Salesforce.com's Force.com Platform Synergizes Community-Based Efforts at Arlington Economic Development

"Salesforce on-demand CRM is at the core, but the Force.com platform stood out as the key piece for us. With Force.com, we can create apps in a way that captures the diverse terminology used throughout our organization rather than having to alter our business processes to accommodate the tool."


Challenge
  • Arlington Economic Development (AED) needed a CRM solution to enhance Arlington County's services to area businesses, real estate developers, and tourism interests
  • After attempting to share contacts on a custom system, the company realized it needed a more robust solution to manage business and sales processes and communications flow across all 4 organizational units
  • As a public sector organization, AED didn't fit the traditional sales paradigm and therefore needed to be able to customize its CRM solution to suit diverse businesses
  • A large-scale relocation initiative called for a CRM offering that would seamlessly integrate with existing business processes

Solution
  • After completing a six-month pilot with a competing CRM offering, AED found the strain on its technical staff too intense and the cost and learning curve too steep; Salesforce became the clear choice
  • Implemented in three months, Salesforce offered AED a customizable, cost-effective solution that was so simple to use that business users rather than overburdened IT resources could administer it
  • The company used Force.com to implement custom tabs for managing and tracking prospects, companies, and vendors and to create applications for the company's real estate development and internal communications groups
  • Inspired by an AppExchange app, AED also created a custom project-management application to streamline its operations companywide
  • The company successfully integrated Salesforce with Microsoft Outlook contacts, calendaring, and business cases for simple information access

Results
  • Optimized communications across all 4 organizational units synergize company efforts
  • The new project management application saves significant time and resources
  • Access to comprehensive, intelligent information increases quality of service
  • Customized terminology encourages quick and easy adoption among diverse users
  • With all of the customer information now available in Salesforce, AED no longer needs to rely on in-office staff to coordinate projects and meetings; employees in the field have direct access to the information they need
  • Less reliance on technical staff lowers IT costs and streamlines projects
 
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