology Platform (51·çÁ÷BTP) and its components, according to Anja Schneider, head of Customer Innovation in the 51·çÁ÷Technology and Innovation board area. She described technology as integral to customer success.

“Technology is a value driver,” said Shane Paladin, president of 51·çÁ÷Services. But he added that the benefits could only be reaped if the technology was utilized in the right way, which made it even more crucial for 51·çÁ÷to gain customers’ attention and position itself as a trusted advisor. “Trust is the default of moving forward,” he said.

Both Schneider and Paladin advised customers to keep their core systems clean. Any specifications and enhancements they required could be integrated through the 51·çÁ÷Cloud Platform as part of the 51·çÁ÷BTP.

Bring on the Feedback

A highlight at the end of each day was the executive session, in which 51·çÁ÷managers answered questions from attendees.

One of these questions related to “cloud-only.” Thomas Saueressig,  member of the  Executive Board of 51·çÁ÷SE responsible for product strategy, explained that this was not yet an option for SAP. With demand for on premise still strong, particularly in the ERP segment, 51·çÁ÷was sticking to the principle of “cloud-first.”

When asked how 51·çÁ÷measured its customers’ success internally, Fox-Martin referred to the Net Promoter Score and user feedback. She stressed that one of the reasons why SAP’s strategic partnership with its 51·çÁ÷MaxAttention customers was so important was that it was a source of firsthand feedback. Also, programs had been set up to evaluate joint key performance indicators (KPIs) for 51·çÁ÷and its customers.

Addressing the issue of customer criticism, Harkin confirmed that 51·çÁ÷had responded and structured the contract for the New 51·çÁ÷MaxAttention offering more flexibly. Initially, the extensions to the portfolio had been met with a positive response – the complicated rules less so. But 51·çÁ÷had remedied the situation in the meantime.

“I hope we’ll be able to meet face-to-face again next year,” Harkin said when closing the event.

Even the best virtual event is no substitute for personal contact.

This year, Acloudear received an as the 51·çÁ÷Cloud Partner of the Year, Small and Midsize Companies category.

Customer Success Woven into DNA

A number of factors play into Acloudear’s growth, but the company recognizes that one foundational principle has been key: customer success.

“When we began, we didn’t frame customer success as clearly as we define it today,” said Tracy Zhou, Acloudear CEO. “But we knew we couldn’t fail our customers. We needed to help them implement 51·çÁ÷Cloud successfully.”

Zhou explained that from the start, Acloudear has always had strong hiring practices, making industry expertise and a strong cloud mindset requisite for team members. Her team also took special care during the implementation phase to see that the customer had the tools they needed, those tools were properly configured, and that their employees were prepared and trained to use them.

Zhou added that she, as CEO, takes a hands-on approach, helping ensure that the company is providing optimal solutions and services and that customers experience a high rate of adoption. It has always been her role to contact decision-makers if her customer success team sounds the alarm that an account is at risk.

“These were the seeds of our customer success program today,” she shared. “We set our minds on making customers successful and then extended that idea to every area of our business. Now, customer success is everywhere and in everything. It has to be in the mindset of all stakeholders.”

Zhou defines customer success by phases in the customer’s life cycle. For example, in presales and sales, her team achieves customer success by aligning the 51·çÁ÷Cloud portfolio with the customer’s needs, setting the stage for greater efficiency, productivity, and innovation. In the implementation and support phases, the Acloudear team aims for flawless configuration and customization, deploying 51·çÁ÷Cloud and its own intellectual property (IP). Ultimately, user adoption, customer satisfaction, and renewal rate indicate that Acloudear has been successful in helping its customers reach their business goals and objectives.

Customer Success Strategy and the CEE Role

Even though each team – marketing, presales, sales, development, and support – has a role to play in customer success and all teams work together, Acloudear has five customer engagement executives (CEEs) that are responsible for customer success each step of the way. CEEs are assigned accounts from specific segments of Acloudear’s customer base, so they can best meet their clients’ needs and motivate customers to begin using 51·çÁ÷solutions as quickly as they can to boost adoption.

