Customer Relationship Management in Ireland Managing your Customers for Business Growth

Managing your Customers for Business GrowthA Report on Customer Relationship Management in Ireland Microsoft Ireland January 2011

Table of Contents

Foreword 3

Karl O’Leary, Business Manager, Microsoft Dynamics Ireland 3

Customer Relationship Management in Ireland – Five Years On 7

Interviews 13

Mervyn O’Shaughnessy: The Importance of Knowing 13 Your Customers

Tom Trainor: Developing a Customer Relationship Model 16

Krishna De: Integrating Social Media into Customer 19 Relationship Management

Irish Customer Case Studies 25

Irish Forestry Services 25

ADM Londis 28

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 31

Managing Your Customers for Business Growth A Study on Customer Relationship Management in Ireland, January 2011

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Foreword

If you were to ask a group of business people what Customer Relationship Management (CRM) means you would probably get a variety of answers, but in simple terms it’s about managing your customers and is something that has been done since humans began buying and selling.

Five years ago Microsoft published a report on CRM practice in Ireland, “Customer Driven Productivity - A Study on CRM Practice in Ireland.” That report revealed some interesting insights about Irish businesses – for me, the most interesting one being that 50% of companies were either ignoring or not leveraging the benefits of CRM. Five years on, we’ve reconnected with the same businesses to investigate what’s changed, and gain comparative insight on how CRM has evolved as part of their overall business plan. A lot has changed during that period – the economy, the prevalence of the internet and the explosion of social media such as Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter. One thing I know that hasn’t changed though, is the need to understand and manage your customers.

What struck me, when reading the contributions to this new insightful report “Managing Customers for Business Growth,” was the manner in which the economic downturn has brought that truth home to the decision-makers in Irish business.

In her thought-provoking article, Krishna

De brings out the point that digital social networking requires that, instead of broadcasting their communications to customers, companies now need to listen to customers on a person-by-person basis. To borrow a phrase, successful companies need to give their customers “a good listening to.”

Tom Trainor provides some keen insights in his piece on marketing. In difficult economic times, companies need to retain their customers. Those who know their customers, who listen to their customers and who look after the needs of their customers, will be the ones to survive, thrive and prosper as the economy inevitably recovers.

Mervyn O’Shaughnessy provides insight into the complexity of the balance needed to reach beyond our current economic downturn. The economy that emerges from this downturn will be more balanced, more sustainable and more globalised. Ireland can no longer be a middle-man in the global economy, it has to develop its indigenous small and medium size businesses into regional, European and globally-scaled enterprises. In order to achieve this, we will have to develop our ability to achieve international scale, while maintaining our relationship with existing and new customers.

For our part, Microsoft has been working to develop a CRM solution that is driven, not by what is technologically possible, but by what is needed within the marketplace - easy

Karl O’Leary Business Manager Microsoft Dynamics Ireland


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to use and intuitive software, the integration of social networking functionality and the shift towards cloud computing. These useful tools will help businesses to build relationships with the only factor that is of any value – the customer.

I hope you find this report of business benefit. I believe that Microsoft has listened to what customers want with the launch of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. We are delivering a valuable solution that can enable businesses to retain their existing customers, develop new relationships and ultimately scale their business locally and globally.


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Irish companies have awoken to the importance of customer relationship management (CRM) over the past five years, but despite this, one-third of companies use Microsoft Office productivity software rather than CRM tools to manage customer interactions.

That’s according to Microsoft’s survey on CRM Usage in Ireland, which was carried out in the last quarter of 2010, on the fifth anniversary of the last major survey.

The survey found that Irish companies are taking a strategic view of CRM (Figure 1). More than 30% said that CRM was owned by either the sales director or the marketing director. Another 17% of respondents said that the managing director owned the CRM

project. A total of 25% of respondents said that responsibility for CRM lay with the operational function, with the IT manager or operations director.

When asked to rate the importance of various CRM functions within the company, on a spectrum between “Very Important” or “Not Important”, the ability to track sales leads and enquiries came out on top. Fifty-seven percent said that it was very important; 29% said it was important and only 14% said it was not important. Interestingly, the tracking marketing activity received the fewest votes with 39% voting it very important, 42% voting it important and 20% voting it not important. Other CRM functions such as sales pipeline management, tracking

Figure 1: Who “owns” CRM within your company?

