TENNECO DRIVES SALES WITH TABLETS

COMPANY: Tenneco

HEADQUARTERS: Lake Forest, Ill.

EMPLOYEES: About 26,000 worldwide

DESCRIPTION: Tenneco designs, manufactures and distributes clean air and ride performance products and systems for the automotive, commercial truck and off-highway markets and the aftermarket. Its North American Aftermarket business unit manufactures and sells replacement auto parts to distributors and retail auto parts stores. The company’s brand names include Monroe®, Walker®, XNOx® and Clevite® Elastomer.

At a Glance

A global auto parts supplier taps tablets to increase sales productivity and profits.

Susan Keshen says Tenneco sales representatives using tablets can now share media-rich materials with their customers and answer questions or troubleshoot problems on the spot.

CASE STUDY

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Mechanics and car owners rely on high-quality

replacement auto parts supplied and manufactured by

Tenneco to boost their vehicles’ performance. Today, the

far-reaching sales force of Tenneco’s North American

Aftermarket business unit also relies on extra help in the

form of Apple iPad devices.

The unit’s sales representatives rarely bring their

notebook computers on sales calls, typically because

they are too bulky and take too long to boot up in front of

busy customers who have no time to waste, says Susan

Keshen, business analyst for Tenneco’s aftermarket sales

automation group.

“When our salespeople walk into shops, the people

managing the counter are dealing with their own customers.

That’s their first priority. We’re fighting for their attention

span,” she says. “When we want to introduce new products

and show new marketing collateral, we can’t say, ‘Let me fire

up a laptop and PowerPoint. Give me five to 10 minutes.’ ”

Thanks to Tenneco’s recent deployment of iPad Air

tablets, purchased and configured through CDW, sales

team members can now instantly launch presentations on

their tablets, gaining quick access to corporate applications

and product and customer databases. The improved access

yields immediate information and answers while boosting

Tenneco’s bottom line, Keshen says.

The Tenneco unit is not alone in its enthusiasm for tablets

in business. Many industries and departments rely on the

devices to boost productivity, increase efficiencies and

improve customer service. Because they are light and

portable, tablets represent an ideal form factor

for salespeople and other more

mobile workers, says Rob Michuda,

Wintel/messaging supervisor

for Tenneco Global Infrastructure

Operations and Service.

“The big thing is their convenience

for our sales force,” he says. “Going

from customer to customer, the iPads

are just easier to carry and use.”

Work Faster, Save Money Prior to Tenneco’s tablet deployment,

Keshen was tasked with updating

her unit’s custom, web-based

customer relationship management

(CRM) software. After talking it over

with some sales team members,

she discovered that what they truly

needed were tablets.

The unit’s sales team sells replacement auto parts, such

as shock absorbers, struts, brakes and emissions control

products, to automotive channels that include auto repair

shops, retail auto parts stores and car dealerships.

Sales team members typically work out of their home

offices, where they use company-issued notebook

computers. For in-person calls, they required a different

technology.

“The more I talked to them, the more I realized tablets

would help,” Keshen says.

In the past, salespeople visited their customers or

prospective clients and provided paper brochures with

information on their products. When customers had

questions, the salesperson would jot down notes on paper.

“They’d collect the tasks and, at the end of the day, go

home, turn on their computer and take care of each, one by

one,” Keshen says. “We wanted to help them become more

efficient. Why not answer the questions immediately with

an iPad while they’re right there with the customer?”

Over the summer, the unit’s sales team received

32-gigabyte iPad Air tablets with protective cases. So far,

the greatest benefit is improved productivity, Keshen says,

but the tablets are also saving Tenneco on the bottom

line. Sales team members can use the devices to connect

directly to Tenneco’s CRM tool, access a product database,

answer inventory-related questions or troubleshoot

installation issues on the spot.

“They no longer have to call back later with answers,”

she says. “That’s made a huge difference. Our customers

are impressed.”

If a customer complains that a

muffler can’t be fitted or suspects

it may be damaged, a member of

Tenneco’s sales team can use a

tablet to take pictures or video of the

part, email the company’s technical

support department and receive a

quick response through email or the

phone. Such troubleshooting also

saves money by reducing shipping

costs, Keshen says. Previously,

Tenneco’s salespeople had to ship

the parts in question back to the

business unit’s headquarters in

Monroe, Mich., to obtain a diagnosis.

Keshen estimates that if the sales

team can cut shipping by 25 percent,

it will save the unit $25,000 annually.

“Our team at headquarters can

confirm that the product can be

CASE STUDY

$35KThe amount Tenneco’s North American Aftermarket business unit will save annually by deploying iPad Air devices to the sales team

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Managing Tablets with MDM More businesses rely on mobile device management (MDM) software to

manage and secure their smartphones and tablets and to distribute apps

to employees.

Tenneco standardized on cloud-based Fiberlink’s Maas360 MDM

software because of its ease of use, says Rob Michuda, Wintel/

messaging supervisor for Tenneco’s Global Infrastructure Operations

and Service.

“We didn’t want to bring in any on-premises infrastructure and have to

manage upgrades,” he says.

The MDM solution allows Tenneco IT to set policies that require company-

owned tablet and smartphone users to enter passwords to protect the

devices. Should an employee lose a device, or if one is stolen, IT can wipe

the device’s memory remotely, he says.

Tenneco recently deployed iPad Air tablets to members of its North

American Aftermarket sales force, but has also equipped executives with

iPad tablets and will soon implement a bring-your-own-device (BYOD)

initiative to allow employees to use their personal mobile devices for

work. The MDM software will protect Tenneco’s data on the employees’

devices, he says.

installed or conclude it’s damaged, and we can just send

them a replacement without having to ship the old one

back,” she says. Keshen also notes that reducing printed

sales materials by showing marketing and product

information on the tablets saves another $10,000 a year

on paper and printer ink.

