Part of the expansion of PGGM’s service portfolio was the merger of a subsidiary company. However, both organizations worked with 2 separate Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. In order to optimize the service provided, PGGM wanted to centralize all customer data into one joint database. This would enable the new organization to work with a single CRM system. PGGM chose Microsoft Dynamics for their CRM system.

In order to ensure a smooth transition to Microsoft Dynamics, PGGM engaged the services of Avanade. The client asked the Avanade team to provide a stable database foundation and help set up the application in such a way as to enable the employees of the customer contact centre and the account managers at PGGM to provide an optimum service to their customers.

Avanade did this, initially, by creating a functional design of the system, in which all individual components of the system were set out and the specific requirements of PGGM implemented. The functional design formed the basis on which the Avanade consultants, together with PGGM, set to work on the implementation of the project.

Besides building a database, the work also involved a huge migration of data: converting approximately 15 million records of a total of more than 3 million customers to the new database. In addition, Avanade divided the customer data between the income service department and the pension fund service department. The CRM system was integrated with the current telephone system and the existing line-of-business applications were linked to the new system.

Microsoft Dynamics and the connected database were finally brought into production after 8 months via a big-bang scenario. Around 120 employees at PGGM now use the solution on a daily basis. It has made their work easier in a number of critical areas. For example, when a customer calls the contact centre, their portfolio data is displayed immediately and further information can be retrieved expediently, ensuring customer wait-time being significantly decreased.

For PGGM, the success of the CRM project left them with a taste for more and they have firm plans to add information for cross- and up-selling to the database.