Acloudear’s customer success team found that CEEs can work most efficiently and best serve customers if they focus on specific segments of Acloudear’s client list. CEEs specialize in particular industries or types of businesses, as well as the solutions that provide them with the greatest value. Now, two CEEs are industry-focused, one is responsible for fast-growing accounts, one for continued success for established users, and one on areas of innovation, such as cross-border e-commerce.

Acloudear’s CEE team does not take on the role of the complaint department or responsibility for solving implementation problems. Rather, their determined and responsible spirit enables them to focus on consumption and customer satisfaction, which lead to renewals.

Customer Success Is a Profit Center

Acloudear CEEs understand that their department was established as a profit driver. They focus on retention and growth, measuring their performance against key performance indicators (KPIs), including renewal goals of 90 percent.

Zhou pointed out that with cloud solutions, there is typically a 24- to 36-month timeframe before profit, so renewals are particularly vital to Acloudear’s success. CEEs also manage upsells with the supervision of sales managers, working toward a goal of 10 to 30 percent of the company’s new revenue.

“Our goal is to ensure that our service package, comprised of 51·çÁ÷products and Acloudear IP, is motivating and hands-on. We want our customers to adopt cloud as quickly as possible and make full use of their investments so that they will want to purchase our services again and again,” Zhou said. “Not from a business application point of view, but that the customer appreciates how to fully use the 51·çÁ÷system and how they can put the solution together with their business. This drives a very high renewal rate in the end.”

Additionally, Acloudear sets expectations from the beginning of each contract that clients will be references for the company. At the outset, customers grant Acloudear permission to use their logos, but, more importantly, Acloudear lets them know they are going to provide solutions and services that deliver such impressive results that they will want to tell other people about them. According to Zhou, “This makes us more visible in the market, rather than selling to a market.”

To build relationships that turn new customers into advocates, Acloudear CEEs closely monitor accounts, performing monthly customer health checks and taking action when they see changes or signs of risk. Acloudear CEEs have learned that it is important to dig deep to understand the reasons for change and not act on assumptions.

How Customer Success Increases Marketing ROI

Taking a company-wide approach to customer success has additional benefits for Acloudear. “The customer success team helps our company learn the key areas and core values in terms of the industries we serve and the products we provide,” Zhou said. “This shows us which areas we need to focus on and helps us concentrate on the value Acloudear can provide to customers.”

CEEs share this information with the sales and marketing teams, who can then target their efforts based on accounts with the greatest potential. “It’s changed the way we sell,” Zhou said. Feedback from CEEs has also helped Acloudear develop SAP-qualified partner-packaged solutions that have successfully addressed the needs of businesses in particular markets.

The Payoff

According to Zhou, growing and evolving Acloudear’s customer success program as the company grew has been a smart strategy. “It’s not enough just to say the customer is happy. You need a clear understanding of the tangible and intangible things that make up customer success.”

“Customer success has allowed us to differentiate our business,” she explained. “We have been able to understand our strengths and alarm our company much earlier to risks. We also have information to proactively justify where we go and where we have to improve. Our customer success team puts us one step ahead of other companies in our market.”

“51·çÁ÷is the world’s leading cloud vendor with continuous investment and innovation over the last decade. We are still trying to learn what the successful 51·çÁ÷experience looks like for our customers and optimize our strategy with processes, tools, and resources to help them achieve greater success,” said Zhou. “Customer success is a long-term strategy, and we are on our way.”

While we are proud of our customer-first mindset and the customer experience improvements achieved, we are just beginning and the best is yet to come. To achieve customer success at scale, we strive to create a strong collaboration with partners to orchestrate and deliver sustainable customer value. The 51·çÁ÷partner ecosystem is vast. Our strategy focuses on sales and service partners serving one of the following functions:

• The 51·çÁ÷partner has the overall responsibility to drive customer success. The partner manages and nurtures the customer relationship throughout the customer life cycle.
• The partner provides implementation services to drive adoption of 51·çÁ÷solutions and collaborates with 51·çÁ÷on customer success.

