CRM Case Study

COMPANY FACTS
Industry: ............ Document
Management
Annual Sales: .... $18.6 billion
Client: ................ Since 2000
Web Site: ........... www.xerox.com

Xerox, and its partner, Fuji

Xerox. Co., Ltd. of Japan, is
the global leader in the
document management
business. Xerox offers the
broadest array of document
products, services, and
solutions in the industry:
copiers, printers, fax
machines, scanners,
desktop software, digital
printing and publishing
systems, and comprehensive document-management services ranging from
the running of in-house
production centers to the
creation of networks.

CENTRALIZED CUSTOMER
A N A LY S I S D R I V E S K N O W L E D G E BASED MARKETING PROGRAMS

Xeroxs Challenge
Xeroxs sales force, which consists of 5500 sales representatives in
the U.S. and Canada, uses one central marketing database of 7.5
million records to feed prospect and customer information to their
in-house Sales Force Automation (SFA) system. The marketing
database is critical to driving sales coverage and revenue opportunities and has been in existence for over nine years.
Xerox typically either purchased and managed records from a supplier of business data or used a basic order entry method to enter
new customer information. Upon doing the former, software from
the data vendor would attempt to match the new customer information to existing records by name or address. In general, match rates
were poor, in the 50% range, and if the software could not generate a
match, it would create a new record. This caused the number of duplicate records to multiply and increase to an unacceptable level. The data vendor also made a business decision not
to enhance its software to help improve its matching facility. These two
issues created diff iculties for Xerox.
Xeroxs challenge was to enhance the matching process to ensure the accuracy and cleanliness of this critical data.
Our overall challenge was to clean up our database and put a
process in place to keep it accurate and up to date, says Alan Hughes,
Xeroxs implementation manager. Our database had an inordinate
amount of duplicates due to the poor matching and our sales staff
was not happy about it. We typically divide the database records
among the many sales representatives, with each person receiving
approximately 300-400 names per territory. If they
received an inordinate number of duplicate names in their group, it
became a bone of contention because our goal is to balance each
representatives sales territory to enable equal sales potential. Hughes
adds, Our colleagues in Canada had an even worse problem. Of
their 1.1 million records, they had a match rate of only about 20%.

THE CUSTOMER DATA MANAGEMENT (CDM) SOLUTION

Upon completing the

process, the feedback we
received from the sales
force was tremendous...
The cost savings to Xerox
based on a cleaner, more
relevant database is
huge... People now trust
the numbers.

Alan Hughes,
Implementation Manager,
Xerox

With the data hygiene and record-matching problem reaching critical

proportions, Xerox began assessing its options. Upon careful evaluation
of key vendors, Xerox selected industry leader Harte-Hanks and its
Allink Customer Data Management (CDM) solution to participate in a
data cleansing and record-matching test alongside
its current data vendor. Each vendor processed
100,000 new records and matched them against
the Xerox marketing database. Using the HarteHanks solution right out of the box, Xerox experienced a significant improvement in data cleanliness and match accuracy compared to its incumbent vendors tools. Based on this real-world result, Xerox decided to
move forward with Harte-Hanks CDM solution.
According to Hughes, We were all extremely impressed with the results, especially given that the Harte-Hanks software had not been
tweaked or tuned in the least in order to better evaluate our data. We
moved quickly to make the change, and early in our process attended
Harte-Hanks training courses to learn more about their CDM solution.
Xerox began the overhaul process by working with HarteHanks Professional Services
team to deploy the data hygiene
and data enhancement modules:
Converter, Parser, Geocoder, and
Matcher. Using these tools, the
team was able to enhance the
quality, standardize the formats,
and ensure the consistency of
their data. To provide an efficient
and automated data re-engineering process, Harte-Hanks CDM specialists wrote a series of production scripts that enabled Xerox to implement an operational process to manage its customer data in batch mode.

XEROX RESULTS
After carefully examining Xeroxs marketing database structure, HarteHanks CDM specialists worked closely with the Xerox implementation
team to process the databases 7.5 million records. Using the Harte-Hanks
built scripts, the overall process uncovered over one quarter million duplicate records of businesses in the marketing database. In addition, the process corrected close to
300,000 customer addresses that had a mix of incorrect city/ZIP code combinations, incorrect ZIP
codes, and often unreliable vanity addresses. The

CRM Case Study

In addition to the fine work

performed by Harte-Hanks,
we were quite pleased with

software also extended a number of the records ZIP codes from five
digits to nine digits in support of more pinpoint-direct marketing.
Upon completing the process, the feedback we received from the sales
force was tremendous. The message came back loud and clear, Youve
done a great job; you eliminated lots of duplicates and created a much
more efficient database, states Hughes. The cost savings to Xerox
based on a cleaner, more relevant database is
huge, even when measured very conservatively.
Our sales members cut down dramatically on
wasted time wading through duplicate records,
searching for new customer information,
trying to match records and so on. And the
ripple effect of duplicates is far reaching,
as it negatively affects various tasks such
as the outlining of sales territories, the processing of compensation plans, and a number
of other marketing-related tasks. People now
trust the numbers.
In the final stage of the engagement, the Harte-Hanks CDM team performed a formal Knowledge Transfer with the Xerox team. The CDM
specialists reviewed, demonstrated, and documented the CDM application they had created with Xerox. They also trained the Xerox team
how to develop additional operation-specific processes for future use.
Through this close working relationship with the Harte-Hanks team
and the in-depth Knowledge Transfer, the Xerox team gained a production-quality deliverable in rapid fashion, invaluable experience in the
technical details of the process and ultimately took control of managing its CDM destiny.

the pace at which the

engagement was
completed. Originally, we
had anticipated at least a
six month engagement,
from start to finish. HarteHanks completed the
project in just four months.

Alan Hughes,
Implementation Manager,
Xerox

CRM Case Study

In addition to the fine work performed by Harte-Hanks, we were

quite pleased with the pace at which the engagement was completed, said Hughes. Originally, we had anticipated at least a six
month engagement, from start to finish. Harte-Hanks completed
the project in just four months.

THE HARTE-HANKS SOLUTION

As a premier provider of customer relationship management (CRM)
software products and services, Harte-Hanks offers a complete
range of robust, specialized and integrated solutions for your entire enterprise. Using our Customer Data Management solution,
clients can consolidate key information from multiple sources of
customer data and create an accurate relationship-centered view of
your customers and prospects.
Our vision of CRM encompasses all we have learned from three
decades of practicing database marketing, and builds on this foundation to create a new strategy with new technologies and new
business processes. CRM is more than a single promotion or campaign; its a continuous process of enterprise-wide information
gathering, behavioral analysis, and strategy refinement that enables
you to recognize opportunity and nurture customer relationships.
Tactics vary, but the goal is constant: to deliver the right message
about the right product, through the right channel, to the right audience, at the right time.
To find out how Harte-Hanks can benefit your firm, visit our Web
site at www.hartehankscrm.com.

Harte-Hanks 2001.
Allink and Allink CDM are trademarks of Harte-Hanks.