Better known for its on premise desktop CRM software, Commence Corporation has been providing contact management, sales force automation and marketing campaign management solutions to small and mid-size companies for more than two decades.  The company introduced a web-based hosted version of their popular CRM software and is gaining notoriety.   With an outstanding track record for performance, reliability and world-class customer service Commence is a strong competitor and becoming a favorite among smaller businesses looking for a flexible hosted CRM solution with productivity tools that are easy to use.

“Commence web CRM has an impressive and unique user interface that makes the product very easy to use and navigate” says Gary Sanders of OK! Magazine.  “The product’s Home Page or Dashboard is completely customizable by individual or job function.  This allows each user to create a dashboard to the way they work.  The value here is that you can place the functions you use most right on the home page, such as today’s calendar and activities, e-mail, sales opportunities, leads, reminders and even an interactive sales funnel.  We hadn’t seen this in any other CRM solution.  This flexibility enables people to conduct 90% of their daily activities without ever leaving the Home Page and has really improved productivity.” 

Commence Home Page

Karen Deneau, Director of Marketing with Center for Film Studies, needed CRM software that her staff would feel comfortable with.   “When selecting a CRM solution, you worry about utilization, but we were confident that our staff would adapt well to Commence CRM and they have.   We also liked that Commence is modular in design, which allowed us to select only the functionality we required. We weren’t forced to purchase a package with a dozen features we would never use.  Commence’s strength clearly lies in its ease of use.  Within two weeks we had marketing campaigns out the door and leads captured from our web site were integrated directly into the Commence CRM system.  The staff at Commence was also extremely helpful in ensuring that we quickly realized value from their solution.”

Key Differentiators

Commence’s modular design provides the flexibility to start with basic CRM functionality such as Account and Contact Management, E-Mail integration and Sales Pipeline Management, then add additional features such as Quoting, Marketing Campaign Management and Project Management when you’re ready.  Integration to disparate systems can be achieved via an Application Programming Interface or API, and Commence CRM supports the majority of popular Mobile devices.

Another key differentiator of Commence CRM is the product’s lead qualification and sales reporting capability. The leads module includes an automated business process that scores leads based on pre-defined criteria, then color codes them based on how well defined they are.  This capability is unique to Commence CRM, and ensures that your sales team is working on the most qualified opportunities and not chasing tire kickers. 

Lead Scoring Screen

Reporting

The reporting engine offers three levels of data analysis.  A set of pre-defined reports for sales management, marketing and customer support can be viewed with a single click and modified just as easily.  A built in report writer allows you to create customer reports against any field in the database, including custom fields.  Lastly, Commence CRM includes a pre-built set of graphical and analytical reports for all sales activity, marketing, lead generation and customer support.

Reports

Commence offers the freedom of choice to deploy CRM software on premise or as a hosted web based solution and offers a level of functionality traditionally only provided by enterprise level solutions. Commence products are distributed around the world in more than 22 countries and 35 different industries.  The company’s track record for providing high quality reliable products and outstanding customer service make it a solid choice for growing businesses.

About the Author:  Jim Smith is the founder and managing partner of YCHANGE INTERNATIONAL,  a management consultancy specializing in helping small to mid-size businesses expand or execute a turnaround strategy.  Jim is a commissioner for the Housing Authority of Portland, Oregon and serves as a member of the newly formed economic cabinet of Portland. Jim is a motivational speaker and trainer and lectures on Customer Relationship Management in the areas of sales, marketing, business and leadership.  He is an avid blogger on www.ychange.com/ychangeblog.

For many people, buying a home is one of the more stressful life events. From packing up belongings and getting financing, to working with real estate agents, property inspectors and title officers; the process can be daunting. For real estate professionals, keeping everything running smoothly means managing every aspect of contract to closing.

To improve the customer experience and provide the highest quality escrow and title services, Bellevue, Washington-based The Talon Group supports their business processes with Commence Desktop Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. By choosing Commence’s CRM system, the company has gained a centralized solution for managing data. As a result, The Talon Group is better able to standardize processes, efficiently communicate with customers, improve productivity and support their mission to “build customers for life.”

Founded in 2003, The Talon Group, a division of First American Corporation, works with individual clients in the real estate and lending business and maintains a strong commitment to providing the highest quality escrow and title services in Washington. It offers residential services; commercial services, including commercial title insurance and endorsement coverage, commercial closing and escrow, online transaction management. The company employs nearly 100 people across its nine offices in the Puget Sound area.

Like other title and escrow companies, The Talon Group provides the insurance for the title component and ensures there are no liens, encumbrances or easements on a property. They also act as an ‘honest broker” in the transaction by taking the place of a real estate attorney and getting all parties to sign pertinent documents. They also hold the responsibility to redistribute them appropriately.

“One of our key challenges is getting information spread around the company quickly,” said Cliff Treat, vice president, The Talon Group Escrow and Title Services. “Our workflow is based on events so it is imperative to have robust communication between the administrative staff, real estate agents, loan officers, and home buyers to ensure we are efficient in our processes and responsive to our customers.”

With an eye on efficiency and a desire to fully utilize the Web to interact with customers and field agents, the company incorporated Commence CRM into their business model. Commence Corporation’s “best in class” CRM software   offers a comprehensive suite of applications for business contact management, sales and sales force automation, marketing, campaign management, lead management, project management, customer support and analytics.

One benefit of the system is that it allows The Talon Group to automate and streamline processes such as payoff information. A property may require a payoff on taxes, homeowner dues or waste removal fees. By having the Commence system in place, administrative staff is able to view and manage multiple properties that require payoffs on a single screen.

