Neurored

BACKGROUND

Please provide a brief description of your company?

We are a freight forwarder and a customs broker. We are a brokerage, clearing and forwarding agent, and a customs broker.

What is your position within the company?

I’m the CEO.

What are your primary responsibilities?

I lead the organization and ensure the latest development for the information systems.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What were your company’s business reasons for undertaking the project with Neurored?

We were using various cloud-based solutions and localized custom software. We felt we were outgrowing that, so we implemented Salesforce directly. However, we couldn’t get it to be tailor-made to what we required.

While searching through the App Store, we noticed Neurored and engaged them because they had experience in import projects. They filled in the gaps we were lacking. They worked very closely with us in design. The speed and the understanding of the industry is what drew us to Salesforce and the Neurored solution at Force.com.

The relationship has been very good. We started primarily as a quotations platform and then moved to an ERP solution that they provided for us. We liked the Force.com solution because it allows us to tailor-make the field, which is user friendly. With the expertise of Neurored and the ease of Salesforce platform, it’s a system that works well for us.

Why did your organization decide to build on Salesforce instead of using another platform?

Salesforce is one of the leading CRMs so it had most of the basic needs out-of-the-box. The Force.com solution allows fields to be amended and tailor-made by an inexperienced IT professional. That’s one of the reasons we moved to the Salesforce platform.

SOLUTION

Can you tell me more about the scope of the project in terms of what Neurored did? 

No, they’ve done all the work from beginning to end. We gave them them our required specifications, and they designed everything. We started initially with software focused on customer service, and then we sent many quotations to them on a daily basis. Neurored basically tailor-made everything for us in our Force platform. When we saw their work, we decided to focus on the ERP side of the business, which is very similar to the quotations but handles live shipments. We managed to tailor-make it for our requirements.

Were any other technologies used?

No. Everything was on the Salesforce platform.

Can you provide a sense of the size of the initiative in dollar terms?

Our organization is sitting at a turnover of $30 million. It’s a monthly cost of $100 per user. We have 22 to 23 users at the moment.

When was the most recent project finished?

It was probably finished about two-and-a-half to three months ago, but it’s still a work in progress. We develop a lot of enhancements on this project as we go along.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What are some of the results of the project? Do you have any statistics, specific improvements in efficiency or effectiveness, or any feedback from your employees or customers?

From the employee side, the workflow is a lot more structured and identifiable. From the management side, it’s a lot more controlled. There’s more ability to extract information and statistics. What we like about the Salesforce platform, is that it has automated schedules to customers.

We use the customer portal now, which makes it much easier for clients to log in and see the status of their shipments. We’re busy working with our web developers to incorporate the link directly from the portal into Salesforce. It has much better controls, much better cost. We’ve gained the management and the automation of the schedule.

Do you still feel building on that application that was the best decision to make?

I’ve researched extensively into other systems. From a quotation side, we looked at many companies including a Dutch program, but it was a lot more cumbersome. It wasn’t user friendly. Salesforce worked well.

From the ERP side, I think it was one of the best decisions that I could have made. We can tailor-make the fields. We kept adding on without relying on a developer or a programmer to do the work. It was probably the best choice that we’ve made.

How did Neurored perform?

They’re exceptional. On the web call, they did the change that we asked them to do. They’ve been very quick to react to all requested changes. The relationship is excellent at this point in time.

Was there anything unique about them compared to other vendors?

I think their size is unique. They’re smaller, so you’re dealing with the employees at the top of their company. They understand the logistics in the industry; it’s much easier to talk to someone of that caliber than to other programmers who don’t know the industry.

They have an edge up on the logistics industry. They understand the logistics of our business well, making communication much easier. Initially, I was a bit concerned about dealing with a company in Spain and whether it was going to work remotely. They’ve proved us wrong. They’ve actually delivered every time we asked them to.

We are continuously improving our system, so we keep giving them information. We appreciate that they provide feedback from their other clients and provide certain enhancements. This procedure is quite useful to us.

They suggested improvements like linking the system through Salesforce. This allows us to send information via EDI to the shipping line. This is an enhancement that they suggested. It’s quite useful to us. I think their proactiveness helps our relationship because our company is also proactive to change.

Looking back on the project, is there anything that you felt they could improve on or do differently?

No improvements are needed at this point.