5.4%

20.8%

9.6%

16.9%

6.1%4.2%

18.8%

18.2% Sales Manager/Director

Marketing Manager/Director

Managing Director

Operations Manager/Director

Customers Service Manager/Director

IT Manager/Director

No One Specific

Other

Customer Relationship Management in Ireland – Five Years on


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customer complaints, the systematic storing of customer details and the provision of business intelligence all scored relatively well indicating that CRM serves a number of very important functions within Irish companies.

The CRM systems were put into place in response to customer needs and demands (Figure 2). In response to the question “In the past five years, what is the main change you’ve seen in the way you deal with customers?” 29% of respondents reported that customers now expect a quicker response than they did previously; 23% said that customers are more cost-conscious;

17% said that competition is tougher because customers have more choices; and 14% said that customers are more discerning in their purchasing choices.

Many Irish companies choose to use Microsoft Office productivity software to manage CRM processes, rather than purpose made CRM tools (Figure 3). The most popular tool is Microsoft Excel, which is used by one-quarter of the respondents. When Microsoft Access usage is added to Excel usage, these tools make up one-third of all tools used for the customer relationship management role. The next most popular

tool is Salesforce.com, which is used by almost 10% of respondents; 7.5% used SAP; and another 6% percent used Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Reported use of Siebel, Sugar CRM, Goldmine, Saleslogix and ACT! came to a combined total of less than 15%. One in every eight companies said that they did not use any CRM system and one in five said that they used a CRM system, but did not specify the brand.

This compares very favourably with the 2005 survey, when 52% of companies had no CRM system in place; 14% were using bespoke systems that had been developed

in-house; and 12% were using their contact management software as an ad-hoc CRM system.

Companies have also increased their commitment to CRM. 57% have invested in a CRM system in the past 3 years and four out of five have invested in the past 5 years. In the 2005 survey, more than half the CRM systems were more than 5 years olds and more than 20% were more than 10 years old.

The biggest CRM challenges faced by companies are getting employees to update customer details (40%); ensuring that the


Figure 2: In the past five years, what is the main change you’ve seen in the way you deal with customers?

Figure 3: What product or system do you use for CRM in you company?

22.6%2.9%

29.4%

5.9%

2.4%1.2%

7.6%

1.8%1.5%

24.7%

12.6%

7.4%

Customers expect a quicker response

Customers are more savy about what they’re buying

Competition is tougher as customers have more choice

Customers are buying more items online

Customers are more cost conscious

Customers are spending less

Siebel

Salesforce

Dynamics CRM

Goldmine

Saleslogix

SAP

ACT!

Sugar CRM

Excel

Access

Nothing

Other

11.8%

29.1%

13.9%

17.3%

5.0%

22.9%


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and communications companies made up another 9.5% of the survey. Financial services companies constituted 8% of respondents and companies in the construction, engineering and architecture industries made up another 8% of participants.

13% of the respondents worked in manufacturing, farming, fishing and forestry sector; and 6% worked in distribution and wholesale. 10% worked in either the public sector or education.

system is usable and fit-for-purpose (20%); making sure that the business processes are in place within CRM (15%); and getting a full view of the customer across functional areas (14%) (Figure 4).

Social media is also making significant in-roads into Irish customer relationship culture. More than 31% of the companies surveyed used Facebook to interact with customers; and 23% used the Twitter micro-blogging service. More than 26% used LinkedIn.com, the online professional networking tool, to build their relationship with customers, suppliers and partners. Only 10.6% had used YouTube to provide video content to their customers. Almost one-quarter of respondents hadn’t used social networking technologies, but wished to in the future.

Twenty-seven percent said that they don’t use social media and had no plans to do so in the future.

Seven out of every ten companies in the survey are Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), with fewer than 250 employees. Half of those SME companies were enterprises with fewer than 10 employees (Figure 5). Outside of the SME sector, the respondents came from the corporate sector and large public bodies.

Two out of every three respondents were service-industry companies, with new-economy companies being the most enthusiastic respondents. IT services and consultancy companies made up 20% of respondents; and combined technology

Data Source:

Survey carried out by Microsoft in December 2010. Results based on responses from over 400 Irish companies.


Figure 4: What is the biggest challenge to successful CRM in your company?

Figure 5: How many employees are there in your company?

5.4% 8.3%

20.8%

33.9%

9.6%

7.8%

5.7%

4.2%

9.2%

11.0%8.0%

18.8% 8.7%

18.2%7.3%

Getting employees to update customer details

Usability (ease of using the technology)

Having a process for CRM

Having a full view of the customer from finance through to sale

Management support and buy-in

Other

1-10

11-12

21-50

51-100

101-250

251-500

501-1000

5000+


Foreword

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The Importance of Knowing Your Customer

How are Irish sales professionals coming to terms with the downturn?

