For the past 3 years, CRM Science has helped Pointroll, a multi-screen digital advertising technology and services company, automate operational and financial processes using the Salesforce platform.
John Wilson, Director of Business Process Management, worked closely with the CRM Science team for the duration of that project. John's extensive background in project management, process reengineering, and change management complemented CRM Science's lean delivery.
We recently had a chance to catch up with John and get his take about the platform and his experience with the CRM Science team. Here is what he had to say:
"I started my involvement with Salesforce because the company I was with at the time had several challenges that absolutely needed to be solved. As a service company, the majority of our cost was in labor. We did not have an understanding how much time was being spent on each of our clients. In addition, our delivery time, as well as queue time, were unknown. This lack of insight caused unnecessary noise throughout our organization. After a great deal of use case analysis, and research, we determined a robust workflow tool was missing from our organization. We then proceeded to evaluate over 25 tools, by engaging vendors, in webinars, demonstrations, pitches, both in person, and by screen share. And yet after untold hours of research we hadn’t landed on the right solution. Then, perhaps by luck, I was introduced to Salesforce, and attended my first Dreamforce.
Like most people that attend Dreamforce for the first time, I was completely blown away by the platform, the company, the culture, and the ecosystem. While at Dreamforce, I talked over many potential solutions with colleagues and industry experts. I knew that we would need resources that were more advanced than what I had in house at the time, so I arranged for a meeting with Ami and Kirk from CRM Science while at Dreamforce.
I recall the scene clearly. It was a beautiful, sunny, Thursday afternoon in San Francisco. We sat on the Moscone lawn between the conference buildings. We talked for over an hour about the challenges we needed to solve. It was clear to me from our first meeting that the CRM Science team really desired to understand our problem. It was evident that they took such care in listening and asking questions, so they could help us come up with the best solution, rather than a mediocre one. I left the 2012 Dreamforce conference with confidence that Salesforce, in concert with the help of CRM Science, would solve our workflow need.
My work was not complete as it would take me several months of convincing senior management that Salesforce was the right solution. Eventually, I was able to explain at a high level how we would be able to capture the ROI of the time our teams were spending with clients. Once we earned approval, We went to work on implementing the vision we had on that lawn back at Dreamforce. In only six short weeks from our project start date we had a viable application built in our Salesforce production environment! Not six months; six weeks!
Within three to six months of rolling out our application, the data came in, and the same executive team that initially balked at going with Salesforce, were elated over the results. Our application built by CRM Science was so successful it resulted in the executive team requesting even more data from our company’s Operation’s Team via Salesforce! Other benefits emerged from having better data. For example, unprofitable clients became obvious and the executive team was able to make hard decisions based on data from Salesforce. Product development team, by looking at the data on what time projects were taking, were able to create more efficient development tools for Operations. Employees could grow and reach their full potential, with the value of their roles being validated by data. And the culture of the entire company began to change, as data infused itself into decision making throughout. Since that initial project, CRM Science has gone on to do many other projects for the company with similar success."