Kester

Kester needed a solution that would replace the spreadsheets and emails they had been using to manage their information. Without a single source for storing and sharing data, it was difficult for Kester to keep track of their sales pipeline, support cases, and customer information. As a global organization with facilities around the world, it was important for the team to be able to coordinate their efforts effectively. “We really wanted to be able to work better together globally as a company so that we could be more effective in selling and supporting our customers globally,” says Terrilynn Short, Business Unit Manager at Kester.

Kester wanted a solution that would also integrate well with their existing Microsoft technology and systems and after researching their options, the organization chose Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Overall, Kester needed a solution that would:

• Centralize islands of information that were scattered in different systems
• Provide a single source of data for the entire organization to access and share globally
• Provide a clear view of the sales pipeline to allow for easy forecasting and tracking of the sales processes
• Support their quality process and allow them to track support inquiries
• Easily integrate with their existing Microsoft technology and tools

Kester selected HCLTech as the partner to help them implement a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online solution. “HCLTech came highly recommended from Microsoft and we were drawn to the fact that HCLTech has won the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner of the Year award several times. We also really appreciated their approach and experience,” says Short.

With HCLTech’s help, the organization decided to implement a CRM Online solution over an On Premises option so their small IT team could rely on automatic updates to their system and software. The solution is deployed and utilized at all of Kester’s global facilities and has seen steady user adoption across locations. Kester uses Microsoft Dynamics CRM for managing their sales process and for providing service and support.

“Our experience working with HCLTech has been really great – they were able to fill in the gaps so we could achieve the solution we wanted. We also appreciated the support they provided in terms of keeping us up to date on our project status and helping us stay on budget. We didn’t know much about CRM and they did a wonderful job of helping familiarize us with the solution and its capabilities,” Short says.

With Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Kester now has a holistic view of their sales pipeline making it much easier for their team to coordinate sales efforts. The organization is able to keep track of their contacts, leads, accounts, and use the system for tracking the sales process from opportunity to close.

“Before Dynamics CRM, we didn’t have a clear view of our sales pipeline in terms of how many opportunities we had open, what customers we had, what products they used, or the time to close. This made it difficult to forecast and plan the business, and made it difficult to prioritize our sales efforts. Now we are able to push things to close and provide the right support to get the job done,” says Short.

Kester also uses Dynamics CRM as a connections tool to help track the distributors they partner with. The system helps connect end customers and distributors to a specific opportunity or customer complaint. Dynamics CRM provides Kester with a centralized location for their data so it is no longer scattered across different systems. Information is shared globally across the organization easily and can be updated in real time. “Before we had Dynamics CRM, there were many information islands of data on customer projects, support cases, and other information. We didn’t have a good system in place in order to share information and leverage it. Everything was in different places and with different people, so if someone left Kester none of the information they had would be maintained,” Short adds.

Kester now uses Dynamics CRM to support their quality process. Users are able create a case entity to enter an initial customer complaint or question. The Kester quality team views those cases, determines next steps, and use Dynamics CRM to follow the complaint to resolution. “Dynamics CRM has really streamlined our quality process. We have much better visibility into how many support items are open and what the time frame is,” Short says.

By using Dynamics CRM, it was easy for Kester to integrate their existing Microsoft tools and migrate their Microsoft Outlook data into CRM. “HCLTech did a great job helping us with dry runs for our data migration and creating templates for us to follow, to ensure we would import our data successfully,” adds Short.

With the help of HCLTech, the team at Kester has a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online solution configured to meet their business needs. Kester now has a single, integrated solution to help them manage their customer and projects data, sales process, and quality process. The organization can work together more effectively across their global facilities and provide proactive customer service.

“HCLTech really helped us think through the process so our solution would be both effective but wouldn’t drive cost and hours. They did a lot of configuration for our system and ensured that we had a tool that was easy to use,” says Short.