ANAIS: A Salesforce application to support the Accor group’s customer relations
The Accor Group, the world’s leading hotel operator and leader in Europe, owns, manages and franchises hotels, resorts and holiday homes around the world. In order to better meet the expectations of its B-to-B customers, Accor has developed and implemented the ANAIS (Accor New Application for Integrated Sales) tool.
Sandrine G., Anais Project Manager and Charlotte L., Team Leader Anais Run, talks to us about this Salesforce application and its dedicated team, of which Sarah, agap2 consultant, is now a member.
What are the challenges involved in implementing a tool such as ANAIS for the Accor group?
S.G.: ANAIS is a technical solution used by Accor Group’s B-to-B sales representatives. B-to-B now represents 50% of our hotels’ bookings. We, therefore, use a tailor-made customer relationship management tool. This tool allows sales forces to negotiate and set up framework contracts with major tourism players. ANAIS brings together several applications (contracting, database, reporting, etc.) and makes it possible to gather in a single solution all the information and functionalities necessary for sales teams: all the group’s data on its B-to-B customer accounts, their current and past contracts, as well as a follow-up of commercial procedures before, during and after the stay.
A team is entirely dedicated to the tool. What is its daily role?
C.L.: The Run ANAIS team, including Sarah, is composed of 6 people and carries out several missions. The first is to keep the solution in working order and provide support by answering various user questions. We are also responsible for the quality of the environments (production/pre-production/training/recipe/development) used by the teams. We also need to evolve the Salesforce tools of the ANAIS solution. For this, we are using an agile methodology.
S.G.: We needed flexibility on our ability to allocate resources to the project, which has the potential to evolve. Sarah joined the team about a month ago. agap2 was already an Accor partner and was able to be proactive by offering us a relevant profile.
How does the implementation of the Agile methodology contribute to the success of the tool?
C.L.: We’re more flexible. Unlike a project for which we commit to a given time and scope, via agility, we can adapt our priorities and work 100% on the platform for a day if necessary, without “losing” that day.
agap2 expertise insert:
Sarah joined the ANAIS team as a Salesforce Developer to improve and maintain the smooth running of the tool within the Accor group.
As a Salesforce Developer at Accor, my mission is to ensure the proper management of the various Salesforce environments (deployment/refresh) and to develop screens and processes in compliance with Accor’s own development standards, functional specifications and architectural constraints, while focusing on point & click developments. I analyse business needs and write technical specifications. Finally, I recommend solutions to promote standard developments and support the acceptance teams.
What I find interesting about Accor is that the tasks are distributed among the different team members so that everyone is involved in the development, configuration and support. This allows for the rapid exchange of knowledge and makes the work varied and challenging.
