Proofpoint Drives a New Partner Program on Salesforce CRM Partners; Integrates CRM and PRM for a 360-Degree View of the Business

Challenge

• Proofpoint, the leading provider of enterprise-class messaging security solutions for inbound and outbound email and messaging streams, required a consolidated CRM and PRM solution to manage all of its internal and external sales channels
• The company shifted from a 100 percent direct sales organization to one that relied on channel partners
• Direct and channel sales information were managed in two separate systems, creating redundancies, inconsistencies and administrative overhead
• The number of resources required to manage partner communications, a partner portal and partner reporting was high
• While marketing produced an increasing number of leads, distributing the leads to channel partners, and tracking their progress, was a challenge

Solution

• In 2003, Proofpoint chose Salesforce CRM Sales over Siebel CRM On Demand, deploying Salesforce CRM Enterprise Edition to 80 internal users
• Once Salesforce CRM Partners became available, the company swapped out BlueRoads, implementing the new solution in five weeks to 500+ PRM users for 120 partner organizations globally—finally standardizing on one application across the entire sales organization
• Salesforce.com Consulting leveraged its implementation and channel expertise to greatly accelerate deployment time, offering useful tips and solutions to align the system with the company's business processes
• Intuitively designed, the partner portal lays out leads, opportunities, deal registrations, and documentation using simple tabs and links, eliminating the need for partner training
• To spur user adoption and partner sales, Proofpoint offers periodic promotions along with deal registration opportunities through the partner portal
• Dashboards track new partner opportunities, leads generated by co-marketing opportunities, training and certification and partner sales
• Auto-response emails are used in conjunction with marketing campaigns to promote new offers, which are then tracked using dashboards; Web-to-lead functionality automates marketing campaigns vis a vis partners' sales targets, making leads available to partners directly from the portal
• From AppExchange, Proofpoint downloaded such applications as Time Based Workflow, Spoke Sales Prospecting, Salesforce CRM Partner Networks Utilities, and News to extend the original value of its solution

Results

• Proofpoint saves six hours of administrative time each week owing to Salesforce CRM's automated features and easy-to-manage partner portal
• Increased user adoption is fueled by a simple yet comprehensive Web portal where partners take advantage of promotions and deal registration programs
• Partners gain access to useful tools along with a full view of sales and lead owners, driving partner sales and loyalty
• Internally, users no longer need to conduct daily imports/exports of leads and partner deal registrations, saving time and boosting adoption
• One application for all direct and indirect sales data streamlines information and eliminates previous redundancies; Proofpoint now manages a single set of leads, opportunities, reports, and activities