InfoGrow

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the national sales manager of a German pump manufacturer. We cover the North American market for our parent company. I have a team of 17 salespeople and a distributor.

What challenge were you trying to address with InfoGrow?

We hired InfoGrow to become our CRM partner. Our salespeople use their CRM software to improve themselves and follow up with customers in a more timely manner.

What was the scope of their involvement?

InfoGrow works with us on the Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM. Their job was to help us focus and see what additional features of Dynamics 365 we needed to use and how to use them. There was training involved as well as customizing the program specifically for our needs. They provided documentation explaining what the program could do, and they very successfully showed us the value of what was there.

The CRM is our account database that makes all of our sales peoples’ accounts are available to them.  Our salespeople can input data, and then we can email market to those customers through the program. 

InfoGrow has helped with marketing and advertising as well. They gave us ideas on the marketing emails, such as how to format them and what content to include. They also showed us how to send them to our chosen market segment.

What is the team composition?

We work with two of InfoGrow’s teams: Tonya (Operations Manager), who is our product specialist, and Bob (Owner). They both work in conjunction with us and provide excellent customer service.

How did you come to work with InfoGrow?

We did some research. We wanted a local company because we figured that some in-person meetings would be best. Then, we interviewed four different companies. InfoGrow was by far the best interview that we had, and they have proven so over the last six years.

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent around $25,000, if not a bit more. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around the end of 2015, and it’s an ongoing partnership.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We’ve had a demonstrable increase in the use of CRM. One of the larger challenges for any company that uses a CRM program with their salespeople is to get them to use it. Our growth from last year to this year has been up 30% — it's unbelievable.

How did InfoGrow perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very detailed. They make timelines with reasonable milestones to hit. Every project that we do with them is very organized.  We communicate in various ways, including email, voice calls, in-person visits, Zoom, and Slack. They’re very responsive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their knowledge of Dynamics 365 is impressive. They showcase how a CRM program can help any sales organization; it doesn't have to be specific to any industry whatsoever. They know salespeople are essentially the same, no matter where they work. Their overall knowledge of the program and how it fits into our specific company is certainly their most powerful attribute.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, every interaction we’ve had with them or every project idea that we’ve worked with them on has gone smoothly. That's one thing I don’t have to worry about — I know it will be taken care of and that it’s going to be done right.

Any advice for potential customers?

Be honest and open about where you stand and where your organization is using CRM. If you're open and honest, they'll give you a pathway to lead you to better results. 

Can you provide a little background on your company?

We are a software developer for multiple platforms, and we market to large corporations. We also have a division that I’m involved with now, which is our healthcare division. We create, market, sell, and support software for the chiropractic industry, both their back office practice management software as well as the doctor’s documentation notes software.

What was your main objective going into the project with InfoGrow?

We were using GoldMine as our database and our records management system. We needed to move from that because we had outgrown GoldMine. We did an internal search and decided to go with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. We then hired a consultant to work with us on the implementation. It was not InfoGrow. We had all kinds of problems. It actually delayed our implementation by eight months. So, we finally moved over to Microsoft Dynamics, but we still had problems. We obviously were no longer using the original group that we had hired. I did a search and found InfoGrow; I engaged InfoGrow in the summer of last year, and they came in and helped us tremendously. They looked at how we had things set up, made recommendations on how it could be more efficient, dug in to our software, and worked with the various department heads. I wish I had found them 18 months ago. It would have made our life so much easier.

What were the reasons for choosing Microsoft CRM as opposed to, say, Salesforce or Sugar?

That decision was really made at the corporate level. They decided to do that because at the time, some of our divisions were using GoldMine, some were using another record system, and some were using an internal system that we had homegrown. We needed to get everybody in one system. As they did the search, they decided that the Dynamic solution was the best fit for all of our divisions. We haven’t fully implemented our plan for all the divisions yet—they’re working on the second division this summer, as a matter of fact. Once we get all our division history, once we get them all on CRM, then they’ll integrate our accounting system. I believe they’re using Math as our accounting system; that also can be integrated with CRM. That was a big deal for us, that we could have even our accounting integrated with this solution In the healthcare division, we went on to find a live chat software that would integrate with Dynamics for my support team to use. WhosOn is what we’re using as far as our chat that integrates with CRM. That was one of the big benefits for us, that there was so much integration with other products.

Is InfoGrow working with the other divisions as well?

Yes. They’re not actively working with them right now. We’re still in the internal stage, and we’re mapping things out. The healthcare division was the guinea pig. They’re going to use healthcare as the template and then modify what they need for each individual division. They are talking and working with InfoGrow.

How happy are you with what they’ve delivered so far?

Very, very happy. Bob Sullivan is who I originally started talking with, and he is very much the professional. He totally understood the pain that he could hear in my voice when we first had our conversation. He brought in one of their engineers, Steve Luc, who actually worked with us on the account, and Steve was just phenomenal. He actually had a background with GoldMine, so he knew some of the challenges that we were facing in going from GoldMine to CRM. He was very helpful in making recommendations to us as well as fixing some of the problems that we had created for ourselves.

When working with InfoGrow, is there anything that you find to be unique or special compared to other developers that you’ve worked with?

I think a big part of it is in going from the group that we’ve worked with originally that we were unhappy with, InfoGrow suddenly put my mind at ease in that they just became a partner in this with me immediately. They jumped in with both feet. I had a call with Bob and Steve early in our discussions, along with our project manager who was leading the transition to CRM, and they both just jumped in with both feet. We did a two-hour go-to meeting and showed them the overall setup of what we were doing. They were able to just jump in immediately and say, “Right now, I can tell you this, this, and this. You could make some changes and see huge rewards.” I am impressed by their level of personalization, and they started adding value immediately. It made me feel much better about the project.

Looking back on the work they’ve done for you, is there anything that you would do differently a second time around or think that they could improve upon?

Nothing that I think they can improve upon. What I would do differently is I would engage them right out of the gate. Had we had their expertise in helping us initially map out what we wanted to do before doing any type of customization, it would have put my project on time. I wouldn’t have been eight months delayed in trying to get it working the way that we could just use it. That’s why when we finished implementing on the healthcare side. I went to the EVP of our core division, who are the next ones slated to do the transition, and said, you definitely have to work with these guys, because they know what they’re doing. They know the pains that we had in GoldMine and how we’re trying to resolve them in CRM, and it’s been valuable. That’s why they’re working with them.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the IT project Manager and we automated the Contacts downloading to our Microsoft Dynamics 365.

For what projects/services did your company hire InfoGrow, and what were your goals?

We first engaged with InfoGrow to support our CRM after the previous consulting group closed. They took over and have supported us for years now and they also have the ability for custom work like our interfaces from the website.

How did you select InfoGrow and what were the deciding factors?

I researched CRM partners and InfoGrow was our choice for our annual support.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Interfaces capture website form data collected on FormStack, and load the data into our CRM matching our required selection fields.

How many people from the InfoGrow team worked with you, and what were their positions?

1 developer

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We have utilized InfoGrow for basic & advanced level support and training with much success. We also use their custom tools like the CRM Mapping Tool for our Sales team to locate nearby customers.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Quick support response, and good communications with projects and delivery.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The team was easy to work with, and we were ecstatic with their staff and services.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

N/A