Customer Solution Case Study
/ Bastian Material Handling Provides Higher Levels of Customer Service
Overview
Country or Region:United States
Industry:Materials Handling
Customer Profile
Founded in 1952, Bastian Material Handling LLC, based in Indianapolis, Indiana, provides material handling system solutions and technologies that help its customers get their products to market.
Business Situation
Bastian sought a CRM solution that could integrate with the company’s back office solution and help improve communication among sales offices, make information available to sales representatives.
Solution
Bastian worked with its Microsoft reselling partner, Cargas Systems, Inc., to implement Microsoft® CRM, an easy-to-use, customizable, and scalable office solution from Microsoft Business Solutions.
Benefits
Improved information sharing
Tight integration
Improved visibility into sales
Expanded marketing capabilities / "Even somebody who's never used a CRM product before can be up and running on most of Microsoft CRM in less than half a day."
Clark Cox, Regional Sales Manager, Bastian Material Handling LLC
Indianapolis, Indiana-based Bastian Material Handling LLC sought an integrated customer relationship management solution that could help the company improve communication among its many sales offices, make additional—and higher-quality—information available to its inside and field sales representatives, and help the company provide increased levels of customer service. Working with its Microsoft reselling partner, Cargas Systems, Bastian implemented Microsoft Business Solutions CRM, an easy-to-use, customizable, and scalable front office solution from Microsoft Business Solutions. As a result, Bastian Material Handling is beginning to enjoy the many benefits of this integrated solution, including tight integration with its Microsoft Business Solutions–Great Plains (now part of Microsoft Dynamics™) back office solution, easier sharing of information, improved tracking of customer data, and increased efficiency.
Situation
Founded in 1952, Bastian Material Handling LLC has carved out a successful niche by providing the equipment companies need to take their products to market. Back in its early days, the company's primary lines of material handling equipment consisted of conventional products, such as casters, hand trucks, and carts—which was reflected in the company's motto, "If It Rolls - We Supply It."
Times have changed, and so have the technologies needed to move packaged products to market. But Indianapolis, Indiana-based Bastian has remained current with the latest innovations and now provides a wide array of material handling system solutions and technologies. From basic lift/powered trucks and racks to ultra-high-tech mechanized systems that involve computer-controlled storage and retrieval systems and computer-controlled vehicles, scanning, sortation, carousels, and conveyor systems, Bastian is dedicated to helping its customers compete effectively in their markets.
In recent years, privately held Bastian has grown rapidly. The company generated $54 million of revenue in 2002, with revenues more than doubling in just the last six years. Plus, the company's customer list boasts some of the nation's largest pharmaceutical companies, brewers, retailers, and manufacturers. Bastian's approximately 100 employees serve these customers from nine offices across the Midwest and Western parts of the United States.
However, Bastian recently found itself in the position of needing to choose a new customer relationship management (CRM) solution. Because the company's previous solution was no longer being supported, Bastian faced the prospect of either performing additional customization to continue using it—or selecting an entirely new solution. If Bastian chose a new system, the new solution needed to allow Bastian to track and synchronize all its customer data, including customer records, activities, sales calls, and other information.
In addition, the solution had to provide real-time information Bastian's field sales professionals and inside sales representatives could use to provide instant sales quotes, perform localized marketing, and deliver high-quality customer service.
But perhaps most important, it was critical that the new CRM solution integrate tightly with Bastian's current Microsoft® Business Solutions–Great Plains® back office solution. "Integration was very, very important to us," says Clark Cox, the company's Michigan Regional Sales Manager. "We wanted the integration capability to the back office to be as robust and flexible as possible. We needed to be able to work in the CRM world and pass orders and information between the front office and back office. For instance, we wanted to be able to do our quoting in CRM and then be able to pass the orders directly to the back office."
Solution
Because Bastian Material Handling had already standardized on Microsoft technologies, and because of the potential for tight integration between front office and back, Bastian's Microsoft Business Solutions partner organization, Cargas Systems, Inc., based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, recommended Microsoft Business Solutions CRM, which was, at the time, just in the process of being introduced.
"Looking at our options—both from a financial and technology standpoint—we felt that Microsoft CRM gave us the best long-term solution going forward," says Cox.
Bastian's decision makers were impressed with Microsoft CRM's ability to integrate with the company's Microsoft Great Plains back office solution—and the flexibility that integration could afford the company. "Because Microsoft CRM uses a Microsoft BizTalk® Server integration tool, it's an open structure that allows free mapping of fields between databases," explains Cox. "That allows us to more freely move the data between one system and the other."
"As a result of this integration, data like year-to-date sales, current orders, customer addresses and all the customer information that's in our accounting system can be accessible in Microsoft CRM too," Cox says. "So if a salesperson in the field is with a customer, they can have access to all that information, in real time, and right at their fingertips. Plus, they can find products, see how much quantity we have in stock, and provide better service to their customer."
