Onesource, a leading New Zealand-owned technology group, with 700 staff at 15 branches and offices nationwide, wanted to increase the effectiveness of its sales force and improve the information they maintained on their customers.

The company offers office technology solutions that are sold and supported through the group’s operating divisions: Konica Minolta Business Solutions, Cogent Communications and in-house finance division Leasing Solutions.

The company was using a legacy CRM application and a number of disparate and often outdated spreadsheets to manage customer information and sales opportunities. Sales staff had to log into multiple systems to view information.

The office automation group selected Microsoft Dynamics CRM to help it manage interactions with more than 50,000 customers across two of the group’s operating divisions.

Even though Onesource had an existing CRM application, sales staff resisted logging into multiple systems and therefore the information managed in this database was not kept up-to-date and reliable.

Time-consuming pipeline sales reporting and forecasting were done on a series of Excel spreadsheets. Each branch manager had to combine their account managers’ information into one and then send this to head office to be amalgamated again into a company-wide view.

With a focus on sales and customer service to drive business growth, Onesource saw implementing a CRM application as the best option to enable its employees to spend more time on sales and customer service, and less on business administration. It also needed a solution that could be easily implemented without causing the business to lose any momentum.

Onesource chose Microsoft Dynamics CRM for its sales teams across Konica Minolta Business Solutions and Cogent Communications. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is now used to manage customer relationships through the entire sales lifecycle, from generating leads and supplying quotes to acquiring and retaining customers.

“Microsoft Dynamics CRM stood out for us. It was easy to use because it integrated with Outlook and helped us achieve our need for a Sales Toolbox,” says Brendon Avery, Onesource’s general manager of information technology.

Avery says that by centralising all of the group’s customer contacts, Microsoft Dynamics CRM would provide Onesource with a holistic view of its customer base, which it previously lacked, and improve sales reporting and forecasting. The solution would also be integrated with Onesource’s existing databases and telephony systems.

“Our customers are our biggest asset,” says Avery. “Microsoft Dynamics CRM will allow our 200-plus sales staff to share information and do what they do best - spend more time out in the field servicing and attracting customers rather than focusing on paperwork. It will also assist our sales and support staff to communicate more effectively with customers.”

He says the solution offers the right level of reporting detail allowing the company to create a “sales toolbox” and provide the forward-looking insight it needs to spot opportunities and influence stock levels. “Since all the information will be integrated within the one system, we also expect to reduce manual data entry and doubling up on information.”

He says Onesource has been impressed with the overall functionality of Microsoft Dynamics CRM which, once set up, was rolled out nationally over a six week period with a core team of four, and its ability to support strategic business processes.

“The software integrated easily into existing IT infrastructures and was customised to fit the company’s business needs,” says Avery.

“We deployed the solution, got the basics up-and-running and started to see immediate benefits. It’s an application that continues to deliver and which allows us to drive functionality and customise the solution where and when we need it to reflect the business’s dynamic needs,” he says.

“For example, Microsoft CRM easily integrated with our existing legacy AS/400 system which contained a lot of information on the various machines, to display live data directly into the new system. Information is now seamlessly and automatically uploaded into CRM.”

Avery says Microsoft Dynamics CRM has helped Onesource develop a competitive advantage by improving the company’s information and management, creating more efficient, time-saving business processes.

“And over and above that we are now able to keep all the data on our systems and not merely in our employees’ heads, thereby safeguarding this information for our shareholders,” he says.

“We liked the fact that we didn’t need to extensively train our employees in how to use the software because the user-interface is user-friendly and very similar to Microsoft Outlook, a piece of software our people use everyday.”

For more information
Microsoft CRM
www.microsoft.com/businesssolutions

Anne Frith
09 362 5865
askdynnz@microsoft.com

June 2007

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