Liberty Information Technology, otherwise known as Liberty IT announced in the first half of 2011 that they are adding on 35 new jobs.

Liberty IT was created in 1997 in Belfast to provide software development support to its insurance operations throughout the world. This hiring spree was a 25% growth rate for new employees since the beginning of 2010.

“Liberty IT’s software development contributions have helped Liberty Mutual become a leading global property and casualty insurer, and we’re delighted to make today’s announcement of continued job creation in Belfast,” said Edmund F. Kelly, Liberty Mutual’s prior Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, who has since retired. “The quality and dedication of the region’s workforce is superb, which has helped Liberty IT sustain strong employment growth as it supports Liberty Mutual’s strategic technology initiatives.”

James McGlennon, Liberty Mutual Group Chief Information Officer said, “Our technology capabilities must keep pace with the demands and complexity of Liberty Mutual Group’s operations and customer needs, both of which exist throughout the world. Today’s announcement demonstrates our commitment and confidence in Liberty IT and its ability to develop leading edge software.”

In addition to the hiring of additional staff at Liberty IT in UK, Liberty Mutual also opened a new information technology development center in Boston and hired 100 new full-time employees to staff the operation. This is in addition to their expansion to their Back Bay location in Boston in October of 2010.

“Today’s announcement further demonstrates how the strength and growth of Liberty Mutual’s worldwide operations benefit Boston and the region,” said Kelly. “Our IT operations are critically important to Liberty Mutual’s future success as a global insurer and we look forward to attracting some of the best and brightest minds from the area’s universities and deep IT talent pool.”

Despite the economy, Liberty Mutual appears to be doing well with their expansion efforts as well as expanding their staff by at least over 130 people across the world. For a deeper dive of all Liberty Mutual’s initiatives as well as org charts, contact info, IT highlights, business drivers, insights to budgets, IT projects and major initiatives, check out the free Liberty Mutual sample CRUSH Report in our eStore.

Trish Ellis
Marketing Manager
SalesQuest
trisha.ellis@salesquest.com

©2012 Sales Intelligence Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Panasonic just announced a new organizational structure that is to be implemented in January 2012.

This new alignment is aimed to achieve goals that is set out in Panasonic’s Green Transformation 2012 (GT12) to fulfill their vision of being “the No. 1 Green Innovation Company in the Electronics Industry” by 2018, which is their 100^th anniversary of its foundation.

Panasonic has set its sights high. The last year of GT12, fiscal year ending March 2013, Panasonic sets the following targets:

• 5% or more in operating profit ratio
• 10 trillion yen in sales
• 3 year accumulative total of over 800 billion yen in free cash flow
• 10% in ROE
• 50 million ton reduction in CO2 emissions

This new organizational structure is in line with Panasonic’s three basic concepts:

• Maximize value creation by strengthening contacts with customers
• Realize speedy and lean management
• Accelerate growth business by boldly shifting management resources

Panasonic's New Organization Structure

Panasonic is expecting their growth to be driven by six key businesses by fiscal ending March 2013:

• Energy Systems Business: 16% increase
• Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Business: 7.4% increase
• Network AV business: 10% increase
• Healthcare, Security & LED: Targeting 540 Billion Yen from these three businesses

There is a lot going inside of Panasonic right now. They have tons of internal goals that they want to reach by fiscal year end 2013. They hope that these initiatives will help in their overall goal to be the number one green electronics company by 2018. For a deeper dive of all Panasonics initiatives as well as org charts, contact info, IT highlights, business drivers, insights to budgets, IT projects and major initiatives, check out the Panasonic CRUSH Report.

Trish Ellis
SalesQuest
trisha dot ellis @ salesquest dot com

©2012 Sales Intelligence Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Author, Speaker and Strategist Jill Konrath recently did a series of articles whereby she compared sales stories to safari animals.

As she rotated through the giraffes and rhinos, I was personally waiting to hear from the King of Beasts, which of course, finally appeared right on queue:

King of Beasts

And my hunch was right; it was all about being prepared to sell.

About the same time this article came out, Mike Damphousse of Green Leads called asking me how he could use CRUSH data to get a focused list of contacts for his client.  It made me think information gathering is a lot like hunting.

He was about to do some very specific campaigns, drive new leads, deliver juicy appointments and he needed some sales intelligence to get the job done.  First, he needed a list of the top companies who had recently implemented specific SAP modules within specific verticals.  While most companies dwell on the experience of their callers or the level of sales intelligence they gather, Mike was focused on saving time and heading into a fertile hunting ground.  Why not hunt where the most prey are gathered in the first place?

That was just the beginning of the sales creativity.  The next campaign was taking the challenge up a notch.  Rather than focus on technology, he wanted to know how he could get a list of the top Fortune 1000 ranked companies with current and specific initiatives around “Disaster Recovery” and “Business Continuity”.  And while you’re at it, get me only contacts which are VP and Director Level titles in the network and security technology areas.  Wow, now you are talking focus.

