FD Technologies

 
 
 

Hunches, intuition, and gut feelings are out. Today’s businesses are all about insight, hindsight, and foresight, and data is their currency of choice. Founded in Northern Ireland, FD Technologies has grown from a capital markets consulting business to a global, AIM-listed, technology enterprise comprised of three distinct business units spanning data analytics, technology, and people, serving top tier organisations worldwide. To support the growth ambitions across its MRP, KX, and First Derivative business units, the company has embarked on a transformation of systems and processes that enable scale, efficiency, and data-driven decision making.

“To help our customers grow, we’re evolving from a professional services company into a technology company,” said David Humphries, Chief Operating Officer at FD Technologies. “When it comes to enabling our own growth goals, Salesforce is an integral part of our strategy.”

And, although early in its Salesforce journey, FD Technologies has empowered staff with greater visibility, smarter processes, and richer insights.

Adopting world-class technology to accelerate success

With a 25-year heritage, FD Technologies has grown into a global enterprise with more than 2,500 employees and three business units, namely KX, First Derivative, and MRP. KX, the software business unit, offers an ultra-high performance analytics platform that ingests and analyses both real time and historic data to deliver actionable insights for critical business decisions. Enabling sub-second data analytics, KX is used by the world’s top financial institutions as well as businesses across industry sectors such as manufacturing, utilities, telecoms, and automotive.

The First Derivative business unit provides consultancy and services to financial institutions based on its deep expertise across data, technology, and people. MRP delivers enterprise-class account-based marketing and predictive analytics for today’s data-driven marketing and sales organisations. “To accelerate our growth strategies for KX and First Derivative, we shifted from a ‘build it ourselves’ mentality to one that’s focused on leveraging industry-leading and scalable systems from a trusted partner. When we revamped our CRM strategy to streamline handover between sales and lead generation, which was a pain point with our old system, Salesforce was, by far, the best platform to achieve our goal,” explained Alan Coad, Chief Revenue Officer for KX. And it was the platform’s stability, high levels of security, and ease of integration that won him over.

 

Fostering a culture of empowerment with Trailhead

Working with partner, BlueWave, the company designed and implemented a minimum viable product (MVP) in just three months, using Sales Cloud and Service Cloud out-of-the-box to get the core requirements in place quickly.

“We have great relationships with BlueWave and Salesforce. The customer success team is always available to answer our questions and provide ongoing support,” added Shane Kelly, Senior VP of Tech Services at FD Technologies.

To get up to speed on the new solution and encourage user adoption, the team used Salesforce training platform, Trailhead, and peer support as they learned how best to use the platform. “My team loves Trailhead, it’s intuitive and helped us upskill quickly,” said Aislinn Murphy, VP of Business Development. “The merchandise is great too, we worked hard to earn our Trailblazer hoodies and mugs!”

Optimising processes is a game changer

Today, Sales Cloud handles CRM and simplifies managing leads, opportunities, and account management – in particular, streamlining the once complex process of handing leads over from business development to sales.

Salesforce Inbox brings communications into one place to save time and centralise information. The solution is also integrated with platforms such as LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Zoom to automatically import contacts, freeing the team from time-consuming admin.

“Salesforce is a game changer. More efficient processes mean we can focus on tasks that deliver the highest impact,” commented Murphy. “Our implementation started with our KX sales engine, but once we’ve optimised those processes, we’re looking at automating more workflows, especially for our consultancy arm.”

And, in phase two of the Salesforce rollout, the team integrated a telephony solution to track how many calls were taking place each day and how many converted to a meeting. “Salesforce gives us the visibility to understand what’s driving sales so we can focus on the right areas. It’s completely changed how we think about processes,” said Humphries.

Richer insights breathe new life across the organisation

Taking a data driven approach doesn’t just help to win more business. Being able to pinpoint successful tactics and what is driving the best results means the rest of the team can learn from best practices. Meanwhile, new starters on the team can hit the ground running. Senior managers use dashboards to monitor performance so they can proactively offer support if an individual isn’t meeting their targets. Additionally, campaign content and messaging are also more effective with data captured in Salesforce around engagement rates.

“Before Salesforce, getting accurate and timely information was difficult. Now, instead of spending time collecting and collating data I can generate reports at the click of a button,” said Coad. “I spend at least 60% less time on reporting and I know I’ve got my finger on the pulse of the business.”

 

Bolting new functionality onto a strong core platform

As FD Technologies grows and evolves, it plans to adopt a subscription-based model for customers, which wouldn’t be possible without a CRM that integrates seamlessly with the ERP system.

“We’re looking at Revenue Cloud to help us price services more efficiently,” said Humphries. “We’ll also be able to track which products customers have and look at opportunities to cross and upsell. There are plenty of opportunities for First Derivative customers to benefit from the KX platform, for example.”

With more crossover between departments, the team is considering using Salesforce Anywhere as a place to communicate and collaborate.

“Being able to build more functionality on our Salesforce platform is brilliant. We’re rolling out Pardot to streamline email marketing, Service Cloud to handle cases, and when we wanted to sign contracts digitally, we found a ready-made solution on the AppExchange,” said Kelly.

Using Pardot, the marketing team has been able to build out an integrated demand programme for prospects and customers that is relevant, automated, and measurable. “Pardot has enabled us to scale our execution through automation,” said Kathy Schneider, Chief Marketing Officer at FD Technologies. She continues, “It also provides richer insights into our prospect and customer behaviours so our lead gen team can respond more effectively to buying signals.”    

Another AppExchange solution FD Technologies is using is OwnBackup, which helps the company achieve GDPR compliance without having to manually erase data from tapes. This saves an estimated 20 man-hours per month, and together with security solution Shield, helps to enhance security and meet industry regulations.

“It’s early days with Salesforce, but we know it’s our platform for the future. More accurate forecasting means we can prepare for the challenges of tomorrow and better visibility means we can identify opportunities for improvement,” said Humphries. “Having a partner who shares your mindset and values is crucial for success, and I believe we’ve found that in Salesforce.”

 

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