Nuss Truck & Equipment understood that to continue to grow its business it would need to centralize and optimize its CRM capabilities. The company needed a solution that would offer cost-effective on-premise installation, the ability to provide a 360º view of its customers, ease of use to encourage widespread adoption, and the flexibility to customize the solution as its needs evolve. After a comprehensive analysis, Nuss Truck & Equipment selected Microsoft Dynamics CRM over SFDC as its new platform.
Challenges
Nuss Truck & Equipment’s various teams and divisions were using disparate systems for managing customer and prospect data, resulting in multiple data silos.
The company’s truck division adopted Sales-in-Sync, while another division managed its business using Outlook and Excel spreadsheets. There were also a few users still using an archaic and inflexible version of Goldmine which did not sync with Outlook or offer any mobile capabilities.
The Customer Service Group worked primarily out of an ADP ERP system which lacked visibility. In fact, reps calling on current accounts were unaware of any service issues putting them in a difficult position. The ADP system also did not include any prospect data.
Senior and front-line managers mainly managed their teams on spreadsheets. Forecasts, pipelines, call reports, and performance against goals were created by extracting information from multiple sources and then manually inputting the data into a GM or Executive Management developed spreadsheet.
The company was also looking to increase its service contract business. There is a short window of opportunity from the point a product is sold until the time that the customer signs up for service with a vendor. With the legacy system, there were missed opportunities because the data was not relayed to the service reps quickly enough.
Objectives
Justin VanLaere, Nuss Truck & Equipment’s Corporate IT Manager, understood that in order to find the right solution, they would have to do a good amount of due diligence upfront.
According to VanLaere, “We knew that we wanted to create one place for users to ‘live in’ that would provide a 360-degree view of our customers. Enabling easy access to information across our various sales, service, parts, and customer service teams will undoubtedly provide better insight into each account.”
“With improved collaboration and visibility, we hope to enhance our ability to service our current and potential customers’ needs across all aspects of our business – from sales to service and parts.”
Since the company’s current processes to share sales information, customer service issues, and forecasts are mostly manual and very labor-intensive, the new solution also needed to have automated workflows, triggers, and templates.
Nuss Truck & Equipment already had the internal resources to host the solution, so they wanted an on-premise solution. VanLaere added, “Easy integration was high on our priority list and we really wanted to piggyback off of our existing infrastructure.”
The company also felt that flexibility and customization would be keys to success.
Solution
Although Nuss Truck & Equipment originally looked at migrating to an SFDC implementation — ultimately, the company selected Microsoft Dynamics CRM for its centralized CRM platform along with Hitachi Solutions as its consulting partner.
“We didn’t make the decision based on a feature versus feature comparison,” said VanLaere. “There were significant cost savings and flexibility on the Microsoft Dynamics on-premise solution. Plus, there were some great third party tools that would enable us to customize and add some great features.”
Nuss Truck & Equipment was already leveraging a number of Microsoft technologies including Exchange, SQL Service, Office, and SharePoint enabling tight integration with existing systems.
Hitachi Solutions leveraged its partnership with Experlogix to add an integrated quote tool for the construction equipment division.
As the company gets ready for full deployment of the new solution, it fully expects to gain better quality data — such as performance against activity goals and revenue goals — and to be able to use data to spot areas where reps may need help.
In addition, since the company does not have a dedicated marketing department, the new system can help proactively market to different segments of the industry. This could include focused efforts on selling new trucks to prospects or customers with aging inventory or selling parts and/or services to existing customers.
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