A global creative transformation company has agencies operating in 110 countries, working with clients including 325 of the Fortune Global 500. The company combines unrivalled talent, resources, and skills to provide an integrated range of communications, commerce, and technology services.
The Challenge
The different creative company agencies in the group were operating their own Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, which created data silos that made it difficult for the group management team to have visibility across all brands and for agencies to collaborate on opportunities. The agencies had no way of knowing whether they were working with the same clients, which led to missed opportunities for cross-selling. One customer had 24 relationships with various agencies but had no idea these agencies belonged to the same group.
The company needed a central repository for its customer data that would solve these challenges and allow agencies to retain autonomy. They had considered creating a solution with one of the well-known CRMs in the market, but the cost was prohibitive due to the large number of users and customisations required (they only needed a small percentage of the typical CRM functionality). In canvassing the market, they discovered they could build a CRM that fits their business needs precisely, rapidly and cost-effectively using the OutSystems platform.
The Solution
Working with PhoenixDX, the group built a universal CRM that unifies all customer, prospect, and deal data from the individual member agency CRMs in one location. The new solution, built on OutSystems, was delivered in just under 6 months for a fraction of the time, cost, and risk of other software development approaches and the CRM licensees and implementation.
The CRM provides the company with a holistic, big-picture view of all its member agencies while also enabling each individual agency to retain control of the creation, management, and sharing of their leads and opportunities. User-friendly dashboards allow member agencies to report on leads, accounts, contacts, opportunities (open, won and lost), activities, brands, reports, and administration. The solution aims to improve sales by supporting cross-brand collaboration (including on RFPs) and cross-selling opportunities, allowing different agencies to offer complementary services across the group to the same customer base.
Results
- Replaced data siloes with a single source of truth
- Agencies can collaborate on big accounts, enabling cross and up-selling
- Improved visibility of sales pipeline for forecasting and management
- Improved sales reporting across all brands
- Centralised information enables better business intelligence
- Improved data quality and integrity