Sales professionals have had to adapt quickly to tough market conditions. They’ve had to create more compelling value propositions and be more flexible on pricing in order to win valuable new business and retain existing customers. This is confirmed in our recently published ‘Sales Sector Survey’, which surveyed senior sales professionals working for indigenous and multinational organisations across a range of sectors. The survey confirmed that ‘lower prices’ and ‘better value at the same price’ are the most effective sales approaches at the moment.

How has the role of the sales manager changed over the past few years?

Sales managers in all sectors are operating in a more complex and challenging environment today. Budgets are smaller and sales cycles are more protracted and harder to manage. Customers are shopping around looking for better value so customer retention is a major issue. Significantly, finance and procurement professionals have also become more involved in the buying process which is making the sales manager’s job more challenging.

In the current climate, sales managers and their teams need to be effective in

key areas like prospecting, presenting, negotiations and account management so training is more important than ever. It’s also essential for sales managers and their teams to take full advantage of technology to improve customer retention and sales effectiveness. Cloud computing and mobile communications now make it easy to access critical applications and data anywhere, anytime, making sales managers and their teams much more responsive and effective.

How important is customer retention in an economic downturn?

Customer retention is particularly important in a downturn when customers are more likely to move to competitors offering lower prices and special offers. It’s important to stay in regular contact with customers, develop an understanding of the challenges they’re facing and respond quickly and effectively to any requirements or concerns they might have. If you don’t look after your customers, somebody else will.

Mervyn O’Shaughnessy, CEO Sales Institute of Ireland

Mervyn O’Shaughnessy is CEO of The Sales Institute of Ireland. He is a member of the Marketing Institute and has held a number of senior sales and marketing roles in the media sector including Advertising Director at The Sunday Tribune, Sales & Marketing Director at Checkout Publications and Business Development Director at Business & Finance Media Group.

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Presumably it’s even more important for companies that rely on a few customers for all of their sales.

Any business which relies on a few key accounts for most of its sales will be hit hard if they lose one of their key accounts. If it’s not possible to broaden the customer base by actively prospecting for new accounts, companies must do their best to protect and develop the relationship with existing key accounts. It’s essential to “lock in” existing accounts with contracts which reward longevity of custom.

How is the development of social networking affecting customer relationship management?

Social media provides invaluable insights which can be used for sales and marketing campaigns, web site content, search engine optimisation, special promotions and competitive intelligence. Increasingly, organisations of all types and sizes are making social networking part of their customer relationship management strategy. Dell has recently launched a ‘Social Media Listening Command Centre’ to track an average of more than 22,000 daily topic posts related to Dell, as well as mentions of Dell on Twitter. This clearly illustrates how seriously successful organisations are taking social media today.

Because of the lack of scale in the Irish markets, Irish SMEs are being encouraged to export. What approach should they take to customer relationship management when entering new markets?

Companies considering exporting need to think carefully who their customers are, what their needs are and what competition already exists. They also need to consider possible routes to market and their own resources and capacity. Given the increased complexity of doing business today, many businesses are spending too much time managing existing customers and not enough time attracting new ones which limits their ability to develop new markets. Customer relationship management activity should be proportionate to the value and potential value of the customer. Most businesses would benefit from reviewing their customer database and analysing customer relationship management activity to see how much time is spent on relatively low value accounts and activities, which could otherwise be spent on higher value activities like developing new markets.


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Your overall market positioning could be right, but if customer service is slow, it damages your brand. That’s why the people leading the organisation need to foster a culture of good customer relationship management and to reward people for looking after the relationships with the customer.

One way to analyse it is to trace the customer experience through your organisation. Pick an order - or a complaint – and staple yourself to it. See where it goes, how it is handled and how well and quickly it is resolved. That will tell you a lot about your organisation in terms of customer relationship management.

How can this be culture be developed so that it looks after the customer’s needs?

Companies need to look at the world from the customer’s point of view. The customer has certain needs, so the customer relationship management system should be organised around those needs. Unfortunately, it often happens that the customer relationship model is built around the limitations of a specific technology.

How are customer needs and expectations evolving?

Customer expectations are rising fast. People expect products and services that are customised to their needs and they expect better and faster customer care. The communications industry and the internet have taught people to expect almost instant responses to their needs, across every industry.

