Commercial Manager Rob de Jongh firmly believes that good IT systems will help Den Engelsen grow while keeping growth manageable. Rob, who had previously worked with Welisa at a different company, knew Salesforce and didn’t need convincing of the benefits. A complex data migration was necessary first, including a lot of historical data, which was a cause for concern.
‘We worked well together. Despite difficulty in finding time for this project, Salesforce was still implemented within two months.”
Invaluable order board
The migration went smoothly and now the MAN and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles dealer has its own Salesforce environment. Rob: ‘The digital order board is invaluable. Before, when an order was completed you had to switch to another system. You couldn’t work on a file at the same time as others, because it was paper on someone’s desk. Or two colleagues would call the same supplier on the same day about the status of different cars. Now one phone call is enough.’ Rob knew Welisa, so the collaboration went as expected. ‘Welisa thinks everything through, working out what you need. We worked well together. Despite difficulty in finding time for this project, Salesforce was still implemented within two months.’
Dreaming of future developments
Everything is going so smoothly that Rob is already dreaming about the future. ‘The digital order board is just the start. I want to develop this further in the coming years. One of the things I’m talking to Welisa about is linking this with other systems. Such as factory systems, so we can link up vehicle data.’ For example, when Den Engelsen orders a truck through a factory’s IT system, it receives vehicle data such as the chassis number and production status updates. ‘I want to add that data to Salesforce. This is not only invaluable information for office staff, but also for sales and marketing. It would be great if customers get a mail or app update saying: your car is on the assembly line, or on its way to the Netherlands.’ In short, Rob is eager to continue.
