Informa Practices What It Teaches; Upgrades SFA by Replacing ACT!, GoldMine with Salesforce

“CRM is a key part of our corporate initiative to unify the work of all of our business units. We chose Salesforce because we wanted a robust and full-featured solution that would easily integrate with our internal systems and provide quick time to value."


Challenge
  • Informa plc, a leading provider of sales performance improvement solutions and training, needed to upgrade and unify its CRM and account management solutions.
  • Informa wanted to replace a mixture of ACT!, GoldMine and custom applications with one centralized solution that would provide quick time to value.
  • Managers and users found existing CRM systems difficult to use, resulting in lost productivity, low adoption, and poor pipeline visibility.
  • With more than 150 offices, Informa required a robust solution it could deploy quickly and later customize. The solution needed to integrate with an internal business systems initiative focused on unify customer data, marketing, ordering, and user experience information. 
  • Informa has offices in 40+ countries, so support for multiple languages and currencies was critical.

Solution
  • After detailed user-led due diligence that included Microsoft CRM, SAP CRM, SalesLogix, and SugarCRM, Informa chose Salesforce Unlimited Edition for its robust features and functionality, low cost, and ability to integrate.
  • With assistance from Successforce Consulting, Informa deployed Salesforce in four languages to 1000+ users in account management and sales support.
  • Initial implementation of Salesforce SFA was completed in less than 3 months. Thirty business units have been deployed to date.
  • User training has resulted in Salesforce adoption rates as high as 95 percent.
  • Custom tabs allow Informa to extend Salesforce to handle competitive information, marketing, and promotions. 
  • Informa installed Sesame Software’s Relational Junction from the AppExchange marketplace to simplify data migration, replication and integration.
  • Integrations with SAP and a legacy marketing system complement the company’s vision of a unified customer view.
  • Salesforce customer service applications provide a portal, Web-to-case functionality, case assignment and escalation, auto-response emails, and case tracking for internal and external support teams.
  • Informa built applications for project management, sales, service and support, and more using Force.com Builder.

Results
  • Informa now has a central repository of account management information, supporting its initiative to unify the company’s customer interactions.
  • As a result of its 95 percent user adoption rate, Informa has seen an increase in user productivity since deploying Salesforce.
  • Managers now have real-time visibility to pipeline information for more accurate planning and forecasting. 
  • All sales and support activities are tracked, facilitating better customer service and higher win rates.
 
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