For example, I heard of one man who was travelling on a train and who tweeted to his followers that the train carriage was cold. This was picked up by the railway company, who contacted the driver, who turned up the temperature and announced that the temperature was being increased in response to a tweet from the gentleman in carriage six. This kind of capability can blow customers away, but the resultant pressures on your competitors is massive. However, it also illustrates that every company can respond in a positive way, providing a huge boost to their brand.

To what extent is digital social networking changing the nature of customer relationship management?

Digital social networking has created an environment where issues – positive and negative - can be discussed around the world, in just a few seconds. But it has also created an opportunity-to-respond culture. Companies that actively engage in social media channels can monitor what people are saying about their brands and respond quickly.

It creates a risk too. If you take a couple of days to respond to an issue that has been raised online then you’re dead in the water.

Small and medium enterprises have to focus their scarce resources and efforts during an economic downturn, how would you advise them to prioritise?

A key success factor for companies in any economic environment is the ability to retain existing customers. It’s estimated that winning a new customer is between five and eight times more expensive than retaining an existing customer. That’s why it’s very important to hold on to the customers that you already have.

This is even more true in an economic downturn, where there are fewer new deals in circulation. The cost of customer acquisition also increases in a downturn, because there’s less low-hanging fruit. Farming is always more efficient than hunting.

The flip-side is that many companies aren’t minding their customers, in an environment where customers are looking out for a better deal. Think of all of the times you’ve been in a shop where the sales assistants ignored you. This creates an opportunity for an ambitious marketer to gain new customers.

So what strategy can an SME adopt to retain their existing customers?

It’s about developing a relationship with the customer; understanding their needs and expectations; and delivering on those needs and expectations.

How can you develop the relationship with an existing customer?

If you’ve dealt with the customer in the past, then there’s a lot of information in the organisation about them, which gives you an advantage over those approaching them for the first time. Developing the relationship with the customer isn’t just about gathering and storing information, it’s about fostering a culture of being aware of the customer’s needs at every point in the supply chain. It’s not just about sales and marketing, it’s also about customer service, manufacturing and even billing. The customer doesn’t differentiate between these divisions, so the company cannot either.

Think about every customer interaction in terms of its impact on your brand. A brand is not a logo or a strapline, the brand is the customer’s perception of your business; the brand is whatever the customer says it is; it’s about what the customer thinks and feels about your company.

Developing a Customer Relationship Culture

Tom Trainor, CEO of the Marketing Institute of Ireland

Tom Trainor is Chief Executive of The Marketing Institute of Ireland, the Irish national representative body for the broad marketing profession. Prior to taking up this position in 2005, he held global revenue responsibilities with Trintech Technologies where he was Executive Vice President, and with Kindle Banking Systems where he was Director of International Sales. He has also had roles with consultancy firm Cambridge Technology Partners, Eircom and Bank of Ireland.


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With local markets flagging, many SMEs are looking to export markets to grow their businesses. What customer relationship issues arise when attempting to scale a business internationally?

Before people decide to start exporting, they should study their home market. Are you finding it tough because the local market is saturated, or is it because you’re not providing good value and service to customers? Is somebody else in the Irish market more successful than you and what is the basis of their success?

If you have come to grips with the basics of good customer service, then growing into export markets makes sense, it’s a natural development. However, if you’re contending with all of the issues relating to exporting – new market development issues, local supplier issues, taxation and currency issues – without having sorted out your customer relationship model, then exporting will not be easy.


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Integrating Social Media into Customer Relationship Management

What’s driving the adoption of social media as a customer relationship management tool?

There are a number of reasons, especially for small businesses, including the fact that social media channels have a low barrier for entry – many platforms are free to join and the commitment is then the time to effectively manage those channels. With overheads continuing to be under pressure, cost effective marketing which can be easily tracked and measured is clearly a great opportunity to help build awareness of your products and services and of course ultimately increase sales.

At the same time, social networks have become more widely used by consumers as they are easy to access from the home, the office and when mobile using smart phones. The dramatic growth of platforms such as Facebook and increased awareness of online social networking have given people new places to congregate online – so marketing managers are exploring how best to connect with people through these new channels.

In fact, we are now seeing that customer expectations are changing - they expect that companies will handle customer service issues by phone, by fax or though digital and social media channels.

