2019 AWARD FINALIST SPOTLIGHT: Refinitiv - Finalist in the Operational Excellence to deliver Digital Transformation Category

Read this article about Refinitiv, one of our finalists, in the category Best Achievement in Operational Excellence to deliver Digital Transformation, selected by the independent judging panel, for the 2019 Business Transformation & Operational Excellence Industry Awards program. Click here to read articles on other finalists.

THE CHALLENGE

Refinitiv is one of the world’s largest providers of financial markets data and infrastructure, serving over 40,000 institutions in over 190 countries. It provides leading data and insights, trading platforms, and open data and technology platforms that connect a thriving global financial markets community.

Over the years, the company has made significant investment to offer a world-class suite of products, however customers were indicating that getting access to products and managing accounts was a significant problem: time-consuming and error prone.

Customer dissatisfaction was mirrored by internal frustration in the order process. Unnecessary complexity and inefficiencies were embedded in the culture and operational structure. Sales teams were dependent on their administrative partners; and administration teams were working with outdated systems, which made processing orders manual and time-consuming. Hand-offs between the two teams drove longer than ideal turn-around-times for entitling data and delivering order forms to customers.

SOLUTION

In 2014, Refinitiv launched a multi-year transformation program to streamline operations, digitize and automate processes, create a high-performing sales culture and provide a better customer experience. To determine the scope of this project, they performed a thorough gap analysis of the existing order to cash process through engagement with the business and IT teams. Ultimately, they would need to drive a meaningful improvement in the customer experience and deliver revenue at a faster pace. This required building an automated sales process that would deliver order forms, entitle products, and manage billing, while streamlining and simplify the internal workflow.

The company created one contract type for customers, one universal online order form, a product selection tool and a single price list. They introduced tech savvy products into their day-to-day workflow, shifting order processing and invoice generation onto Salesforce, and executing order forms with DocuSign eSignature capabilities.

RESULTS

With the new setup in place, Refinitiv has simplified the complex order fulfillment process, streamlined contract management, and eliminated pricing irregularities. Sales representatives have expanded visibility across account activities, and can provide more effective and tailored support for customers. They spend less time on the administrative burden of account maintenance and focus their efforts on driving new revenue. With the integration of order processing on Salesforce and DocuSign, they have greater autonomy to ensure deals close in a timely manner without reliance on other groups or archaic manual systems.

Over 15,000 accounts have been migrated to a newly automated sales platform, 500+ enhancements have been delivered for users and 200+ countries have been onboarded to an improved digital experience.  With the legacy processes, 80% of sales requests were revised or adjusted by administrative teams before being sent to customers. Now, orders are processed accurately over 90% of the time. The company has seen a six fold improvement in how quickly they can get their flagship product out of the door; and on average, order forms are delivered and signed twice as quickly as in the past.

Most significant of all, their latest Customer Experience Monitor Survey shows customers using the new process are significantly less dissatisfied across all touch points in the sales experience when compared with legacy.