The customer service efforts of mining industry support company Kalassay Group were being hampered by a database management system that could not store customer information from all three of its laboratories nor supply accurate information to its salespeople in the field when they needed it most. The obvious result was dissatisfaction among customers and staff alike. Kalassay needed faster and better access to customer information from its own labs and from the remote locations of its customers. Having installed Microsoft CRM, Kalassay can now maintain customer data efficiently and provide service that is uniform and of a high standard. The Microsoft CRM solution is scalable, portable, and customizable, giving Kalassay a system that will continue to meet its needs even as its business grows.
“The general look, feel, and ease of use of the solution are just phenomenal. I would recommend Microsoft CRM to others because it is customizable, affordable, and easy to implement.”Noel English
Business Development Manager
Kalassay Group
Customer Profile / Business situation / Solution / benefits
Kalassay Group is a privately owned company that operates mineral analysis labs in Western Australia. The state-of-the-art labs provide a range of services to exploration and mining companies in Australia and overseas. Kalassay employs more than 150 people and is currently undergoing a period of re-invention and growth. / Kalassay Group wanted a customizable CRM system that could integrate with its laboratory management system as well as store and track a variety of information to help the company serve its customers more effectively. / Kalassay Group implemented Microsoft® CRM and Crystal Reports Version 9 as part of a revamp of the company’s information management systems. / § Improved access to information
§ Improved productivity
§ Enhanced competitiveness
§ Better market intelligence
§ Faster response to customer requests
§ Improved customer service
“We now have a more friendly system, a more familiar system interface, easier access to customer information, and more customer information.”
Noel English
Business Development Manager
Kalassay Group
Mineral and precious metal exploration is a time-consuming, expensive, and sometimes thankless business, especially in the more remote parts of a country the size of Australia. Those companies involved are dependent on accurate information, definitive analysis of samples, and speedy service. This is how Kalassay Group earns a living.
Kalassay Group is a privately owned company that operates three mineral assay (analysis) laboratories in regional Western Australia: at Kalgoorlie, Leonora-Laverton, and Yilgarn. These state-of-the-art labs provide analytical services to exploration and mining companies in Australia and overseas, with particular focus on base metals, gold, silver, and tantalum. Kalassay considers itself as being in partnership with the mining industry, acting as ‘consulting chemists’.
One of the things that sets Kalassay apart from other labs in the industry is its ability to bring sophisticated methods to regional locations, delivering high-precision analysis with reduced turnaround times and transport costs. Kalgoorlie Assay Laboratory is Kalassay’s largest lab, as well as being its technical and administrative base.
The Kalassay laboratories use software called a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) to manage work flow, instruments, and analytical processes. The system Kalassay was using also stored customer contact details, pricing information and so on.
Kalassay Business Development Manager, Noel English, says the company’s pricing system was not well structured, so, as part of the LIMS change, the company decided to review how it managed customer information.
“I had investigated CRM (customer relationship management) systems while at another company, but I had not been able to implement one,” English says. “I believed a CRM solution would meet our requirements and offer further opportunities.”
The LIMS System at Kalassay had no Web interface, making access from the outside very difficult. Customer records were held on identical but separate information management systems at each of Kalassay’s labs. This data needed to be collated in a central repository to make it more accessible, not only to terminals hard-wired into Kalassay’s intranet, but also to stand-alone users, via the Internet.
“Our customer pricing system was simplistic and we needed to break down our services into more logical ‘products’ that combine to make up an analytical process,” says English.
“This new approach would also allow us to restructure our pricing system, based on these smaller service units or products. This function was not part of the original CRM plan, but it developed as we got a better idea of the opportunities available with Microsoft® CRM.
“Before I joined Kalassay, we had no-one specifically tasked to perform the sales and business development role and no-one had put any time into devising a better system for handling sales and customer management.”
English says Kalassay’s existing LIMS did a sound job of managing the laboratory but it was severely limited and could not track clients, contacts, products or use any of the more modern communication systems. Because of this deficiency, many of Kalassay’s staff were using other parallel systems such as Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003 messaging and collaboration client.
“The previous system was a very basic bolt-on module that was included with our old Laboratory Information Management System,” English says. “Our client base is expanding, as is the range and complexity of the services we provide, so we needed a system that was more sophisticated.
“We are undergoing a bit of re-invention as we consolidate our position in the higher end of the geochemical analysis market. With this comes exposure to new clients and a type of organic growth occurs in addition to the expected growth as a result of our sales and marketing activities.”
