The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Reports Better Customer Management and Increased Efficiencies With Salesforce CRM

Challenge

• The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a daily newspaper owned by Cox Enterprises, wanted a robust CRM solution that would automate its sales process, increase access to data, and improve business visibility.
• The newspaper needed a CRM system that was easy to customize and use, and required minimal resources to deploy and maintain.
• The ability to access CRM data from mobile devices was also important.

Solution

• The Atlanta Journal-Constitution chose salesforce.com for its industry-leading CRM and cloud-computing model; managers decided on Unlimited Edition for mobile access and Salesforce.com Premier Support.
• With the help of salesforce.com partner Bluewolf, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution deployed Salesforce CRM to more than 300 users in sales, marketing, finance, and operations. Ease of use has resulted in high user adoption.
• With Salesforce CRM, users efficiently manage opportunities, coordinate tasks and activities, and track customer communications. Lead routing automatically assigns more than 5,000 leads each month to the correct rep.
• Custom tabs and dashboards provide fast access to forecasts and other key business metrics; the paper installed Sales Activity and KPI dashboards from the AppExchange marketplace to track rep activities, monitor business efficiencies, and understand when modifications need to be made.
• Salesforce CRM Marketing provides integrated marketing activities and lets the newspaper easily create and send mass email campaigns.
• Integration with Xactly allows the paper to design and implement effective sales commissions programs.
• Mobile access lets reps access and modify records using BlackBerry devices and iPhones, so information is always up to date; Ribbit for Salesforce from the AppExchange links mobile calls, messages, and voice memos to Salesforce CRM with voice to text capabilities.
• Integration with a legacy mainframe provides access to historical information and data integrity.
• Integration with Lotus Notes keeps customer communications and activities in sync.
• Administrator training sessions from Salesforce.com Training and Certification enable the newspaper get more from its investment.
• The paper plans to deploy the Salesforce CRM call center for case management, a content library, and an ideas community in the future. It also plans to integrate Salesforce CRM with SAP.

Results

• Premier Support eliminated the need to hire a full-time employee to implement and manage Salesforce CRM.
• Sales force automation helps streamline activities, allowing reps to focus and spend more time selling.
• Enhanced customer management capabilities increase satisfaction and results, and improve customer visibility.
• Quick access to key business metrics facilitates better decision making and business planning.