HumanConcepts Leverages Unlimited Edition's Boundless Custom Apps for Explosive Growth

Challenge

• HumanConcepts, a global provider of workforce modeling and intelligence solutions headquartered in San Francisco, CA with offices in the U.K. and Germany, required a reliable and extensible solution that could scale to its dramatic growth and integrate with disparate and complex systems
• The company's homegrown system consumed developer resources and failed to meet its expanding business needs; HumanConcepts wanted a CRM solution that would minimize the high cost of maintaining its own servers

Solution

• HumanConcepts chose Salesforce for its on-demand architecture, customizability, multilanguage support, powerful API, and ability to act as a platform for further application development
• The company completed a thorough and complex implementation of Salesforce SFA and Service & Support in four months
• The Force.com API enabled seamless integration with an e-commerce application running on Linux and with Order Management services running on Microsoft Windows
• Integration also included Microsoft Outlook, the ERP financial system, and other disparate data sources
• Bidirectional integrations include Web forms from the company's e-commerce site that generate leads and a list manager and uploading system, which tracks lead sources
• From the AppExchange directory, HumanConcepts downloaded OneSource, an application that makes available within Salesforce data on 1.7 million companies
• The company also implemented the Services Project Manager application from the AppExchange to manage Professional Services and training from a single location
• After success with Enterprise Edition, the company upgraded to Unlimited Edition to accommodate an increased number of useful customized applications

Results

• Consolidated data within one common platform improves visibility, creates greater efficiencies, cuts operational costs, and increases sales
• Open view of daily sales activity motivates sales teams, and real-time analytics provide clear visibility, accelerating the conversion of leads into contacts as well as enhanced decision making ability for stakeholders.
• Multilingual auto-response emails via the company's e-commerce site weaves targeted marketing into the sales process
• HumanConcepts now manages Professional Services projects—from assigning resources to creating timecards to quantifying P&Ls against the purchase order—all within the Services Project Manager application
• Partners now access the company Web site directly to log cases and view the solution center
• By enabling endless application development through Force.com, Unlimited Edition scales to HumanConcept's future success
• The company benefits from the community of users and developers created by the AppExchange: valuable applications designed by other companies complement and enhance existing solutions—saving time and resources
• HumanConcepts is currently developing an org charting component to add to the AppExchange
• HumanConcepts has been able to fully automate its business flow using Salesforce, starting from lead flow, through contact, account management, order processing and fulfillment