Tiedemann Investment Group Integrates Salesforce CRM with Back-Office Systems for Improved Productivity

Challenge

• Tiedemann Investment Group (TIG)—a financial services firm specializing in hedge funds and investment advisory services—needed a sophisticated CRM solution to track accounts and opportunities from locations across the U.S., Europe, and Asia.
• Investor relations used a number of instances including ACT!, Excel, and Outlook to manage customers.
• The firm wanted a customizable system that would require minimal internal IT involvement and provide remote access without the use of a VPN.
• With security and privacy a major concern, the solution had to be capable of providing permissions-only access to data.

Solution

• In a CRM review, which comprised a number of solutions including ACT!, SalesLogix, Siebel On Demand, and Oracle On Demand among others, the firm found the upfront costs too high.
• TIG initially deployed Salesforce CRM PE to 13 users in only two weeks but soon upgraded to Salesforce CRM Enterprise Edition for its integration capabilities; a subsequent upgrade to Salesforce CRM Unlimited Edition brought the Force.com sandbox testing environment, increased storage, and mobile access.
• With help from SunGard, a consulting company, TGI leveraged the Force.com API to bi-directionally integrate Salesforce CRM with an internal accounting system, Penny.
• Reports track and roll up fund information to give managers a complete view; dashboards help the firm monitor the performance of its salespeople.
• A customized accounts page with multiple pick list fields allow users to drilldown to specific investment, fund, client, and partner information, which is all pulled from a back office system.
• Potential sales opportunities are tracked in the Forecasting tab.
• The firm plans to incorporate workflow capabilities, email-to-case functionality, and wireless access to take further advantage of the benefits inherent in Salesforce CRM.

Results

• Since the deployment of Salesforce CRM, TIG has seen increased productivity.
• A unified view of the business gives management the ability to monitor sales activity and salespeople.
• Integration with back office systems streamline information access. 
• The software-as-a-service model alleviates the strain on the firm’s IT resources. 
• Best-in-class security ensures all of TIG’s financial data is safe.