AMPLIFYING SALES

REAL WORLD SCENARIOS

Volume 2Cases 5 - 8

DRIVING SALES EFFICIENCY

MANAGING OPPORTUNITIES

LEVERAGING MOBILE PRODUCTIVITY

IMPROVING DECISION MAKING

MANAGING YOUR PIPELINE WITH PRECISION

AMPLIFYING SALES

Successful sales organizations are transforming the way

they sell. The best teams are equipped with the right tools

to win. These tools must provide efficiencies for internal

processes and help advance initial relationships into

profitable customer accounts and strategic partnerships.

Salespeople must know their customer. Having the most

up-to-date information can make a difference between

being ahead or behind your competition. New technologies

are making it easier for teams to manage documents and

share information in order to become a connected selling

organization. Mobile solutions ensure that your teams are

able to access information they need anytime, anywhere.

The tools needed to become insightful, connected, mobile

and productive will amplify sales and give organizations an

edge over their competition.

The following case studies illustrate how Columbus has

helped many companies address these issues using

Microsoft Dynamics together with appropriate tools from

the ColumbusServices solution set.

Case 5:Driving Sales Efficiency

Issue

A beverage distributor was struggling to increase

productivity. Their ability to efficiently manage customer

data was lacking. Employees were using spreadsheets to

track and manage customer information, and too much

time was being spent on administrative tasks rather than

on selling. In order to keep up, the company needed to

transform their business processes.

Problem

The distributor was using several different solutions

to track sales information. Customer records were not

always up-to-date and salespeople struggled to manage

accounts with ease and accuracy. Sales managers were

unable to collaborate and connect with their teams. The

company lacked a complete view over their customers and

relationships.

Remedy

After evaluating several different customer relationship

management (CRM) solutions, they chose Microsoft

Dynamics CRM and were able to strategically align all of

their Microsoft solutions in order to increase sales and

productivity. Now, all of their customer data is available

from anywhere, and sales managers can connect with

their teams to keep sales unified and collaborative.

Quotes, proposals, invoices and other sales documents

are now streamlined with Microsoft Dynamics CRM’s

centralized document management capabilities.

Benefits

Once Microsoft Dynamics CRM was deployed, several

benefits were realized:

By automating processes, productivity has

increased allowing the company to handle more

growth without adding more staff.

The sales team is now able to integrate social media

in to their sales process in order to gain updated

customer information and more targeted sales

conversations.

In order to stay connected, team members are

utilizing tools such as, Lync, Yammer, Skype, and

activity feeds.

Sales now has a 360-degree view of their customers

at all times, enabling them to better understand

their customers’ needs.

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Case 6:Managing Opportunities

Issue

A national manufacturer sold candy to retailers around the

world. They were growing rapidly and struggled to keep

up with the increased growth. Sales people were having

difficulty following up with leads and managing all of their

opportunities.

Problem

With such an increase in growth, they needed to be

able to improve lead handling. The company needed to

streamline their sales processes in order to manage their

opportunities efficiently.

Remedy

The company decided on Microsoft Dynamics CRM and

was able to combine all of their data in to one central

location allowing sales to track all of their activities.

They were able to spend time with the right leads and

prospects and established consistent follow-up processes.

Benefits

The company now has a streamlined, reliable, and highly

automated solution for managing leads that:

Allows sales managers to easily convert leads and

automatically route them to the appropriate sales

person.

Effectively positions them against the competition

with seamless competitor tracking.

Streamline proposal creation with embedded

document management capabilities.

Instantly segment their customer database to

identify new leads.

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Case 7:Mobile Productivity

Issue

An insurance company with independant agents was

growing the size of their sales team. They recently added

new lines of business and wanted to streamline processes

to create an efficient working solution for their continued

growth.

Problem

Each of the sales agents maintained their own hardware,

software, connctivity, and used a variety of smartphones.

The company needed one fully integrated solution that

would drive productivity among agents while delivering a

complete sales infrastructure.

Remedy

In order to meet their needs, they selected Microsoft

Dynamics CRM. The company now has the ability to

access Microsoft Dynamics CRM whether they’re in their

office, traveling, or at a customer site. Agents can access

the solution from any mobile device with a familiar user

interface for quick adoption. The company is now able to

operate in a seamless multicarrier environment.

Benefits

Adopting Microsoft Dynamics CRM allowed the insurance

company to customize all aspects of the solution to

fit the many internal departmental needs, ultimately

increasing their competitiveness. They have experienced

a multitude of benefits including:

Access to real-time data from any web-enabled

device.

Better preparedness for customer meetings via

real-time account details.

Ability to respond rapidly to customer requests

while on the road.

Updating and receiving leads 24/7, enabling them

to continuously work and close deals.

Discovering new up-sell opportunities right on the

spot.

