Laser-focused on meeting customer needs, DLL is listening DIGITAL REPORT 2021
IN ASSOCIATION WITH:
LASER-FOCUSED ON MEETING CUSTOMER NEEDS, DLL IS LISTENING
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Leveraging scale, diversity and tech, DLL is customer-centred and is committed to changing how they do things to support their customers
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hey say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but DLL is showing ‘them’ wrong. “We are listening, even if it means we change what we do and have done for the last 50 years,” says Rafe Rosato, Chief Innovation Officer of DLL. Rooted in its history, DLL remains committed to supporting the communities in which it operates by offering financial services, expertise, manpower, in-kind contributions and more. Rafe says, “Ultimately, our mission is to first do good in the world.” DLL has kicked off a new journey in which they leverage diversity and the power of scale and partnerships to help them in becoming a value-led, customer-centred business that will fuel growth— naturally. Forwarding the Strength of Community Rafe shares the DLL story: “DLL is a whollyowned subsidiary of Rabobank Group, which is a Dutch cooperative bank. The bank itself has been in existence for over a hundred years. DLL was launched in 1969 by five individuals who worked for Rabobank. They started up this little Dutch equipment finance company when a client asked if Rabobank would be interested in financing equipment and providing a lease product.” Rabobank itself emerged from the Raiffeisenbank and the Boerenleenbank, two banks modelled on an agricultural credit cooperative established by rural German mayor Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen (1818-1888). Raiffeisen believed that credit dllgroup.com
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DLL
Laser-focused on meeting customer needs, DLL is listening
“ Traction on Demand was the best fit for us from a cultural standpoint, but also a willingness to have that persistence and flexibility that would bring the right thinking and experiences” MATHEW MOORE
GLOBAL HEAD OF CRM, DLL
cooperatives could structurally improve the daily lives of rural people and bring an end to suffocating usurious practices. Rafe continued, “The Raiffeisenbank was an early version of what we would refer to as a credit union now. And essentially, those two organisations came together with the belief that the community was important and the idea that financing the community was critical to its strength. So, therefore, those who were successful in the 6
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community pooled their money to promote and support others so that they could likewise be successful. “The way we translate that today is that there are many businesses in the world that are looking to acquire equipment and technology that generates value in a community – whether it's in goods and services, whether it's employment, or whether it's just general economic activity. At DLL, we are partnering for a better world by providing financial services to communities so that businesses can get the goods and services that they need in order to create value for their customers. And ultimately, every day are we ask ourselves, what have we done to further the strength of our communities?” The Power of Scale for a Better Customer Experience “The power of DLL is our global scale, the diverse portfolio of the industries we
DLL
MATHEW MOORE TITLE: GLOBAL HEAD OF CRM INDUSTRY: FINANCIAL SERVICES LOCATION: CANADA “My role is to bring forward our CRM platform and customer management journey across each of our countries and global business units, including marketing sales, service and analytics. “I had a great mentor in my last role at a tech company who helped us to understand how to dive deep into an organisation and understand the real issues and be able to solve problems, enterprise-wide. The lessons that he taught us and his ability to do that helped shaped my thinking, my career and my leadership.” “For me, it's about persistence and flexibility. Persistence to get to that end goal and flexibility in terms of how you get there. And that means failures. It means trying again. It means experimentation. Having done a number of transformation type programs, it is a key theme across each of them that I've experienced over the last 10 - 15 years of really bringing strategy forward and making it real and tangible for an organisation and for their people.”
1969
Year founded
4,500+ Number of employees
EXECUTIVE BIO
operate in and our ability to provide scalable solutions and a seamless experience around the world,” says Daniela Weitmann, Head of Digital Transformation at DLL. She continues, “That global scale is one of the key differentiators for our success today. It's a particularly critical advantage as we fuel our digital transformation. “There are some things that we are focusing on in our digital transformation. The first one is we are creating products that are informed by what our customers want and need. This is critical. Our second area of focus is to move away from letting technology dictate what type of experience we provide to our customers. Rather, we are putting the customer at the centre of everything we do and allowing their input to influence and shape our digital solutions. “We know that our customers want a premium, consistent, and seamless experience. We know that our customers want self-service and through multiple channels, such as mobile chat, email, phone and more. Therefore, we are leveraging the knowledge and experience that we have to deliver amazing customer experiences at a global scale.” Rafe further explains the imperativeness of understanding customer needs. “Part of our value proposition is this concept of co-creation and the idea of authenticity. We don't have all the answers, but we have a willingness to find answers. When we talk about
Let customer experience lead the way. In the era of customer obsession, success depends on building trust through exceptional digital experiences. Partner with Salesforce and Traction on Demand to create industry-leading and human-centric experiences, delivered to customers where and when they want them.
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Traction on Demand x DLL: Transforming the Customer Experience.
Be agile but do it with intention’. He adds that established businesses such as DLL benefit from adopting an experimental approach. ‘What works? What doesn’t?’ he asks. ‘And how can we best serve the customer?’
