Salesforce and the Force.com Platform Accelerate Freeman's Expansion into New Sales Market

"Salesforce.com's AppExchange directory and the Force.com platform has transformed what had been simply a sales automation system into a dynamic, ever-evolving wealth of integrated solutions that grow as we grow"


Challenge
  • Freeman, a leader in producing expositions, corporate events, conventions, and exhibit programs, needed a sales force automation solution for its new corporate sales division
  • An existing legacy system failed to meet the needs of this rapidly growing division
  • As a large enterprise, it was vital that the new solution scale to the entire company as other divisions migrated to the new solution
  • Companywide user adoption was crucial to implementation success

Solution
  • The company was so impressed by the way salesforce.com representatives aligned their presentation to the exact requirements outlined in Freeman's RFP—customizability, fast deployment, real-time reporting—that it ultimately selected Salesforce SFA over other solutions
  • Freeman employed the help of salesforce.com's implementation partner MW Advisors to initially deploy to 120 users in eight weeks with, with Microsoft Outlook integration
  • The Force.com platform powers integrations to Lawson, legacy systems, homegrown systems, and the corporate Web site
  • From the AppExchange directory, Freeman downloaded and installed two applications: a project management tool that provides automated alerts for the expo sales team, and a de-duplication solution that keeps the enterprise's data clean
  • Salesforce Marketing delivers automated integration from lead to campaign via the company's Web site and then routes leads to appropriate sales divisions
  • Real-time analytics and forecasting capabilities with customized dashboards present information and data results the way top executives prefer to see it

Results
  • The success of the initial deployment, due to ease of use and ongoing support, led to enterprisewide deployment to 800 sales reps
  • Accelerated productivity, enabled by Salesforce, helps Freeman rapidly expand into new corporate market
  • Real-time dashboards keep management's fingers on the company's sales pulse
  • The Web-based, cost-free infrastructure and the ease with which sales staff can customize their own systems independently slashed company IT costs
 
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