Background
The after sales department of a global automobile manufacturer has developed a set of over 100 key performance indicators (KPIs) to manage their service and spare parts business. The client’s strategy asked for a global attempt to ensure a common understanding and approach across countries and regions in the world. This required a common system to provide consistent and accurate data for decision making.
While the key performance indicators were defined, systems to provide the data were diverse from region to region and from operation to operation. Making all required data available and bringing it into a unique information flow required a project team to install interfaces and data warehouse functionality to a global system.
For Europe, the global project was managed by a European project manager of the client. He asked change2target for support on analyzing gaps between the current systems and the future state as well as ensuring a smooth and complete preparation of the planned go-live in all European markets. At the end, our Implementation Consultant functioned as the Project Management Office for the rollout of the project in Europe.
Objectives
- Implement the KPIs and Dashboard in 15 European markets
- Get near real-time data with a new standard interface after re-certification of all dealers and Dealer Management Systems.
Solution
The set of KPIs was unified or harmonized amongst the different markets and fed into a global dashboard. The metrics and reports used five types of data:
- Repair Orders (ROs)
- Parts Invoices
- Wholesale/OTC
- Used Vehicles Inventory
- Service Appointments
The dashboard was to provide the client with an effective tool for monitoring dealer market for business growth and owner loyalty initiatives while improving efficiency and effectiveness in the field.
Approach
Having clarified the business drivers, deliverables, stakeholders and users for the system, we defined the technical part resulting in a system infrastructure and functional diagram. With this, we were able to identify local and geographic differences that had to be considered.
Analysis
Initially, we developed a KPI matrix detailing required data in such terms as source, granularity, interrelation, functional dimensions and responsibility. We then analyzed data availability and gaps between current and future state. Based on this analysis we defined actions to close the gaps. All the findings of the analysis resulted in a transfer process to move from the existing systems to the new Dashboard.
Installation
The main part of our work during installation was quality control of output data as well as control of the process of connecting interfaces from Dealer Management Systems to the global system. With our knowledge of the after sales business and our experienced Data Analytics team, we were able to conduct data analysis and plausibility checks based on business information.
Go-Live
Any Go-Live of new systems is critical in terms of time and content. Our main focus throughout the implementation time was to
- ensure sustainable implementation of the dashboard in all relevant EU markets,
- analyze data to identify deficiencies in data quality,
- solve data quality issues (incl. data transmission issues),
- train all involved parties in National Sales Companies (NSCs) and system owners,
- improve the monitoring system with all related interfaces and
- ensure Data Analytics to be considered for dashboard quality.
Besides solving issues and problems, we developed a longer term concept for data quality improvement.
Results
The global unified reporting was implemented in all 15 markets in Europe within the foreseen time of five years. Once more, it became clear that implementing a set of globally unified set of metrics in Europe can be a challenge due to different standards, languages, counting methods and many more. Moving from a diverse range of systems to one unified solution required intensive communication, training and coaching of users and a strong leadership in change management.
