ClimatePartner - For the Climate
Annual temperature records and increasingly frequent events, such as flood infernos or devastating forest fires, clearly show that the most urgent challenge facing humanity is climate change. The latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change leaves no doubt about this. There is no other way: companies must become active in climate protection. ClimatePartner supports companies in this process.
ClimatePartner was founded in 2006 to accelerate climate protection in companies. More than 500 employees from Barcelona, Berlin, Boston, Essen, Frankfurt, London, Milan, Munich (HQ), Paris, Stockholm, The Hague, Vienna and Zurich help more than 6,000 companies from 60+ countries in protecting the climate.
ClimatePartner supports companies in the crucial five steps of climate protection: calculating carbon footprints, setting reduction targets, achieving reductions, financing climate protection projects and communicating transparently. In doing so, ClimatePartner draws on its experience from projects for now more than 6,000 clients and its software which companies can use for the calculation and management of their CO2 emissions.
Initial situation
Over the years, ClimatePartner has used a variety of tools and data sources to gather data for its clients: starting with Footprint Manager through various CRM systems to mailing tools and more. However, there were no links between these systems, making it difficult to access data – in some cases even requiring manual data transfer. The consequences: a lot of time was wasted and the system was prone to errors. In addition, the holistic view of the customer was missing and it was not possible to build an alternative process to fix this need with the previous tools.
Challenge
As the company grew from 50 to more than 500 employees, and also expanded geographically in a short period of time, it quickly became clear that ClimatePartner needed to change its approach. In particular, it was necessary to break down the data silos between different tools and replace the current legacy system with a new one that would make the company more efficient. The idea was to create a powerful, sustainable, scalable and therefore future-proof cloud-based technical infrastructure for the company and to create a uniform data basis – for all its business areas.
The crucial part of the project was to involve all the departments and business units under one umbrella. Because, even though the same data basis was to be available to all and the entry into the system was to be the same for all, the needs and requirements of the various areas were diverse.
The criteria for selecting an implementation partner
After reviewing various options, the ClimatePartner team opted for the Microsoft cloud platform, especially because the company was already using the Office 365 products. In addition, the platform concept, which the company considered to be very important for them, was taken into account.
For the development and implementation of their new solution, ClimatePartner wanted to bring on board a specialist whose core competence is not only in innovative Microsoft technologies, but also in expertise with regard to possible interdependencies between the systems.
"It was important to us that all systems will be implemented so that they interact with each other smoothly and that our employees do not notice any system discontinuities in the application," explains Moritz Lehmkuhl from ClimatePartner. "In addition, the scalability, and thus future viability of the system, were particularly important, as well as the possibility of securely accessing data worldwide via the Microsoft platform."
After a thorough selection process, in which various Microsoft partners were closely evaluated, the choice of all involved stakeholders at ClimatePartner team fell unanimously on Fellowmind, which convinced them with its outstanding expertise. The decisive factors in the process was the fact that Fellowmind is internationally positioned and selected to Microsoft’s Inner Circle, which represents the top 1 percent of all Microsoft partners globally.
In particular, however, the focus was on the scalability and thus future viability of the system, as well as the possibility of securely accessing data worldwide via the Microsoft platform.
Solution
ClimatePartner also sees another advantage of having Fellowmind as their implementation partner in the project: In addition to bringing know-how to the table, Fellowmind always keeps an eye on the individual needs of its customers. In this way, the Microsoft partner ensures that the processes of both sides can be perfectly coordinated.
In the first step, the team analyzed the various processes at ClimatePartner. Based on the results of the analysis, a decision was made to build a cloud solution on Dynamics 365 which was hosted in Azure. Then, all the other applications – such as Microsoft Power Platform – was built on these. The solution now includes PowerApps for the sales process as well as PowerAutomate, which allows the automation of many steps in different processes, as well as Power BI for the evaluation of different KPIs (key performance indicators) in use. Microsoft Dynamics 365 was then the tool of choice to consolidate marketing and sales processes as well as customer service.
By building ClimatePartner’s IT landscape in this way, Fellowmind was able to bring the entire customer journey under one roof with an all-encompassing and well-integrated platform and to map all areas that a (potential) customer goes through: starting with the first enquiry, through marketing, sales and customer acquisition to CRM topics, project management processes and ongoing customer care.
Result
The data generated on the various channels, such as the website, social media or Google Ads, flow into Microsoft Dynamics via the various Microsoft tools and are bundled in one place. The advantages of such linked processes are obvious: On the one hand, the insight into the customer's actions created in this way allows a more targeted approach. On the other hand, processes can be easier automated.
Automated marketing measures, for example, allow the next process steps to be triggered after lead generation without manual effort: from lead qualification through lead scoring to finally forwarding the lead to sales. Since the various employees within the organisation also receive the data relevant to them, this opens up improved follow-up, cross-selling and up-selling opportunities, especially if price lists and possible consulting projects and training are also mapped in the same central place. Furthermore, all employees have access to exactly the same data – including the possibility to view the information from different business unit-specific perspectives.
And this is how it works: a practical example of ClimatePartner Online Academy
ClimatePartner is now in a position, for example, to optimally follow the steps that their clients take in the ClimatePartner Online Academy. The ClimatePartner Academy offers an introduction to the implementation of climate protection strategies for companies – also for companies that are not yet customers of ClimatePartner.
In the Online Academy interested stakeholders can find information about current topics in (corporate) climate protection in various online events. In order for the ClimatePartner team to evaluate the various actions (potential) customers do in the Academy, it was necessary to create a way to track those actions, and for that purpose Microsoft 365 Dynamics was a good tool to use. Now the solution provides ClimatePartner team with information about the performance of invitation mailings, such as click rates and behavior, registration and participant numbers.
Once the lead has turned into a ClimatePartner customer, the next step is to calculate the emissions of the company. The account form in Microsoft Dynamics 365, which can be customized to the client company, contains all the required information about the client. From this, ClimatePartner’s sales team can derive cross-selling and up-selling opportunities, and forecasts can also be made as to whether certain climate protection projects are beneficial for the sales project. For example, if a sales person at ClimatePartner knows that a client invests mainly in a certain technology of climate protection projects, or in a certain region, he/she can offer the client new projects that are planned in this area soon.
Conclusion: Successful 360-degree view
Today, offers tailored to the customers are becoming more and more important – also for ClimatePartner. This is exactly what the solution implemented by Fellowmind now allows: Since there are no more data silos, and the necessary information is available where it is needed in the customer process, the sales department has a 360-degree view of the customer – making Fellowmind’s "Connected Company" approach a reality.
What's more, marketing and sales processes can be automated using the powerful cloud-based business platform from Microsoft. Resources can thus be deployed in a targeted manner: instead of having to devote themselves to all contacts, employees in the respective departments can focus specifically on the leads that promise success. Nevertheless, the interaction of the tools makes it possible to individualize the next steps of action. Since the tools are also scalable, they grow with the requirements of ClimatePartner and its customers and therefore support the climate expert also in the future.
"Just like the big goal of 'climate protection' is not achieved with the implementation of a few projects, our joint journey with Fellowmind will not end with this rollout," Lehmkuhl sums up the project. "Rather, our internal company systems are like living organisms that are constantly evolving and have a continuous need for optimization. Fellowmind not only supports us in the implementation, but also advises us," he explains. "As our trusted advisor, the Microsoft partner is up to date with its solutions and has valuable knowledge from which we as a customer can benefit."
As a trusted advisor, the Microsoft partner is in tune with the times with its solutions and has valuable knowledge from which we benefit as a customer.
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