CRM Consultancy Refocuses Efforts on Microsoft Technology ...



“Building my business with Microsoft CRM will translate into happier customers and more profitable long-term relationships.”

Scott Spanbauer, President, BridgeBuilder

After attending a compelling event, BridgeBuilder decided to revamp its business to take advantage of Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM 3.0, adding the solution to its other customer relationship management (CRM) offerings from and SalesLogix. The firm estimates that its revenues and number of employees will grow exponentially over the next few years as a result of combining its business-process expertise with Microsoft® CRM solutions.

Business Needs

For 11 years, BridgeBuilder has built a business around helping midmarket companies manage processes, automate workflow, and gather business intelligence. As customer relationship management (CRM) solutions entered the marketplace, BridgeBuilder added a variety of these solutions—including and SalesLogix—to its portfolio.

BridgeBuilder also became certified in early versions of Microsoft® CRM products but chose not to market them. “The early releases of Microsoft CRM just weren’t mature enough to be viable for our customers,” says Scott Spanbauer, President of BridgeBuilder. “However, we knew it was only a matter of time before Microsoft CRM would develop into a strong market force with solid product offerings.”

To find out more about the capabilities of updated Microsoft CRM solutions, BridgeBuilder accepted an invitation to attend the Microsoft CRM Executive Summit in August 2005. “It sounded as though it would be worth my time to travel across the country to see if the upcoming version could compete with the leading CRM solutions out there,” says Spanbauer. “I thought that the event would give me a good opportunity to get a ‘sneak peek’ and decide whether BridgeBuilder should prepare to invest in the new solution before its launch.”

The event not only delivered key information about Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM 3.0, but also gave partners such as BridgeBuilder the chance to ask specific questions of Microsoft developers. “It was great to have a small event that was packed with so much useful information,” says Spanbauer. “It was more than the typical ‘dog-and-pony show’—I had a real opportunity to interact with Microsoft and find out whether it made sense to start offering Microsoft CRM 3.0 to our customers.”

Solution

Microsoft CRM 3.0 impressed Spanbauer so much that he decided to essentially bet his business on it. “Microsoft CRM has built-in integration with Microsoft Office products, so it’s easy for people to use and for IT departments to approve,” says Spanbauer. “Plus, it’s a great, cost-effective opportunity for businesses that want to use a CRM solution but found other solutions too expensive or complicated. I believe that many companies will switch to Microsoft CRM or adopt it from the start. It’s an extremely appealing product.”

Learning the product, however, required more than just certification. BridgeBuilder invested a significant amount of time and resources to understand the technical aspects of the product, explore the third-party options associated with it, restructure the company’s sales processes to better match the product, and disengage with some of the other vendors. Says Spanbauer, “We had an advantage in that we already have tremendous expertise in how to customize CRM solutions to match companies’ business processes, but we wanted to really focus our efforts on Microsoft CRM.”

As of May 2006, BridgeBuilder has dedicated 80 percent of its employees to the licensing and delivery of Microsoft CRM solutions, and it anticipates that it will begin taking on four or five CRM projects per month. “We’re extremely selective. We want to be sure that we’re the right fit for customers and vice versa,” explains Spanbauer.

Since shifting to Microsoft CRM, BridgeBuilder has made an effort to network with Microsoft employees, Microsoft partners, and potential customers. “CRM is just as mission-critical as accounting or e-mail systems, but many companies don’t give CRM the proper level of attention,” says Spanbauer. “Budget crunches and short-term priorities get in the way of committing to a CRM process. We help customers and other partners understand how CRM integrates in an environment and how to make the most of it in multiple scenarios.”

Benefits

As a member of the Microsoft Partner Program, BridgeBuilder enjoys access to a larger portion of the market. Spanbauer says, “We anticipate that we’ll be able to expand beyond our region because of all the opportunities that promoting Microsoft CRM solutions provides.” Partnership benefits also include:

■ Reliance on partner channel. “With other vendors, one minute they’d be supporting us and the next minute they’d be selling against us. Microsoft is different because it depends on its partners for its own success,” says Spanbauer. “No competition from Microsoft inside sales helps me feel good about my investment in Microsoft CRM. It’s a solid, long-term solution on which to build a business.”

■ Affordability. “Microsoft CRM is nearly as affordable as some low-end contact-management solutions, and companies can use Microsoft Financing to make a CRM solution more feasible. I can concretely show customers the monthly cost of a solution, and they can understand the impact that the solution will have versus the cost,” says Spanbauer. “Having a financing option opens up CRM as a possibility for many smaller companies that couldn’t ordinarily afford it.”

■ Marketing, sales, training, and public relations resources. “Microsoft offers partners more resources than we can keep track of. Marketing has always been one of our strengths, and we’re making the most of all the marketing resources that Microsoft places at our disposal,” says Spanbauer. “Also, the visibility that we get from Microsoft is beyond the reach of what we could accomplish on our own.”

■ Vast partner ecosystem. Concludes Spanbauer, “Many partners know how to install the product but don’t have the experience that BridgeBuilder has in matching business processes to software solutions. We’ve found tremendous success working in collaboration with other Microsoft partners so that they can provide comprehensive CRM solutions to their customers.”

-----------------------

For more information about other Microsoft customer successes, please visit: resources/casestudies

| | |[pic] | |

Partner: BridgeBuilder

Web Site:

Partner Size: 1-99

Country or Region: United States

Industry: Professional Services

Partner Profile

[pic][?]€©ª[?]

4

5

F

I

J

K

S

Y

Z

ñ

ò

:Charlotte, North Carolina–based BridgeBuilder provides customer relationship management (CRM) solutions and consulting for midmarket organizations. Founded in 1995, the company currently has 10 employees.

Software and Services

■ Microsoft Dynamics™

− Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0

■ Microsoft® Servers

− Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2004

− Microsoft Exchange Server 2003

− Microsoft Windows® Small Business Server 2003

− Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000 and 2005

■ Microsoft Office

− Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003

− Microsoft Office SharePoint® Portal Server 2003

■ Technologies

− Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download