However, when initially engaging in social media, many organisations initially focus on using these platforms for marketing for example product promotions and hosting competitions, and have not yet considered integrating customer support and service.

Forward thinking companies however recognise that it is important to be aware and also engage in the conversation about their company. The fact is that people are already talking about your company, your products and your services online. When they want to engage with you they may for example decide to post their feedback on Twitter, and especially if they know you have a profile there, they will often have an expectation that you will be listening to their feedback and responding to them.

What high-level approach should companies take when trying to integrate social networking into their customer relationship management strategy?

The first step is to listen to what prospects or customers are saying online about you, your competitors and similar products or services. If there are few conversations online about you that may be because there is little awareness of you, or perhaps your customers are not active online, or you need to take action to encourage people to talk

Krishna De

Krishna De is an award-winning digital marketing, brand-engagement and social media speaker, commentator and mentor. You can find her online at http://www.BizGrowthNews.com and http://www.Facebook.com/MarketingMentor

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So how should a company look to formulate a social networking policy?

Aside from your internal policy for social media and how your staff engage with these new channels, if you are planning to use these platforms for customer relationship management it’s important to sit down with interested stakeholders for example, establish a cross functional project team including marketing, sales, customer support and in some cases, your legal representative, to set out parameters for social media engagement. You of course need to ensure that you also comply with any industry specific guidelines or codes of practice in your sector.

You can then develop your Service Level Agreement for customer support through social networking channels including defining your policies, practices, rules of engagement, capability requirements and resource allocation.

If the customer doesn’t consciously see any difference between a customer helpline and a corporate Twitter account, do they unconsciously expect a different kind of response?

There is often an unspoken expectation that a customer complaint expressed through Twitter will be handled promptly. There is an acceptance that faxes can be passed around an organisation before you get a response, or that people might call you back in response to a phone query. In social networking channels it’s a very visible medium, and people often expect a fast response. You therefore need to consider what level of support you will be providing and communicate that in your

social networking profiles. For example a good practice tip would to post in your Twitter profile the hours that someone will be online to answer customer questions.

Presumably some questions can’t be answered instantly and online?

Absolutely if you can resolve and close the issue immediately it has been brought to your attention that is great. However it is not necessarily the case that you need to always fully answer and resolve the issue immediately if it is a more complicated problem. In that case you can ensure that your customer knows you are aware of the issue and that you are taking action to resolve it including when they can anticipate a response in full to their issue.

Can you think of any companies who are doing a good job integrating social networking into their customer relationship management offering?

The telecommunications companies in Ireland have really embraced social networks for example Twitter and Facebook and many of them actively provide customer support through their Twitter profile. Globally, organisations including Dell and Ford have integrated social media into their overall business strategy. For example Dell has multiple Twitter accounts to cover areas from PR, customer support and sales.

To what extent are businesses integrating social networking into their automated CRM systems?

There is a significant opportunity for businesses to adopt CRM tools as many have not yet done so.

about your products or services. Monitoring the conversation is only the first step – you then need to take the insights you glean from the research and determine when and how you will respond which will in many cases means that you need to establish processes and procedures to integrate with your current customer relationship management approach.

What are the key differences between CRM through social networking and CRM through other channels?

Social networking offers you the opportunity to build and nurture relationships with customers; it can facilitate a reduction in the cost to serve your clients by reducing overheads, it can help you increase sales and potentially market share; and it can increase your customer satisfaction scores by reducing response time for issues to be resolved if executed effectively.

With social networking there is a greater emphasis on building relationships and engaging with prospects and customers. You will also find people posting questions on social networks and forums such as “Who would you recommend?” for a product or service offering. That creates an opportunity to connect – however take care to do so without coming across as pushing hard for the sale. It is also important that if you respond in a forum that you follow the community guidelines for responding and ensure that you disclose who you are and that you are responding on behalf of the company.

If you find someone has a problem with

your product or service, following through with the customer and responding to them quickly online means that others in that community can see how you responded, and that in itself can have a positive impact on the perception of your company. I am not advocating that you have to play out the whole conversation online – you can of course move the conversation from the social network to other traditional channels.

As an example, I recently commented on Twitter about a problem I was experiencing with a hotel I was planning to stay in for a business trip. Another hotel in the vicinity contacted me on Twitter because they had been actively listening to conversations online and offered to help me out. You can be sure that I remembered their engagement with me and I subsequently told friends and colleagues about the positive experience I had with them. That is positive word of mouth marketing for the hotel and as you are aware referrals are a significant way that many small businesses in Ireland attract new customers.