Our partner strategy aims to:

• Harmonize the customer experience and drive increased customer value
• Scale customer success through our partner ecosystem
• Provide partners the support needed to adopt a customer-first mindset

To develop our strategy, we collected market research, success stories, and customer feedback to identify partner experience best practices and understand the challenges 51·çÁ÷partners are facing to meet evolving customer expectations. Understanding how to deliver an exceptional partner experience was critical as we set out to develop our strategy together with SAP’s global partner organization.

Collaboration with our partners in customer success improves the customer experience and drives successful adoption of 51·çÁ÷solutions. Our partner strategy is the foundation for a strong and mutually beneficial collaboration that will continue to deliver incredible results for our customers and partners.

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André Wagner is vice president of Global Customer Engagement and Experience Strategy at SAP.
Katrin Guenter is senior vice president of Partner Engagement and Experience for Customer Engagement and Experience Strategy at SAP.

All for One Group realized, however, that customer success is about more than growth. The company views customer success as enhanced competitiveness in a digital world, stronger market position, and increased ability to face today’s challenges as well as those that lie ahead.

, managing director for Customer Success Management at All for One Group, says, “Our customers also made it perfectly clear that they wished for a stronger relationship and closer, better communication between our company and theirs in order to make our common projects and implementation processes more successful.”

“We aim for long-lasting, strong, and trustworthy customer relationships, which allow us to provide and implement services and solutions that perfectly meet – or, even better, exceed – our customers’ needs and expectations,” adds Zitz. “We want to be a strong and reliable partner so that they gladly recommend us within their network.”

Evolving into a Customer Success-Oriented Business

Establishing a business united to support and ensure the growth of its customer base was one of All for One Group’s major moves throughout its “Strategy 2022,” a comprehensive realignment its business strategy containing several cornerstones.

All for One Group established a Customer Success Management team, which consists of 50 team members, 35 of whom are customer success managers (CSMs). Dedicated to All for One’s existing customer base, CSMs serve as the primary points of contact for existing customers. Additionally, they take a proactive approach to providing comprehensive support throughout the customer life cycle.

CSMs are an integral part of All for One Group’s six-phase Customer Success Management program, the #Customer4Life Process:

1. Getting to know CSM: An initial meeting that can include discussion of a roadmap for partnership and establishing the role and importance of the CSM
2. Evaluating the status quo: Using a Qualtrics online survey to assess the status of the current partnership
3. Creating a future vision: Identifying the customer’s goals, ambitions, and visions based on the survey
4. Developing a success plan: Prioritizing topics and tasks that will help the client’s business meet its goals
5. Implementing measures: Defining concrete measures to achieve goals based on the success plan
6. Measuring success: Continually reviewing, giving feedback, and identifying potential areas for improvement

All for One Group is divided into market units that address specialized fields, such as conversion, intelligent enterprise resource planning (ERP), 51·çÁ÷S/4HANA, customer experience, strategy and transformation, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Each CSM has market unit expertise, and they are assigned to customers based on geography and industries – including industrial machinery and components (IM&C), automotive, and consumer goods – as well as the types of solutions the customer uses. Additionally, all market units work together to meet customer needs and expand accounts with the products and features they need.

Enabling cooperation and communication across a team of 1,800 employees was a major undertaking for All for One Group. With the introduction of customer success management, the business initiated a cultural change that broadened an employee’s focus from only their market units to a company-wide, customer-focused perspective and established regular meetings where project statuses and new ideas can be exchanged.

“Although we have not yet fully completed our transformation, we are already seeing major changes in the mindsets of our colleagues and can feel the progress we make as a group,” Zitz points out.

Positive Response

Although All for One’s customer success management program is new, running its pilot from January 2019 to September 2019 and then fully launching in October 2019, the response from customers shows that they strongly agree with the new approach. Feedback includes comments such as, “This is exactly what we have been waiting for – a point of contact at C-level” and “After being introduced to All for One Group’s customer success management, I can confirm that this is 100 percent the right way for us.”

“A clear change we noticed right after introducing customer success management is that we were able to establish closer contact with our customers, allowing us to gain further trust and better, more direct and open communication with them,” says Zitz.