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5

Case 8:Improving Decision Making

Issue

A manufacturer and distributor of tractor equipment was

using a content managment solution that allowed their

field sales team the ability to track and record customer

information. However, the solution never fully met the

company’s needs and they quickly outgrew it.

Problem

The outdated solution created many problems for the

business. Sales data was often lost or not readily available,

and dealer databases were unable to integrate with the

solution. Sales managers eventually stopped using it and

relied on spreadsheets to manage sales pipelines and

analytics. This gave the managers only a partial view of

sales force activites.

Remedy

To address these issues the company deployed Microsoft

Dynamics CRM. The company was up and running quickly

and the solution proved to be extremely cost-effective

compared to other solutions they looked at. Microsoft

Dynamics CRM integrates with the company’s already

existing data warehouse giving sales managers a rich

reporting resource with extensive, current customer

information. Users adapted quickly to the new solution

and began increasing their sales effectiveness

immediately.

Benefits

Adopting Microsoft Dynamics CRM allowed the company

to better analyze their sales and customer interactions.

They are able to improve upon sales decisions with the

ability to:

Gain insight with flexible dashboards and data

visualization into customer information, sales

numbers and targets.

View key performance indicators in real-time.

Create detailed sales reports, workflows, forms,

views and more without the help of IT.

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6

ColumbusServicesThe issues and challenges presented here and many more

are addressed by ColumbusServices. We’ve developed

deep industry expertise in meeting the unique needs of

service organizations across an array of industries including

entertainment, marketing and advertising, financial services,

manufacturing, and other demanding disciplines.

ColumbusServices helps service organizations achieve better

control of processes and improve the ability to exploit new

business opportunities. This powerful solution brings your

people, operations, and project management processes

together to help manage the complexities of a global

network. Our solution takes a holistic focus, taking into

account both administrative and operational requirements.

This ensures that information sent to the employee in the

field, is also used for billing and monitoring, projects, and

contracts.

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ColumbusServices allows you to utilize the solutions and

functionality you need. To learn more about the various

components, visit www.columbusglobal.com/us

> Microsoft Dynamics GP and Dynamics SL

> Microsoft Dynamics CRM

> Columbus BI (Business Intelligence Software)

> Columbus Development (SharePoint Services)

> Integration Tools

> Columbus SureStep+

7

Introducing ColumbusSureStep+At Columbus, we have the very best people working

with our world class solution to ensure your success. Our

proven SureStep+ methodology ensures a faster and less

expensive implementation.

A successful implementation means:

> Your business will be able to reap the rewards of

your new solution with value delivered early

> Your project will be delivered on time

> Your project costs will be managed with no

unforeseen overspend

> Your users will be proficient and excited about their

new solution

> You will improve the operational efficiency and

increase the competitive advantage of your

business

SureStep+ has been developed from years of product,

industry and implementation experience. We have taken

the standard Microsoft Sure Step methodology and

significantly enhanced it based on over 6,000 Columbus

projects.

SureStep+:

> Ensures that all member of the implementation

team are aligned and working towards the same

goals and expectations

> Ensures that everything is well documented

> Includes a number of different project types so

that your implementation methodology fits your

implementation

> Is a methodology that Columbus uses across all the

40 global offices to ensure consistency

8

AbOut COLuMbuS:

Columbus currently employs over 1,000 dedicated professionals working out of

41 offices in 21 countries. With more than 20 years experience and 6,000 successful

implementations, Microsoft recognizes Columbus as a top global partner and has

presented the company with virtually every award and certification available.

’Columbus’ is a part of the registered trademark ‘Columbus IT’

For more information on Columbus, our client’s experiences

and our solutions, please visit www.columbusglobal.com/us

The ColumbusServices Real World Scenario Series

DELIVERING EXCEPTIONAL CUSTOMER CARE

REAL WORLD SCENARIOS

Volume 1Cases 1 - 4

BUILD THE FOUNDATION

STREAMLINE SUPPORT CASES

GAIN A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

kNOw yOUR CUSTOMER

wINNING THE HEARTS OF yOUR CUSTOMERS

AMPLIFYING SALES

REAL WORLD SCENARIOS

Volume 2Cases 5 - 8

DRIVING SALES EFFICIENCY

MANAGING OPPORTUNITIES

LEVERAGING MOBILE PRODUCTIVITY

IMPROVING DECISION MAKING

MANAGING YOUR PIPELINE WITH PRECISIONoptimizing marketing efforts

reaL WorLD sCenarios

Volume 3Cases 10 - 14

improVing lead generation

driVing marketing effiCienCy

managing Campaign lifeCyCles

email marketing

measuring suCCess

transforming marketing CommuniCations

Volume 1Cases 1 through 4

Volume 2Cases 5 through 8

Volume 3Cases 9 through 13