A CRM solution that increases efficiency and gives end-to-end visibility of sales activity
“Incremental have always been proactive, flexible and on the ball. Importantly they understood our needs as they changed over time and were able to respond appropriately.”
Lisa Junsan, Project and Transition Manager, Ajilon Consulting
Ajilon Consulting is an IT solutions, service and deployment partner to organisations across the UK. With 200 staff, its customers range from leading SMEs to public sector and blue chip organisations.
Part of the Adecco Group, a worldwide recruitment brand and reputably the fifth largest employer in the world, Ajilon Consulting’s headquarters are in Stevenage, Hertfordshire.
Sales activity was tracked across a range of different spreadsheets, all formatted differently
Before Ajilon approached Incremental, they had no CRM solution in place. The sales department was tracking all sales activity across a range of differently formatted spreadsheets. These were managed by separate individuals and teams with no end-to-end solution linking sales to delivery. Mike Attenborough, Operations Manager, Ajilon Consulting, explained “We were faced with a lot of disparate information across the business and there was no one central repository. This made managing the information and executive decision-making very challenging. It was hard to link everything in a clear way.”
The primary challenge was to implement a system that would give Ajilon Consulting a view of the sales pipeline transitioning all the way through actuals and into project delivery. This included the sales management of the billing and resource activity. In addition, there were several different systems being used for other activities such as resource scheduling, project management and costing and billing, which would need to be decommissioned with the new CRM solution.
“We were faced with a lot of disparate information across the business and there was no one central repository. This made managing the information and executive decision-making very challenging. It was hard to link everything in a clear way.”
Understanding the business challenges
A scoping session took place to understand Ajilon’s business challenges and how CRM might address each of those. Lisa Junsan, Project and Transition Manager said, “We talked through the high level principles of what we do and Incremental went away and came back with a high level CRM demonstration. I have to say they grasped what we do very well from the outset.”
Incremental ran a series of requirements gatherings workshops with functional team leaders. Following this, Incremental wrote up a functional requirements document which went through a review process.
The next phase involved the initial design and development which then lead on to user acceptance testing. The project is currently in the implementation phase, however some components are already up and running. The sales team are now accessing Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online either in the office or via their laptops when out on sales visits. Lisa Junsan explained “Accessibility was key for Ajilon, because we work in numerous locations; our engineers and sales people work all over the place so it wasn’t appropriate to have a fixed location solution.”
“Accessibility was key for Ajilon, because we work in numerous locations; our engineers and sales people work all over the place so it wasn’t appropriate to have a fixed location solution.”
A wide range of benefits produced
- Visibility of real-time sales pipeline – sales pipeline information is now easy visible and available in real-time, making it instantly and widely accessible to the whole team for improved decision making.
- Tracking of all customer interactions – Emails, tasks, phone calls, meetings, both planned and completed, are stored centrally to give a complete view of sales activities.
- Management reporting – All information is being captured and stored in a consistent way. Microsoft Dynamics streamlines the process for analysing sales performance data through the use of dashboards and other management tools.
- Smooth quotation authorisation processes – Quotations are processed more rigorously by the sales team through the use of rate cards and controlled parameters within the new system. Management sign-off on higher value quotations and can focus on larger projects.
- Familiar and intuitive user experience – With Microsoft at the heart of the solution with its industry-standard technology, users are secure in the knowledge that the system will be intuitive.
- Security and resilience – As an online solution accessed via a browser, the system is available 365 days a year and management can be safe in the knowledge of Microsoft’s resilient DR reputation.
- Enhanced productivity with configurable workflows – All systems are interlinked into one end-to-end systems delivering automated business processes
- Forecasting and planning – The new system allows the team to forecast their resource requirements for the future months more effectively, enabling the organisation to be more strategic in terms of planning.
- De-duplication of data – With the data all in one place, it can be de-duplicated and there is no need to dual-store information.
- Reducing administrative burden – With no duplication of effort and re-keying of data, cost savings and productivity have improved.
- Speed of deployment – The Microsoft CRM Dynamics Online solution has ensured a smooth and fast implementation without the need for internal IT to be involved.
- Significantly reduced IT costs
- Real-time sales pipeline visibility
- Maintained service levels
- Centralised management reporting
Adding additional elements to further business benefits
The project is currently in the implementation phase, however some components are already up and running. Ajilon is gradually adding new delivery element such as billing to the system.
Ajilon is also due to roll out a stock management as part of the solution. The time, expenses and holiday allocations component of the system will mean all staff are on one standard system working in a consistent manner.