“The most important thing is always putting your customers first,“ he adds. “This might sound mundane, but we strongly believe it’s the only way to go if you want to establish long-lasting relationships built on trust and understanding of customers’ goals and requirements.”

“We continuously measure our customers’ opinions and satisfaction using Experience Management solutions from 51·çÁ÷and Qualtrics and, furthermore, maintain a fairly good overview of how successful we have been so far, based on our sales pipeline, key performance indicators, and by comparing our realized revenue per customer to numbers from previous years,” Zitz comments.

In the future, All for One Group plans to leverage experience management for automated feedback at each customer touchpoint. “This will allow us to react better to their individual needs, desires, and requirements and, ultimately, offer them exactly what they want and need,” he says. “We aim for a relationship at eye-level to which both parties contribute equally toward reaching one common goal: strengthening our customers’ competitiveness.”

It is not the brightest star at the firmament, but you can always find it right at the end of the Little Dipper’s handle. For centuries, Polaris has guided travelers across land and sea, long before modern navigation tools and GPS became available. Polaris is “always visible,” as described by the Macedonian writer Joannes Stobaeus in the 5th century AD.  Aligned with the earth’s axis, the North Star’s steady presence gives a sense of direction as the universe circles around it.

For companies, the universe revolves around customer satisfaction. Customer success is the ultimate destination. But reaching and maintaining happy customers in a volatile business environment is not an easy journey to embark on.

In , published earlier this year, chief executive officers (CEOs) expressed that they encountered a high level of uncertainty on their path forward. Among the top 15 perceived threats were the speed of technological change and changing consumer behaviors.

To succeed in any type of business climate, companies need the ability to change course, adapt, and reinvent. This is where services-driven technology innovation comes in. It can turn challenges into opportunities. Companies are already using technological change to their advantage. The survey results also show that CEOs are doubling down on the use of technology more than they have in previous years and including intelligent automation and cloud-enabled tech services to achieve operational efficiencies. They rely on technology to create memorable customer experiences and thereby higher brand loyalty. The digital experience remains a key driver for business transformation according to the .

Services offer companies a beacon – their very own North Star – to drive digital business transformation and achieve customer success in calm and rough waters. Here is how.

Adapting Business and Operating Models in Times of Need

Every challenge is an opportunity to drive positive change. Services help companies to weather recurring seasonal changes and unpredictable events such as natural disasters and the impact of COVID-19.

Millions of consumers sheltering at home worldwide have turned to online and mobile services for shopping, entertainment, fitness, and education. It prompted a massive switch to direct-to-consumer and business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce and service models across industries that limit in-person interaction. Retailers turned stores into storage and distribution centers to support their move to online sales. They also looked at new types of products and services they could sell to customers digitally, such as bundling products or offering new types of customizations.

The article by Michael Wade and Heidi Bjerkan includes a fascinating example of how Nike turned the shutdown of more than 5,000 of its stores across China into an opportunity to engage with Chinese consumers digitally by offering at-home workouts. This boosted the company’s online sales so successfully that Nike kept the home workout as a service when stores began to reopen. As a result, Nike’s digital business reached and the company created a road map to navigate the impact of COVID-19 in other countries.

Identify Innovation Opportunities for Long-Term Success

As countries gradually re-open, companies can use services to continuously adapt their business and customer engagement models to the new reality. One of the biggest takeaways for companies will be to find new ways of doing business and infuse the learnings from the past months into their future business strategies.

One industry that could boost its adoption rate is telemedicine. According to the latest on consumer behavior, 50 percent of the growth in physical and mental telemedicine offerings are currently coming from new users. As people become more used to consulting medical professionals online out of necessity, an opportunity has arisen to continue and expand the use of digital health services in the future and offer access to basic healthcare services such as consultations, digital check-ups, and prescriptions from the convenience of the home.

Across all industries, the move to a virtual work and operating environment has also accelerated the emergence of a remote customer support and services model. To stay socially connected in times where people are physically apart, customer service and support has become a lifeline for businesses and their customers. For example, while remote services delivery existed before the global pandemic, the off-site delivery model now has become the new gold standard for customer service and support. Essential businesses services need to enhance off-site working environments and remote collaboration in the front and back office, supply chain, finance, and essential operations via a 100 percent off-site model.

