7 Strategic Things to Consider Before You Choose After-Sales Service Management CRM Solution

In today's age of consumerism, Warranty/Service/Repair Management has become more challenging and critically important than ever. Where the marketplace is flooded with bouquet of equally good products, under-performance of after-sales service operations can delude the customers from buying your products and cause substantial opportunity loss.

Choosing the right after-sales Service Management Solution can be challenging; especially when multiple run-of-the-mill Customer Service Management providers fail to bridge the gap between business units, service channel, third-party service providers and end-customers. To help you manage your after-sales business processes effectively, this article focuses on 7 key strategies you should consider before choosing your service management solution.

Know Your Business Requirements- Evaluating your business needs is the first right step towards choosing a Customer Service Management CRM. What do you want from your service software? How do you want to improve after-sales service, minimize overhead costs associated with sales, or decrease the turn-around-around of repair process? Do you want to pay your vendors through the system? Or do you want to gather the customer data and repair history data for any future improvisation in the business process or do you want to integrate any 3rd party analytical tool for some customer behavior research? A step by step evaluation & analysis will help you simplify the buying process and proper utilization of the system.
Scalability and Usability- Checking for the scalability and usability of Customer Service Management CRM is crucial. So, check whether the proposed CRM system would help you to meet newer business processes that may arise in future. Is the system easy to upgrade? Also check the suitability of the software. Meaning, how far the software is suitable to be used as it is, without having to make any major changes.
IT Resources- How much strain will the Customer Service Management Software put on your IT team? You require a competent IT team to tackle the implementation and maintenance of either the web-based or offline application. If you are short of the technical staff that can troubleshoot errors, you must pause and re-think. The right move would be to choose a CRM vendor who offers the Customer Service Management CRM with AMC (Annual Maintenance Contract) and has a strong after-sales support team and process in place. This shall help you ease yourself from the stress of implementation, maintenance and also be cost-effective.
Technology Infrastructure- Make sure whether you want to integrate the Customer Service CRM with any other ERP or accounting software you might be using. Ask your Service CRM vendor if the software will enable you to continue leveraging your existing software and integration is easy between the different systems. At times, you may get a service management system that already has important modules that can take care of functions which are currently done by legacy software. In such case, a complete shift from the current to the new system shall be very useful but proper study should be done before going ahead with the decision, because at times unforeseen technical challenges can be showstoppers.
Industry-Specific Experience- Howsoever suitable the software may appear, check if the vendor you are choosing has the right mix of experience & know-how about businesses similar to yours. Have they implemented such software specifically for your industry? A vendor who has an understanding of your business line would be better able to structure your processes to maximize the value of the Customer Service Management Software.
Complexity of Business Processes- Another important criterion of selecting a Customer Service Management Software is to evaluate how complex are your service models. For example, if you are a mobile handset manufacturer, looking for a Service Management System vendor, analyze if you want to make the CRM available to your ASPs (Authorized Service Partners) and/or other business partners like suppliers. This will help you to gain a thorough understanding of what kind of features/modules would befit your business needs.
The Software Cost- Finding a right balance of affordability and functionality could be challenging. Cost of the Customer service management CRM may depend on several factors including the extent of customization required, 3rd party integrations, and the complexity of system modules/features. Determine your specific needs and how much you can spend as per your business model and what ROI can be built out of that in a given time-period before finalizing with the short-listing process.

If you cannot invest in fixed cost CRM models, you can also look-out for vendors who offer SaaS model (software-as-a-service) which can help you keep your expenses controlled and without much risk. Saas Model is more suitable for start-up businesses because you pay as you grow and you get everything (after-sales support, hosting, maintenance, software upgrades) pre-packaged and pay no other additional recurring cost except the monthly license cost.

Choosing the right Customer Service Management Software can mean the difference between success and failure of your CRM & MIS initiative. Though, there can be many more things that can be considered, if you are assessing these seven areas, you will be at least be confident about your decision and will not burn your monies on a solution which may appear to be very lucrative but a mis-match to your business processes.

Rakesh Kumar is a business consultant of Zed Service?. Zed Service? is a leading service management software in India. Zed Service? has lots of innovative features including repair management software, customer services software etc. To know more visit our website http://www.service-management-software.net now!

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Network Management Solutions For Service Desk Software

Monitor the heartbeat of your critical business services.