Choices AboundTenneco tested five different tablets for three months

before standardizing on the full-sized iPad Air. Keshen

created a matrix to compare each device’s cost, quality

and features, including weight, size and screen resolution,

camera quality, available memory, security controls and the

ease with which each device could be powered on and off.

“The device had to be intuitive and user friendly for

the salespeople to turn on and easily tap through and

find information. It became clear that the iPad met those

requirements,” she says.

Keshen launched a second beta test to help build the

business case for purchasing the devices. For four months,

sales team members regularly filled out detailed reports,

noting how the device improved their productivity and how

much was saved on shipping or printing costs.

“We described all of the savings, and the senior

management said, ‘You know what? You do have a business

case. We get it.’ And they funded the purchase,” she says.

CDW Gets the AssistAt Tenneco, about 10 to 15 people worked on the iPad

project from start to finish, from the IT, sales automation,

purchasing and supply chain management departments,

Keshen says.

To ensure that the devices would be ready to connect to

the corporate network and crucial applications right out of

the box, Tenneco turned to CDW to purchase and configure

each iPad Air distributed to the aftermarket unit’s U.S.

salespeople.

Michuda and a handful of Tenneco IT staffers visited

CDW’s Configuration Center in Vernon Hills, Ill., to discuss

their needs. They asked the CDW team to create Apple IDs

for each user, download several business apps onto each

device, activate Verizon cellular data plans and tether the

devices to Tenneco’s Fiberlink MaaS360 mobile device

management (MDM) software.

Tenneco’s IT department had purchased the MDM

software previously to manage and secure new iPhones

issued to employees. Once the iPad tablet project was

funded, Tenneco’s IT team was able to use the same

software to manage and secure the new devices.

“There is a lot involved with configuration, and CDW

helped reduce our manpower needs,” Michuda says. “The people we

met at CDW were very knowledgeable. They understood the space

and were very beneficial.”

CDW team members comprehend the many shortcuts and

nuances of quick and efficient device configuration, says Christopher

Brooks, an engineer within the CDW configuration center. CDW

worked directly with Apple to have fraud restrictions lifted, allowing

CDW’s certified technicians to create Apple IDs for Tenneco en

masse over the same IP address.

Moreover, rather than purchasing apps individually, Tenneco

took advantage of Apple’s Volume Purchasing Program through

the advice of CDW. The program allows Tenneco to purchase apps

in bulk, integrate them easily into the MDM environment and better

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manage it all, Brooks says. Tenneco purchased an app

to make PowerPoint presentations and another to allow

sales teams to view and edit Microsoft Office files.

During the configuration process, CDW also worked

with the Tenneco IT staff and several vendors to iron out

minor glitches to ensure the apps, MDM security policies

and network access also functioned bug-free, says Avi

Nutkis, a configuration technician at CDW’s Configuration

Center.

“We have contacts not just at Apple, but also with MDM

vendors and communications service providers. That

way, if there are questions, we can make a direct call for

immediate help. That saves a lot of time,” Nutkis says.

When one particular app failed to download correctly

using the MDM software, the CDW team quickly got on the

phone with Tenneco and Fiberlink to resolve the problem,

says Senior Account Manager Kevin McGrane.

“Our engineers worked with Tenneco’s IT staff to make

sure everything went smoothly from start to finish,” he says.

McGrane recommended two cases to protect Tenneco’s

tablets: Griffin Technology’s rugged Survivor case, with a

built-in screen protector that can safeguard iPad devices

when they are dropped; and a Logitech Folio case and a

3M screen protector, which are especially suitable for

sales managers in meetings or office settings.

About half the staff chose the Griffin Survivor, the other

half chose the Logitech Folio cases, and a few chose other

options, McGrane says.

Nothing but Benefits Keshen says Tenneco could not have rolled out the tablets

successfully without CDW’s expertise: “The technicians

who were responsible for the configuration were in

contact with us constantly.”

CASE STUDY

Now that each sales team member has an iPad, Tenneco

can roll out more apps, and plans are in the works for

a new, more feature-rich, cloud-based CRM tool in 2015,

Keshen says.

To further increase productivity, Tenneco also

purchased iPads for tech support, allowing them to

communicate quickly — even videoconference — with

the sales staff to diagnose and troubleshoot parts

problems, she says.

Carl Tellier, a Tenneco area sales manager based in

southeast Michigan, says he can now accomplish about

95 percent of everything he does on a given day using his

iPad, including check email, show sales presentations and

type notes following each sales meeting.

Tellier says he makes 10 to 15 sales visits daily, but no

longer needs to carry marketing brochures. Now that he

shows product information to his customers using his

tablet, he can also email copies to them to review later.

“The iPad has definitely made me more efficient, and it’s

been a tremendous time saver in all aspects of what I do

daily,” he says.

Keshen says she’s received similar feedback from the

rest of the sales force. As the company expected, the

business unit is seeing increased productivity and cost

savings: “The sales team members call me up and say,

‘This thing is awesome. I’m doing things on the fly now

that I didn’t think I’d ever be able to do.’ And that’s exactly

the response we were hoping for.”

Ready to learn more about deploying tablets to your employees? Check

out the Total Mobility Management ebook, available through CDW’s Tech

Insights app: CDW.com/TImobility.

“When our users approach customers with tablets, they are perceived as more knowledgeable and professional.”— Susan Keshen, Tenneco

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