Oracle Customer Case Study

DaimlerChrysler Provides Unparalleled Service

"Oracle has helped us expand our business, and we are relying

on it to help take us further.” – Thor Tielemans, Chief
Information Officer, DaimlerChrysler Customer Assistance
DaimlerChrysler Corporation Center (CAC)
Auburn Hills, MI
www.daimlerchrysler.com

Industry:
For more than 100 years, DaimlerChrysler Corporation has been a
Automotive world leader in the automotive industry, supplying a wide range
of quality products. In Europe, this automotive manufacturing
Annual Revenue:
$192.3 billion giant acknowledged that product alone was insufficient to
maintain its position. Virtually overnight, the company migrated
Employees:
384,723
from a product-centric strategy to a customer-centric position
through the use of Oracle’s Siebel software. As a result, the
Oracle Products & Services: company has become much closer to its customer base and has
seen a marked improvement in service delivery that has led to
Siebel Business Analytics
Siebel Customer Data Integration strong brand loyalty and additional sales opportunities.
Siebel Sales
This automotive giant attributes its success to its four-pillared
Siebel Service
strategy: global presence, superior products, leading brands, and
strong innovation and technology. Despite its undeniable
leadership position, the company has been aware for some time
Key Benefits:
that an impressive product range in a world where the roads are
Improved customer service
levels full is not a complete recipe for success. In 1997, DaimlerChrysler
Installed strong brand loyalty embarked on a change management project to turn the century-old
with customer base product-focused organization into a customer-centric one.
Increased sales
“To expand, you have to differentiate yourself not just through
product but also through services,” said Thor Tielemans, chief
information officer, DaimlerChrysler Customer Assistance Center
(CAC).
To fulfill these ambitions, DaimlerChrysler AG opened its CAC
in October 1998 in the Central European location of Maastricht,
The Netherlands. This was to serve as a central customer contact
point, taking care of the needs of current and prospective
customers, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, in 13 European
countries: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Denmark,
Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Whatever individual wishes
and problems customers may have, Roadside Assistance and

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 Oracle Customer Case Study

“We decided that what Customer Service ensures they always receive individual attention
we wanted was software by a professional customer service representative (CSR). This
that was able to cover multiculturally staffed CAC, the only one of its kind in the
the whole customer DaimlerChrysler group and indeed the automotive industry,
relationship management currently employs approximately 740 members of staff of 17
loop at that moment. After different nationalities.
a rigorous selection
process we discovered Robust Software Platform
Oracle [Siebel] to be the Due to growing sales volumes, the markets within Central Europe
most suitable have an increasing demand for after-sales support. To meet this
application.” need, DaimlerChrysler made the decision, in September 2004, to
Thor Tielemans establish a satellite center in Warsaw, Poland to provide
Chief Information Officer consistent and repeatable processes and quality alignment in the
DaimlerChrysler
Customer Assistance
four major Central European markets of Poland, Hungary, the
Center (CAC) Czech Republic, and Slovakia. The satellite center serves both
existing and prospective Mercedes-Benz and EvoBus customers
in their own languages.
A team of 12 multilingual agents strives to achieve maximum
customer satisfaction no matter what a particular customer’s
concern may be--a breakdown, an inquiry, or a complaint--and
irrespective of the communications channel involved: telephone,
fax, letter, or e-mail. The satellite center in Warsaw is using
Oracle’s Siebel software from the CAC in Maastricht to increase
quality and gain cost efficiency.
DaimlerChrysler’s CAC is powered by Compass, a software
solution that has been developed by CAC and forms the
cornerstone of it technology roadmap. The software is
predominantly based on Siebel applications with some internal
modifications. Compass is active on some 375 workstations at the
CAC and deals with approximately 15 million customer data
records plus related vehicle information. All communication and
correspondence between the customer, dealership, and CAC is
stored in and processed with Compass. Compass is the point at
which all customer complaints, inquiries, comments, and requests
for assistance are logged, managed, and resolved. These queries
are received in a variety of different ways, as DaimlerChrysler is
aware that its customers are individuals each with their own
preferred method of communication. Contact is processed from
handwritten letters, telephone calls, telematics, faxes, or e-mails.

Copyright © 2006 Oracle. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. Published June 2006
 Oracle Customer Case Study

Thus, the CAC is not just a call center, but truly a customer
assistance center.

