Normalizing multiple business processes into a disciplined CRM system
Elsevier Business Intelligence, a leading publisher of science and health information, was formed following the combination of three businesses — F-D-C Reports, Windhover Information and MedTech Insight. The consolidation brought forth challenges including combining the cultures of three organizations as well as addressing disparate business processes tied to legacy systems. The ultimate goal was to adopt a CRM system that would properly transition and support the sales and marketing activities of the three legacy systems while overcoming obstacles to user adoption due to a user community with emotional ties to their current processes and systems.
Gerry Stoia, President at EBI, explains how EBI overcame the challenges of merging business systems, and how CRM manager aided in establishing a single solution...
Elsevier Business Intelligence (EBI) provides insights and analysis on the business of healthcare. EBI’s products and services allow business executives in healthcare companies make more informed business decisions. Their product portfolio includes leading industry news and magazine products such as The Pink Sheet and InVivo, as well as a suite of online products, a line of market research reports and a series of professional conferences.
EBI was formed in early 2008, with the business combination of F-D-C Reports, Windhover Information and MedTech Insight. While the organizations shared similar editorial styles, merging systems and sales/marketing cultures presented an immediate challenge. Despite identifying a fair amount of customer crossover, each business had a unique philosophy with regard to customer acquisition and management. Additionally, the existing business systems across the companies were custom and highly tailored toward their legacy business philosophy. EBI wanted to leverage best practices across the group, however, there was no existing system among the merged businesses that could support this post-consolidation sales and marketing group that was both larger and more contiguous.
According to Stoia, "Standardizing on a single platform was identified as mission critical early in our integration planning. Our three businesses had a fair degree of existing customer overlap and great opportunity for cross-selling products. Also, for our fulfillment and customer service teams to efficiently support customers of the three legacy businesses, it was important for us to have them bound together in one CRM system."
EBI recognized the need to engage a qualified consulting firm to assist them in merging the three businesses into a single operating unit, while synchronizing as many business activities as possible. In August of 2008 EBI hired CRM manager to implement salesforce.com to fit their organization and assist with user adoption on an aggressive timeline.
First, acting as facilitators, the CRM manager team worked with key stakeholders at EBI to identify business requirements and set goals, which included building a single CRM system that would support best practice sales and marketing activities of the three legacy businesses, and integrate (forward and backward) with the fulfillment system and online store and to automate existing workflows such as email blasts, distribution of renewal notices, etc.
Next, CRM manager worked with system administrators (internal and vendor) to create the data models necessary to load data one time from legacy systems and to build an ongoing interface with the fulfillment system and online store. Finally, CRM manager provided training and post-launch consulting services.
Stoia says of his experience with CRM manager, "They played an integral role in our business system consolidation. As an organization that was merging three legacy businesses into one, our customer database (CRM) often proved to be the platform to debate past practices, cultures and best approaches. The team from CRM manager did an excellent job navigating these, sometimes choppy, waters and played the role of "consultant" without emotional ties to legacy systems or processes perfectly."
Following implementation, Stoia and the team at EBI enjoy complete transparency into sales activities. On nearly a real-time basis, they have the ability to monitor sales that have been won and track the activity of the sales team, direct marketing programs and various sales channels. The company has also noticeably benefited from workflow automation. By linking salesforce.com to EBI’s fulfillment system and providing system notifications of a new sale from a representative to the order entry team, we eliminated dual entry, thus freeing resources and reducing the chance for human error.
According to Stoia, "I do not think we could have achieved our goals without CRM manager. Salesforce.com is now our central repository for all customer and prospect activity. With bridges built to our fulfillment and online store, management can see real time sales activity, as well as traditional sales pipeline/prospect management. Increasingly, salesforce.com is becoming an integral part of our non-sales workflow as well. For instance, we’re expanding the use of Case Reporting for the customer care team, distributing automated renewal notices for our subscription-based publications and we’re in the process of building sales and administrative reports that will allow us to run the business in a way that would have been impossible before the launch of our new system. CRM manager continues to provide consulting services and business expertise as our system and our company strategy evolve."