Bastian was among the very first Microsoft Business Solutions customers to implement Microsoft CRM and integrate it with a back office solution. In all, the company needed to migrate a massive amount of data: approximately 18,000 accounts—which includes customers, vendors, and suppliers—and more than 40,000 contacts. The company says the implementation and migration process went relatively smoothly, and the entire process was completed in less than six months.
In addition, the time required for employees to learn Microsoft CRM was minimal, Cox says, largely because of the solution's intuitiveness. "We did a train-the-trainer type concept, where our partner, Cargas Systems, conducted training for our managers, who then spent a day training their employees," says Bill Breitenbach, Bastian's Information Systems Manager.
The result was that employees were able to get up-to-speed on Microsoft CRM quickly. "Basic functionality can be learned in about four hours," Cox says. "Even somebody who's never used a CRM product before can be up and running on most of it in less than half a day."
Today, Microsoft CRM is the primary software tool the company's sales representatives use to perform their job functions, with 85 employees currently using the solution. Most of Bastian's field sales representatives have Microsoft CRM installed on their laptops, and they use the software offline to record sales activities, follow up on leads, prepare orders, and generate price quotes. "Then, when they get back on line, all of our inside salespeople can access that information and know what the field salespeople have been talking to their customer about," Cox says.
In addition, Microsoft CRM also serves as "the primary information tool" for the company's inside sales representatives. For instance, "when a customer calls, the inside sales rep can bring that customer account up on the screen, quickly see what's going on with that account, and use that information to readily answer any questions the customer has," Cox says. "If the customer asks for a price, the employee can provide a quote right there from Microsoft CRM. If the customer wants to check on an order, that information is available immediately. And if the customer wants to order something, they can do that right there as well."
Benefits
Improved Sharing of Information
"Because our company is spread out across the Midwest and West, one of our goals for the new system was to help us share information more effectively," says Breitenbach. Microsoft CRM is helping Bastian Material Handling achieve that goal. "The Sales, Opportunities, and Quotes views in Microsoft CRM are more intuitive than our previous CRM system and make it easier to share information and see what's happening with an account," Cox says.
Because it acts as a reseller for hundreds of other companies' products, Bastian needed to make a huge volume of information readily available to its sales representatives—a task it readily achieved with Microsoft CRM. "With Microsoft CRM, we've been able to give everyone real-time access to supplier information," says Breitenbach.
Easier Access to Information through Tight Integration
The tight integration between Microsoft CRM and Bastian's Microsoft Great Plains back office solution is making it easier to put powerful, decision-driving information into the hands of decision makers. "Our president, Bill Bastian, likes receiving a lot of information," Breitenbach says. "Some days he wants one type of information, other times he wants another type of information. The flexibility we get from the integration between front office and back office is making it much easier for us to provide the data he needs."
Increased Efficiency through Integration with Other Microsoft Products
Bastian believes that its standardization on Microsoft products will provide efficiencies the company would not otherwise receive. "Our front office, back office, operating systems, e-mail tools—and just about everything else—are all Microsoft products," Cox says. "That integration under the Microsoft umbrella ensures they're going to work together and help us improve efficiency, which is going to be a great advantage for us going forward."
In addition, Breitenbach notes that Microsoft Business Solutions has been very receptive to customer ideas and feedback. "Microsoft really listens to you," he says. "There have been times when I've submitted support requests by e-mail and they've called back almost immediately and said, ‘Can you elaborate on this for us?' That's led to some half-hour conversations with them about what we'd like to see in the product. They've been very responsive, and I know they're listening to us."
Expanded Marketing Capabilities
Microsoft CRM also provides the ability for Bastian's field salespeople, who understand their markets best, to quickly and easily create customized marketing materials. "We were really looking for more marketing capabilities," Cox says. "We wanted to be able to take this to an individual level—not at a corporate-marketing level—and begin targeted mailings to certain customers, where the salesperson could take the data themselves, pull together a list, and perform mailings on a local level. Microsoft CRM is allowing us to do that."
Better Visibility for Enhanced Decision Making
By implementing Microsoft CRM, Bastian Material Handling is also benefiting from additional business insights the software provides. "With Microsoft CRM, we have the opportunity to see what's in the pipeline and what's really coming our way," Cox says. "Now, we can see where our sales volumes are and where we think they're going to be in the future—which are things we never really looked at before. With that information, we can determine if times are going to get tighter or if we need to hire more people going forward."
Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, adaptable business management solutions that enables you and your people to make business decisions with greater confidence. Microsoft Dynamics works like familiar Microsoft software such as Microsoft Office, which means less of a learning curve for your people, so they can get up and running quickly and focus on what’s most important. And because it is from Microsoft, it easily works with the systems your company already has implemented. By automating and streamlining financial, customer relationship
and supply chain processes, Microsoft Dynamics brings together people, processes and technologies, increasing the productivity and effectiveness of your business, and helping you drive business success.
For more information about Microsoft Dynamics, go to: