A customer-centric platform at Q8Oils

A customer-centric platform at Q8Oils

How to centralize your sales, marketing and customer service processes when your colleagues and customers are spread around the globe? Q8Oils, the B2B branch of Q8, had this exact problem. Until they implemented Microsoft Dynamics 365 as a central platform for all their customer-facing activities. The result? All teams are now cooperating in the same platform, have access to all customer data and unified their way of working globally.

Harmonizing the customer-facing processes

Q8Oils is a B2B branch of the well-known oil company that focuses on production and distribution of lubricants for a variety of applications and special focus on metal working and energy. Counting 350 employees, Q8Oils can be considered an SME, but one with a very international character. The lubricants are produced in Antwerp and Milan, and there are sales hubs and distribution networks around the globe. 

To optimize its sales process and improve the development of business opportunities, Q8Oils turned to long-time IT partner Cegeka for a platform that would unify and optimize all customer-facing activities. 

"We wanted to cooperate better with potential and existing customers", explains Marco Schillemans, Digital & IT manager at Q8Oils who is responsible for the digital transformation. "We have different teams working with our clients, from sales to customer service and technical support. But they were working in silos. Our main goal was to implement one system that would allow us to put the customer at the center. And since we have sales hubs all around the world, a second goal was to set up a global account management. In other words: we wanted to service our customers in a consolidated way, no matter what country they are in."

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement

The digitization of the customer-centric approach was achieved through three different modules within the Microsoft Dynamics 365 ecosystem:

• Customer Service
• Sales
• Marketing

"We chose Dynamics 365 because of the flawless integration with Microsoft Office 365", says Marco. "Our employees are already familiar with the Office applications like Microsoft Teams and Outlook. Not only is the integration between platforms very straightforward, the change management is also a lot easier. Staying within the Microsoft ecosystem was definitely the right choice."

"The three modules we implemented flow into each other, of course", Marco continues. Our sales, customer service and marketing teams all use the same customer data, so it made sense to centralize this data for the entire company. But the modules have distinct functionalities too. Our customer service works with cases (like complaints and questions), while the sales teams have a pipeline approach. Marketing is focused around marketing automation. So in short: Dynamics 365 offers one central platform and database for our customer teams, which is simultaneously adapted to the processes of each team."

"Our main goal was to implement one system that would allow us to put the customer at the center. In other words: we wanted to service our customers in a consolidated way, no matter what country they are in."

- Marco Schillemans, Digital & IT Manager at Q8Oils

The importance of integration

"Implementing the Dynamics 365 modules went smoothly. The hardest part was integrating all systems and databases", says Marco.

"Even though we're a small branch of a big group, we have different ERPs that feed our CRM. Some of our data sources are in SAP, but other countries use different ERPs again. The biggest challenge was integrating all these systems into one central database. So we started a side project to focus on the integration."

"We implemented a central data platform where all customer data was harmonized, and this database in turn feeds all our different systems, including the Dynamics 365 modules."

A centralized way of working and increased customer engagement

"We have a lot more insight into our clients now", Marco explains. "From a global perspective, any colleague can access the same data on our customers. In the past, a sales manager could visit a client that had a technical issue ongoing. Our sales teams weren't aware of what the technical support teams were doing. Now, all this information is centralized and accessible to all colleagues working with that client."

Not only does that unify the way of working, it leads to increased customer engagement and a quicker sales process. "We can spot opportunities much quicker, and our clients are serviced faster and better", Marco confirms. "We created a portal for our customers where they can enter cases like complaints, manage preferences and fill in contact forms. These in turn create an automatic entry in the CRM."

"Our sales teams are happy as well. They now have mobile access to all customer data, which is handy when they're on the road. Dynamics 365 serves as a one stop shop for all teams involved with our customers. We truly have become a more connected company, which is a win-win for both our customers and our own employees", Marco concludes.

"We can spot opportunities much quicker, and our clients are serviced faster and better"

- Marco Schillemans, Digital & IT Manager at Q8Oils

Do you have a question about this customer story or are you wondering what Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement can bring your company?

Let us know. We are happy to think along with you.