AmberLeaf

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your company?

We’re a large-scale retail company with several independent branches.

What is your position in the company?

I’m a manager in the customer insights group.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What were your company’s business goals for initiating the project with AmberLeaf?

We needed the full-scale implementation of our Unica solution.

How did you select AmberLeaf as your solution partner?

I can’t actually say because that happened prior to my involvement in this project.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of the project in terms of components: did it include design, development, support, training, etc.?

It required setting up and configuring the software as well as design, development, implementation and training.

What parts of the project was your in-house team directly involved with?

Our team collaborated with AmberLeaf during each consecutive stage.

When was this project completed or is it ongoing?

It’s still in-progress.

When did you begin this project?

We began roughly three years ago, but we put it on hold at one point and then resumed it.

When is the project scheduled for completion?

It should finish up within two or three months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

I understand the project remains ongoing, but could you share any metrics or statistics that would demonstrate the effectiveness of their work?

The fact that our new system is almost entirely implemented illustrated they’ve done a good job. That’s the reason we had to switch solution partners to begin with.

How well do you think they’ve performed on this project thus far?

Oh, they’ve done an excellent job, especially when you consider the state we were in prior to working with them.

In retrospect, are there any areas that you think AmberLeaf could improve upon, or that you would do differently when approaching this type of project?

No, I really can’t think of anything along those lines. I’ve been entirely satisfied with them.

When working with AmberLeaf, is there anything that you would consider unique or special about them compared to some of their competitors?

They’re extremely flexible with their clients and a real pleasure to work with.

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your company?

We are one of the largest insurance providers in the United States. We offer personal lines and commercial insurance.

What is your position?

I currently manage our campaign management operations group.  My team is responsible for executing many of the marketing campaigns: mail, email, outbound follow-up phone calls, and using leads from both our field sales reps as well as our call centers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What were your company’s objectives or business goals for initiating the project with AmberLeaf?

Our entire management campaign solution was limited. The process began with our implementation needs.  We began by researching a number of different solutions for our campaign management requirements, both strategic and functional. We eventually decided to pursue the Unica solution and Amberleaf was then hired as our implementation specialist.

Why did you select Unica as your preferred solution?

Unica offers rather robust marketing functionalities and it integrates relatively easy with our other systems. It has a lead management element with the lead applications. In my opinion, it’s the bread and butter of their campaign tool, which allows for a lot of advanced segmentation and allows for us to run a large number of fairly complex campaigns.  We also needed collaborative functionality, which would permit distributed marketing. That was really important because we wanted our field sales organizations to have the capability to execute their own customized campaigns. 

SOLUTION

How did you select Amberleaf as your preferred solution partner?

I can’t really speak to that because I wasn’t involved in that decision process. I would assume it was a combination of pricing and relationships at the time.

Could you describe the scope of the project: did it involve design, development, data preparation, systems integration, training, support, etc.?

Amberleaf was essentially responsible for everything. From the beginning, we started getting them involved with a variety of different areas. Originally, a lot of the work was implementation. Once the implementation was completed they began to customize the applications for our very specific needs. The work they do for us now almost completely revolves around custom development and design.

Did your company have some of the required expertise in-house, or was Amberleaf responsible for the entirety of the project?

There was certainly mutual cooperation. I was previously on the system side with our other IT specialists and we worked closely with the Amberleaf consultants.

Could you provide a sense of the size of the initiative in either monetary terms, or the number of personnel that was dedicated to the project from the Amberleaf side?

At this point we’ve invested several millions of dollars into the solution. We definitely have had a handful of people from Amberleaf. Over the years they’ve been involved from the IT development perspective, the reporting perspective, and a campaign support and management perspective. 

When was this project completed?

The initial implementation of our solution was probably finished five years ago; but they’ve continued to help us with implementing many projects since that time as well.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics that would demonstrate the effectiveness of their work?

Unfortunately, I can’t provide concrete details due to company policy, but I can say that it’s proven to be very, very successful. Amberleaf has certainly helped us a lot in terms of being able to sell more policies. They’ve also helped a lot from a customer retention perspective.

Have your employees had a positive experience working with Amberleaf and this new system?

Yes, absolutely. I’d say everybody that we worked with over there has been phenomenal. As for adjusting to our new system, it was of course difficult in the beginning, but we’ve moved beyond the crucible and our staff definitely appreciates the upgrade. It’s ultimately made their lives easier.

When working with Amberleaf, is there anything that you’d consider unique or special about them compared to their competitors?

The biggest thing is their capability. They can speak to things at a very low, technical level. They can also speak to things at a high level and really help from a business perspective. This has been invaluable to us because what we really needed was a partner that could understand our business first, and then tailor the solution around it.

In terms of retrospective evaluation, are there any areas that you feel Amberleaf could improve upon or that you, the hiring client, would do differently approaching this type of project?

Off the top of my head I really don’t have too many complaints. I’d probably have to give it quite a bit of thought, to be honest, in terms of things that I think that they could really improve upon.  Like I said, everybody has been very helpful, very informative and very flexible. We’ve had a great experience.