‘It all started with a 6:30 am phone call’, says Aaron Zuccolin, VP of Industry Solutions and Financial Services Practice Lead. ‘Right from Traction on Demand’s first experience with DLL, Rafe—DLL’s Chief Innovation Officer—made it very clear that the customer came first’. This customer ‘obsession’, as Aaron puts it, forms the very foundation of Traction on Demand and DLL’s partnership.
Collaborating for Success
A Shared Customer Obsession ‘As a global company’, Aaron explains, ‘DLL wants to deepen their relationship with their customers’. Traction on Demand will help the group build a scalable platform and work with DLL to eventually hand over complete platform control. Along the way, they’ll incorporate some lessons from fintech. Most fintechs collect high-quality data, learn quickly, and adapt fast. ‘You see what’s working’, Aaron says. ‘Pivot. Adapt.
DLL and Traction on Demand work well together because they hold similar corporate values—community, honesty, and opportunity. ‘We’re not an up-and-out culture’, Aaron tells me. ‘We create paths for our people so that they can pivot’. That’s partly why he’s spent nine years at the company and why he loves working with DLL. ‘We’ll definitely work with them to strategise what’s next and give DLL the next leg up in the industry’, Aaron tells me. ‘We do excellent work together. And we align on what’s important—the customer experience’.
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DLL
“ We are creating products that are informed by what our customers want and need. This is critical” DANIELA WEITMANN
HEAD OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION, DLL
our customers, we really don't think of them in that traditional supplier/customer relationship sense. What we're looking to do is really create a partnership with equal contributions to the outcome for each party. It would be easy to say we provide payment solutions for our partners, but our partners need many more things than just some way to pay. They need new ideas. They need new access to markets. They need training. They need tools. They need new products and services.” DLL aims to bring more customer-friendly options, such as utilisation products, and scale it across DLL’s long list of partners 10
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and geographies. Rafe says, “It is very important and vital to our success that we really understand the customer needs. And then leveraging those needs to identify commonalities across different channels, geographies and industries, and create scale. How does one industry benefit from the learnings of another and vice versa? “Our global reach is putting us in a position to simplify the equation. It creates easier access. And if we can create easier access through these types of partnerships, it'll poise us to really accelerate our growth, and more importantly, the growth of our partners.”
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DANIELA WEITMANN TITLE: H EAD OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION INDUSTRY: FINANCIAL SERVICES LOCATION: NETHERLANDS “Before joining DLL one year ago, I worked in three different industries celebrating brands I love. I'm an activist and supporter of women and gender diversity in the workplace and mother of two teenagers.” “I've always had a set of mentors that joined my turning points in life and in careers as well, as you cannot compartmentalise life. They range from previous bosses or consultant partners, or even headhunters that before shifting industries or shifting countries— I've lived in six countries throughout my professional life— have always been a sounding board for me.” “What happens in the consumer world will make its way into the business world. Experiences that you have in any industry becomes the standard of the experience that you want to have or to be served in the in. My ambition is to accelerate our digital journey at DLL, with the
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Customers: The Epicenter of Digital Transformation Across the spectrum, customers are calling the shots. Having worked for big-name brands for many years, Daniela would know. She shares, “In the retail world, we say that in the end, the consumer decides, not your boss. It's not the strategies that you put on paper. It’s the consumer that will decide how to access your brand. There are three main aspects that are driving consumer choice, and if we make a parallel, to our world, those three main drivers are access, experience and price.”
industry you operate
evolution I've experienced after almost a decade in retail.
DLL
Looking at the consumer trends that are making their way into the 'business to business’ world, Daniela says, “The first one is that consumers want whatever, whenever. Therefore, it’s critical for us to provide that self-service capability. The second lesson is that consumer patterns are shifting based on the experience and price parameters that we considered sacred in the past. “It's experience versus transaction, it's premium versus value. At any point of the customer journey, relevant experiences will provide a lifelong relationship with your customers, not a transactional one.”
RAFE ROSATO
beginning, which means that there's a lot to
INDUSTRY: FINANCIAL SERVICES
be gained from failing. It harkens back to the way children behave on playgrounds. They freely make mistakes, and they freely ask for a
“When I first came out of university, I followed
do-over. And that's something that in our adult
many of my classmates from the University
lives, we've distanced ourselves from because
of Pennsylvania to Wall Street and went into
of the fear of judgement. And quite frankly,
corporate banking. With the consolidation
the entrepreneurial effort that I made in my
of banking, I saw that there was potentially a
twenties was a failure. Still, it was the single
limited future. So, I went off as an entrepreneur
most important part of my life, professionally,
and had my own business for a number of
because I learned so much from it. And it led to
years, which turned out to be not so successful.
some other decisions that wound me up here,
I had my first experience in failing, so to speak.
which has been quite a
Then, I wound up in the equipment finance
wonderful journey.”
business. It was somewhat serendipitous that I wound up in the industry. However, I do believe
EXECUTIVE BIO
“For me, it's never too late for a new
TITLE: CHIEF INNOVATION OFFICER LOCATION: GREATER PHILADELPHIA
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DLL has been advancing on their digital transformation journey for many years, “I like to believe that bringing in diverse leaders is a testament to how serious DLL is about our digital transformation,” says Daniela. She continues, “The main shifts we are experiencing in digital transformation is that we are now starting with the customer at the centre and working ourselves backwards to see what the shifts are that will enable our business growth and the growth of our partners going forward, knowing what the end-user wants and needs.
that the start date back in September of 1995 was one of the best decisions I've ever made. “Now, I've been with DLL for just about 26 years. And throughout my time here, I’ve taken on a number of different roles in the organisation across risk, sales, program management, strategic marketing and the beginnings of our efforts in digital over the past number of years.
