Canon in Europe commits to CRM from update

Complete CRM system from update 

Vienna, November 22. 2006 +++ Canon Europe, a leading world-wide supplier of imaging products and solutions, has selected the CRM system from update software AG. Having already been deployed successfully at the Austrian site since 1995, an implementation of the flexible CRM suite update.seven will follow during the course of the next few years at all of the European sites. More than 2000 employees in the Sales, Marketing and Call Center departments, as well as field-based employees, will be working with the CRM solution from update in the future. Roll-out will take place in Western European countries by the end of 2008, expanding the sales structure successful in Austria into all European Sales organisations.

Canon Austria is deploying the update.seven CRM solution, covering both the operative and analytical requirements of Customer Relationships Management. The CRM suite presents at a glance all information pertaining to sales and service – such as customers, contacts, quotations, special conditions, service information and marketing activities, providing both office-based and field-based Canon employees with an indispensable decision-making tool for subsequent actions. Most notably, the update.seven phone module in the outbound call center supports the dual sales concept developed by Canon Austria. Using update.phone, the user can contact customers directly from the application – all information required is displayed on the screen. Conversations, statuses and appointments are imported directly into the CRM system. Telemarketing and field-based employees work hand-in-hand to achieve true sales effectiveness.

The outcome of using a CRM system, namely acquisition of new customers and increase in customer loyalty within Austria, was decisive in the decision to implement update.seven across the whole of Europe. Herbert Kirl, Channel Director at the Canon Business Center in Austria and initiator of the pan-European CRM project, on update.seven: “Our experience with the CRM suite has been very good. This, amongst other things, has enabled us to optimise our specialist dual sales concept further and to achieve considerable productivity improvements for field-based staff. With the broadening of our sales models in European sister organisations, the necessity rose for a CRM application for field-based sales employees in these countries. update.seven enables the smooth and speedy 1:1 implementation of our workflow product, tried and tested in Austria, i.e. import of customised data models, CRM processes and configurations. The high degree of flexibility in regard to languages and implementation partners convinced Canon to implement the update solution across Europe. In order to attain a rapid degree of efficiency, CRM expertise built up in Austria CRM will be available to all sister organisations in Europe in the form of a competence centre. “

About update software AG

update software AG (www.update.com) was founded in Vienna in 1988. With around 200 employees and a turnover of 18.6m Euro (2005), update is the leading supplier of CRM solutions in Europe. update software AG is listed on the German Stock Exchange in Frankfurt am Main.

Products from update are currently being used by more than 100,000 staff in over 900 companies. A selection of update customers: 3M, American Express Finanzmanagement, the advertising department at the BILD newspaper group, AstraZeneca, bauMax, BAWAG P.S.K., Canon, DuPont, ESTAG, Hassia Group, Landesbank Rheinland-Pfalz International S.A., LBS Nord, MagnaSteyr, Pernod Ricard and ratiopharm. update software AG maintains a network of strategic partnerships with system integrators such as Atos Origin, Hewlett Packard, IDS-Scheer, Sensix and Siemens Business Services.

About Canon GmbH

Canon is the ideal partner for imaging information and office automation worldwide. The company is an innovative leader in imaging and IT solutions in both the end consumer and B2B sectors and is one of the top 2 suppliers in all of the major product categories.

The company has developed from being a dedicated hardware manufacturer to being an innovative supplier of printing and document management solutions. With its hardware, software and services, Canon supports its customers in improving their document management processes.

2000 saw Canon be awarded the CRM Best Practice Award for exemplary customer-orientation. This prize is awarded annually by IMP, the organiser of CRM congresses and exhibitions – with collaboration from media partners InformationWeek and Acquisa.


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