Gartner's CRM Excellence Awards

At its Fall CRM Summit in Chicago, Gartner announced the latest winners of its CRM Excellence awards. Six finalists from a field of 156 entrants presented their solution to the attending audience, who cast the final ballots. Edging PepsiAmericas and Fleet Wholesale Banking was Grupo Financiero Bital, one of Mexico's largest financial institutions. The bank began a nationwide CRM program in 1997 with a data warehouse project, and is now in a position to act on personalized business opportunities for all of its clients. The nationwide efforts tie in with a "business unit board" at each of Bital's 1300 branches, which set local market rules and strategy. Among the results were a growth in time deposits of nearly twenty percent over a period where nationwide deposits actually fell, and a marked improvement in satisfaction among the most valuable customer segment. Summarizing the comments on audience ballots, Gartner noted that Bital's ability to use CRM to grow its business during a prolonged economic crisis and decline won over voters, as did the fact that the CEO, Rafael Arana de la Garza, made their presentation. In the mid-sized enterprise category, the British Columbia Automobile Association beat out insurer UPMC Health Plan and the City of Des Moines, Iowa. BCAA has worked on enterprise-wide CRM since the mid-90s, trying to better capitalize on hundreds of thousands of members representing 90 percent of the auto club market in western Canada. The organization, which provides various travel and insurance products in addition to auto service, is working to better serve its high-value customers while converting a majority of members into multi-product clients. A Siebel implementation helps service reps better understand the needs and potential interests of customers at the point of contact, and from a process perspective BCAA is working to improve staff communication and incentives to share opportunities across its different offerings. In addition to the honor, Gartner made a charitable donation in the names of the award winners.