Ryder's Supply Chain Solutions Division Nets Dramatic Improvements with Salesforce CRM

Full Case Study

At Ryder, there was more riding on choosing a CRM solution than improved business processes. The company had to ensure that the system would uphold its standing as a forward-thinking, Web-enabled organization. Ranked among InternetWeek's top 100 U.S. companies for effectiveness in using the Internet to achieve tangible business benefits, Ryder required a CRM solution that would align with this distinction.

As a FORTUNE 500 provider of leading-edge transportation logistics and supply chain management solutions worldwide, Ryder wanted to enhance business processes and measure CRM in its supply chain solutions division. Multiple silos of customer information and a lack of visibility into its global sales pipeline hindered the company's effectiveness in retaining customers, responding to opportunities, and closing deals.

"Sales visibility was nonexistent and processes were all very manual prior to Salesforce CRM," says Hernan Vera, director of marketing. Leads were tracked in a simple Microsoft Access database, and pipeline visibility meant a monthly manual fire drill of emailing Microsoft Excel spreadsheets that took more than a week to execute. Without a centralized customer system to track contracts, Ryder was also losing out on contract renewals. Given the high cost of acquiring new customers, it was imperative that the company boost customer retention.

While a Web-enabled platform was obviously at the top of the list, it was critical that the solution deliver broad CRM functionality that could be deployed globally across all areas, including sales, engineering, pricing, legal, and human resources.

After conferring with Gartner and Forrester, Ryder evaluated multiple CRM solution providers, SalesLogix and [Oracle's] Siebel among them. In the end, Vera found that "Salesforce CRM led the pack as a full-fledged CRM system with a highly reliable and customizable platform. Most compellingly, however, we could quickly deploy the solution without getting our internal IT staff involved."

Deploying CRM rapidly without relying on costly IT resources is a common need of many salesForce.com customers. With a unique architecture that is as easy to customize as it is to use, Salesforce CRM helped Ryder meet a short implementation timetable. As Vera states, "We implemented Salesforce CRM in 30 days, and we have seen increasing benefits ever since."

Seeing for Days: Global Pipeline Visibility 

Ryder started the implementation process by laying out a road map for long-term CRM success. Initially, this involved ensuring data quality, and then it moved on to reengineering business processes throughout a phased rollout. "The goal was to get the fundamentals right, while leveraging Salesforce CRM incrementally for exponential results over time," says Vera.

First off, Ryder combined its disparate silos of data to consolidate customers, prospects, and pipeline information into Salesforce CRM. Records were de-duplicated and then tagged with third-party information. Account hierarchies were built and tied to various data sources at Ryder to provide a true 360-degree view of the customer. With a common source of customer information, the company has seen a dramatic increase in productivity. Vera explains, "Consolidating information has resulted in fewer phone calls and emails-people just know what's going on. We're able to respond much more quickly to opportunities because the access to information is right there." Ultimately, Salesforce CRM became the most complete source of customer information at Ryder, facilitating the development of the company's first global pipeline.

Ryder adopted the same methodical manner to roll out Salesforce CRM to its enterprise, starting with a pilot to small sales teams to ensure users' needs were being met. Within a month, Salesforce CRM was deployed to the entire sales organization. Global deployment to 11 countries soon followed. Because Salesforce CRM can be easily changed, tested, and deployed in a matter of days, if not hours, Ryder was spared the multimonth release cycles typical of traditional enterprise software projects.

Reflecting on the impact of global pipeline visibility, Vera notes, "With everyone on one easy-to-use system, monthly pipeline fire drills have become a thing of the past, and executives have gained instantaneous access to fresh pipeline information whenever they want."

Another power behind the implementation is the SalesForce.com Premier Support Ryder leverages that allows the company to shift its focus from admin related tasks to mission-critical business processes. Round-the-clock, 24x7 SalesForce.com Premier Support enables the company to nimbly react to the ebb and flow of its admin requirements and scale the service to its needs without significant up-front investment.

“SalesForce.com Premier Support has saved us time, but more importantly, it has freed our internal support team to focus on higher-value activities, which directly benefit the company as a whole.”  

Accelerating Close Rates: Automation and AppExchange 

To extend Salesforce CRM benefits and accelerate its CRM success, Ryder leveraged workflow-based automation to ancillary groups tied to the sales process, such as engineering, pricing, legal, and human resources. As an opportunity unfolds, Salesforce CRM automatically engages the appropriate stakeholders to maximize the selling process and ensure success. "We have all the right constituencies tied into Salesforce CRM, and it's changing how we run our business," explains Vera. "And as a result, we've shown consistent improvement in close ratios." 

The company also extended automation beyond opportunity management to lead capture and contract renewals. Using Salesforce CRM's innovative Web-to-lead functionality, combined with improved data visibility and segmentation, Ryder automated the capture and routing of Web leads. In fact, lead volumes have increased by more than 100 percent and are of higher quality, leading to accelerated close rates. 

With all contracts contained within one system and consistently linked, "Salesforce CRM helped us deliver leads that have resulted in more than $200 million in proposals to our salespeople," explains Vera. Ryder is able to have the right discussions and focus on the right resources to improve renewal rates. "We've seen significant improvements in our retention of contracts, on the multimillion-dollars level," adds Vera. 

To further expand on the solution set from salesForce.com, Ryder downloaded and deployed Clicktools, eCredit, Strategic Account Planning, Services Project Manager, Account Intelligence, and User Adoption Dashboard from the AppExchange directory to manage customer support, sales, and corporate functions. Because these applications are seamlessly tied into Salesforce CRM, the company essentially created a single, central hub for all its customer-related information. "Using Force.com AppExchange, we've been able to customize the solution with minimal IT involvement and build a unique set of applications that keep us better informed about our business," says Vera. "Ultimately, we're more agile, more profitable, and more competitive."

Ryder