Many organisations monitor the health of business services using infrastructure management tools. Infrastructure management tools monitor and report on issues with the underlying hardware, software and networks supporting the services required by the business. In addition to management tools, most organisations have implemented service desk software to manage the logging and resolution of issues with the underlying infrastructure. Often the infrastructure management and service desk/technical support groups operate as silo departments. Typically, the systems used by these departments are not tightly coupled because it requires extensive effort and cost to integrate. We believe that it is critical that these groups and systems are fully integrated so that the business benefits from a unified, end-to-end service management approach.

Providing end to end service management means that you need to be in control of all factors that may influence your service. What many organisations tend to overlook are the alerts which are triggered by infrastructure management tools. These alerts can throw your service management planning into chaos.

Defining Infrastructure Alerts

Alerts have a direct impact on your level of service. It is important to measure IT's performance in addressing these alerts and the impact it has on services provided to the organization. Many types of alerts are entered into Incident Management. Since most organisations do not properly identify alerts, they run the risk of not being able to track which incidents were created from management tools and which incidents were created by IT staff or end users. Recognizing the source of the incident will help organize the services that IT provides and ensure that normal day-to-day work does not suffer.

Following are examples of the types of alerts from most management systems:

1. Alerts that require immediate attention.

2. Wake up alerts

3. Awareness alerts

1. Alerts that require immediate attention

These alerts are the most important to your organization. For example, this could be a message saying that your server has gone down, possibly because a fan is not working (for example). If the server runs your organization's critical applications, once identified, all appropriate resources must immediately address the issue.

2. Wake up alerts

Messages from your system to warn you that you need to act on something, which is less important but must be done.

3. Awareness alerts

Messages that just inform you how the systems are doing, what the status is, etc...

Typically, these alerts are managed by different priorities and different SLA's, which will have a different impact on the service of your organization. And managing the service of your organization is something that needs to be supported by your service desk software solution.

Service Desk Software Configuration and Integration with Monitoring Tools

The organization has to ensure that when an alert is generated by the management tool, a ticket is immediately logged in the service desk software solution. The service desk software must be configured so that it is able to recognize the type of messages and automatically assign the ticket to the appropriate group or individual. Service thresholds and service rules can be defined to manage the resolution of the ticket over its life cycle.

Running reports and setting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) against the alerts and the time to resolve will help you to improve your service instantly and help you keep control of all aspects that impact your service, using one single front end solution which is already there: Your Service Desk

In order to provide end-to-end service management you have to integrate your service desk software with infrastructure management tools. One popular application is Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM). SCOM will be configured to monitor the infrastructure for specific alerts. When a configured alert occurs the 'event' is forwarded to a central SCOM server, where a database is held which includes a history of alerts.

The ease of integration with popular software products has often been a moot subject, however this has now been resolved.

Next to the standard Network Management interface in IncidentMonitor?, Monitor 24-7 has developed an easy to setup, out of the box solution for a robust, bi-directional integration with Microsoft SCOM. The IncidentMonitor? SCOM connector leverages the IncidentMonitor? Network Management subsystem. The IncidentMonitor? SCOM connector and the IncidentMonitor? Network Management subsystem are provided out of the box at no additional cost.

IncidentMonitor? is a comprehensive Service Desk / Help Desk software application which is ITIL compatible and PinkVerfied for 10 ITIL processes. It is available both on-premises (locally installed) and SaaS licensing models which accomodate varying budget and corporate needs.

For more information: http://servicedesksoftware.monitor24-7.com/itil-service-desk-software.asp

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Field Service Management Reporting Strategy

As both customer demand and competition increase and become more complex, you must continually strive to grow service revenue and profits through innovation and improved productivity. This involves managing various (and sometimes new) service products and service level agreements - often with new and unique characteristics and requirements.

Managing all of this data requires a comprehensive reporting strategy that properly identifies and measures all key metrics. At the same time, you must set manageable targets or other comparisons for each metric. The most effective method of managing large volumes of data is to use exception reporting to identify and track the variances. By quantifying these variances you can prioritize and develop actionable items to address critical shortfalls.

None of the above is simple or easy to implement. But without a planned approached, the reporting will be disconnected and incomplete. In addition, unless standardized reports are used consistently across your entire field service business, the ability to implement and enforce best-practice procedures will be greatly compromised.

Addressing the entire breadth of service reporting can be daunting. This article discusses one segment of service operational reporting which is generally focused on efficiencies and resource management with a short-term (1-30 day) outlook. Specifically, we will look at the Standard Service Pipeline Report structure which provides a holistic approach to track each customer request as it flows through your entire service process.