Have many Irish SMEs integrated social networking into their customer relationship management strategy?

It’s still relatively early days in Ireland, in terms of companies integrating customer relationship management. Increasingly we see companies setting up a Facebook Page or Twitter account to promote their business. There are currently fewer organisations who have end-to-end CRM processes and who have identified where social networking fits into their customer relationship strategy, plan and processes.



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It is great to see that the companies that produce CRM programmes are aware of this change in how customers are engaging with companies and have actively created and integrated tools to automate and integrate social networking into their software.

Key tools include the ability to monitor and respond to social networking activity in real-time and work-flow monitoring tools to track communications, updates and responses to customers. They also facilitate you allocating responsibility to members of your team be it in-house or outsourced partners who manage the social media channels for the company.

Social media has now sufficiently evolved that business leaders are reviewing how it is integrated to deliver the business goals from brand awareness, to lead generation, from increasing sales and market share to reducing operating costs. Using these CRM programmes can assist in ensuring that your activity in social media channels deliver a return on investment and profitable growth.


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Irish Forestry Funds manages 26 privately-owned forestry investment funds. More than 18,000 people have invested in the funds, which own more than 21,000 acres of forestry. Shareholders invest in 10-year, 12-year and 30-year funds, which invest in green-field and existing forestry plantations in Ireland.

IFS is responsible for the investment management of the funds, including financial management and accounting; auditing; reporting; and investor relations. It also promotes the funds to new investors.

The investment management firm needed a structured CRM system because of the complexities of its business model, explained Trevor McHugh, Managing Director of Irish Forestry Services.

“Each of the 26 funds is a separate fund and has its own share register,” he said. “Initially they were kept on separate Access databases, but it made sense to have them in an integrated system, which would recognise them as discrete entities.”

Implementing Microsoft Dynamics CRM has allowed IFS to track queries from potential new investors and to maintain its newsletter mailing-list, which keeps current and potential investors informed of developments in the forestry industry. This process is streamlined by the fact that

Microsoft Dynamics CRM looks like familiar Microsoft Office products, which employees find easy to us. This is a major aid to user adoption, one of the key challenges to successful CRM implementation.

The project was not simply an IT project. It was part of an organisational review, whereby company processes were being changed. These changes had been made necessary due to the continued growth of the company and the project needed to facilitate the delegation and automation of key tasks.

The project achieved more than the integration of mailings lists. The team at IFS has expanded, which meant that information on the customers had to be available to a greater number of people. Microsoft Dynamics CRM allowed IFS to record every interaction with a customer, whether by phone, letter or e-mail. It also displays a contact history through the Outlook interface, so that the company’s full relationship to the company is clear to every user.

“When a client calls, our staff members can instantly identify which fund they’re in and track any contact we’ve had with them, including copies of correspondence,” said McHugh. “That allows us to provide them with a higher level of personalised service.”

Irish Customer Case Studies

Irish Forestry Services

A combined process review and CRM implementation at asset-management firm IFS allowed the company to grow while offering a richer level of service to its investors.

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Microsoft Dynamics CRM also displays information that is common to every shareholder in a particular fund, such as the most recent valuation of the forestry assets and the date when the investor can next expect audited accounts.

“It means that we don’t have to go rooting in filing cabinets in response to a detailed query,” said McHugh.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM also met the requirement that greater access to data was controlled by roles and permissions, which meant staff only had access to data that they needed to carry out their role. Any activity on the system was tracked by a detailed security log.

“Microsoft Access simply wasn’t secure enough for our purposes,” said McHugh. We needed multi-level access, so that not even our own staff could simply walk up and access inappropriate information.”

As well as allowing IFS to develop its business, while maintaining a high-quality relationship with its clients, Microsoft Dynamics CRM has allowed IFS to improve their investors’ experience as a forestry shareholder. Using XRM, which extends the functionality of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, IFS has integrated forestry information and digital maps into its CRM system. Microsoft Dynamics CRM has tightly integrated client-side extensibility, which makes it easier for developers to build external resources, such as geo-mapping services.

“The XRM system allows us to drill into our forestry information on a plot-by-plot basis,”

said McHugh. “We can tell clients where their forestry fund has invested, give them the exact tree-mix in the forest and provide them with location maps.”

The system now provides asset management reporting in terms of species mix and bio-diversity. This level of detail, even down to the proportion of spruce, ash and pine in the plantation, builds the investor’s identification with their forestry investment.

