GoldMine Software and Cole Fabrics CRM Case Study

Cole Fabrics PLC implements GoldMine CRM from Concentrix

How Cole Fabrics implemented a customer relationship management (CRM) solution from Concentrix to bring together its contact information onto one centrally managed database allowing for clarity and order in its daily operations.

Advantages of the new system include:

  • Consolidation of all customer and sales contact information
  • Linking of e-mails and documents enabling automated processes
  • Complete visibility across all Cole Fabrics' customer interactions and sales pipeline

Known in the industry as the ‘ribbon experts’, Cole Fabrics is a long established director-owned business that has succeeded in expanding into a genuine global operation. Cole Fabrics combines a wealth of experience in ribbon manufacture and product knowledge with a modern dynamic approach to customer service support and innovation.

The company has been amalgamated from three family-owned businesses with highly specialised skills in ribbons for garment label printing; ribbons and embellishments for the decorative market; and the manufacture of the woven edge ribbon.

Based in Nottingham in the UK, Cole Fabrics has subsidiary offices in Hong Kong and Istanbul and is a key part of the Global Ribbons Group represented in New York, Paris and Milan.

Chaotic working

In late 2000, Cole Fabrics decided that it needed a system to help consolidate its vast amount of manual data that had begun increasing in volume and gathering as paper-based material throughout the office.

Cole Fabrics director, Paul Underwood, explains, “To put it simply, we were working in chaos as far as our customer contact and sales information was concerned. Data was gathering in filing cabinets and we had no way of analysing which contacts went with which accounts and who had been dealt with by whom. We decided that the best way forward would be to install software that would allow us to draw all of this information together into one centralised database providing complete visibility to all members of staff.”

As an existing acquaintance of the organisation, CRM specialist Concentrix was invited to discuss opportunities with Cole Fabrics in implementing a solution that would help it to achieve its information management requirements.

Achieving Objectives

During initial meetings with Concentrix, it was highlighted to Cole Fabrics that the best way of organising its sales and marketing information would be through the use of a customer relationship management solution.

“Fairly early on, Concentrix introduced us to FrontRange GoldMine Software and outlined its clear capabilities in helping us to achieve our objectives,” comments Underwood.

GoldMine Software allows users to streamline processes through automating activities and creating reports that show the status of all current client interactions and prospect information.

Benefits of the solution include instant visibility across all sales and marketing interactions and an overview of all pending sales and the potential revenue pipeline. Automated processes allow users to improve communications by centralising, managing and simplifying access to business critical information.

As well as GoldMine Software, Concentrix presented iGoldMine to Cole Fabrics, a software enhancement designed to complement GoldMine by allowing users to remotely access sales and marketing information via the web.

“We were presented with a fairly innovative product and had complete faith in Concentrix that they would deliver a solution that met with our specifications,” comments Underwood.

All tied up

The solution was implemented in July 2001 and Cole Fabrics were impressed with its benefits almost immediately. Underwood, comments, “We were delighted. This solution immediately eliminated most of our paper-based problems by allowing us to electronically manage all of our sales and marketing contacts.”

“All of our information was drawn together into one database, and we were able to eliminate our previously chaotic way of working our contact information!”

GoldMine Software and iGoldMine have become a well-established part of Cole Fabrics' business processes and are being used on a daily basis by 25 users within the organisation.

“We have been afforded complete visibility across our international offices and can now see where we are with all sales leads and ongoing clients. The solution has made our lives a lot easier,” enthuses Underwood.

At the time of implementation, Concentrix provided training for all new users and encountered minimum problems or disruption. “Our staff took to the new technology easily and it has certainly helped improve our processes. This CRM application has achieved exactly what we expected of it, it has helped us to become more organised, which consequently has improved customer service,” concludes Underwood.

About FrontRange Solutions

Founded in 1989, FrontRange Solutions (FRS) develops software and services that allow organisations to deliver extraordinary customer relationships. Since its inception, the company has focused on solutions tailored specifically to the mid-market, and today it is the undisputed leader with more than a million users and a marquee client list.

FRS products are easy to implement and provide a quick return on investment and low total cost of ownership. They also increase productivity and customer satisfaction and service. FrontRange product families, designed specifically for growing and distributed enterprise organisations include: GoldMine for business relationship management, team-based contact management and sales for automation solutions: IT Service Management with HEAT and ITIL standards-based modules for complete service management , and IP Contact Center for reduced telephony costs and increased agent productivity, streamlined customer service and communications: and Infrastructure Management, which provides the ability to optimise the full lifecycle of a company's assets.

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