Common Legacy Reporting Problems

Chances are your field service reporting has grown over time with little forethought or strategic planning. Many reports may have originated as ad hoc or special-purpose requests from multiple sources that have eventually evolved to a loosely organized set of standard reports. This will undoubtedly lead to many shortcomings:

Blind Spots. Field Service data can be complex and difficult to obtain. As a result, there is an understandable tendency to primarily measure data that is easily available, such as the number of incoming calls or the number of invoices generated. This hit-and-miss reporting structure will create blind spots that could result in bottlenecks throughout the process.

Inconsistent Data. Many of your existing reports may essentially provide the same information, but approach it from different angles or for different purposes. Similar reports will often have conflicting (or at least inconsistent) data and be difficult to cross reference.

Inconsistent use of Exceptions/Variances. You likely do not have enough resources to attack every problem or every instance of non-compliance. Therefore, you must focus on the largest exceptions that require immediate attention. Without specific targets to identify variances, the report reader will only be looking at data or, perhaps worse, left to maker their own interpretations of what is important.

Confusing and Inconsistent terminology. Another result of creating reports from multiple sources over an extended period of time is the propagation of multiple terms and codes - many of which may be vague or otherwise poorly defined.

Revenue Centric. In many companies the reporting is heavily weighed towards the final stages of the process (completion and invoicing). While important, this relegates service reporting to merely score-keeping - not as an operation management tool. Revenue is generally an end-game result. It answers the question "What has happened" not "What is happening."

The Standard Service Pipeline Report Structure

Every field service event passes through several gates or checkpoints. Not only do these provide specific points of measurement (providing the opportunity to establish firm targets) but they also represent single points of failure or potential bottlenecks. The goal of this report is aide service managers in their efforts to forecast demand and adjust resources, address and remove obstacles (bottlenecks), and identify and watch for potential leaks (both revenue and service performance).

The Standard Service Pipeline Report structure monitors the progress of a field service event throughout the entire critical process. The report may track several checkpoints, but at a minimum should include the following:

Opened/Not Dispatched - Service request has been received and entered in to the Service Management System, but has not been assigned and/or dispatched to a field technician.

In many instances, the field technician will not have visibility to new service events until they are dispatched. Timely dispatching is critical to meeting customer and internal Response and Resolution Time requirements and to avoiding non-productive time in the field. In addition, accurate forecasting depends on a reasonable estimate of the workload and revenue potential of incoming service requests. Mishandled service requests (not dispatched or dispatched to the wrong service technician/area) can cause momentary decreases and increases in call volume distributed to the field. This causes additional stress throughout the system as calls are continually re-prioritized and rescheduled.

Dispatched/Not Started - Service requesr has been communicated to the field technician, but no technician on-site labor activity has been logged.

Service requests can be lost in the handoff from the dispatch center to the field or from various handoffs within each team. This is the first critical metric (Response Time) of many Service Level Agreements (SLA) and generally has a high correlation with customer satisfaction. In some cases, this may just be a lack of communication (e.g., the work has been started but no information has been forwarded to the back office support team). In terms of managing service events, lack of communication has the same negative impact as not actually arriving on site.

Started/Not Completed - Technician has begun at least one on-site activity, but service order has not been marked as Complete (in the SMS).

Resolution Time is the next key customer metric and in many cases the most important. It also marks the final stage of the field's direct involvement with the service event (other than forwarding completed paperwork). Delays in completing and finalizing service requests will greatly impact the collection efforts required. In most cases you have already absorbed the costs for these service requests, so all revenue leakage has a direct negative impact on bottom line profits.

Competed/Not Invoiced - All on-site activities have been completed, but the customer invoice has not been generated.

All of your efforts up to this point have limited meaning until the service request is invoiced. This is in effect the final internal scorecard of your performance. Many bottlenecks at this checkpoint are the result of inefficiencies further up the pipeline - but they are more visible here. Potential leaks can be numerous and include keying errors, oversights, customer contract setup, pricing policies, etc.

There are of course multiple interim steps within the major categories above, but these provide a reasonable level of granularity for reporting and management purposes without over-burdening technicians and support personnel with extraneous detail. Ideally, you should have back-up detailed reports for each of these four major areas showing the drill-down to service area or individual technician

The information shown on the Standard Pipeline Report typically includes Counts of Service Requests and Average Age (from original opened date/time). It is also helpful to included percentages, standard deviation, and minimum and maximum values.