“If an investor is in Mayo and asks if they’ll be passing one of their forests, we can pull it up on the screen and tell them over the phone,” said McHugh.


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Dynamics has a native Outlook client, which shows all related e-mails, contacts and calendar appointments in a single string, tracked within Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Users can simply convert an incoming e-mail into a new sales opportunity rather than having to copy and paste the email as you would usually. It also means that all information is tracked within one holistic system.

Prior to the CRM implementation, the group had defined service level targets, but had been unable to accurately measure how successful it had been in terms of meeting those targets. Part of the reason that Dynamics CRM was chosen was it provided up to the minute views on how effectively queries were being resolved.

“We measured the effectiveness of the CRM system in the post-implementation period,” said Tonna-Barthet. “Our service levels have improved from 95% to 99% satisfaction rating.”

“From a qualitative point of view, we know the CRM system is working, because our customers are now familiar with the query process and know that once their call is logged, their query will be dealt with. There is a notable decline in customer dissatisfaction and the ambiguity surrounding unsolved queries is now no longer a concern. The reporting system ensures that the solution timeline tagged to a specific query is both achievable and provides a satisfactory outcome to the customer.”

The next phase of the CRM project will be to deliver a self service solution via the web

to the retailers. This enhancement will allow our retailers to log their own calls at any time of the day or night, to facilitate the needs of retailers who are under immense time pressure. The retailers will also be able to check the status of their query, which helps to build and maintain a close trusing relationship.

“Customer Service is core to the ADM Londis culture. This CRM system not only has enabled us to improve on our already excellent service levels, but allows us to engage more effectively with our customers in the query resolution process”, says Tonna-Barthet.

ADM Londis is one of Ireland’s premier symbol groups. It acts as the central supplier to a network of over 300 independent stores, employing over 7,000 people in retail, distribution and support services nationwide.From early stages in its history, the group identified that in an intensely competitive retail market, it had to deliver the highest level of customer satisfaction.

“Our customers expect rapid and efficient resolutions to both queries and claims,” said Claude Tonna-Barthet, Customer Operations Director. “The service levels expected in the retail market are so much higher than in other areas of commerce.”

Enhancing and maintaining service levels to ADM Londis retailers necessitated wider corporate engagement in resolving customer queries, as well as to give managers the ability to view the number and status of departmental queries.

“Other than being able to track store- specific queries relevant to each department within our Group Support Office, my primary concern was to identify and eliminate the bottlenecks and pursue an ethos whereby we would resolve 100% of queries”, said Claude Tonna-Barthet.

As part of a €3 million supply chain initiative to deliver improved service levels to retailers, the company decided to implement a CRM system in 2010.

The group decided to entitle the new CRM system ‘ASSIST’, summarising the core principles that Londis instills in its staff when dealing with customers: Accountability, Synergy, Service, Interaction, Supreme Care and Teamwork.

The new Microsoft Dynamics CRM system, in which every member of the Group Support Office is involved, allows the Customer Service team to promptly and correctly forward queries to the relevant departments within the organisation.

“We designed and implemented procedures within CRM which allowed us to get the best from our customer service team and vitally, to build confidence among our retailers,” said Tonna-Barthet. “It’s a fiercely competitive market and retailers need to feel secure that there is a strong system behind the customer service centre.”

Microsoft Dynamics CRM was chosen because of its robust back-end and because of its front-end integration with Microsoft Outlook. Londis sought a user-friendly application that all employees would feel comfortable using on a daily basis.

“The user interface is common to all in the company and was a key factor in ensuring maximum buy-in from staff,” said Tonna-Barthet.

ADM Londis

When Londis implemented CRM in its customer service department, it wasn’t simply about resolving customer queries, it was an exercise in building trust with retail customers.



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Combine familiar Microsoft® Office applications with powerful CRM software to improve marketing effectiveness, boost sales, and enrich customer service interactions. Microsoft Dynamics® CRM equips business professionals with access to customer information through a familiar Microsoft Outlook® experience which helps ensure rapid user adoption and fast results.

And with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, you get the same powerful CRM software delivered as a cloud service from Microsoft, enabling instant-on anywhere access, predictable pay as you go pricing, and a financially backed service level agreement (SLA).

Deliver on the power of productivity with a CRM solution that is:

Familiar - software that empowers people through natural, productive, and insightful experiences.

Intelligent - real-time analytics and streamlined business processes that enable informed decisions and operational efficiencies.

