NPD Group Consolidates Data from 22 Business Units with Salesforce CRM

Challenge

• The NPD Group, a leading global provider of market research information, needed to make integrated sales and marketing information accessible from any worldwide location.
• The company, which provides research information for a wide range of industries, had been using SalesLogix, but it was difficult to use and expensive to maintain.
• NPD required a system that would bring together data from distinct business units – now numbering 22--from across the globe.

Solution

• NPD chose Salesforce CRM Enterprise Edition over Siebel On Demand. The company consolidated disparate systems and records into a single online repository of customer and opportunity data.
• More than 350 employees in Sales, Client Development, Marketing and Finance located in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada use the solution.
• Salesforce.com Training & Certification programs taught administrators to customize Salesforce CRM and familiarized them with the Force.com platform, ensuring they were productive immediately.
• Salesforce CRM Sales consolidates data on more than 16,000 accounts into one central repository; it also manages over 20,000 leads per year.
• Order entry information is automatically pushed from Salesforce CRM to NPD’s Lawson ERP software system for business planning using custom-code and key-stroke macros.
• Custom dashboards provide fast access to key, real-time business metrics; Integration with Microsoft Excel lets NPD build dashboards with Excel pivot tables and charts.
• Salesforce CRM Marketing enables creation, management, and measurement of multichannel email campaigns from within the application. Web-to-lead functionality automatically imports leads.
• Using custom tabs, NPD extended Salesforce CRM to support key business functions including analyst calls, account assignments and billing participants. A custom opportunity record manages the entire order entry process.
• NPD installed ExactTarget from AppExchange for advanced campaign management. The company also added RapidFire Cold Calling to improve cold call efficiency by making call logging easier.
• Integration with Outlook keeps customer information up to date and maintains a record of client communications.
• NPD plans to replace an Access-based revenue planning tool with one built on Force.com. NPD also intends to deploy a Salesforce CRM ideas community to capture user issues across all of its business units.

Results

• Central CRM system and repository for customer data provides complete customer and business views across 22 separate business units.
• Integrated CRM and marketing functions enables coordinated, measureable campaigns for greater ROI.
• Fast access to key business metrics and advanced analytics facilitates improved decision making and better business planning.
• Paperless order entry system and improved lead, task, and activity management increases business efficiency and keeps deals moving toward close.