As a world reference in the handling, aerial work platforms and earth moving sectors, Manitou Group is on a mission to improve working conditions, safety and performance around the world, while protecting people and their environment. Through its flagship brands – Manitou and Gehl – the group designs, produces, distributes and services equipment for construction, agriculture and industry.
By placing innovation at the heart of its development, Manitou Group constantly seeks to bring value to all its stakeholders. Through the expertise of its network of 900 dealers, the group works more closely with its customers every day. Staying true to its roots, with its headquarters located in France, Manitou Group turned over €2.4 billion in 2022. It unites 5,000 talents worldwide with passion as their common driver.
To enhance its understanding of customers and provide exceptional customer experiences, Manitou Group implemented the Stibo Systems Business Partner Data Cloud for master data management (MDM). This MDM solution supports Manitou Group’s need for data governance and creates a single source of truth for all customer information.
Challenges
Before implementing MDM, Manitou Group faced challenges due to an un-unified customer database, occasional data incompleteness, and the storage of customer data in ERP systems. This led to two primary challenges:
- A lack of visibility across the organization
- Excessive time spent on verifying and rekeying customer information
Recent internal and external growth necessitated operational efficiency improvements, as legacy systems at subsidiaries around the world burdened IT support.
By establishing a single source of truth, Manitou Group aims to better exchange and understand customer data, and ultimately, enhance customer service. The operational goals for MDM implementation were to establish a unified customer reference and harmonize data processes across different regions and subsidiaries.
Solution
Manitou Group leverages Stibo Systems Business Partner Data Cloud to manage customer information. In the initial phase, the company built a robust customer data model and consolidated links between commercial and billing departments. Having centralized information benefits all business entities, granting access to high-quality data and a global customer reference system. The overarching objective is to streamline the customer journey through a unique customer reference across various local applications.
The solution was deployed in a centralized architecture, meaning all customer data and data processing, including creation, modification and deletion, are directly entered into the MDM solution to meet quality objectives. Manitou Group appointed ambassadors for each of the 27 subsidiaries and data stewards to act as active contributors and to ensure compliance with processes for creating and modifying customers. Data controllers, primarily finance professionals, verify the information as it flows into all systems, including the ERP.
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Outcomes
The implementation of Business Partner Data Cloud has significantly reduced data entry time, thereby decreasing errors often associated with manual data input. Manitou Group has experienced a general increase in operational efficiency due to harmonized data processes, resulting in improved data quality for reliable analytics and reporting. With a single source of trusted customer data, the company can provide better customer experiences through quicker customer authentication.
“We can create the most beautiful dashboards in the world, but if we don’t have data quality, and if the meaning behind each attribute is not relevant, then there might be discrepancies, and analytics can’t be trusted.” Laurent Biot, Data Governance Manager, Manitou Group
In summary, Business Partner Data Cloud supports Manitou Group’s data strategy and governance throughout the data lifecycle, delivering tangible results:
- Significant reduction in data entry time
- Harmonization of processes around data
- Improved quality of reporting and insightful dashboards
- High-quality customer data distributed everywhere through a single acquisition point
- Global access to a single source of consolidated customer records
Stibo Systems Platform supports multidomain capabilities, allowing Manitou Group to expand with new digital transformation projects. A planned product-oriented use case involves optimizing logistical needs worldwide to deliver governed data products more effectively, aligning with their diverse product range and including their product lifecycle management (PLM) system.
“As Stibo Systems Platform has provided us with controlled and monitored data governance, we can facilitate other projects, such as the Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) project. This project will enable us to manage customer authentication more rationally and pragmatically through MDM, aligning access with customer needs and contractual agreements.” Laurent Biot, Data Governance Manager, Manitou Group