Connected - connections across people, processes, and ecosystems that allow businesses to maximize the value of relationships and systems.

Become a Dynamic Business

MaRkETIng: Maximize Marketing Spend

Improve your organisation’s marketing effectiveness with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Provide your marketing professionals with flexible segmentation tools, simplified campaign management capabilities, intuitive response tracking, and insightful analytics to improve your marketing effectiveness.

SalES: Win More Deals

Spend more time on selling and less time on administrative tasks with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Take advantage of full lead to cash visibility, lead and opportunity tracking, streamlined approvals, and real-time sales forecasts to drive increased sales output and higher close rates.

CuSTOMER SERvICE: Delight Customers

Provide compelling customer service experiences that build customer loyalty with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Empower your people with tools that simplify case management, streamline escalations, improve knowledge sharing, and enable more effective account management, all while helping to contain service costs.

ExTEnDED CRM: Optimize all Relationships

Use the inherent flexibility and extensibility of Microsoft Dynamics CRM to maximize the value of all relationships. Quickly create custom business applications and industry solutions without compromising on capabilities, budget, or delivery time right from within Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Drive productivity and adoption with a native Outlook experience and real-time dashboards in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM

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Marketplace and manage solutions directly from within Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

CRM that Provides Choice and Flexibility

Subscribe to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, deploy Microsoft Dynamics CRM on-premise, or opt for a partner-hosted solution. Take advantage of the U.S. $2.3 billion investment Microsoft has made in cloud infrastructure and jump-start your CRM efforts with the instant-on access of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. Choice and flexibility mean you choose the payment and delivery methods that best suit your business.

get Started Today

Try Microsoft Dynamics CRM today: www.microsoft/dynamicscrm

Call us now: 1800936390

Find a partner: http://www.microsoft.ie/crm

“Microsoft Dynamics CRM looks like familiar office products, which

employees find easy to use. This is a major aid to user adoption, one

of the key challenges to successful CRM implementation”

TREvOR MCHugH Managing Director

Irish Forestry Services

“Customer Service is core to the ADM Londis culture. This CRM system not only

has enabled us to improve on our already excellent service levels, but allows

us to engage more effectively with our customers in the query

resolution process”

ClauDE TOnna - BaRTHET Customer Operations Director

ADM Londis

FaMIlIaR: CRM that is natural and Personal

Next-Generation Outlook Client: Manage all your email messages, meetings, contacts, and customer information in one place with the native Microsoft Outlook client.

Office-Fluent UI: Improve productivity with preview panes, contextual Office ribbons, and key Office features like mail merge and Microsoft Excel® export/import.

Lead to Cash Visibility: Maximize every customer interaction, from marketing outreach to sales engagement to problem resolution, with a 360-degree customer view.

Advanced Personalization: Use role-based forms, personal views, record pinning, and most recently used lists to tailor the CRM experience to your users’ needs.

Flexibility: Quickly customize and extend CRM to meet your organisation’s unique needs with drag-and-drop customization and intuitive developer tools.

InTEllIgEnT: Information that is Insightful and actionable

Contextual Analytics: Visualize the business with out-of-the box or configurable real-time dashboards, drill-down analysis, and powerful inline data visualization.

Guided Processes: Streamline approvals, improve consistency, and enforce best practices with guided dialogs and flexible workflows.

Actionable Insight: Better identify new opportunities and trends with intuitive

segmentation tools, conditional formatting rules, and powerful reporting features.

Goal Tracking: Better track and measure key business goals such as marketing leads, sales quota, and first-call resolution rates with holistic goal management.

Operational Efficiency: Achieve operational efficiencies and improve information flow with data import and cleansing tools, activity auditing, and field-level security.

COnnECTED: an Organisation that is Collaborative and united

Contextual Document Libraries: Manage the creation of marketing collateral, sales proposals, and customer contracts with integrated document management and versioning.

Teaming: Foster greater internal collaboration and improve work state management with team record ownership, comprehensive queues, and real-time communication tools.

Business Connections: Identify new business connections and gauge online influence with the Connections feature and the Social Connector.

Portals: Streamline the event management processes and better enable customer self-help with robust portal solutions.

Mobility: Maximize your staff’s productivity outside the office with easy access to CRM data and features using the offline client or any web-enabled mobile device.

Value-Add Solutions: Find solutions and expertise through the Microsoft Dynamics



Customer Relationship Management in Ireland Managing your Customers for Business Growth

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