InformationWeek

ChemConnect Inc.'s World Chemical Exchange, a global trading exchange for the $1.6 trillion industrial chemical market, is a real-time E-marketplace scrambling to create a brand name and customer loyalty among 4,000 companies in 110 countries that are registered as buyers and sellers.

ChemConnect wants a "360-degree view" of customers so it can track every interaction a customer has with the exchange. "Just as an [enterprise resource planning] system is the nerve center for a manufacturer, CRM is the nerve center for our chemical market exchange," says Raj Bhargava, senior VP for product planning and engineering at ChemConnect. "CRM helps manage the workflow among customer service, sales, and marketing for real-time E-commerce transactions."

ChemConnect's challenge is to entice customers to sign up, validate their membership, train them to use the site effectively without violating the anonymous trading policy, and ensure that they consummate transactions. A robust CRM solution could do the job.

But meeting those needs is a tall order. The E-commerce engine that customers log on to has to be integrated with customer-service software that processes and validates the ID request through credit checks and sends back the approval to the E-commerce engine, which in turn allows transactions. ChemConnect uses the Octane 2000 CRM suite from Octane Software Inc. to integrate E-commerce functions with customer-service activities. In the event a customer violates any exchange rules--such as typing a phone number or revealing one's identity--customer service is instantly alerted to instruct the E-commerce engine to suspend the transaction. The customer also has to be informed about the faulty transaction by E-mail, phone, or Web communication.

In addition to tracking bid postings, origins, and destinations, ChemConnect is about to use Octane's CRM software to let sales offices at five global sites, including London and Singapore, give existing customers new buying and selling options such as personalized sites. Octane 2000 automates sales, marketing, and customer service, while letting ChemConnect modify and map the application to its business logic and processes. Octane's graphical tool, called Studio, also lets ChemConnect developers personalize screens for customer-service representatives and customers, and draw in new customers. For instance, when customers abort in the middle of a bidding process, ChemConnect passes that information to customer service for follow-up and to offer buying alternatives. Meanwhile, at their personalized My ChemConnect site, customers get automatic alerts about chemicals available on the site.

"The tremendous pressure to retain existing customers and partners while cultivating new accounts is driving the demand for comprehensive CRM products that can automate and extend sales, marketing, and customer-service applications across channels and customers," says Karen Smith, a senior analyst at the Aberdeen Group.

Integrated CRM solutions are crucial for many traditional companies, too. Allianz Group, a $50 billion global financial and insurance services company that oversees

$400 billion in assets, needed to automate its 75,000-person sales force and integrate those operations with marketing and customer service for its institutional customers. It turned to TeamPoint, a CRM product from Point Information Systems Inc. CRM's "centralized repository and business process workflow" provides a unified view of Allianz customers, sales, and marketing operations, says Shawn Spott, manager of business services at Allianz Life Insurance Co. of North America, an Allianz Group subsidiary. "The goal is to have all interactions handled as a single, complete process instead of separate, isolated activities," he says.

Customer record-tracking is critical to businesses' online success, and, like Allianz, many are looking to CRM to provide a "cohesive, consistent, and synchronized view into all the major business processes," says Bob Chatham, a senior analyst at Forrester Research.

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