Applico and Intellicore's success stories in CRM
Applico, in conjunction with our partners at Intellicore, were recently selected by Harrogate Borough Council to provide a Service Desk Solution for internal council use including a self-service web portal.
We have also provided a proof-of-concept CRM model for the provision of public-facing services.
Applico is helping HBC meet the challenges of public service cost-cutting whilst improving service delivery.
Recovery/Upgrade projects
In November/December 2011 we are embarking on "CRM recovery/upgrade" projects for three companies in the Oil and Gas sector in Aberdeen. This type of work is core to our mission statement:
"To enable businesses to realise their return on investment in business systems".
CRM and CRM Online
Comment by Applico's managing director, Bill Brotherstone:
"Dynamics CRM is an incredibly versatile product and together with our partners, Intellicore Ltd, we are realising a number of opportunities, particularly around it's Service Management functionality. However, since 2010, Microsoft's focus had been to push the CRM Online product, steering portential customers to buy direct and not through a Microsoft Partner who has the skill set to enable a successful implementation project. A number of our clients also have 'on-premise' solutions which they have obtained outwith the Partner channel, perhaps because they are Partners themselves.
The 'plus side' to this approach has been to increase the rate of penetration of the Dynamics product offering in the CRM market. However, we believe it also creates problems which could potentially damage the reputation of a great product. The quality of the "CRM experience" is bound to suffer.
We find that self-taught adopters are often running into difficulties, missing opportunities to utilise the product's capabilities and features, and often don't feel the product is returning the benefits they expected. Whilst this may provide an opportunity for Partners like ourselves, we don't think that enough is done to encourage these customers to reach out for help from us in the first place. It is also a great deal more challenging to turn-around an ailing implementation, than it is to lead and guide a new customer through a successful project from the outset! As an influential MD once said to me, 'If you start on the back foot its very hard to get off it!'
Applico and Intellicore have together invested over £10K this year in CRM 2011 training alone. Partners with expertise in CRM implementation will also encourage the use of a formal implementation methodology, usually SureStep from Microsoft, though we also use Prince2. This helps us guarantee a successful project!
At Applico, we are passionate about Dynamics CRM and we strive to be a part of the product's success. We encourage customers to locate and engage with a Partner who has the required qualifications in CRM"
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