- Andrew Rowley, Sales Director, Fone Solutions
 

Company Information	Key Benefits
Industry: Telecommunications Location: Newcastle, UK Product: Maximizer CRM 10.5 Users: 25	• Access. navigation and modification of data • Affordability and ease of use • Management reporting functionality • Effective sales targeting and increase in productivity • Real-time wireless access improving sales team performance

Telco company Fone Solutions boosts business with Maximizer CRM and All Access.

Who are Fone Solutions?

Fone Solutions is an independent telecom supplier that predominately provides business-to-business mobile voice and data contracts. It also works in vehicle tracking and fixed line telephone systems. Based in Newcastle, UK, Fone Solutions has 25 employees, six of whom are business development managers who spend the majority of their time away from the office.

The Challenge - A more efficient system

Due to the economic situation at the end of 2008, Fone Solutions conducted a review of its business model, looking at areas that could be changed to become more efficient. It was decided that one area that needed updating was its customer relationship management (CRM) system – or lack of it.

As a telecommunications company, Fone Solutions has a large database of contacts and customer case notes from marketing, sales and customer service staff. Despite this, customer information was kept in various spreadsheets and staff relied largely on a combination of emails and word of mouth – so key customer renewal dates and sales opportunities were being missed. Fone Solutions needed a system that would centralise customer data, allowing employees to access and use the information at any time, whether in the office or out in the field.

Also, since everyone in the company needed to access the chosen system, Fone Solutions required a CRM solution that was easy to use. Access, navigation and modification of data held in the system had to be intuitive for in-house, remote and mobile workers.

In addition, Fone Solutions wanted to significantly improve its management reporting – which was being handled manually – by automating the process through its CRM system, saving valuable time and increasing productivity of its management team.

Fone Solutions’ sales director, Andrew Rowley, had an appreciation of the positive impact that CRM could make to Fone Solutions, so he made direct contact with Maximizer.

Centralisation, customisability and mobility

Major factors that Fone Solutions took into account when deciding in favour of Maximizer included affordability, ease of use, data centralisation, mobility and the management reporting functionality.

Maximizer Software showed it could provide a centralised database holding all the relevant information about Fone Solutions’ customers in one place. Whether lead generated marketing data, sales information or customer service enquires, Fone Solutions’ people could access essential information quickly and easily, both in-house and remotely via the web or a mobile device.

Andrew Rowley comments: “This is critically important as there is less risk of opportunities being missed and employees can be proactive when it comes to contract renewal dates.”

As well as providing a centralised database for Fone Solutions, Maximizer Software was easily customised to fit the exact requirements of the organisation. Rowley continues, “Fone Solutions works in a very specific industry and as such the terminology and processes we use are not inherent in most software solutions. With Maximizer CRM this was not an issue as the team were able to adapt the system to what we were used to rather than the other way round.”

Maximizer’s mobile CRM functionality was an area that particularly impressed Fone Solutions. MaxMobile gives real-time wireless access to critical business intelligence data allowing the sales team to better service their customers. “MaxMobile is perfectly positioned to support collaborative customer engagement needs for a business such as Fone Solutions – be it account management, customer service, targeted marketing campaign management or sales activity,” says Rowley.

Turning opportunities into sales

The impact of Maximizer Software’s CRM has been significant, supporting staff to help increase new business activity for Fone Solutions and boosting profitability.

Rowley adds, “Through Maximizer CRM, the team are now able to target the right people at the right time, which gives a real sales buzz, and ultimately helps win more sales. So much so that we have seen an increased gross profit of around 25% per month."

Users at Fone Solutions have really embraced Maximizer CRM and it is now an integral part of the organisations’ sales, marketing and customer service departments. Rowley continues, “The Maximizer CRM solution is part of everything we do and the sales team in particular have said they wonder how we got by without it.”

Rowley pays tribute in particular to the transformation of his management reporting task, “This was certainly not a task I looked forward to as it had to be done manually and would usually take a whole day per month to complete. Now with Maximizer CRM it takes just 20 minutes.”

Fone Solutions was so impressed that it subsequently became Maximizer Software’s communications partner, to provide MaxMobile to Fone Solutions’ corporate clients and anticipates growing interest in this smartphone enabled application as organisations begin to come out of recession.