Orapi optimized its sales force by implementing Sage CRM to manage a high turnover of sales staff and maintain a centralized customer database, addressing challenges stemming from significant growth and acquisitions. The new system enhanced productivity and sales organization by providing detailed insights into sales activities, allowing better management of sales teams and customer relations. Looking ahead, Orapi aims to further leverage Sage CRM for identifying sales opportunities and refining marketing campaigns, ensuring the database remains updated and informative.

1. Orapi optimizes its sales
force with Sage CRM
Sage CRM
Customer Success
Centralized customer data
Orapi has experienced significant
growth, both internally and externally.
The Orapi brand itself, along with the
subsidiary Luprotec (which sells
products to small accounts in a fast
turnover model) employs a total of fifty
salesmen.
“We have high turnover in our sales
team and this is a problem. Every
salesman has a personal file. When one
of them leaves us, we lose much of the
history of the relationship and we can’t
leverage on it. Orapi has made several
acquisitions, which has further
exacerbated the phenomenon. It was
time to reorganize the sales force and to
have a centralized database,” says
Evelyne Civier, Director of Marketing at
Orapi.
Orapi, and its subsidiary Luprotec
chose Sage CRM to reorganize as a
customer relationship management
solution.
Orapi was founded in 1968. It designs,
manufactures and markets technical
supply products for the upkeep and
maintenance of machinery from all
sectors of activity: heavy or advanced
industry, construction, agriculture. It
now has three centers which each
consist of a factory and a research
laboratory: in Canada, France and
Singapore. It counts EADS, Dassault
and EDF among its customers.
Orapi products are marketed through a
network of 2,000 distributors in France
and reseller partners all over the world.
The Orapi Group boasts a dozen brands
and turnover of EUR 70 million in 2007.
Customer
Orapi
Industry
Manufacturing
Location
France
Solution
Sage CRM
Solution
Sage CRM’s flexibility and capabilities
met the business needs perfectly and
was implemented to manage the sales
force and maintain better customer
relationships.
Results
Sage CRM has allowed Orapi to
completely overhaul its sales
organization and detailed reporting on
sales activity has increased productivity
throughout the business.
Challenge
After a period of significant growth and
a high turnover of sales staff, Orapi
recognized the need reorganize their
sales force and for one centralized
database where knowledge could be
shared.
‘Thanks to the detailed
reports we get from
Sage CRM, we have a
much more accurate
view into our sales
team’s activity and can
manage their diaries
better.’
Evelyne Civier,
Director of Marketing
Orapi
sagecrm.com

2. ‘Thanks to a harmonized
database in Sage CRM,
we now have a more
global view of our end
customers, who are not
always the people we
meet as we work with a
network of re-sellers. In
this way,
recommendations to
different levels of the
sales channel can be
more accurate.’
Evelyne Civier,
Director of Marketing
Orapi
“Thanks to the detailed reports we get
from Sage CRM, we have a much more
accurate view into our sales team’s
activity and can manage their diaries
better. We know what they are doing:
demonstrations, orders, estimates,
surveys, or just simple visits... It is also
a way to see if we are meeting
objectives and if the sales person is up
to the task. Now any incoming call is
turned into the possibility of making an
appointment. Nowadays, our sales team
are out on the ground more often and
orders are the better for it,” says
Evelyne Civier.
The future
Orapi opted for caution because the
implementation of a CRM tool requires
training the teams, and its use is
enhanced over time with the discovery
of new features.
“It takes a while for mentalities to
change, but we have already changed
the way our sales team works. We feel
they are already committed to the
project, so this will allow us to move to a
second phase: identification of sales
opportunities and assistance in the
preparation of marketing campaigns.
This means that our central database
will continue to be updated regularly
with information that arises every day,
and the nature of this information will
become ever more complex. We will be
even more targeted,” says Evelyne
Civier.
Choosing a well-oiled machine
After trying a CRM solution that turned
out to be inadequate, Orapi decided to
move things up a gear and opted for
Sage CRM. The specifications were
defined and Yad Informatique, a Sage
integration partner proposed Sage. The
solution met the criteria perfectly.
“For a 40 year-old company, we did not
have reliable enough tools and our sales
expertise was reaching its limit. That’s
why we chose Sage: the solution was
reliable and well-recognized. Our
customers often mentioned it as an
example. What do we hope to achieve?
To preserve our sales IP which is as
precious as our industrial and technical
IP! And also to be able to reorganize the
sales force in order to maintain better
customer relationships,” says Evelyne
Civier.
A phased installation
In May 2007, Yad Informatique installed
and set up 20 licenses in Orapi and 20
licenses in Luprotec. At the same time,
it provided training to the sales team,
this team being the main users of Sage
CRM.
“Given that maintaining the database is
an additional overhead for the sales
team, it is important to convince them.
But this lies at the heart of our sales
assets and they are the active
stakeholders in this. Thanks to a
harmonized database in Sage CRM, we
now have a more global view of our end
customers, who are not always the
people we meet as we work with a
network of re-sellers. In this way,
recommendations to different levels of
the sales channel can be more
accurate.
A tool that enabled significant
managerial changes
Since adoption of Sage CRM, Orapi has
completely overhauled its sales
organization. It is now centralized at
headquarters and the regional office
level has disappeared in favour of
redeployment on the ground. Trips are
now planned based on a cadence
defined by analysis of customer needs:
every 7, 14 or 21 days.
Sage CRM
Customer Success
sagecrm.com

3. About Sage CRM
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