Endeca Standardizes on Salesforce CRM Enterprise Edition; Saves 150 Hours per Week with Salesforce CRM Service

Challenge

• Endeca, a pioneer in online search solutions and information-based problem solving, found its rapidly expanding sales force had outgrown its stand-alone contact management software in the wake of a 100 percent annual revenue growth, three years running
• Isolated systems prevented collaboration between employees during the sales process, and made it difficult to generate organization-wide pipeline reports
• Endeca had a difficult time with its outdated case-tracking system that no longer met the company's vast support needs
• Support staff members were wasting valuable time wading through four different record-keeping systems in order to access complete customer information
• The company needed a CRM system that could be easily deployed, customized, and expanded to meet unique, constantly evolving needs

Solution

• After selecting Salesforce CRM Sales for its superior collaborative selling capabilities, comprehensive reporting, and flexible customization tools, the company initially deployed Salesforce CRM Group Edition to a small group of users
• With the help of Salesforce.com Consulting, the company quickly upgraded to Salesforce CRM Enterprise Edition, expanding its roll out to 150 employees in the U.S., Europe, and Asia—across all divisions, including sales, legal, finance, and professional services
• Endeca later added Salesforce CRM Service, integrating all CRM data into a cohesive, workflow-driven system
• CRM administrators quickly integrated custom objects to track unique customer data such as competitive information, operating systems, product versions, and integration information
• Users in sales, marketing, professional services, legal, and finance departments utilize Salesforce CRM reporting, tracking, and forecasting features to meet their unique needs
• Endeca used the Force.com API to integrate the knowledgebase and Web-to-case components of Salesforce CRM with the company's main customer support Web site
• The company also integrated a custom object with Salesforce CRM to track software downloads, revealing the adoption rate for new products

Results

• Improved consistency across the sales organization, resulting in accurate forecasts and a better win ratio
• Detailed win/loss analysis by sales stage, product, industry, presales activities, and competitor enables managers to optimize selling strategies and predict sales outcomes
• Endeca saves 150 employee-hours each week by providing faster, easier access to customer data and simplifying data entry
• Salesforce CRM provides a complete view of all customer data; plans to integrate finance information will close the loop of customer interactions
• The company has eliminated several disparate data-collection methods and now consolidates all CRM information under the Salesforce CRM umbrella, boosting efficiency for busy service and support reps
• Reps can easily add insights to a "best practices" database; the information appears automatically under a "Solutions" tab in the Salesforce CRM environment
• With greater visibility into customer issues and complete knowledge about products in use, Endeca is able to make more-informed support decisions—on the spot