Fourth Hospitality Puts its Entire Business Strategy up in the Cloud

Challenge

• UK-based Fourth Hospitality or ‘Fourth’ is the leading provider of software as a service (SaaS), in the hospitality industry
• A dynamic, fast-growing business, Fourth chose salesforce.com at the company’s inception to support all of its sales, marketing, and customer support processes

Solution

• The sales team at Fourth use the Sales Cloud to create opportunities, manage leads derived from the websites, control the pipeline, and convert opportunities into contracts
• Fourth deployed the Service Cloud to effectively manage consistent, rewarding customer support―including the ability for customers to log, manage, and review cases through a self-service portal environment
• Cases that require development on Fourth’s systems or which highlight bugs are linked―via a custom object―to development tasks.  This ensures these crucial tasks are completed by a dedicated team, tested, and returned to account management for reporting and closure
• Taking advantage of the point and click customization, Fourth has adapted salesforce.com considerably: including billing, development, QA, and testing processes 
• The Force.com Platform is being used for integration with existing software into the Service Cloud; for example invoices are sent directly from Salesforce to customers and invoice payment status is created 
• Salesforce Mobile on the iPhone ensures data can be entered and viewed anytime, anywhere

Results

• Using the Sales Cloud, Fourth’s sales managers and executives have 360-degree, drill-down visibility into real-time sales information and reporting
• Fourth is “extremely satisfied” with its cloud model and is deriving the maximum return on investment from salesforce.com
• The Service Cloud ensures customers have around-the-clock, transparent access to their cases
• Calls to the support desks have decreased considerably following the adoption of the self-service portal
• Fourth is using the Sales Cloud and the Service Cloud to record all of the information that comes in from customers―whether it’s issues and cases, recommendations or ideas
• The company has been able to complete customizations extremely quickly and very easily―adapting them as business requirements have changed
• Auto-refresh plasma screens in the office related to sales and support team performance provide instant real-time visibility of information about our business