JMsolutions Harnesses Salesforce CRM and AppExchange to Streamline Intricate Processes Across Multiple Business Groups

Challenge

• JMsolutions—provider of integrated software systems that help automotive dealers improve operational efficiencies and increase revenues—wanted a centralized CRM solution to share information across multiple groups including sales, support, service ticketing, and installation field teams
• An existing ACT! application could only provide a piece of what the company required from a CRM system 
• The company, whose offerings are all “no software” solutions, needed an integrated platform on which to deploy apps and share information between sales and product development
• Given the intricacy involved in each stage of JMsolutions’ business processes, advanced workflow capabilities were vital

Solution

• In a side-by-side comparison of Salesforce CRM and Siebel On Demand, salesforce.com’s Salesforce CRM Enterprise Edition won out for its superior workflow functionality and comprehensive Force.com platform; a positive sales experience sealed the deal
• With the help of salesforce.com implementation partner Astadia, the company quickly deployed the solution to 133 users with Microsoft Outlook integration, large scale data imports, and multifaceted functionality
• The company test drove and installed more than six applications from the AppExchange marketplace for use by multiple departments companywide:

- GetAnswered is an automated dialing solution that equips JMsolutions with advanced call center capabilities such as call scripting, call scoring, and automated voicemail functionality

- Project and Issue Management provides the company with a central location for managing key aspects of projects, including status and target completion dates

- Bug Tracking and Quality Assurance allows the company to see which products have recurring problems and how the development and quality assurance teams are handling each bug

- Vista helps JMsolutions manage online surveys

- QuickArrow Time and Expense helps JMsolutions track, streamline, and analyze time and expense data to improve accuracy and efficiency

• Integration with an internal retailing system pulls customer data into Salesforce CRM daily to maintain a fresh picture of current customers
• Dashboards provide top-down views of sales information such as basic sales numbers and all open leads
• Using Salesforce CRM for service and support drives a complex web of processes—f ueled by workflow automation—throughout each stage of the customer lifecycle
• Custom tabs—such as Outage, which tracks bugs for system issues, and Site Survey, which gathers pre-install customer information—tailor Salesforce CRM to align with the company’s unique business model

Results

• The efficiencies created by AppExchange solutions span multiple departments and users, maximizing the benefits of the Force.com platform
• A complex maze of customer processes—from the point of sale, to the point of installation, to the point of support—flows as one cohesive system
• Aggregating data into one information source enables universal access across multiple groups—driving efficiencies at each phase of the customer lifecycle
• Upper management buy-in and overall ease-of-use drives high user adoption
• Remote access without a VPN means users can access information from anywhere