Creating Modular Services Offerings

Additionally, services will become more personalized. If you ever bought a large Lego set, you have experienced the multitude of possibilities to build your very own creations. However, you may not need all the pieces in your set for what you want to build.

The same principle applies for services. Companies have access to an entire spectrum of services to protect their operations and drive customer success. These services can be used on a modular basis, depending on their specific needs. This starts with services that cover rudimentary needs, such as general safeguarding, to highly individualized and more complex high-touch services.

Like the North Star, services can act as a beacon for companies to stay on course for customer success. They allow companies to harness the power of technology to reimagine their future and adapt to change.

Some of the biggest lessons that companies have learned over the past months are being able to change fast and to embrace change as an opportunity. Even our current North Star will be succeeded by a different star due to the motion of the earth. If I were to live another 4000 years, I would look for Gamma Cephei in those clear nights. However, the need for a North Star will remain the same in life and business. Regardless of what the future brings, digital services will continue to steer companies’ business transformation journeys as their North Star by keeping customer experience at the center of their universe.

Shane Paladin is president of Services at SAP.

Here, Maier discusses the response to COVID-19 and explains changes to the way SAP’s new field unit, Customer Success, engages with customers.

Q: Your team is currently on the front lines of serving customers during COVID-19. What is your focus right now?

A: Our focus is squarely on protecting our employees while at the same time supporting our customers to keep their operations and supply chains running. Some industries will be impacted more than others, such as hospitality, automotive, airlines, oil and gas. If I project where this is heading — and we have already heard from customers on this — the whole topic of how to manage supply chains will be changing in a big way. Companies will want much better visibility into their supply chains and therefore analytics will play an important role.

Companies heavily dependent on supply chains want to have transparency on their dependencies. Take, for example, the manufacture of vehicles or medication: If your supply chain doesn’t have the resilience needed in a crisis, you have real problems. The industries impacted most are those that have highly optimized, long and complex supply chains — for example retail, automotive, and consumer products. Companies have built a highly material- and time-optimized supply chains, but these supply chains are also extremely vulnerable to interruptions.

How are we engaging with customers during the crisis?

A crisis always creates opportunities, and our customers are aware of that. At the same time, customers need our advice now more than ever. Therefore, the more in touch we are with our customers and the closer we listen to them to understand their current issues, the better we are going to be able to serve them in responding to the crisis and rebounding out of it.

Why was unifying the Industries, Presales, and Customer Advisory areas and moving them closer to the field so critical for 51·çÁ÷and customers?

There are two very important roles at SAP: the employees who develop our solutions and those who sell them. My organization connects these two roles. The objective is to ensure essential customer experiences and needs are fed back into the development process so we build the right solutions — and better solutions — for the customer.

We support the regions and the partners. Based on our deep understanding of a customer’s industry, we offer advice. This means giving the customers very clear guidance and a road map for when to use which solution. We also need to be able to demo solutions, share best practices, and explain the value customers can expect from using 51·çÁ÷solutions. For example, we are now able to bring the demo teams much closer to the teams that build the products so we will have demos much earlier to show and validate the products. This helps development teams to better understand what is resonating in the market and what is not.

It is very important to me that the strategy is developed hand-in-hand with the regions and adapted to regional requirements. A one-size-fits-all approach just doesn’t work.

What are the customers saying about their pain points?

From a product point of view, it is integration because this is absolutely vital to our customers and they have confirmed this to us again and again. is more than just a mantra. If we fix the integration and if we fix the relevance of 51·çÁ÷in an industry context and we deliver what we promise, that will improve the customer experience and the net promoter score will go up. I believe we are addressing this topic with the right sense of urgency.

Our customers want to see tangible outcomes from using our products, so it is much more important today and in the future to articulate the value of our solutions.

And finally, companies want to talk to us about their core business processes, where they make money today, and what they are planning for the future. We need to make 51·çÁ÷relevant in the discussion around our customers’ core processes. And to do that, we need to speak their industry language.

51·çÁ÷is very well positioned and staffed in Europe and the Americas. How are you supporting Asia-Pacific Japan (APJ) region to gain more traction?

