Inetium Attains President’s Club Status in Seven Months ...



Overview

Country or Region: United States

Industry: Information Technology

Customer Profile

Inetium is an IT firm focused on business solutions. The company offers strategic IT planning, project management, application development, and customer support. Inetium is located in Chanhassen, Minnesota.

Business Situation

As a company focusing on customer-facing solutions and helping customers to combine applications into a single integrated solution, Inetium executives believed Microsoft® CRM could benefit customers.

Solution

Inetium delved into learning Microsoft CRM and making it a part of the company’s solution offering. By implementing Microsoft CRM in their own company, executives gained valuable insights that translated to developing solid customer relationship management (CRM) solutions for customers.

Benefits

■ Multiple sources of leads

■ Integration with existing applications

■ Microsoft .NET technologies

| | |"We have the ability to look at a Microsoft CRM implementation not as a piece of technology but as a process, and address that process with the customer."

Ryan Toenies, CRM Director, Inetium

| |

| | | |When a company becomes a member of the Microsoft Business Solutions President's Club within seven |

| | | |months of becoming a reselling partner, it is evident that the company has insights worthy of |

| | | |sharing. Inetium Inc. has been a Microsoft Certified Partner since its business began in 1998. In |

| | | |November 2002, the company decided to begin selling Microsoft CRM (now part of Microsoft Dynamics™), |

| | | |establishing a customer relationship management (CRM) practice area and obtaining Microsoft CRM |

| | | |certification early on. Inetium began tapping into its existing customer base and obtaining Microsoft|

| | | |CRM leads through a partner lead-generation firm. |

| | | | |

| | | |[pic] |

| | | | |

Situation

Broad IT Expertise

Inetium Inc. was established in 1998 with a focus on building solutions for its small and midsize customer base. From the beginning, the solutions have been built on Microsoft® technologies, focusing on centralized data and data-driven applications.

Inetium became a Microsoft reselling partner in November 2002. Selling Microsoft CRM as its first Microsoft Business Solutions product, the company attained Microsoft Business Solutions President's Club status in its first seven months.

Customer-Facing Business Solutions

Inetium is organized around three practice areas that address the needs of different business users. One of those practices creates customer-facing solutions such as online marketing and commerce sites, direct mail marketing, and customer relationship management (CRM). These solutions are built on Microsoft products such as Commerce Server, Content Management Server, and Microsoft Business Solutions CRM.

Business Productivity Solutions

A second practice area focuses on the needs of the information worker. These solutions enhance business productivity and are built on Microsoft Office System technologies such as Microsoft Office SharePoint™ Portal Server, the InfoPath™ information gathering program, and smart documents.

Infrastructure Solutions

Inetium desires to play the role of the trusted IT advisor, and customers in the small and midsize space want this as well. Because of this, Inetium provides IT planning and infrastructure services that help customers to get the most from their IT investments.

Breadth of Experience

Inetium's background and experience extend across a broad spectrum of industries including construction, healthcare, retail, software, manufacturing, and financial service.

Ryan Toenies, Inetium's CRM Director, and Dave Stahlman, Vice President and Director of Sales and Marketing, share their winning strategies with us in this document.

Solution

Establishing a CRM Practice Area

From the time that Inetium signed on to develop Microsoft CRM solutions for clients, the company took the new opportunity very seriously. One of the techniques that Inetium uses is establishing practice areas within the organization. Inetium immediately established a practice area for CRM and placed Ryan Toenies in charge of the practice.

Developing Product Knowledge

Inetium staff gained product knowledge by taking advantage of Microsoft CRM training classes, both at Microsoft Business Solutions headquarters and online. Three staff members now are certified on Microsoft CRM.

Using the Solution in Its Own Business

Inetium uses Microsoft CRM in its own business. Says Dave Stahlman, "We use the system internally. We've spent a good deal of time training and developing best practices for ourselves. That helps us relate to the customer's business as well."

Benefits

Generating Leads

Inetium generates leads with:

■ Balance of internally generated and Microsoft leads—Toenies reports that Inetium has a good balance of leads that come through Microsoft Business Solutions and leads that are generated through Inetium's own efforts.

■ Existing customer base—Inetium takes advantage of its existing customer base to generate leads. Acting in the role of IT advisor, staffers regularly review their customers' IT environments and make suggestions for improvements. When they see that Microsoft CRM has the potential to provide a customer with opportunities to build more positive relationships, they will recommend a CRM solution, often with customizations to fit the customer's business needs and workflow.

