EthicsPoint finds SaaS-based services deployment is 250% faster with salesforce.com

Challenge

• EthicsPoint, the recognized innovator in helping organizations raise visibility and mitigate operational risk, provides services to more than 2300 organizations, found itself in need of a CRM solution to support its rapid growth
• Important criteria included ease-of-installation, out-of-the-box functionality, minimal training requirements, and the ability to extend and customize the solution
• Planning to integrate with an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system in 2010 and to use the Service Cloud as the system of record for client profiles, including applications use, call center contacts, and financial performance

Solution

• Based on previous experience with salesforce.com’s applications, sales management championed adoption of both the Sales Cloud and Service Cloud in 2004
• Rolled out Salesforce CRM Professional Edition to the sales team in less than 1 week, achieving 100 percent adoption
• Later extended the solution to every department in the company, including accounting, client services, legal, marketing, professional services, and sales
• Features like custom objects, custom controls, and custom tabs streamlined lead identification, opportunity management, contract workflow, and order fulfillment, leading to greater sales productivity and improved forecasts
• Moved to Enterprise Edition in 2008, integrated with AppExchange partners like Funnel Source, Google AdWords, Hoovers, Marketo, and OpenAir
• Added Service Cloud cases to track the deployment of EthicsPoint SaaS-based solution to customers in a more complete and compelling way
• Further supported the client services teams by combining OpenAir, a professional services automation tool, with the Service Cloud for project management and time management
• Using the Service Cloud, EthicsPoint translates clients’ concerns into solution sets that are presented on an indexed Web portal, making it easy for clients to answer their questions themselves and reducing the workload of the client services teams
• By incorporating the knowledge portal into IdeaExchange, EthicsPoint increased client engagement
• Automatic workflows are generated at all key stages of a customer’s lifecycle, ensuring the renewal process
• Upgraded to the Unlimited Edition in 2010 to take advantage of Premier Support, additional storage and custom objects, and unlimited custom tabs and apps

Results

• Dramatic improvement in ability to identify and resolve bottlenecks in deployment reduced the average deployment to 6 weeks from 16 weeks
• Accelerated cash flow and improved profitability thanks to quicker deployment
• Replaced a high touch agent environment with a high touch technology environment with no degradation in service or decline in customer satisfaction
• Reduced client service interaction by 30 percent, a savings of more than $300,000 per year
• Client services teams can easily stay abreast of project-management time lines, the scope of projects and the cost of projects
• Same-size service team now handles 1,000 cases per month versus 100 per month before deploying the Service Cloud
• Achieved client renewal rates of more than 98 percent with salesforce.com’s Service Cloud
• Improved efficiency of the renewal process by 50 percent
• Increased use of salesforce.com has led to increasing ROI