At least before the current crisis, . We are currently preparing for this shift to the East. This year, for example, we started an incubation model, bringing in experienced employees from selected markets into APJ to support in ramping up our sales teams there. The aim is to balance our capabilities worldwide.

Even in the ever-changing, fast-paced age of technology, our world typically has some time to adjust to change. From reimagined customer experiences to the adoption of innovative technologies and new mindsets, people are given some time to absorb the potential opportunities, risks, and shifts before choosing their unique paths forward.

Unfortunately, this natural order of change is currently being disrupted. It seems that every aspect of running a business is shifting at a pace that is nearly impossible to keep up with. However, with access to prescriptive guidance and a customer success manager to advocate for them, companies can get back up, navigate the disruption, and plan for their future.

Finding a Path to the Next Normal

When facing disruption, business leaders often demand three things: visibility, focus, and agility. These capabilities work hand-in-hand – turning data into insight, simulating potential options, and powering the speed and effective execution necessary to resolve issues, mitigate risks, and take on opportunities as quickly as the marketplace evolves.

°Őłó±đĚý plan enables businesses to achieve the highest level of innovation. Customers can make well-informed decisions, helping them become intelligent enterprises that are always prepared for the new realities of “business as usual” – no matter how quickly they must adjust.

As economic variables shift, 51·çÁ÷Preferred Success helps organizations adjust their processes and digital strategies by providing prescriptive guidance for their unique frameworks and business objectives. Additionally, customers can measure resultant outcomes to help ensure they are successfully navigating key performance indicators (KPIs) and major milestones to meet their performance goals.

Energizing Innovation in Times of Intense Disruption

51·çÁ÷understands that outcome-based delivery and business agility are of the utmost importance. Customers are facing tremendous pressure to adapt to changes in global and national economies. This requires continuous alignment between business and technology. Customers must quickly implement turnkey capabilities to fit their business models in order to optimize business processes and gain an advantage over competitors.

51·çÁ÷Preferred Success maximizes the value of cloud solutions from 51·çÁ÷so that customers can achieve specific business outcomes for their organizations and gain a competitive edge in the marketplace. 51·çÁ÷works diligently to understand its customers’ major business objectives and map out success plans that align resources with their major milestones, KPIs, and releases.

Customers also benefit from real-time measurements of their cloud adoption and consumption rates, evaluation of potential improvements, and expert-guided recommendations that address mission-critical business issues and drive innovation. The tools and technologies that provide this level of support provided through the service include:

Usage analyzer: Assessing the use of cloud solutions from 51·çÁ÷provides insights into the current adoption of process scenarios, scope, and user behavior trends. This assessment becomes the basis for prescriptive recommendations for future adoption. For example, current solution usage could indicate a case for new targeted capabilities such as financial analytics.

Key feature analysis: A real-time feature adoption tracker enables customers to review every technology featured to understand business impacts and benefits; explore recommendations that align directly with their core business goals, objectives, and processes; and determine what they should adopt and consume in the future.

Enhanced support model: Direct, real-time assistance in the solution allows users to discover new ways to get work done and optimize business processes. They can accelerate response times up to 50 percent for priority 2, 3, and 4 incidents through product support from SAP.

51·çÁ÷Preferred Success also offers enhanced target service-level agreements – on top of insight-driven recommendations and exclusive learning resources – to help customers overcome and avoid technical bottlenecks that often get in the way of innovation. Doing so frees businesses to discover, develop, and deliver anything from a new business model or process to a revolutionary product or service.

More importantly, the service drives customers’ visions of their intelligent enterprise. It enables organizations to automate day-to-day business processes and improve interactions with their customers, suppliers, and employees. Such strategic moves are supported by the collection, connection, and orchestration of data and the use of that information to detect patterns, predict outcomes, and suggest actions.

Opening the Door to Honest, Outcome-Driven Value 

Considering how quickly our world can change, expert insights and attention to outcome-driven values are paramount. The processes, workflows, and connections that work well today could potentially become obsolete at a moment’s notice, so staying up-to-speed on the latest innovations and solution functionalities is key.