Invaluable Information
Two years ago, DaimlerChrysler CAC rolled this system out to its
roadside assistance technicians using handheld devices.
Customers experiencing a breakdown call a toll-free number and
are immediately put through to an experienced CSR who will
speak to them in their native language. The CSR will locate the
nearest dealer offering roadside assistance, and the mechanic will
then be able to see, using Compass, the location of the
breakdown, the problem experienced, and details of the particular
vehicle involved. After having resolved the problem, the
mechanic then enters follow-up information into the system
detailing time of arrival, length of time to complete the job, and
the nature of repairs carried out. This is then analyzed using
Oracle’s Siebel Business Analytics to provide invaluable
information to the development and warranty departments of
DaimlerChrysler.
Since August 2000, the CAC has been offering Telediagnosis and
Mercedes-Benz Info Service for Maybach and Mercedes-Benz
drivers in Europe who have a telematics device in their vehicle. In
the event of a breakdown, the Telediagnosis system enables the
CSRs to see the technical status of the vehicle on their screens, as
well as the vehicle’s position via the Global Positioning System
(GPS). The Mercedes-Benz Info Service also provides
information to customers who can contact the CAC directly from
their vehicle by simply touching the respective button.
“Customer orientation is given top priority in the CAC. We know
from experience just how quickly the desires and requirements of
our customers change,” Tielemans explained.. “Simply reacting to
these is often not sufficient. Our CSRs put themselves in the
customers’ shoes; their problem is our problem. Every employee
who is selected to work at the CAC is responsible for helping the
company realize its goals. By handling our customers’ needs
proactively, we create sales opportunities, strengthen brand
loyalty, and generate added value for the company as a whole.”
Since implementing Compass, DaimlerChrysler CAC has seen a
marked improvement in service quality. There has been
significant improvement in service levels for the period between

Copyright © 2006 Oracle. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. Published June 2006
 Oracle Customer Case Study

“By handling our 2003 and 2005, with 72% of calls answered within 20 seconds in
customers’ needs 2003, rising to 87% in 2005. The scope of services provided has
proactively, we create grown considerably over the past few years.
sales opportunities,
Since opening in 1998, the CAC has solved almost 5 million
strengthen brand loyalty,
“cases.” These cases can be requests for roadside assistance, as
and generate added
well as customer inquiries, complaints, comments, and
value for the company
suggestions. All the cases have been brought to the CAC’s
as a whole.”
attention by a staggering 1,810,675 letters, 809,918 faxes, and
Thor Tielemans
Chief Information Officer, 905,922 emails to date, as well as approximately 9,262 inbound
DaimlerChrysler calls per day.
Customer Assistance
Center (CAC) Customer Satisfaction
“Remarkably, we frequently receive thanks and compliments
from our customers who have received breakdown assistance.
Flowers sent by grateful clients are a regular occurrence. Breaking
down is always a trying experience, and the fact that these people
are so impressed with the service they have received that they
bother to contact us and tell us so is a clear demonstration that we
are becoming an effective customer-centric organization,”
Tielemans said.
“Oracle has helped us expand our business, and we are relying on
it to help take us further. We are currently rolling the Siebel-based
Compass solution out to our dealers so that we have yet another
means of capturing information from our customers. We will have
500 dealers online next year and ultimately we will have 2,000
across Europe,” Tielemans said.
DaimlerChrysler CAC also plans to use Siebel in its Market
Performance Center. This is the division that has responsibility for
sales and marketing across Europe, as well as for the retail
network.
The CAC’s strong focus on customer satisfaction ensures that
customers receive the highest level of service that is associated
with the DaimlerChrysler brands. DaimlerChrysler now has the
most impressive product range and the most valuable brands in
the automotive industry.
“Backed by our strong customer service operation powered by
Siebel, we believe that we are unrivalled in the European
automotive industry,” Tielemans said.

Copyright © 2006 Oracle. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. Published June 2006
 Oracle Customer Case Study

Why Oracle?
To support this operation, DaimlerChrysler needed a robust
software platform that could not only handle the demands of its
current client base, but could also adapt to the changing
perceptions and needs of the growing number of customers.
“We decided that what we wanted was software that was able to
cover the whole customer relationship management (CRM) loop
at that moment. After a rigorous selection process we discovered
Siebel applications to be the most suitable,” Tielemans said.

Implementation Process
Initially, in 1998, a group of 50 people were using Siebel to
handle the calls into the CAC. However, the company achieved its
fast growth target of covering the whole of DaimlerChrysler’s
European operation within one year. There are now approximately
375 employees using the system in Maastricht.

Advice from DaimlerChrysler

Build your own confirmation and operation competence for
Oracle’s Siebel line of applications
Build a proper development, test, and production
environment

Reduce customization as much as possible

DaimlerChrysler Corporation is unique in the automotive industry: Its product

portfolio ranges from small cars to sports cars and luxury sedan, and from
versatile vans to heavy-duty trucks or comfortable coaches. DaimlerChrysler has a
global workforce and a global shareholder base.

Copyright © 2006 Oracle. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. Published June 2006