Cray Improves Visibility into its Pipeline; Streamlines Global Support Operations with Integrated Salesforce CRM

Challenge

• Widely known as "the supercomputer company" for its global dominance in high-performance computing, Cray required greater visibility into its pipeline to better manage its recently expanded product line.
• Excel spreadsheets were ill-equipped to handle increased sales activity.
• In the wake of rapid growth, Cray struggled with outdated legacy support software that no longer met its needs.
• Because several different departments had customized the aging support system, reps had to contend with a confusing jumble of fields when adding data; it often took months to implement simple changes like adding fields.
• Cray needed an easy-to-use CRM system that could be implemented quickly, drive high user adoption, and accommodate integration and support.

Solution

• Cray selected Salesforce CRM Enterprise Edition and rolled it out to 75 users; the company subsequently implemented Salesforce CRM to 90 service staff and 60 sales, marketing, and management staff around the world.
• The company now uses Salesforce CRM for all external customer-facing transactions in four languages: English, Korean, Japanese, and German.
• Custom dashboards and reports provide a real-time snapshot of the business by product and geography.
• Dashboards also track delinquent cases, automatically alerting senior managers of potential problems.
• Cray implemented 46 assignment rules and 48 escalation rules to better manage and resolve cases.
• Ten cohesive record types consolidate and track customer data, streamlining the former jumble of information fields.
• Fifteen cohesive service record types consolidate and track customer data, streamlining the former jumble of information fields.
• The company has integrated Salesforce CRM with its bug tracking system.

Results

• The company now has improved visibility into its pipeline, with the ability to view long sales cycles over time.
• All users can view and share information across the global sales organizations in real time.
• Custom reports help management gauge progress.
• Field service reps can enter case data as much as four times faster compared to the old system, reducing data-entry time from 10 minutes per case to 2 to 3 minutes per case.
• Cray now enjoys a nearly 100 percent adoption rate with Salesforce CRM, compared with a 50 percent adoption rate with its previous system.
• Streamlined problem reporting allows reps to enter case data only once and to quickly route cases based on issue type.
• Some modifications to Salesforce CRM take less than a minute—and don't require any changes to the code.
• Salesforce CRM's cloud-computing model eliminated the need to employ additional IT resources.