With 51·çÁ÷Preferred Success, customers can be empowered to ensure their cloud investments not only enhance IT architecture, but also support business goals and priorities – no matter what their next normal may be.

Stay in the conversation by following 51·çÁ÷Services and Support on ,Ěý, , and .

Dipankar Banerjee is head of Global Sales Development and Go-to-Market for 51·çÁ÷Preferred Success.

“From the beginning, we’ve been focused on business management software and assisting efficiency, operational effectiveness, collecting information to run a business in a timely manner, and presenting data in a format that managers can use to make good decisions,” he said.

However, Lamb also shared, “In recent years, we’ve become very conscious of how important it is to understand the customers’ journey and modify our processes and methodology to create not only consistent but delightful experiences as well.”

Customer Success Defined

The 51·çÁ÷North America partner works in competitive markets, including industrial machinery and components, life sciences, industrial , aerospace and defense, food and beverage, and high tech. Lamb pointed out that solution providers in these spaces are “only as good as your last project.”

Furthermore, customers talk: “Word of mouth is important in any business’ buying decisions. We set out to create engagements that are so remarkable that our customers are compelled to tell others.”

That is the basis for VistaVu’s “Rock Star” initiative, which aims to turn clients into raving fans.

“Success to me is our customers telling our story for us,” said Lamb.

Taking Action at VistaVu

To deliver customer experiences that turn customers into advocates, it takes more than situational awareness and core competencies, according to Lamb. For VistaVu, it meant establishing new roles and teams.

From its inception, VistaVu had operated under a typical organizational chart: Sales, Marketing, Operations, Finance. In 2018, however, Lamb opted to divide its delivery team into two units: Net New and Customer Success.

VistaVu created the new role of customer engagement executive (CEE) and now places dedicated services teams with existing customers — now a focus for more than two-thirds of the company — and established a separate sales and delivery team for net-new customers.

“With a CEE, the goal isn’t about trying to sell something. It’s about creating an experience that is so valuable the client will want to go deeper with their relationship with us,” Lamb said.

The Customer Success team achieves that in part by clearly setting expectations and delivering value.

“ERP clients often under value the effort required in implementation while overestimating what can be accomplished,” Lamb pointed out. “We work with them to understand business objectives at the outset and set realistic expectations.”

CEEs are also tasked with moving clients from solution stabilization to optimization phases to considering new ways to leverage their technology to achieve greater benefits.

“CEEs look to understand upcoming customer needs and find opportunities to increase automation or improve decision making,” Lamb added.

At first, the new approach was met with skepticism internally. Some wondered about the potential for missed revenue as the balance shifted more toward improving relationships. Ironically, Lamb attributes VistaVu’s growing success to the entire organization embracing the model.

“It’s working well,” he said. “We’ve never been bigger, and Customer Success has never sold more. They don’t have quotas, but they find opportunities to help in every conversation.”

Recurring revenue has grown substantially year over year — now 50 percent of the total business — and VistaVu’s business valuation has grown five times.

Rave Reviews, Radical Realizations

In addition to establishing its Customer Success team, VistaVu began using Net Promoter Score (NPS) to understand its effectiveness in delivering experiences that delight customers. It asks the standard NPS questions: “How likely are you to recommend our company?” and “What can we do to earn a higher score?”

It is important to note that VistaVu does more than collect this data; it acts on it. When some clients requested faster response times, VistaVu reached out to see how they define acceptable turnaround and began capturing related data on a weekly basis — and soon achieved and exceeded the expectations.

“We’re insatiable listeners,” said Lamb. “We’re doing everything we can to make sure all customer experiences are remarkably positive.”

He explained that his company’s new organization has also changed the way they sell to net-new customers: “Years ago, we sold to everyone. Today, we’re a lot more selective. One of the first questions we ask is if they have a chance to become a raving fan. The size of the check isn’t what matters. The relationship needs to be successful. That’s what fuels ongoing growth.”

“Today we have over 50 percent of our client base that we can call to advocate and provide a reference for us,” Lamb said. “But we never want to get complacent. We want all of our customers to be pillars of our reputation and potential sources of new business.”