Green Leads is clearly a leader in creative campaigns to help their customers find the best, hottest and ready-to-strike leads and sets their clients’ reps in for the killing.

When I asked Mike what differentiates Green Leads from the pack, I was not surprised to hear his response.

• Start with the hottest and best targets
• Go in with a customized approach to each prospect/target
• Qualify and shoot to close

Sounds to me like the right company to engage if you have some sales hunting to do this quarter!

If you want to know more about the CRUSH Data and sales intelligence used in these searches, contact us at www.salesquest.com.

Mimi Evans
SalesQuest
mevans @ Salesquest dot com

©2012 Sales Intelligence Blog. All Rights Reserved.

In today’s highly competitive economy, sales and marketing departments really have to stand out amongst the crowd. The messaging has to be personalized and clearly state what you have to offer that can save them time and money.

One of the worst approaches in sales and marketing today is the “data dump”  of product features. Understanding the customer is vital in today’s society. What challenges are they facing? Are they focused on specific initiatives? Knowing the answer to these questions allows messaging to be tailored and specific to your prospect and will help grab their attention.

The best way to truly understand what is going on within the company is by research and understanding your prospect’s business drivers. As defined by BusinessDictionary.com, business drivers are, “People, knowledge, and conditions (such as market forces) that initiate and support activities for which the business was designed.” Understanding the people within a company, their knowledge and the conditions of their current business strategy will help sales and marketing reps get compelling messaging across the right people.

Our analysts have created a section in our Fortune 1000 CRUSH Reports called Technology Business Drivers. These initiatives, problems or challenges are pulled from earnings calls, annual reports, executive presentations and interviews. They are based on corporate strategies, business initiatives and projects directly tied to IT architectures, IT budgets, executive management changes and new investments in enterprise technology.

Our customers use this section as sales leads, so they can align their business solution to the relevant business problems, opportunities and initatives. This kind of customized approach to business needs is the key to gaining trust and outselling your competitors.

Here’s a sample list of the type of fortune 1000 business drivers that we include in the CRUSH Reports:

• Strategic initiatives
• Expiring contracts
• Restructuring initiatives
• Acquisition integration
• Technology investments
• Data center changes
• Corporate collaboration
• Cost saving initiatives
• Customer service initiatives

Click here to find out more about Technology Business Drivers. Or go to our eStore and download sample CRUSH Reports and see the Technology Business Drivers section.

Trish Ellis
Marketing Manager
SalesQuest
Trisha.ellis @ salesquest dot com

©2012 Sales Intelligence Blog. All Rights Reserved.

The grocery industry is experiencing a greater level of competition with retail giants, like Walmart, entering the food business and the emergence of wholesale clubs like BJs, Costco and Sam’s Club. To stay ahead of the game, grocers all over the world are focusing more on customer service and the technology that keeps their customers coming back.

Last month, Winn-Dixie chose IBM’s point-of-sale and self-checkout technology to help transform customer service, speed innovation and increase the operational efficiency of 484 Winn-Dixie store locations across the Southeastern U.S. “This initiative will allow us to introduce services quickly and seamlessly to improve our guests’ shopping experience and will help to support our overall strategy,” said Maura Hart, Winn-Dixie group VP and CIO.

Kroger Co., based in Cincinnati, Ohio operates under several banners and is highly focused on customer service. In August, the company chose Oracle’s Agile Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) for Process to further improve customer experience.

Payton Pruett, Vice President of corporate food technology for Kroger stated, “At Kroger we are continuously searching for ways to better serve our customers and believe that Oracle’s PLM for Process will enable our organization to deliver even more on our Customer 1st mission.”

Also in August, UK-based Tesco signed an eight-year software licensing and services agreement with Microsoft to support Tesco’s head offices, stores, distribution and data centers. Tesco plans to create a new global collaboration platform by deploying SharePoint, Exchange and Lync as part of its strategy to grow internationally, expanding its retail services, including banking, online and mobile.

The company also entered into a $45 million deal with CA Technologies in August. Tesco will use the CA Service Operations Insight tool to manage and monitor its global IT infrastructure, and deploy CA Sysview Performance Management and CA Process Automation to manage IT across Tesco including Tesco Bank, Tesco.com and Tesco Mobile.

Mike McNamara, CIO at Tesco, said, “Our systems infrastructure needs to work for our IT team in order to do their job for our customers, our colleagues and our suppliers.

Grocers such as Winn-Dixie, Tesco and Kroger have also aggressively remodeled stores to create a more pleasant shopping experience, and introduced loyalty programs and customer smart-phone applications that deliver promotions to guests while they shop.

For the details of these deals and other sales trigger events, including specific products and technologies, check out our CRUSH Alert subscription. For more detailed information including org charts, IT landscapes and contacts, visit our eStore to obtain CRUSH Reports on Winn-Dixie, Kroger and Tesco.

Evy De Vellis
SalesQuest
edevellis @ salesquest dot com

©2012 Sales Intelligence Blog. All Rights Reserved.