Sage CRM and Parcelforce Worldwide CRM Case Study
Parcelforce delivers with CRM solution from Concentrix
Parcelforce Worldwide, part of the Royal Mail Group, implemented a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Sales Performance Management solution from Concentrix for 224 users across multiple sites.
The solution has enabled Parcelforce to:
- Improve their sales reporting to make better use of customer data
- Allow sales staff to spend more time with customers, positively increasing sales opportunities
- Greater integration between sales & marketing functions
- Improve internal processes
About Parcelforce Worldwide
Employing 4,000 people, Parcelforce Worldwide is the express parcels arm of the Royal Mail Group. They are responsible for time-guaranteed and next-day delivery of national and international parcels.
Objectives
Transporting parcels around the world on a daily basis, often to very tight time constraints, is Parcelforce Worldwide's core business and with this comes tremendous responsibility in keeping customers satisfied.
In late 2003, Parcelforce decided to look into implementing a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Sales Performance Management System (SPMS) to improve its business processes, leading to increased sales and better customer service. Parcelforce had three objectives: to increase the time its salesforce spent with prospects, to reduce turnaround times on processing contracts and to have more visibility on whether customers are reaching correct parcel volumes.
Dick Stead, Sales and Marketing Director, Parcelforce Worldwide, comments, “The nature of our business requires slick processes that allow us to deliver consignments effectively and on time. To each of our customers, their parcel is the most important in the world, therefore consistent and competent customer service is imperative.”
“We wanted a solution that was more flexible than the current CRM system - we had been relying on a combination of a relatively inflexible system and standalone spreadsheets and so decided it was time to introduce greater cohesion within our operations.”
There was an aggressive schedule for implementation - the solution had to be live for 224 users by 13th September 2004.
“After looking at our options very carefully, we decided to go with Concentrix, which offered the solution and expertise that most closely matched our needs,”
continues Dick Stead. “We had issued quite a strict set of specifications and were confident that Concentrix had the ability to meet all of our requirements within budget and on time. Concentrix was also the only tender offering the solution on the industry leading Sage CRM platform, which was very attractive to us.”
The Solution
In June 2004, Concentrix began work on customising its Sage CRM portfolio to meet Parcelforce's strict requirements. Parcelforce wanted a hosted solution that would achieve positive cash ROI within the current fiscal year.
“We wanted to provide our staff with an easy to use solution that enabled them to profile, search and contact customers through quick data retrieval, cutting down on admin time and allowing more face-to-face contact than had been the norm,”
comments, Nigel Arkwright, IT Director, Parcelforce Wordwide.
With a rigorous and intensive schedule, Concentrix undertook the project, which included installing dual load-balanced web servers and Microsoft SQL as the back-end database server, plus a meticulous training programme for the users.
“One of our main criteria for the solution was that it had to be hosted. Given the strict timescales to get the solution implemented and running effectively, there was no way we could have supported it in-house,”
continues Arkwright.
Concentrix provided one day training courses at a number of Parcelforce locations around the UK and after a couple of minor enhancement requests, the solution, with fully supported helpdesk, is now active and productive.
Results
As originally specified, the solution went live on Monday 13th September 2004, within budget and without any problems. Since implementation, the number of users has jumped to 295 and Parcelforce has seen much more productivity across the organisation.
Nigel Arkwright comments, “The Concentrix solution has been delivered to our precise specifications and has achieved exactly the sort of results we were expecting.”
Administration processes have also been improved with contract turnaround times significantly reduced. Return on Investment (ROI) for the solution has also been achieved within the first financial year. Furthermore, the solution has been able to provide Parcelforce with visibility to make sure that clients are meeting predicted parcel volumes, and are therefore on the right tariff.
Looking Forward
With the CRM solution now running smoothly and generating positive results for the organisation, Parcelforce is now looking into getting its workforce mobile. Enabling staff to contact sales and customer information wherever they are, will further improve sales opportunities and service to its clients.
About Sage CRM MME
Sage CRM MME is an easy to use, fast to deploy, feature rich, low cost of ownership CRM solution, designed to introduce the real benefits of CRM to middle sized companies. Sage CRM MME aggregates individual and group efforts across sales, marketing and support teams, making people and companies more efficient at their roles. It links all departments to a single system that is deployed across an Internet architecture that inherently provides efficiencies in terms of deployment, maintenance and access.
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Get in touch with us!Visit the Parcelforce Worldwide website.