The business objective
Working in the Private Equity, Venture Capital and Project Finance markets, Towerstone has to keep a detailed historical audit of everything it undertakes on behalf of clients. Therefore, being able to maintain accurate data is crucial. This is particularly important given the powers of the financial authorities – such as the FCA – to fine or even close down those firms that don’t have the correct compliance or processes in place. The company now has over 50 staff and is responsible for the data for six clients, so it became increasingly important to put standardised procedures into place.
Prior to the introduction of a CRM system, several of Towerstone’s clients used Excel spreadsheets for all their client records, sales activities and product information. This didn't provide a consolidated view across their company and relied on team members having to update specific records.
“Over reliance upon spreadsheets reached a point where it became a real headache for their company, we didn't have a quick shot, single view of our position. The administration required to update client records was clunky and outmoded. We wanted to create a central repository where all accurate, timely information was available instantly to all those staff that required access to it,”
Towerstone looked at a number of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions to transform its client reporting and transaction processes. These included a bespoke solution, Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
Day-to-day functions such as a 15-page report reduced to a single page have made it far simpler to present. For sales and marketing teams, the new technology is central to everything they do. Indeed, they have become such enthusiastic users that they’re actively pushing for value-added functionality. Examples include the deployment of dashboards to analyse client data better and campaign management tools to support marketing.
