Suntory Oceania Taps into SAP CX Tools to Deliver Omnichannel Customer Experience

Barbara Ciancio, Head of Digital IT Solutions, Suntory Oceania

At the recent SAP NOW ANZ event in Sydney, Suntory Oceania explained how its customer experience transformation program and integration of SAP CX tools has helped it lift its customer service levels at scale. 

At the recent SAP NOW event, Barbara Ciancio, Suntory Oceania Head of Digital IT Solutions, discussed with SAP VP and Head of Enterprise Chris Willcocks how the leading beverage manufacturer has integrated SAP Customer Experience (CX) tools to enhance its customer insights and drive data-informed decisions.

During the customer track session on 6th August 2024 in Sydney, Ciancio shared that Suntory Oceania is set to deliver a $400 million carbon-neutral beverage facility in Queensland, describing it as the “biggest investment in FMCG in the southern hemisphere at the moment”.

However, as a result of this rapid expansion, Suntory Oceania needed to find a solution that would allow it to scale without losing “that magic” the company prides itself on – its deep commitment to customer centricity.  

“We have old systems that are hard to maintain where every time we had something new it’d take months just to regression test everything. So it was a clear decision early on to go clean with very strong foundations and transform from there,” Ciancio said.

As a result, Suntory Oceania undertook a CX transformation program, overhauling its back office, its core business, and customer experience, which began three years ago. The approach was divided into three key pillars: face-to-face interaction to enable access to real-time mobile applications, self-service through an online B2B platform, and providing a toolset for its customer service team to enhance both incoming and outgoing interactions. 

At the centre of the program was the goal to create a customer-centric omnichannel experience.

“No matter how you interact ... we want to be able to offer an excellent service. In order to do that, we need to use technology in a very smart way and be tailored for every channel,” she added.

After six months of launching the first deployment – a one-stop shop, real-time Apple iOS native app connected to the core and analytics environment – the company experienced a 13% productivity gain.

“What does it mean? Instead of everyone having to get ready for every interaction, having to make sense of all the different reports and getting ready for the sort of conversations they needed to have, they now have a system to guide that process … meaning the calls were shorter,” Ciancio explained.

Additionally, the application provided access to analytics, leading to consistent real-time recommendations and a 3% uplift in revenue in six months.   

With the face-to-face phase complete, Ciancio told ANZSAP the next step will involve overhauling its self-service B2B platform, before providing the same tools to its back-office contact centre team.

“In the old platform, we just couldn’t keep up because you always had to do those massive upgrades.  We’re really looking forward to the new way of getting up-to-date systems.”

During the session Willcocks also asked Ciancio about Suntory Oceania’s use of AI. Ciancio revealed that the company is currently running a global AI training program to understand what AI tools can be used, and how.  For example, Microsoft Copilot and how it can be used, for instance, to help people work on presentations, bring in analytics, and for compelling storytelling.

Speaking to ANZSAP, Ciancio further elaborated on another of SAP’s AI initiatives: the formation of Centres of Excellence (CoE), one focused on smart analytics and the other on AI and automation.

“[For the AI and Automation CoE], how can we transform non-valuable tasks that people are doing every day – repetitive tasks – to be done faster, so they can reinvest more time for thinking or value-add tasks … and AI has a role,” she said.

“Then it comes to the transformation of our existing systems and processes and how we can start planning components that we can enhance and make these systems smarter. We’re not necessarily reinventing everything but feeding data faster from different sources or providing more insights that we currently don’t have.

“There are a lot of ideas – some in motion and some things in the pipeline. The core is about making everyone smarter and more efficient when scaling; it’s not a replacement.”

Ultimately, Ciancio emphasised Suntory Oceania’s focus is on being where the customers are and tailoring its offering according to the customer journey.

“If you have a big concert or big sports event, the dynamics of consumers and businesses in the area will change.  So we’re anticipating that and being there and understanding what is happening and tailoring your offering to create the right experience,” she said.

“It's all about that simplification and seamless experience and getting the relevant information when it’s needed.”