Microsoft Dynamics CRM Success Story
Catalyst
Headquartered in Vancouver, BC, Catalyst Paper Corporation is the market-leading
mechanical printing paper company in both North America and the Pacific Rim. A
leader in innovation and operating margins, Catalyst is well regarded by customers,
investors, employees and community neighbours for their performance, actions and
values.
Challenge
In the past, Catalyst made other attempts at implementing CRM applications but
these ventures turned out to be too complicated and also required using a separate
application from which they normally work. This resulted in low user adoption and
ultimately, failure of the CRM system. The challenge for Catalyst was to implement
a solution that users will find easy to use, that is accessed from one location and
also integrates several different systems including SAP, SharePoint and CRM.
Solution
Catalyst understands that adoption is largely driven by how intuitive and relevant
the application is. Therefore, they worked with Ideaca to develop a solution termed
the “Outlook Sales Portal,” a single seamless application that brings together
Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft SharePoint Services and SAP data that is
accessed directly from Microsoft Outlook. The focus of the implementation was to
provide a single common application for users within the business to access key
customer information and record their data. Microsoft Outlook is used everyday by
employees at Catalyst, therefore, extending the features within Outlook will lead to
increased user adoption. In addition, the solution was also designed to allow
managers and their staff to review account information within Microsoft Outlook. Data
that can be reviewed includes: associated account records (e.g. opportunities,
manufacturing trials etc.), ERP data (e.g. forecast data, sales volumes, customer data
etc.), documents (e.g. customer presentations, technical reports etc.) and tasks (e.g. contract
expiration tasks, quote expiration tasks, account management tasks etc.).
Benefits
Because they were designed to partner with Outlook, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and
SharePoint delivers lower training costs, less application-switching and broader
user adoption for Catalyst. The access and centralization of applications will
provide a competitive advantage by simplifying access to customer data. This will
assist with “employee training” (i.e. less ramp up time to understand the customer)
as well as “account plan reviews”. The solution delivered by Ideaca has allowed
Catalyst to more efficiently and effectively make sales decisions, market products,
solve problems and further develop strategic views of the business.