PRESS AND NEWS

 

Automotive Software Company Uses Enterprise Cloud Computing from Salesforce.com to Improve Business Processes

Salesforce.com, the enterprise cloud computing company, today announced that Infomedia, a provider of online parts catalogues to the automotive industry, has gone live with the first phase of a cloud computing initiative based on the Force.com platform.

The company has rolled out Salesforce CRM as well as two custom cloud-based applications built on Force.com to handle online order management and integration into logistics and finance applications. The project is expected to deliver greater customer satisfaction, better visibility into the sales process and streamlined business processes.

Nicolas Fogg, Business Systems Manager, Infomedia said: “We view salesforce.com as a complete business platform that happens to have a leading CRM application built in. CRM is just the start and we’re not going to stop there. We’ve already rolled out our own custom-built apps and the list of requests from the business for phase two and three is enormous – there is a real sense of excitement around what we can achieve with Force.com.”

Infomedia’s business takes parts and service information from automotive manufacturers and compiles them into online catalogues so that users can find the correct replacement part plus view details about price and availability. The company also supplies automated quotation software for automotive service centres. IT is crucial to its business and the long term plan is to move its entire IT portfolio into the cloud. As a first step towards this, it made sense to move its business operations to the cloud; a big attraction to salesforce.com’s applications and platform was the ability to scale the usage up and down as required and the instant upgrade to new product features included as part of the monthly subscription.

Before the project, Infomedia’s finance, sales, marketing and customer service teams were using a number of separate, individual systems to track business information. This created a lack of visibility into customer behaviour and profitability. As a result of the Salesforce CRM implementation, all departments will use a single, real-time application to deliver greater visibility into customer activity and allowing for more informed business decisions.

“Once they saw what was possible, the enthusiasm from staff has been enormous; the sales and marketing teams have been really eager to use the new system,” Fogg continued.

Integration with other systems

Using Force.com, Infomedia has integrated its logistics and order management systems with Salesforce CRM in order to manage all customer information across all departments directly and in real-time.

“In the future we plan to use Force.com as a means of extending our back-office systems to every customer touch point. We are pleased with the level of integration we have already achieved but we plan to do much more. The possibility of seamlessly integrating Salesforce CRM with our Web sites and Web applications will make an enormous difference to the level of customer service we can deliver as well as reducing the administration time and cost.”

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About Infomedia
Infomedia Ltd is a leading global provider of information solutions to the post-sale parts and service sector of the global automotive industry. The Company’s automotive products are subscribed to by over 60,000 users from franchised dealers and independent auto dealers and independent auto trade repairers in over 160 countries around the world. Infomedia’s electronic parts catalogues (EPCs) enable dealers to perform the critical function of quickly and accurately identifying for sale replacement auto parts manufactured by the world’s leading auto manufacturers – often referred to as “genuine” or Original Equipment (OE) replacement parts. Infomedia also provides other high-value, complementary products to the dealer and trade repairer market, including its Superservice Menus™ for quick and accurate service quotations. The Company is also utilising its proprietary technology and process expertise to introduce EPCs into other complex parts and service dependent industries, including the whitegoods industry with its PartFinder® brand EPC. Infomedia Ltd is a publicly-listed company on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX symbol \"IFM\"). For more information visit infomedia.com.au.




About salesforce.com
Salesforce.com is the enterprise cloud computing company. The company's portfolio of Salesforce CRM applications, available at http://www.salesforce.com/products/, has revolutionized the ways that companies collaborate and communicate with their customers across sales, marketing and service. The company’s Force.com platform (http://www.salesforce.com/platform/) enables customers, partners and developers to quickly build powerful business applications to run every part of the enterprise in the cloud. Based on salesforce.com’s real-time, multi-tenant architecture, Salesforce CRM and Force.com offer the fastest path to customer success with cloud computing.

As of April 30, 2009, salesforce.com manages customer information for approximately 59,300 customers including Allianz Commercial, Dell, Dow Jones Newswires, Japan Post, Kaiser Permanente, KONE, and SunTrust Banks. Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase salesforce.com applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Salesforce.com has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol \"CRM\". For more information please visit http://www.salesforce.com/au

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