Telenet Solutions Increases Sales Productivity by Using Salesforce SFA

Resources

• Download PDF
• Snapshot
• Web Site

Challenge

• Replace outmoded system
• Ensure sales teams are quickly productive on next-generation sales management system
• Maximize user adoption

Solution

• The company deployed Salesforce SFA to 56 sales professionals to create a single, comprehensive view of business customers. By deploying Salesforce PRM with its partner portal, partners become an extension of the company's internal sales team.

Results

• Increased sales productivity
• Enabled the company to grow faster than the market rate for 'triple play' operators in Belgium
• Enabled the marketing team to concentrate its efforts on the right customer segments and target audiences
• Easy to customize the system with Force.com Builder, without involving the IT department
• Enhanced ability to accurately analyze near real-time reports on sales enquiries, orders, fulfillment, and financials
• No up-front technology investment or drawn-out deployment; minimal impact on IT resources
• Partners woven into the internal sales team system

It seems that almost everyone wants 'triple play' services right now: television, telephone, and Internet services from a single provider. To manage the surge in demand from enterprise customers for these and other services, Telenet Solutions swapped its previous sales management system for Salesforce SFA—and what a difference it made. Sales productivity increased, and the easy-to-use, fully customizable, hosted solution is helping the company to outpace the average market rate of growth for triple play services in Belgium.

Telenet is a leading player in the Belgian triple play market, offering residential customers an unrivalled blend of cable television, high speed Internet, and telephone services. Telenet Solutions, the business-to-business subsidiary, provides business customers with DSL, fiber, cable, and wi-fi communications services.
 
Customers are almost equally split between large enterprise companies, the public and health sectors, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and the wholesale carrier division. Organic growth, coupled with a series of mergers and acquisitions, was putting considerable strain on the existing system Telenet Solutions was using to manage relationships with this demanding and diverse community.

"When we merged with another company, one of the greatest challenges we faced was integrating the acquired company's data into the existing system," says Hugo Lemmens, executive vice president, Telenet Solutions. "To compound this situation, the system had been endlessly configured and adapted over the years. Telenet Solutions was using a sales force automation tool for everything from sales management and order entry to provisioning. It was a 'jack-of-all-trades,' but a master of none."

Single, Comprehensive View of Every Customer Relationship

When Lemmens joined Telenet Solutions in 2004, he immediately identified the need to rapidly replace the previous sales automation tool with a more effective and inexpensive sales management system. "I had used Salesforce before and was already aware of the breadth of capability of this hosted customer relationship management (CRM) system. Salesforce allowed our sales teams to share a single, comprehensive view of each and every customer relationship-and it was incredibly easy to learn," says Lemmens.

The initial decision to deploy Salesforce was based on Lemmens's satisfying experience with the solution. This was a temporary measure to satisfy the urgent need to replace the existing system, although the company later conducted a formal request for information (RFI) and selection process. Salesforce was subsequently chosen against competing bids for CRM and partner relation management (PRM) solutions. The formal review process validated what Lemmens believed from the start. He comments, "The tender process demonstrated that Salesforce is easier to use than any other solution. It is more popular in the market, and salesforce.com has the most visionary road map for the future direction of its products."

One of the priorities for Lemmens and his team was to eliminate any obstacles to the salespeople using this new sales force automation system. Salesforce offered Telenet Solutions fast access to sales data-either online, offline, or via mobile devices-together with links to popular tools like Microsoft Office and Microsoft Outlook. As a result, user adoption and usage rates have been extremely high. Lemmens explains, "If we had chosen a system that ran on a client and needed installation, we ran the risk of staff saying they couldn't reach their data for whatever reason. With Salesforce, the browser environment means they have access to the unified customer view anywhere, anytime. As a result, we are now experiencing usage rates of more than 88 percent."

Support for All Crucial Sales Processes

Today, 56 Telenet Solutions sales executives and managers use the sales force automation solution Salesforce SFA to support all of their crucial sales processes. The centralized system provides the team with best-in-class functionality-from managing leads, opportunities,accounts,territories, and contracts to analytics and forecasting, product information, and workflow. "Salesforce is an invaluable tool in helping to generate leads, in ensuring the teams are more productive, and in giving visibility to everyone in the organization," explains Lemmens. "Our sales teams have increased their sales productivity using Salesforce SFA. Whichever way an inbound lead is identified-either through the Web, telesales, the channel, telemarketing, or an external call center-nothing is lost."

Using Force.com Builder, Telenet Solutions also adapted the system quickly and easily to suit its needs. For instance, as soon as a lead is generated through the Web site, it is automatically recorded in Salesforce. A custom link has also been created that enables the sales teams to identify which competing telco provider a prospect is using by identifying the details of the telephone number. Among many other noteworthy customizations, the team also created a link to a separate database for measuring credit ratings. "The best thing of all is that if we identify a new feature we need, it can be created and launched in just a few hours," says Lemmens. "Our IT department doesn't need to be involved at all."

But the story doesn't end there. Following the imminent rollout of Salesforce SFA on PDA devices, Telenet Solutions will also launch Salesforce PRM,  an integrated partner solution complete with a partner portal for its indirect sales channel. Partners will share the same, common view of the sales cycle, allowing them to more effectively transform leads into orders. The easy-to-use portal will also ensure maximum partner adoption and help them to become an extension of the direct Telenet Solutions sales team. Lemmens concludes, "Telenet Solutions is currently growing faster than the market rate for triple play operators in Belgium, and that would have been almost impossible without Salesforce. This is especially the case in the SME space, where Salesforce enables the company to effectively manage a high volume of sales opportunities. We couldn't live without Salesforce now."
View All Snapshots