Overview

Country

United States

Industry

Commercial Furniture Sales

Customer Profile

Corporate Environments (CE) employs more

than 40 professionals to serve the office

design and furnishing needs of their clients

Headquartered in Atlanta and serving the

greater southeast CE represents furniture

lines including Knoll office furniture and

DIRTT architectural products

Business Situation

CE lacked a single repository for customer

information With the majority of the staff

interacting with clients on a regular basis it

was critical for them to have quick and easy

access to sales and support information to

better serve their existing customers and

attract new ones

Solution

CE chose Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

Online and partnered with ACE

Microtechnology to deploy the solution and

integrate it to their industry specific back

office for greater information access and

visibility

Benefits

Improved Visibility of customer and

prospects

Improved cash flow

Real-time forecasting

Workflows and Notifications

o New account created

o Lead assignment

o Sales person notification

o Client deposit notification

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Online

Client Case Study

Regional Office Furniture and Architectural Products

Dealership deploys cloud based CRM to provide 360

degree view of clients and prospects

ldquoThe ability to meet with my sales team individually and

see their sales pipeline in real-time is tremendous It gives

me a tool to demonstrate where and how they should be

spending their time Immediate access to close dates and

install dates also allows me to provide quick answers to

the company ownerrdquo Tony Nelson

Director of Sales

Operating in the Atlanta area since 1986 Corporate Environments

has the experience necessary to assist with all office design needs

from furniture to space planning to relocation and installation As

the only authorized Knoll dealer in the area Corporate

Environments customers are assured that they will be receiving only

the most stylish well-made office furniture on the market Furniture

carried by Corporate Environments includes modular office

furniture cubicles office chairs conference furniture reception

furniture 3form products healthcare furniture executive office

furniture and filing cabinets Corporate Environments had no

integrated corporate sales tools Sales representatives used their

own individual tools to track accounts contacts and activities

Opportunities were manually entered into spreadsheets for

forecasting No integrated marketing or customer service systems

existed either Because all of the staff of Corporate Environments

interacts with and focuses on the customer the company was

exploring the acquisition of a fully integrated sales marketing and

customer service system As a Microsoft Gold and Silver certified

partner specializing in Microsoft Dynamics GP and CRM ACE was

uniquely positioned to deploy a solution that met the needs of

Corporate Environments today This solution leveraged existing

technology investments and will scale with future company growth

ldquoThe Dynamics CRM has

allowed me to produce a

real-time forecast and

customized dashboard that is

available at any given

moment Through the use

of this system we have been

able to automate and

streamline existing processes

resulting in more time for

value-added activitiesrdquo

Bridgette Boucha

CFO

Solutions deployed

Click on the products below for more

information

Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Scribe

Office 365

Situation

Corporate Environments had no single repository for corporate sales and

marketing Sales information was spread throughout the organization with

individual employees The company was using manual processes and multiple

tools for sales forecasting Only a limited history of sales activities was available

and the company had no understanding of why sales were lost Corporate

Environment spent a tremendous amount of time on networking but truly had no

clear vision on where leads were coming from and where their networking time

was best spent Reporting and Business Intelligence was either very hard to

produce inaccurate or just not available In order to achieve their aggressive

growth goals this lack of critical knowledge needed to change

Solution

The solution included Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 online integrated to Team

Designtrade using the Scribetrade integration tools set The results provided Corporate

Environments with the following

Single Customer List

A single customer repository accessible by all employees and identical in

Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Team Design Team Design is the industry

specific back office accounting and customerproject solution

Integrating with Team Design achieved a common customer and vendor

database and additional information for real-time reporting and

automated workflows

Improved Productivity

Automation of manual processes (Forecast Leads Assignment New Acct Creation)

Accessible from anywhere for mobile workforce Familiar interface - Outlook

Retain Customer Knowledge

Retain customer info lost with staff turnover Customer information shared across departments

Market Focus

Who are our customers right now What vertical markets and what mix

Ability to change if this mix is weighted unexpectedly or inefficiently

Sales Metric Visibility

Sales activity

Sales productivity ndash new customers versus existing customers

Close rate on proposals

Jobs lost

Success rate versus competition

ldquoThe Dynamics CRM has

allowed me to produce a

real-time forecast and

customized dashboard that is

available at any given

moment Through the use

of this system we have been

able to automate and

streamline existing processes

resulting in more time for

value-added activitiesrdquo

Bridgette Boucha

CFO

Solutions deployed

Click on the products below for more

information

Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Scribe

Office 365

Situation

Corporate Environments had no single repository for corporate sales and

marketing Sales information was spread throughout the organization with

individual employees The company was using manual processes and multiple

tools for sales forecasting Only a limited history of sales activities was available

and the company had no understanding of why sales were lost Corporate

Environment spent a tremendous amount of time on networking but truly had no

clear vision on where leads were coming from and where their networking time

was best spent Reporting and Business Intelligence was either very hard to

produce inaccurate or just not available In order to achieve their aggressive

growth goals this lack of critical knowledge needed to change

Solution

The solution included Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 online integrated to Team

Designtrade using the Scribetrade integration tools set The results provided Corporate

Environments with the following

Single Customer List

A single customer repository accessible by all employees and identical in

Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Team Design Team Design is the industry

specific back office accounting and customerproject solution

Integrating with Team Design achieved a common customer and vendor

database and additional information for real-time reporting and

automated workflows

Improved Productivity

Automation of manual processes (Forecast Leads Assignment New Acct Creation)

Accessible from anywhere for mobile workforce Familiar interface - Outlook

Retain Customer Knowledge

Retain customer info lost with staff turnover Customer information shared across departments

Market Focus

Who are our customers right now What vertical markets and what mix

Ability to change if this mix is weighted unexpectedly or inefficiently

Sales Metric Visibility

Sales activity

Sales productivity ndash new customers versus existing customers

Close rate on proposals

Jobs lost

Success rate versus competition

ldquoUsing a hosted-solution for

Dynamics CRM combined

with hosted email was a no-

brainer Instead of

maintaining extra servers

and software updates we

can use our limited resources

to focus on projects that

contribute more to the

business rdquo

Scott Blanck

Director of IT

About ACE Microtechnology

ACE Microtechnology Inc is a professional services firm committed to delivering business solutions to small and medium sized organizations Our focus is in delivering products and services that improve our clients business operations ACE has developed specialties in serving the distribution retail and hospitality industries

Rather than just building technology or implementing software we deliver real business value through industry knowledge and understanding each client business We make it our business to know their business

ACE is a Microsoft Gold Certified Dynamics GP partner and Silver Certified Dynamics CRM partner

For more information on ACE please visit our web site at wwwacemicrotechcom or contact Mark Munson at mmunsonacemicrotechcom

Benefits

Visibility

AR in CRM

Improved cash flow

Real-time forecasting

Less work for the Accounting Department

Workflows

New Customer

Entered into Team Design with approval workflow

Team Design assigns account numbers- sales notified new account

created

New Leads

Sales Manager enters lead and assigns

Sales person notified

Reminders and escalation if no activity performed

Automated emails when client deposit made

IT Savings

Deploying CRM in the cloud was cost effective and easy

Based on this the company also move email to the cloud with Microsoft

Office 365

Lessons Learned

Phased deployment based on priority

Start at the beginning of the sales cycle

Did not stress sales out

Continue to use current back end process until they can be improved

or replaced

Involve team early

Trained heavily

Integration

Donrsquot underestimate integration

Integration tool selection critical

Exponential benefit based on information sharing

Sales embraced better than anticipated

Cloud solution requires appropriate network and internet connectivity