Founded in 2000, Accelerator helps organisations to achieve positive business results through customer service leadership. With services including training, development and research, the company has experienced strong growth in recent years as its clients increasingly recognise the importance of customer service in competitive differentiation.
With strong new business momentum, Accelerator recognised the need to introduce more rigorous processes across the business – from improving the management of the client lifecycle to targeted marketing and in-depth reporting. In common with many smaller organisations, the company had been reliant upon Outlook as a contact repository and email marketing tool; while project management and client relationship information was recorded within Excel spreadsheets and Word documents.
As Henry Hopkins, Director, Accelerator, explains, “The primary objective was to move the training division’s resource planning into a CRM system. With upwards of 1,000 training days delivered each year, we have to manage many trainers across multiple locations, as well as ensure materials are in the right place and track participant feedback. Ensuring this entire cycle is effectively managed was the initial priority.”
The company turned to CPiO to understand how Sage CRM could be deployed to support this specific business need. Henry confirms;
“CPiO showed a willingness to be flexible. The company’s ability to understand our business, combined with great Sage expertise and recognition that Sage CRM can support more than sales and marketing activities led us to not only adopt Sage CRM from CPiO but also migrate our existing server solution to CPiO Cloud Services.”
Accelerator’s use of Sage CRM will encompass both client lifecycle management and sales and marketing activity. The software is set to become a key business tool, used by the company’s 20-strong employee base. Critically, while in the past the training resource planning spreadsheet was not shared, individuals across the business will have a real-time view of the status of ongoing training projects for each client, from dates to resources, locations and client evaluation reports.
With cloud-based CRM, everyone in the company can access the information at any time, from any location, which is particularly key for an organisation with a high proportion of remote staff. Accurately capturing client and prospect information within the CRM will enable all client-facing staff – from trainers to administrators and sales – to have consistent, informed conversations.
The company plans to further explore Sage CRM reporting to analyse trends in demand, track conversion rates and improve forecasting. Hopkins concludes;
“The investment in Sage CRM from CPiO is about giving us a foundation to grow substantially. 2016 is set to be another record year and we need to make sure we are spending the minimum time on administration and the process is efficient and is done well.”