XTIVIA (formerly Strategic Sales Systems)

BACKGROUND

Can you provide a brief description of your company?

Our company is an employment service and payroll outsourcing company. On the payroll side, we currently have over a thousand clients nationwide. On the staffing side, there are several thousand clients in our four locations. We’ll be adding two locations this year. We are an ASO, an administrative services organization, so we provide everything for the needs of the back office.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your main goal for undertaking the project with Strategic Sales?

We needed an increase in sales, better client tracking, and better information especially with the growth in the different physical locations. Also, being able to access that information quickly from any office by anyone who's dealing with the account is vital.

What were you using before SugarCRM?

I don’t believe there was one in place before Sugar. Not a CRM per se, but we had some CRM capabilities as part of the code system. We had nothing near what we have with Sugar.

Why did you decide to go with Sugar instead of Microsoft Dynamics or Salesforce?

The staff at Strategic Sales did a great job. They’ve just been right there by our side, and they help us with anything that we need. We needed a little hand-holding at first, and we still need that sometimes. They’re great about providing that type of hands-on service.

How did you originally discover and choose Strategic Sales to work with?

We found them through an Internet search, looking for various CRMs. We narrowed it down to Sugar and a couple of others. I don’t recall what the other ones were.

SOLUTION

Can you describe the scope of the project with Strategic Sales?

It was implementing the system, getting all of our current clients the code system into the CRM, and then all of the reports. There were certain customized things that we wanted the CRM to be able to do. They have worked with us on writing workflows and creating report. Strategic Sales handles anything that we have needed help with. They have just been spot-on. They have that sense of urgency, which is great because when we want something, we want it yesterday. They are very good at getting things done in a very timely manner. That’s one thing that we really appreciate having them as our back-up team.

Are they continuing to work with you on maintenance and support?

Absolutely, yes.

Can you provide general cost estimate for the work they’ve done so far?

They don’t gouge us for every five minute support phone call or anything like that. We have had some special projects with some of the workflows with the sales force. I don't have the cost estimate at my fingertips.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How satisfied are you so far with the work they’ve delivered?

Exceptionally happy—they are just great. We deal with a lot of different vendors, different software.  Our payroll side, time-keeping side, and the staffing side all deal with multiple vendors. The staff of Strategic Sales is the top vendor we deal with as far as response time and efficiency, and they make it happen quickly. They care, they listen. They’re happy to do a joint mini-meeting if I’m stuck on something. They’ll do something and get us past this hurdle to allow us to finish the project. As far as dealing with the staff, response time, and quality of work, I would have to put them at the top.

Do you have any specific metrics on sales improvements since you started working with them?

We have had a 25% to 27% improvement in sales.

That’s pretty impressive.

Yes, very impressive. We purchased another office. That other office has access to our CRM information and vice versa. When I go to that other office and visit clients, I can use our CRM. I can see exactly where we are with everyone, and what’s going on. The value is immeasurable in that regard. Our company can track opportunities, know who is closing business, who is not, and what the activity feed is. Everyone does their calls, meetings, and open opportunities weekly before sending the data to their directors with an outline of what’s been done.

It’s a terrific tracking and accountability device. We’ve assigned a point system to ours, so all the sales reps have a specific number of points they're achieving each week. They do that through the meetings, the calls, opportunities, and conversions while tracking it all through the CRM. We’re based in Illinois and Missouri, with clients in Arizona, Alabama, Texas, and Georgia. We have clients across the country, and it’s just great to be able to access that information from anywhere.

We’re opening an office in Indiana, and we’ll have an office in Alabama on July 1st. In the third quarter, we’ll enop an office in Dallas as well. We will have all of those offices on the CRM as well. I know that Strategic Sales will do a great job with anything we need, getting everybody up and running.

Are you satisfied with SugarCRM as a platform so far?

Yes.

When working with Strategic Sales, what is unique or special about them compared to other vendors?

I say this because I get frustrated when we’re trying to get answers on things or get something from another vendor. It can be days or a week before you reach someone. I will say that the response time with Strategic Sales is amazing. In addition, I’ve got their cell numbers. They're willing to work with us and they want us to utilize their system to the max. They are very patient to walk us through any issue. The response time is just terrific.

Is there anything that you’d do differently a second time around, or think that they can improve upon?

I can’t really think of anything because it took us a little while before we were utilizing it. We also had to adjust to using the entire system and get everyone trained and so forth. As we got more comfortable with the system and it hit the next level, we were ready to utilize it. They were right there to train us.

I can’t really say there’d be anything different because I wouldn’t have wanted all that information dumped on us at once. It would have been too overwhelming to try to absorb everything. They've worked with us at our pace instead of rushing us. They have been great to work with, so I wouldn’t change anything there.