Beyond CRM: Ansley Capital Group Banks on Salesforce as a Business Process Management Platform

“Salesforce enables us to deliver value to our clients on par with the best business practices in the investment banking industry. It is that rare corporate asset that increases in value over time and we would not consider running our business without it."


Challenge
  • Ansley Capital Group—a healthcare-focused investment bank—needed a sophisticated workflow and document management solution to support communication and coordination between its clients and potential investors and strategic partners
  • Activity reporting, such as individual contact spreadsheets and phone logs, was time-consuming, difficult to consolidate, routinely out of date, and inadequate for external client communication
  • The company needed a communication and business relationship management solution that would enable it to manage the execution of a corporate finance project on par with the best practices in the banking industry
  • Beyond a simple CRM tool, Ansley Capital envisioned a web portal with built-in “ native” capabilities for rules-driven workflow, up-to-the-minute consolidated communication and documentation management—phone calls, document sharing, email
  • The company also wanted an open technical architecture that encouraged independent development of third-party solutions to enhance productivity and enrich the value of its investment

Solution
  • After briefly considering stand-alone and networked versions of ACT! and GoldMine, Ansley Capital was compelled by salesforce.com’s software-as-a-service platform that allows the company to download pre-integrated apps and build customized solutions
  • During an extended trial, Ansley Capital easily customized Salesforce Group Edition to its business processes; the company licensed Salesforce Professional Edition and customized it further to support its unique workflow and business needs
  • Using Force.com Builder, the company created an M&A and Investment Transactions application that enables the association of related entities in an expanding database, and it developed a custom application for expense reporting
  • With Salesforce Marketing, Ansley Capital delivers HTML email blasts, on behalf of its clients, for professional-looking communications to potential investors and strategic partners
  • After three years of increasing value, Ansley recently upgraded to Enterprise Edition to take full advantage of the open API architecture and the expanding network of Force.com solutions
  • Through the AppExchange the company found an email integration engine that enables a mash-up between Salesforce and Gmail with functionality similar to the Salesforce-Outlook plug-in
  • Ansley Capital also installed and deployed OrgView, an AppExchange tool that allows users to create visual org charts and update them in Salesforce using drag-and-drop functionality

Results
  • By providing a superior business process management platform, Salesforce positions Ansley Capital on par with the best practices that our customers expect from their investment banker
  • The AppExchange ecosystem extends the value of the company’s CRM investment with functional solutions that improve productivity
  • The development possibilities made possible by the Apex platform give Ansley Capital the power to add and customize solutions as its business grows 
  • A universally accessible source of customer information and transaction activities supports timely client communications and fosters knowledge-sharing that streamlines our business processes
  • Inspired by the AppExchange and Force.com, the company will continue to build apps, develop mash-ups, and install tools that align with its business objectives
 
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