Compact Business Systems syncs with its sales team after ACT! upgrade

The company has cuts costs, boosted productivity and enhanced sales opportunities as a result of integrating its databases and improving data synchronisation thanks to ACT! by Sage...

Compact Business Systems was established in 1975 in Brisbane as a small business supplying printed material to help businesses with their record keeping and security procedures. Initially employing three people, they have since grown to become a national enterprise employing over fifty staff.

Compact provide forms and system designs that have supported a diverse range of industries including education, health, and aged care.

There is a strong focus on maintaining exceptional customer relationships, as a very large part of their business is repeat business from their existing customer base. Chris Rudland, director of Compact Business Systems, says, “At present we have around 5,000 clients. We are constantly devising new products to sell into our existing customer base as well as to new prospects.”

There is a team of 11 sales consultants around the country who are constantly on the road meeting clients and prospects. It is their job to manage the various accounts and customer relationships, ensuring the clients requirements and needs are met as well as ensuring that sales targets are reached.

This team is assisted by Teresa McCoombes, customer service manager for Compact Business Systems. McCoombes comments, “We currently have a sales team of 11 people who all use ACT! by Sage to manage their diaries and sales appointments. They maintain all their contacts and relevant information about clients in ACT! via a laptop.”

Compact uses ACT! to manage all of its sales and marketing activities.

“We have a telemarketing room that employs half a dozen people. This telemarketing team makes all of the initial contacts with new clients. Based in the central head office in Brisbane, this team is constantly calling people and businesses from lists loaded into the ACT! by Sage system. Once they’ve made that first appointment with someone to see a sales consultant, all the information about the contact and the appointment is entered into ACT! The consultants then use that information to diarise their appointments and to manage the client from then on.”

The field consultants also enter information regarding the probability of closing on an opportunity, which is used to manage the sales pipeline and sales forecasting.

Often the customer service manager may set secondary appointments for the consultants to sell additional products. McCoombes manages and reviews all the appointments being made for and by the sales consultants, ensuring they are not spending too much time travelling to remote or inconvenient locations.

Mobilising the sales team
Before upgrading to the latest version of ACT! by Sage, Compact maintained two separate databases, one in Brisbane and one in Melbourne. This made it difficult to have a complete view of what the consultants were doing with their appointments and opportunities.

The consultants found it difficult to synchronise the information on their laptops with the database at head office, resulting in out-of-date information, meetings that were often missed, and synchronisation efforts after normal working hours.

Compact have now mobilised their national sales force with laptops, ACT! and mobile data cards that allow them to sync automatically back to head office.

All appointments are set for the consultants by head office in Brisbane and that information syncs out to the consultants. This allows them to spend more time in front of customers. It also gives management the benefit of being able to manage their consultants from one central location. By mobilising their consultants they have been able to close their Melbourne office.

Why ACT! By Sage?
Compact turned to the services of Evolution Marketing to upgrade their ACT! by Sage solution.

The first hurdle to overcome was the integration of the two databases.

The database in Melbourne was on version 9.0 of ACT! while the database in Brisbane was on version 6.0. Evolution Marketing was required to upgrade the head office in Brisbane to integrate the data from the Melbourne database.

Why Evolution Marketing?
McCoornbes comments, “Evolution Marketing are an absolute delight to work with. They didn’t baffle us with technical jargon. They explain everything in plain language and are always available to assist and answer our questions.”

Rudland confirms, “Not only do they understand the technology, they have a great understanding of everything from a business and sales perspective. Their experience in sales and marketing as been crucial in helping us achieve our goals.”

With the single database, McCoombes can now manage and review the diaries and activities of all the sales consultants, ensuring opportunities are managed property.

“Now we can see which products are moving quickly and which ones aren’t, and why.” Another major part of the upgrade involved the range of customisations needed to ensure ACT! met the unique requirements of Compact. There were numerous products and product categories that needed to be incorporated into the opportunity management area of ACT!

The Benefits
Compact relies significantly on the repeat business of existing customers, which requires a significant understanding of what products in what product categories they currently have and which ones they are likely to purchase.

Prior to the upgrade, this intellectual property resided with the consultant who had the relationship with the client. As well as being inconsistent and inaccessible to the rest of the organisation, they would lose it when consultants moved on.

McCoombes and other managers can now access information that can help them in developing targeted campaigns and increasing the value of their existing customer relationships.

With the upgrade, synchronisation now happens automatically every hour, which means the information they have access to is always up-to-date and they don’t miss appointments. When Compact’s field consultants go out to the meeting, they have the samples they need as well as a standard letter and quote to complete, which is all managed through ACT!

Working with Evolution Marketing on the upgrade project has allowed Compact to collect vital information about their customers and use that information to truly add value to the business.

For more information

Evolution Marketing Services
Ph 07 3423 3551

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