Trialogue

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[column size=”1-2″ last=”1″]“Now we can track exactly how we are doing in any sales cycle at the press of a button”
– Gill Sibert, Research Manager, Trialogue[/column]
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Company Information

Industry: Publishing
Location: Cape Town, South Africa
Product: Maximizer CRM 10 Entrepreneur
Users: 10[/column]
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Key Benefits

• Information all stored in one central location
• Higher level of productivity and efficiency
• Ability to track sales performance at the press of a button[/column]

Established in 1999, Trialogue is a leading consultancy and publisher, driving the development and management of knowledge within the sustainability and corporate social investment arenas. The company has several divisions each with different functions which service many different clients. Prior to implementing a CRM system, this client information was stored across many Excel spreadsheets. “Trying to bring everything together was a nightmare!” explains Research Manager, Gill Siebert. “The spreadsheets were all maintained by individual employees and were all formatted differently.”

Making the right CRM choice

This resulted in the company deciding it was time to implement a CRM system. Trialogue looked at a variety of systems including MS Access and Microsoft CRM. “Many of the systems we looked at seemed very complex,” says Gill, “We’re a small organisation with 12 employees and Maximizer CRM seemed well-tailored for a company of our size.” In comparison to other packages, the cost to implement Maximizer was also well-matched.

Trialogue enlisted the help of Maximizer partner Camsoft Solutions to help them roll out the implementation. “There was a lot of internal resistance at first,” says Gill, “but after the initial training, employees have really started to appreciate the value of the product.” With all staff now up to speed on the system, the roll out has actually been much smoother than originally anticipated and the company is now reaping the benefits of the system.

Greater productivity, higher efficiency

Maximizer’s address book functionality is already paying dividends. The most significant change is that all client information is now in one central location, which makes it easier to manage and keep up-to-date. This has helped greatly with productivity levels, enabling staff to achieve higher levels of efficiency. “When we’re publishing a new book we can use the User Defined Fields to flag who should receive complimentary copies,” explains Gill. “It used to take a week to identify the recipients, bring them into one list and print out the address labels. Now it probably only takes an hour!”

As well as the address book, Gill says that they are also using Maximizer’s Hotlist Task function which allows the user to schedule reminders and tasks. The staff member in charge of driving sales is also using the Opportunity Manager and is very happy with it. “Sales can now report on the opportunity information and draw graphs from it,” says Gill. “This is really beneficial to the business as now we can track exactly how we are doing in any sales cycle at the press of a button.”

Looking ahead with Maximizer

At the moment Maximizer is covering all of Trialogue’s basic needs, but it won’t be stopping there. “The next step is e-mails,” says Gill. “We’re starting to send e-mails via Maximizer so that we can track and record all communications.” This will mean that all staff will not just be able to access basic client information, but be fully conversant on previous conversations too. This in turn will allow them provide a better service to clients. Overall Trialogue is very happy with the Maximizer CRM system. As Gill states “It has added immense value to the business, certainly more than we anticipated, and especially in terms of time saved and increased efficiency.”