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The DLL Partnership Ecosystem “We've operated for 50 years with our core strengths in financing and risk management. Our core strength has not been creating unbelievable user experiences in a digital ecosystem. So that's why we're pulling from the outside and looking to partnerships to really, truly further our understanding.”Rafe Rosato When it comes to choosing the right technology and solution partners, Daniela says, “There are three things that I usually like to reflect on when we look into ecosystems. The first one is our identity, purpose and values and simplifying what we offer, so people understand. The second is our agility. We need partners that will complement and enhance our agility in this fast-paced world. And the third one is how we are going to scale? Is it going to be a territorial expansion, are we going to expand
to other services, or is it going to be towards different demands? Those three aspects are critical when we look into which partnerships to select when we look into ecosystems. “We've got a number of technology and solution partners that we work with within our digital transformation and within our CRM program. You have to choose wisely because you are with these people on a day-to-day basis, and you need to have some shared values. We've partnered with Salesforce, Cognizant and Traction on Demand
“ Ultimately, our mission is to first do good in the world” RAFE ROSATO
CHIEF INNOVATION OFFICER, DLL dllgroup.com
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as our core partners for our CRM program. It's really about understanding who their people are and ensuring they will mix with our people. Do they understand our strategies, values, mission, vision, and can they contribute to it? Those are key things. You want to be able to pick people and organisations that will help you see around the corners and call things out and help bring your organisation along so that you can reach your full potential and really maximise the efforts and the investments that you're making.” Rafe explains that in leaving sales and changing roles, he began to see things in a different light. “What dawned on me was that as a company, we did not have a unified way of understanding who our clients were. With over a thousand commercial representatives in 30 countries, we had very different means and understanding of who our clients were. And that's an existential risk because you're only as good as that one 14
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pinpoint of a person in the field. And we needed to pull together and gain a better understanding so that the other members of our organisation would understand who our clients are and what their needs might be. And with that, the entire global organisation then becomes exponentially better. “We started a process with Salesforce through some innovation efforts a number of years ago. Salesforce allowed us to use a CRM system in a manner that was right for us. It was done with the mindset that using the tool gives all of our members a better way to understand who our customers are. We have put a lot into successfully setting it up, allowing us to truly leverage it and really get the value out of it. Mathew Moore, Global Head of CRM at DLL, picks up the conversation from there. “With Traction on Demand, we ran a traditional RFP process almost two years ago now. Almost from the get-go, when we met the team at Traction on Demand, we could tell there was something different about them just in terms of their approach, their language, and the thinking that they had. As we went through rounds of interviews and responses, we recognised that Traction on Demand was the best fit for us from a cultural standpoint, but also a willingness to have that persistence and flexibility that would bring the right thinking and experiences and could flex with us as we navigated deploying and expanding our Salesforce and CRM footprint. “DLL has got a fantastic team, but we recognised that we had some gaps that we needed to fill. We recognised pretty quickly that Traction on Demand had that scale and had those experiences and could really come alongside our people and compliment them and help us to accelerate our digital transformation journey.
DLL
“ In the retail world, we say that in the end, the consumer decides, not your boss. It's not the strategies that you put on paper. It’s the consumer that will decide how to access your brand” DANIELA WEITMANN
HEAD OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION, DLL
“The organisation has heavily invested in our CRM capabilities with Salesforce as a core of that platform, and it’s not just investing in the technology; it’s investing in the people and the process to understand the customer journey and the experiences that we want to create. The organisation has brought forth the right resources in terms of the right people and external parties, as well as the technologies to really dive in and recreate the ways of working.”
Building a Stronger Future Through Diversity, Equity and Inclusion At DLL, everyone gets a seat at the table. “The most important part about our company culture is driving diversity throughout the organisation and giving each member a voice in the outcome. We are a consensus-oriented type organisation, and that's because our lineage over the last hundred years was really built on community. This created cooperative fields throughout everything that we do” stated Rafe. “What we're looking at right now is how we can bring in voices from different backgrounds, overall enhancing our diversity. We have an intense focus on diversity, equity and inclusion in our organisation because if we get that right, we can collectively make our future brighter and more rewarding. It’s a process. We're certainly nowhere close to where we would like to be, but I believe that we're taking the right steps to being a more diverse and inclusive organisation.
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