Team Productivity Increases Up to 10% After Time Warner Cable Business Class Implements Salesforce

If wealth were measured in megabytes of data, Bo Coughlin might be considered a very rich man. A couple of years ago, the cable company executive was practically swimming in business data. But for all his information riches, Coughlin was insight poor.

Every time he tried to track a deal or spot a trend, he would be hit by a giant wave of data. And the information he really needed never seemed to surface. "We just couldn't dig out the really important insights like accurate forecasting information and a better understanding of our revenue stream," said Coughlin, vice president at Time Warner Cable Business Class.

To really do well in business you have to have as much information as you can but in a way that you can manage it," Coughlin said. "You can have a truckload of data, but that's too much. What you need is analysis of the right information so you can make your business better."

Today, Coughlin and his sales team have the business-critical information they need-along with the tools to manage and take advantage of it. The commercial services team rolled out salesforce.com's on-demand CRM solution more than a year ago and hasn't looked back. "In terms of analysis, Salesforce gives you complete control over your business," said Coughlin.

Like many companies doing business these days, Time Warner Cable Business Class must be able to turn on a dime. So having the right numbers is key.

About 100 of the company's employees use Salesforce to track incredibly complex data that changes over time, often without warning. The team manages a process that starts with a "needs assessment" and goes all the way through construction and installation. They must stay constantly on top of a variety of costs that impact the bottom line-from contractor charges and surveying expenses to follow-up customer service calls.

For Coughlin, the workday now starts with the review of a customized Salesforce Analytics dashboard that is generated automatically and retrieves high-priority data from a variety of far-flung sources. An Excel power user, Coughlin can easily push and pull data back and forth between Salesforce and Microsoft Office applications. With a few clicks, he can drill down on specific details and see how key numbers have changed over past months, weeks, or even in the course of the last 24 hours.

"Important things jump out at me, whether it's the number of installations, how long it's taking us to complete construction, where the pipeline is from a sales perspective, or how accurate the forecasting is," Coughlin said.

But the Salesforce application doesn't just wait politely to be asked its opinion. When data changes or projections seem out of whack, Coughlin receives an alert. The cable executive, who doesn't like to let grass grow under his feet, can deal with potential repercussions or head off problems immediately.

"I can look at the top five accounts by month, by stage, and by product category. I do that every day," said Coughlin. "That way I don't get blindsided. If something changes, say an account's status goes from 'forecast' to 'pipeline' to 'another month to close,' or the forecast history goes from 10,000 dollars to 4,000 dollars, I know about it right away."

Coughlin and his team have gone from regularly getting pounded by waves of business data to dominating them like seasoned surf riders. Along the way, they've mastered a few neat tricks:

• Managing by metrics: Holding reps to making an average of eight presentations per day is no longer wishful thinking. Nor is the process of tracking a customer's project from kick-off to completion. "Reps have to record in Salesforce what they've done, down to 'what products did you talk about?' and 'what are the next steps'," said Coughlin. "I've got a report I run every week or so that shows what each of them has done, how many presentations they've given, what the product was, and what the results were. It would be really hard for a rep to fake it."
• Identifying trends and drilling down: Tracking business on a case-by-case basis gives Time Warner Cable Business Class the raw data to draw important conclusions. Salesforce supplies the analytic muscle. Surveys taking longer than expected? Construction costs up? Managers can learn about a trend and then drill down on individual items to get detailed insight into what's causing it. "Salesforce is the tool I use to tell me what direction we're going in," said Coughlin. "I can see exactly where we're heading-whether it's good or bad-and whether we need to take action."
• Promoting healthy competition: With Salesforce's granular sharing model, Time Warner Cable Business Class can display customized dashboards to motivate sales. Reps see not just an evolving list of the top ten performers but also the bottom ten. "That's pretty powerful stuff," said Coughlin. "We finally have a true measurement tool. It holds everyone, including me, accountable."
• Keeping customers happy: Picking up the phone to find out whether somebody in another department has followed up with a customer is a thing of the past. "When a customer calls, we open a Salesforce case so everyone knows about the call and its status," said Coughlin. "Now the customer can go online and see the status of the account instead of having to call us. Salesforce provides a knowledge base that both employees and customers can use to find answers."
• Staying plugged in: Because no sales rep is an island, Time Warner Cable Business Class used AppExchange Builder to create a Web log right in Salesforce. Reps click a new tab in Salesforce to access the Web log, where they can ask questions, post news, and even promote fund-raisers. "Whether it's information about a customer, an event, sales, revenue—even a technical issue-now you can find out about it all in one place rather than having to go all over creation," said Coughlin

For Coughlin, nothing could outshine the bottom-line benefits Time Warner Cable Business Class gets from Salesforce. "From an administrative standpoint, it's taken the place of two full-time employees. And we probably saw a five to ten percent increase in productivity in the first year we used Salesforce," he said. "Overall, we expect a 20 percent increase in productivity over the first 24 months of use."

The savings in time have also been remarkable. "We went from an average of seven business days to complete a survey to just two," said Coughlin, whose team motto might be 'Not just working harder, working smarter.' "In construction, we went from 21 business days to an average of 13.5."

Knowing Coughlin, he's probably wondering how he can shave that half-day off the construction average. Not so long ago, he might have wasted plenty of time sifting through a sea of data to find the answer. Now, with the tools to track, trend, identify, communicate, and analyze the process, he's confident he can zero in on what's essential.

Time Warner Cable Business Class