All metrics, with reasonable comparisons, must be clearly established and consistently measured. These metrics should be routinely reviewed by management and adjusted as necessary to set higher standards, meet new market demands, and support the financial and marketing goals of the company.

A properly implemented Standard Pipeline Report will greatly improve visibility to bottlenecks and potential revenue leaks within your field service process and indicate where you should focus Lean Six Sigma or other process improvement activities.

LR Lewis

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Why a CPA is a Natural For Providing Management Consulting Services

During my travels in the eastern half of the United States and Canada providing consulting services to small businesses, it never failed to surprise me when I heard repeatedly from clients that their expectations were for their public accountants to provide organizational performance improvement services to them as part of their ongoing relationship. But when questioning these small business owners as to whether basic analytical, planning and profit improvement activities were being provided by the CPAs, the answer was always a reluctant no. Having had an earlier career as a public accountant, I explained to the business owners that the consulting services had not been contracted for with the CPAs, and that the CPAs had primarily agreed to provide compliance services, including the preparation of the annual financial statements and entity income tax returns. I further explained that having obtained a Master of Science in Accountancy degree and having taught at several colleges, it was clear to me why their public accountants were not offering management consulting or organizational performance improvement services to their small businesses.

As you know, an accounting education is primarily focused on the recording, categorizing, summarizing and reporting of financial data in a manner that reflects the standards prescribed in Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, which are developed and published by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. This mission is no insignificant matter. Without public accountants available to report financial information in a standardized way, third-party users, including banks, vendors, and government agencies, would not be able to get a clear and unbiased view into a company's financial performance and condition. So having been trained to report financial data, the public accountants have mostly focused on compliance services as their primary domain.

Training and Skills

However, as I have provided consulting services to clients over the past decade I have often reflected on why public accountants do not weave management consulting services into their service mix. It is clear that accountants have much of the training, analytical skills, and core competencies necessary to help businesses solve their performance problems and increase the profitability and value of their organizations.

The world of business today depends greatly upon data to measure performance and gain insight as to what types of products, processes and personnel provide value to their organizations. As a former accountant I know the trap that I and many other professionals can fall into. That is, accountants, as professionals and experts in the field of accounting and finance, often assume that their technical and problem-solving skills are possessed by many others. In other words, they often devalue their level of knowledge and expertise because it has become somewhat familiar and easy for them; therefore they believe others must possess these skills as well. This belief is obviously not true. Having worked alongside consultants who do not have sound financial backgrounds I can tell you that the lack of the kind of in-depth financial knowledge that CPA's possess puts them in a league of their own in the consulting arena. The connection between a business's performance on multiple levels in an organization and the resulting impact on the financial results is a relationship that is unambiguous to accounting professionals, but often unclear to non-financial professionals: it is more difficult for them to connect the dots.

Having this insight into how businesses work and how their performance is reflected objectively in financial data and reporting is a large prerequisite to becoming an effective management consultant. Another way of describing this condition would be to label it as financial literacy. I have often told clients that their financial statements, particularly when viewed over a multi-year span for trends, really tells a story about the company's successes and failures, financial strength, and resilience to future unknown events and economic conditions. Having an individual who can teach a client not only how to read and interpret financial data, but also how management's decisions and actions can affect the organization's performance for the better, is an invaluable and essential resource.

Where Accounting Ends and Consulting Begins...

In explaining how my role as a management consultant differs from my former role as a CPA/public accountant, I have shared with clients that since public accountants are primarily focused on compliance services, the use of clients' financial data usually stops with the publishing of the annual financial statements and tax returns. They may view the financial statements and tax returns, and therefore the data within them, as the final product (you could refer to the report generation or compliance process as data manufacturing, and once the data is manufactured, the process is complete). It is understandable that the public accountant would view the data this way. And it is important that they do take this prospective as compliance providers, because without accurate financial data, consultants and other users of financial information cannot tell how well a client's business is performing, or how serious the financial condition of the company might be. In fact, without reliable financial information, organizational performance consulting services cannot be delivered because there would be no way to measure the impact of the steps in the improvement/consulting process.

But as a management consultant, this same financial data is generally where my services begin. Consultants do not view the data as an end product, but instead as a resource and a starting point for organizational performance improvement. Financial data is like a language for business, and it translates the company's activities, and successes and failures, into objective code that measures the true economic results. Therefore, in order for public accountants to add consulting services to their skill set, it will be necessary for them to view data not only as an end product in the compliance process, but also as a resource for performance measurement and improvement.

