Total SE Marketing and Services harmonizes global CRM program

A major international player in the energy sector, Total SE markets a wide range of petroleum products including fuels, lubricants, maps, bitumen and related services worldwide. The company’s Marketing and Services division leads an important part of the business, supporting over 120 subsidiaries across four geographical areas.

To better serve customers, the company wanted to take full advantage of account synergies by unifying and harmonizing customer relationship management (CRM). To activate the commercial synergies between Total’s subsidiaries, the group implemented a tailored CRM solution based on Salesforce. Total called on DXC Technology to strengthen the project’s governance, augment the core model, support solution deployment and accelerate user adoption.

A single, global CRM unifying from the top

The Marketing and Services division decided to roll out a unique CRM tool globally. Based on Salesforce, the solution is designed to provide standard processes and terms for its subsidiaries across marketing, sales and services. The Salesforce classic version is deployed at some subsidiaries. However, in mature markets, especially those in Western Europe, it is essential to adjust the core model to accommodate the diversity of activities and existing tools.

“To maximize value creation, our goal was to capitalize on the know-how of the most mature subsidiaries to benefit the least-advanced ones. In short, to unify our CRM from the top,” says Thierry Solokhine, head of Customer Relations and Commercial Performance at Total Marketing and Services.

The project has two major components. The first is the creation and management of a governance body for the Salesforce solution. The second is the actual deployment within these remaining subsidiaries. To accomplish these goals, Total turned to DXC to bring its commitment, methodological rigor and ability to provide international change management support from France.

Prime contractor for governance

A key success factor was the creation of the CRM governance body, which responds to the subsidiaries’ needs and incorporates them into the standard model, helping to evolve the solution with new ideas.

DXC helped set up the necessary governance organization, with a network of champions at each subsidiary, and a joint operations team for specifications and development. Near the completion of the deployment, the Marketing and Services division identifies ways the solution is underutilized, and the governance body steps in to play a vital role in optimizing the solution.

Pivoting CRM to the business

At the end of 2018, Total SE changed the governance body’s focus to managing the CRM solution and improving communication, training and awareness. The Marketing and Services division renewed its relationship with DXC to support the new objectives.

While preparing for the switch from Salesforce Classic to the new Lightning Experience, a modern interface with new features and redesigned pages for streamlining the sales process, DXC is intensifying its collaboration with the subsidiaries, setting up a center of excellence, cleaning data and piloting adoption as close as possible to the field.

“Our role has shifted from a solution approach to a business approach, including the integration of new skills around data and analytics,” says Mehdi Kallel, Partner, Salesforce Practice South Europe at DXC Technology.

Thanks to the work of the governance body, the Marketing and Services division is on track to achieve its objectives: a standard and adopted CRM solution, a 360-degree view of customers and business activity, comparable key performance indicators (KPIs) between the different entities, and best-practices sharing, such as a B2B Excellence program that unifies the business-to-business sales process.

For Solokhine, the CRM solution has become an essential performance tool, notably enabling the less mature subsidiaries to make great strides.

“DXC has brought structure and clarity to the project’s governance while keeping our culture in mind,” Solokhine says. “We had every confidence in the team because we knew we were talking with one voice, which is worth gold in terms of efficiency.”

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