Kalassay was already using a number of Microsoft products, such as Outlook, Microsoft Word, and PowerPoint® presentation graphics program. The expansion into Microsoft CRM allowed easy integration with the company’s existing software and with its new Laboratory Information Management System, called SampleManager. Created by Thermo Informatics of Perth, the world’s largest supplier of laboratory information systems, SampleManager runs Kalassay’s laboratory instrumentation and work flows. Microsoft CRM handles customer records, pricing, invoicing and productivity records.
SampleManager is designed for organizations seeking a standard LIMS and consistent performance for all their labs. It integrates the lab with the process plant and the enterprise, as well as with desktop applications, providing a foundation for complete lab automation. SampleManager runs on Microsoft Windows® operating systems with a Microsoft Windows Explorer interface.
Kalgoorlie Assay Laboratory is the first commercial mineral assay laboratory in the world to employ this system.
Thermo Informatics wrote some applications that pass information on orders and charge-outs from SampleManager to Microsoft CRM via an FTP protocol. Kalassay’s Perth-based deployment managers, Power Business Systems, wrote an order management/invoicing module for Kalassay that is incorporated into Microsoft CRM. The company also uses Crystal Reports 9 for writing customized reports to complement those already in Microsoft CRM.
“There has not been any situation we have not been able to address using Microsoft CRM. In fact, there are pieces of this package we will grow into as we advance our sales team.”Noel English
Business Development Manager
Kalassay Group
Microsoft CRM sits on the Kalassay network, connected to the Internet by broadband. Users log into the system via a built-in encrypted password system.
“Our new Laboratory Information Management System was a way to advance the technological side of our business,” says English. “Microsoft CRM was a way to improve our business management system. These were both must-do issues for Kalassay.
“It was fairly simple at first, but our aims changed as we gained a better appreciation of how we could integrate Microsoft CRM into our business. This prolonged the process but, eventually it resulted in a more comprehensive solution.”
Power Business Systems CRM Consultant, Saul Sabath, agrees that the versatility of Microsoft CRM was highly advantageous for the solution supplied to Kalassay. “Using Microsoft CRM we really were able to provide a complete business solution for them,” says Sabath. He also acknowledged the support Power Business Systems received as a certified Microsoft partner. “The whole Microsoft package – their people and their products – really are best-of-breed.”
Kalassay chose Microsoft CRM after considering solutions from Salesforce.com, Siebel, WorldTrak, SalesLogix, ACT!, WebAccess, and GoldMine.
For Kalassay, the move into Microsoft CRM was about improving many of the company’s businesses processes. It has assisted with making Kalassay’s current expansion more manageable.
Improved Productivity
Kalassay improved productivity by simplifying its customer pricing and invoicing systems. Previously, due to the complexity of the system, only senior staff could process invoices. Now, by using the custom invoicing system, this work can be spread more widely within the organization.
“We had pushed Microsoft’s productivity software about as far as it could go so we needed to make a change,” says English. “We now have a more user-friendly system, a more familiar system interface, easier access to customer information, and more customer information. We can quickly and easily print a report to get the information we need rather than spending time searching for it in the previous system.”
Enhanced Competitiveness
Customer pricing at Kalassay has been broken down into more manageable units, allowing the company to be more consistent and effective with its pricing. This has, in turn, led to improved competitiveness in the marketplace and more consistent profitability.
“For Kalassay customers, it has meant lower prices, more detailed invoices, faster resolution of queries, and up-to-date contact information,” says English. “For Kalassay, it has allowed us to manage more effectively.
“We are already finding that our ability to fine-tune our business is much improved. The need for change was overwhelming and the old system was holding us back.”
Better Market Intelligence
The Microsoft CRM system’s strong integration with Crystal Reports for business analysis was a great bonus for Kalassay, giving its managers fast and accurate insights into the company’s operations.
A central repository for system information allows interrogation and input of information from all team members, regardless of their physical location
“After undergoing some training, staff have been able to quickly gain a more complete understanding of our customers by using the more detailed information saved onto the system,” English says.
“We are looking to improve our business reporting and management systems. This in time may require us to migrate to a Microsoft Network. We may then integrate Microsoft CRM into Microsoft Business Solutions–Great Plains® as a complete accounting system.”
Products
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
Microsoft Office 2003 Edition
Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003
Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2000
Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2004
Microsoft CRM Version 1.2
Crystal Reports 9
Hardware
ACER Altos 510 Servers
Partners
Power Business Systems
www.power.net.au