To shorten the learning curve for our partners, 51·çÁ÷is publishing a series to share best practices with the 51·çÁ÷partner ecosystem. We will hear from partners that are leaders in their approaches to customer success and hear from the Customer Success team at SAP

In these stories, learn how these partners define customer success, what drives the changes within their businesses, and how they measure impact.  In interviews, partner customer engagement executives (CEEs) will share firsthand how they execute their business’ customer success strategy.

Benefits of a Customer Success Mindset

Implementing such a strategy can lead to substantial business growth and valuation, reduction in the cost to acquire customers, reduced time to sale, and increased customer references.  This is supported by research from Bain & Company, which revealed and increase in customer retention by five percent can result in an increase in profits between 25 and 95 percent.  Our interviews with 51·çÁ÷partners will demonstrate similar real-world results of adopting a customer success model.

Where to Start

Learn how some 51·çÁ÷partners came to realize the need to differentiate their businesses through exceptional experiences and strategies that ensure customer success. The first in the series will showcase customer success strategies at , a North American 51·çÁ÷Business One and 51·çÁ÷Business ByDesign partner, and how its CEEs put accounts on the path to success.

These inspiring stories and firsthand accounts of growing recurring revenue and business growth can provide the insights needed to begin to devise a customer success strategy of your own.

It has not even been a full decade since technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning were introduced into the B2B support world, so we know we have only scratched the surface in terms of how these technologies can help improve business processes.

We sat down with Jens Trotzky, head of Artificial Intelligence Technology for Customer Success Services at SAP, to discuss what he and his team achieved over the last year in the development of automated support — and what they are looking forward to in 2020.

Q: What successes have you seen with AI and machine learning at 51·çÁ÷over the course of 2019?

A: You could say that 2019 was the first chapter of our ever-evolving journey toward an automated service and support function – one that is fueled by the Intelligent Enterprise, for the Intelligent Enterprise, and one that integrates AI and machine learning applications in support.

AI did its first real-world heavy lifting for 51·çÁ÷customers in 2019, allowing our team to observe various use cases within automated support and how they’ve impacted our customers in the early stages. Over the course of last year, we conducted a field test, put the intelligent machine out there, and gathered a lot of feedback from our customers, internal experts, and support engineers, which allowed us to continue to improve and build upon our intelligent and automated services.

Most prominently, we have seen the greatest success through the official go-live of via . The service automatically connects users with the appropriate resources through natural language processing as they type, driving them to relevant answers to their technical questions faster. Through the collection of this interaction data, and fueled by AI and machine learning, the models are automatically trained and continue to improve. Customers who have used this service are extremely satisfied with the results of receiving the correct solution to their incidents so early in the process.

What has surprised you about the application of AI and machine learning in SAP’s support?

I am actually very happy about the stability of the cloud architecture we developed to deploy our AI and machine learning capabilities. Our AI applications are running on cloud-native applications that are able to scale exponentially, as needed, so we don’t need to invest any additional resources in order to cater to a growing customer base.

As we begin to see the implementation of our services among our customer base, we are learning that data is incredibly important in AI- and machine learning-driven applications. Not only have we learned that data quantity is important, but that data quality truly determines the business value we can provide our customers. While we’ve been able to gather vast amounts of data over the past year, we are working on getting access to additional streams of data to better streamline the interaction between the user interface and machine learning.

Where will you be focusing your efforts in 2020?

While 2019 marked the year we introduced semi-automated AI solutions to the services and support world, 2020 will revolve around testing the grounds for full automation, where AI will take on a completely independent business process step.

We will focus our efforts on perfecting our current solutions and rolling out more automated, personalized, and interactive features that provide our customers with the tailored solutions they need. Not only will we be introducing new services, branching out into the areas of predictive support, but we will also be bundling together previous standalone machine learning services to form an intelligent network for our customers in services and support.

Along with the deployment of these services to our customers, we will continue to observe, analyze, and improve the quality of our results even further — a great testament to the fact that research and in-depth data analysis does fuel the future of data-driven innovation that will help businesses run better.

Sophia Stolze is integrated communications manager for Customer Success Services at SAP.