Why Would a CPA's Client Want Him to Provide Organizational Improvement Consulting Services?

There are several reasons why it would be an advantage to your clients for their CPA to provide consulting services to them. They include your knowledge of the organization and its products and services, your understanding of the owner's temperament and management style, the trust that the owner currently has in you, the level of quality that you will be able to provide once you have been trained in sound consulting techniques, and the flexibility that you will have in the pace at which you deliver the services and facilitate change.

Your Knowledge of the Organization

In your role as a public accountant you have observed your client's business over time, albeit from afar (not intimately as a management consultant would). You have therefore arrived at some possible conclusions as to why the client's business may not be performing to the standards that either you or he thinks is possible. However, because your observations have been somewhat casual or indirect, your conclusions may or may not be well-founded. So you will need to do the due diligence involved in the business analysis process. But even though your assessment may not be correct, you have at least become familiar with some of the managers and employees, and you will also have a preliminary idea as to what the owner thinks the problems are derived from. Of course his observations and beliefs will need to be vetted too. So although you will not know the true causes of the company's problems, you will know that one of your first goals will be to confirm or dispel yours and the owner's perceptions of the organization's limitations.

Products & Services

Likewise, after having dealt with the client for a few years you may have an idea as to the general level of quality of the products and services that he provides. This may be through your own experience or through the experiences of friends, neighbors, or fellow business associates. This awareness will give you a head start in assessing the organization's image in the marketplace.

The Owner's Temperament & Management Style

Having a general idea as to the owner's temperament and management style will enable you to adapt how you communicate with him regarding issues and possible operational changes. You will not need to explore these aspects of the owner's behavior like you will need to with a new client. This will take a level of uncertainty out of the contract negotiations.

The Owner's Trust

After having dealt with the owner over a few years you will have gained a level of trust with him regarding your integrity, that is, doing what you say you will do for services at an agreed to price.

Quality Expectation

You will have already demonstrated a level of quality and consistency through your compliance engagements, so the client will know what you consider to be quality services, both in terms of technical performance as well as timeliness. This will provide you with a certain level of credibility right from the start.

The Pace of Change

Although there may be some accommodations required to adapt your consulting practice around your tax/high season schedule, you will be able to deliver the services at a pace that is comfortable for the client, enabling him to learn and adopt concepts at a rate that does not disrupt his business in a negative way. That approach is not always adopted by out of town consultants who prefer to concentrate the consulting services over a shorter period of time to meet their own control and travel expense needs.

Will Your Reputation as a Public Accountant Positively Impact Your Image with Referral Sources?

Commercial loan and workout officers at banks and commercial attorneys continue to be leading referral sources for not only compliance services, but management consulting services as well. Having already demonstrated a level of professionalism and quality with these individuals will serve you well when they become aware that you will be providing organizational improvement services.

If you were one of these referral sources ready to recommend an accounting firm to a client, would you refer the client to a firm that provides only compliance services, or one that provides organizational improvement services as well? Most likely the latter, because although the client may not need improvement now, there will be some comfort in having him served by a firm that can deliver the improvement services at a later date, if needed.

At Client Performance Solutions we have a well-structured, effective and efficient model for transferring management consulting skills to CPAs. The process is progressive and involves not only the technical requirements, but also the interpersonal aspects of facilitating and promoting positive organizational change in small businesses.

In Summary

So based on all of these reasons, would a CPA make a great candidate for management consulting services? Yes! CPA's can make a smooth transition into providing organizational improvement services, and they definitely will be able to help the small business improve its profitability and value!

By Clint Strout, Principal, Client Performance Solutions, LLC

Clint Strout, Principal Client Performance Solutions, LLC

Mr. Strout has been a CPA, controller, business analyst, strategic planner, college instructor, small business owner, and management consultant. He has observed public accounting firms and their partner/owners for over 35 years. Learn more at WWW.ClientPerformance.com.

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Charlie Sheen Signs TV Deal for 'Anger Management'

Charlie Sheen has made a deal that will — possibly — bring him back to television in a new situation comedy.

Mr. Sheen, whose turbulent departure from the hit CBS sitcom “Two and a Half Men” was among the most widely covered television stories of the year, has agreed to star in a show based on the movie “Anger Management” to be produced by the successful independent production company Lionsgate (“Mad Men,” “Nurse Jackie,” “Weeds”).

The proposed show, announced by Lionsgate on Monday, has no network deal yet, however.

