Volvo Cars UK Online Sales
Type: Case Study
Akeno were invited to join Volvo Cars UK to support the implementation and rollout of their omni-channel sales solution. The omni-channel solution included a comprehensive website to enable a completely online journey, but also the capability for the Customer to interact with their Retailer at any time in their journey.
The core service requirements were:
- To define and document operational processes for both the customer journey (front end website), and the Retailer interaction (back-office administration).
- To work with the IT Supplier to challenge and input into the design of the digital online solution to ensure a positive customer journey for the Volvo customers (from an end-user perspective, rather than from a technical design perspective).
- To project manage, own, and deliver, the areas of responsibility, feeding into the wider Project Team and associated Suppliers and Partners.
- To define the User Acceptance Testing strategy, and manage the execution of the testing, including writing test stories, engaging testers, managing defects and retests, and ensuring delivery against plan and budget. (Not the technical and functional testing, which was conducted by a 3rd party).
How
Time, resource and budget were limited, so immediate results were required in order to ensure a successful outcome. The project had already been initiated and was underway when the Akeno team were engaged, so it was essential that we quickly got up to speed with the achievements to date, the Supplier relationships, and any other key nuances and details. This was achieved within the first few days on site, and it was then straight into planning and delivering the work streams.
The service requirements were achieved in the following ways:
- A blend of one-to-one stakeholder interviews and group workshops, in order to draw out requirements for the online system and the operational processes.
- Engagement with Retailers via visits to their individual locations in order to obtain a detailed understanding of their business as usual (and how that would be impacted by a digital sale), and also requirements to feed into the final solution.
- Ownership for workstream delivery in line with the wider project plan.
- Regular communication with Suppliers, Partners, Stakeholders, Senior Managers and the wider Project Team.
- Working closely with the IT Supplier who delivered the digital solution.
Outcomes
The online sales capability was released on time and in budget. It was quickly proven to be a success and achieved its first online sale shortly after launch. It has continued to be a positive sales tool for Retailers.
Akeno delivered all agreed outcomes to the Volvo Cars UK Team:
- A suite of compliant operational processes that clearly defined the customer journey and system interactions.
- A fully documented user-acceptance testing approach, including standards, templates, blueprints and best practices.
- A legacy for future projects; process templates, blueprints, best practices, guidance and support.
- Handover of all processes and documentation to internal Teams to ensure continuity.
- Embedding the solution; ensuring internal Teams were fully engaged and understood their role in supporting the solution and the Retailers.