■ Lead-generation partnership—Inetium has a relationship with one partner who is engaged for the sole purpose of lead generation for Inetium. Inetium educated the partner on Microsoft CRM, and the lead-generation firm now includes the solution in their lead-generation work.

■ Marketing campaigns—Inetium undertakes mass marketing efforts such as e-mail campaigns and direct mail fliers that generate interest.

■ Seminars—A smaller but growing part of Inetium's lead-generation activity occurs through seminars and joint engagements at Microsoft product launches. Inetium anticipates getting more into this area in the future.

Envisioning Integrated Solutions

Toenies says one of the reasons for Inetium's success in selling Microsoft CRM is the ability to envision an implementation as a part of an entire solution rather than as an isolated piece of software. Inetium analyzes how Microsoft CRM can be integrated with other touch points such as a customer's accounting solution and website.

Inetium's expertise with a breadth of Microsoft technologies serves the company well. Inetium is highly experienced with the Windows Server System™ integrated server software including SQL Server™ and Exchange Server, Active Directory® service, and desktop components including the Microsoft Office System. (Active Directory is part of the Microsoft Windows Server™ operating system.) The company does not focus on Microsoft CRM as a single tool but as a part of a complete technology solution. The integration of applications to make a total solution is what has helped to make Inetium successful.

Focusing on the CRM Vision

Overcoming resistance to a version 1 product is sometimes a barrier for customers. Inetium believes that it has been successful in overcoming this resistance in part because of its ability to sell the Microsoft vision for the future.

"We have been able to go into even large organizations and sell them on the concept that you are going to win ‘out of the box' by selecting Microsoft CRM, simply because it sits inside of a tool—Microsoft Outlook® [messaging and collaboration client]—that is going to make it easy for your people to use," says Toenies. "We tell them why they should get on the train now rather than waiting until a year from now. We do that with version 1 by saying this is a very extensible application from an integration perspective. We can ‘take the cover off CRM' and make it do exactly what you want it to do."

Selling the Microsoft .NET Promise

Microsoft .NET is software for connecting people, information, systems, and devices. Promoting the .NET technology behind Microsoft CRM is a positive factor that Inetium addresses with customers. The company points to the integration of Microsoft products, revealing that new .NET-based capabilities are coming down the pipeline and promising greater functionality. "There's a lot of energy behind this from the Microsoft perspective, and what you're seeing now is just the beginning," Toenies says.

Automating Processes

Nine times out of 10, Inetium sells a Microsoft CRM solution because of its ability to create automated processes that will save labor. The company identifies the customers' pain points and provides examples of how Microsoft CRM workflow and customization features can address them.

One of Inetium's customers is a homebuilder who uses Microsoft CRM to manage customer leads. The builder has model homes across the Twin Cities metropolitan area. When a buyer walks into a model home, the on-site sales representative asks the customer to fill out a document indicating the desired type of house and price range. At the end of the day, the sales representative enters the day's information as leads into Microsoft CRM, which has been customized with an "opportunity" entry screen. Overnight, the data captured by Microsoft CRM is pushed into a back-end database. The data is used to configure homes for the prospects. As a prospect goes through the buying process, specifics about the buyer are fed back into Microsoft CRM, creating a detail record of all required information for that buyer.

Summing Up Inetium's Success

"Our strength is the breadth that we bring to the table," Toenies sums up. "We have the ability to look at a Microsoft CRM implementation not as a piece of technology but as a process, and address that process with the customer." Speaking to the customer, Toenies says, "Not only do we want to install Microsoft CRM but, to be successful inside your organization, we also need it to integrate with your touch points."

Judging by Inetium's record to date, the company has been successful with this strategy. The positioning of Microsoft CRM in Inetium's suite of services, along with the resources brought to bear on selling Microsoft CRM, have yielded great results.

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 that 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:

dynamics

-----------------------

| |Software and Services

■ Microsoft Dynamics

− Microsoft CRM | | |

© 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics, )*34J]+ @ é ê |1

<



?

7

8

[

\

]

a

Ä

Ú

[?]

ø[pic][?] |

ÜÝ¢­/:Windows, Windows Server, and Windows Server System are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Document published March 2004 | | |

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:

For more information about Inetium products and services, call or visit the Web site at:

"There's a lot of energy behind this from the Microsoft perspective, and what you're seeing now is just the beginning."

Ryan Toenies, CRM Director, Inetium

| |

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download