An assortment of production entities are behind the project, including Joe Roth’s Revolution Studio, which produced the film that starred Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson. The release announcing the deal described the show as only “loosely based” on the film. In the movie, Mr. Sandler played a businessman wrongly sent to an anger management program where he was matched up with an aggressive counselor, played by Mr. Nicholson.

Mr. Sheen will also have an equity stake in the project. He and Mr. Roth have worked on several films together, most notably the comedy hit “Major League.”

But the project lacks its most significant partner: a network willing to take a chance on Mr. Sheen. Lionsgate has relationships with multiple cable networks, including AMC, Showtime and TBS.

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Pepsi Can't Stop Reshuffling Management — And Its Brand Is Falling Apart Because Of It (PEP)

Since November 2007, PepsiCo (PEP) has moved senior executives within the marketing ranks of its soda and beverage brands eleven different times, the last three of which were confirmed June 20 by Ad Age. Nineteen of the top marketers at Pepsi were not in their jobs three years ago, according to Carlos Laboy, an analyst with Credit Suisse.

This time around, two of the new top marketers at Pepsi carry the comedic job titles of “senior VP/global hydration” and “president/global enjoyment.” The former is actually in charge of Aquafina and SoBe; the latter oversees trademark Pepsi and other soft-drink brands. Don’t worry if you don’t understand the logic of their titles; there’ll be another management shuffle coming along in a few months.

Pepsi’s main problem, of course, is that it needs to stop reorganizing altogether. The company has spent so long in a series of management shuffles that management shuffling is now at the heart of its strategic problems. It’s a peripheral issue at most companies. Executives leave, taking their institutional knowledge with them. Greenhorns take a while to get up to speed. Time is lost while they switch ad agencies. But rarely do personnel moves imperil the brand itself.

‘Executives close to the company are baffled’

At Pepsi, CEO Indra Nooyi has tolerated such a high level of turnover on her soda portfolio that it is as if the company is going through the same kind of crisis as when a CEO moves on and fails to name a successor: The entire place is grinding to a halt while everyone figures out who’s on first.

As a result, Pepsi’s progress in the marketplace is faltering. Its social media strategy has been left in the dust by Coca-Cola (KO). Pepsi the brand now runs third in popularity behind Coke and Diet Coke. Gatorade abandoned its name in favor of a a series of confusing sub-brands such as “G Prime 01,” and “G Recover 03.” Ad Age noted:

Executives close to the company are baffled as to how the new structure will operate, questioning who, exactly, brand teams will report to.

To illustrate that, consider that I’ve been writing this blog longer than Jill Beraud, the former chief marketing officer/PepsiCo Beverages America, held her job. In the new move, Beraud is being replaced by three (!) execs:

• Lorraine Hansen from Kraft will be svp/global hydration.


• Brad Jakeman, former evp/chief marketing officer at Activision Blizzard becomes president/global enjoyment and chief creative officer.


• Simon Lowden, previously a chief marketer at Pepsi International, becomes chief marketing officer of PepsiCo Beverages Co.in North America, excluding Gatorade and Tropicana.


• All three report to CEO-PepsiCo Beverages America , who reports to Nooyi, except Lowden, who reports to Eric Foss, the CEO of Pepsi Beverages Co.

More churn ahead

If you can understand the difference between the “CEO-PepsiCo Beverages America” and the “CEO of Pepsi Beverages Co.,” you’re a better person than I. Their titles imply that one supervises U.S. operations while the other has international duties, but Lowden, the North America marketer, reports to Foss, who has the non-American title. Hmm.

The company is poised for more churn among its agencies. Omnicom (OMC) ad agencies BBDO, TBWA/Chiat/Day and OMD handle Pepsi globally, but they all have new clients now. That does not bode well: new clients tend to want their own teams, not the previous guy’s. The years of experience that Omnicom has acquired serving Pepsi may now, also, get thrown out the window.

The constant in all this is d’Amore (pictured), who has been in the same job the longest and to whom all the others (mostly) report. Normally, when a chief marketer sits atop a brand for a period of years, they become so expert at the job that improvements are seen in sales and reputation. That is not happening at Pepsi. It is he who bears ultimate responsibility for the mess underneath him. Presumably, Nooyi’s patience has a time limit.

This post originally appeared at BNET.

Please follow War Room on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• The 10 States With The Most And Least Educated Lawmakers
• Can Your Company Succeed Once The Founder Leaves?
• Great People Are Overrated

Generated by BlogIt

BlogIt - Auto Blogging Software for YOU!