Enhanced Usability and Reporting from Salesforce CRM Improves Performance at ETS

Challenge

• ETS, a provider of customized education solutions, outgrew its existing Onyx CRM system when the sales team grew from 4 reps to 70
• ETS's pipeline reporting accuracy was hit-or-miss due to inconsistent use of the existing CRM system
• The organization required a solution with easier reporting capabilities and universal access
• Previous CRM system was more complicated, so usability was a key requirement for the new system

Solution

• Although the company's back-end ERP system was PeopleSoft, ETS selected Salesforce CRM Sales for its approach, which minimized IT resource requirements
• Gartner Group's assertion that "If a person can use Amazon.com, they can use Salesforce CRM," lent credibility to Salesforce CRM's ease-of-use message
• In just ten weeks, Salesforce.com Consulting deployed Salesforce CRM Sales to ETS's sales and marketing executives, as well as external vendors with Microsoft Outlook integration (both on and offline)
• Using Force.com's builder, ETS created a custom object for tracking the educational accreditation details of its customers, along with tabs for data tracking
• Dashboards deliver real-time customized reports, including outstanding opportunities, activity, error, and pipeline reports
• Auto-response emails with Web-to-lead features incorporate marketing into customer outreach efforts

Results

• With full access to customer contact, managers can see if a customer has purchased something from ETS in the past
• Account views can be tailored based on the customer's type of organization, such as K-12, higher education, and corporations
• Salesforce CRM Marketing enables measurable ROI and data segmentation for effective, targeted marketing campaigns
• Salesforce CRM platform gives ETS access to sales data once located on the premises of external vendors
• Increased accountability attributed to an accurate and complete pipeline management
• Real-time reporting dramatically increases visibility throughout the organization
• The success of Salesforce CRM Sales has other ETS groups wanting access to the application, along with plans to adopt other Salesforce CRM applications, such as Salesforce CRM Service
• Plans to integrate wireless features, possibly via Salesforce CRM's mobile access, will provide anytime, anywhere access to customer information