“When we get a transaction on a property we go to the applicable county or city and ask for the payoff information,” explained Treat. “Through the system we are able to funnel that work to one person. Instead of having an individual call for one payoff and waiting on the phone for 15 minutes for information on one house, they are able to request information for 20 properties. It’s created a streamlined process that helps improve our efficiency.”

By being able to share and access information quickly and efficiently, the company is able to proactively manage their business and ensure they deliver high quality  service to their customers. A copy of the database is available on all employee desktops and if someone makes a change, everyone in the company is able to see.   Commence enables them to get the most up-to-date information immediately.

Another benefit of the solution is automatic alerts that improve event management. For example, when an assistant enters the date she receives a property title, an email is sent to the appropriate agent alerting them to the title availability. Instead of requiring the assistant to manually manage the process, actions are automated through the system ensuring optimal workflow. The system also “flags” potential issues which enables management to proactively address them.

Company sales professionals rely on the system for campaign management and customer communications. Through the Web site, they can send fliers for new listings and see role-based applicable activity. Home buyers are able to view pertinent information via a dashboard on the Web site. Every agent and loan officer also receives an automated summary on transaction activity for accounts they maintain. This is delivered daily to their inbox rather than requiring them to visit the Web site for updated activity.

“The HTML email with summary information is helpful because they don’t have to chase information,” said Treat. “During this last refinancing boom it was hard to get in touch with anyone due to the accelerated level of activity. Using the Commence system, agents and loan officers receive the most current information, which enables them to efficiently complete tasks and get their job done.”

The Commence solution also empowers The Talon Group to respond quickly to new opportunities in the market. Like other businesses, they are using social media such as Facebook and Twitter to communicate company news and interact with customers. Sales success is fueled by conversation and the Commence system makes it possible for sales professionals to efficiently use new media to disseminate information. They are also using the system to populate the company newsletter that is sent directly to clients and customers.

“What Commence enables us to have is have consistency of message,” added Treat. “No matter where you look – whether it’s via our newsletter, on Twitter, or a personal communication from a salesperson – the message is the same. And, because we can automatically make things happen based on events, it enables us to get to a place where we do things the same every time. When we set up an escrow and title for an agent, the communications happen the same way without requiring someone to remember to take a particular action.”

While the solution is designed for small to mid-size businesses, it has been able to support the company’s growth and serves as a centralized repository for nearly one million documents. Title and escrow companies are required to store information for seven years and through the system, The Talon Group is able to save everything from client notes and transaction details to email communications.

“The solution has done well expanding and enables us to produce discovery material when needed during legal situations,” said Treat. “We’ve prevented from paying out a lot of money because we have the entire history of events. It’s helped us because everything is documented.”

Most importantly, the solution has enabled The Talon Group to support their mission of building customers for life. When an agent sells a home, the system automatically creates communication points at the one month, six month and two year anniversary to support additional interaction with customers.

“The Commence solution allows us to support our ‘customer for life’ by enabling us to stay in constant communication with our customers,” said Treat. “In the 14 years I’ve been involved with Commence, it’s proven to be a reliable solution that has given us a fail safe way to manage all our data and be proactive and efficient in managing our customer relations.”

A key challenge for companies with multiple divisions spread across many locations is collaboration, especially when it comes to business-critical information. At Southern Petroleum Laboratories (SPL Inc.), a leader in the petroleum and environmental testing industry, customer information was stored in many disparate databases. As a result, sales and operations professionals were duplicating efforts and lacked insight into customer successes and service issues. To address this, SPL implemented Commence CRM from Tinton Falls, N.J.-based Commence Corporation in the fall of 2005 to improve information management. The company experienced a 114% growth in sales within the first 90 days and has been able to sustain that growth despite a chaotic economy.

Founded in 1944 and headquartered in Houston, Texas, SPL Inc., was one of the first major suppliers to service the petrochemical, refining, pipeline and retail markets with environmental testing services. Over the years, it has expanded its service to all major industry, key government sectors, and their suppliers and consultants and proven itself as a sustained leader in the industry. SPL’s hydrocarbon services, the top supplier in this market sector, include testing of refinery gasses, sulfur compounds, petroleum fingerprinting, and forensic analysis. SPL field services include liquid and gas measurement accounting, fabrications, allocations and consulting services.

The company operates five divisions – environmental lab, hydrocarbon lab and field, fabrication, audits and loss control, and allocation and oil and gas accounting – and in many cases calls on the same customers for different products and services. The sales and operations groups had a CRM application, but it wasn’t a synchronized system so each representative managed their own database. Without a central repository for information there was no consistency or commonality in effort across the company.

“We had people in the same division with different databases of information and it was redundant and sometimes conflicting,” said Randall Ritch, senior product manager/client services focal point, SPL, Inc., Hydrocarbon division. “As a result, we were in the dark about which were our best customers, recent activities or any caveats to a new sales effort.”

Realizing a centralized CRM database would offer efficiency gains and increase sales effectiveness, and having worked with the Commence solution at two prior companies, Ritch implemented it at SPL.

“Because of all the disparate databases, it was a very large undertaking,” he said. “That said, I was confident the solution would help increase sales. Within the first 90 days, just by having good information management, we were able to generate nearly $100,000 gross monthly income in the Hydrocarbon department. That’s because Commence made it possible for everyone, regardless of department, to see what the other has done in terms of recent proposals, customer service issues or sales success.”

Commence Corporation’s “best in class” CRM software offers a comprehensive suite of applications for business contact management, sales and sales force automation, marketing, campaign management, lead management, project management, customer support and analytics. The solution is delivered on demand as a managed service hosted over the Internet.

“We chose a Software-as-a-Service solution based on the reliability and cost,” said Ritch. “If there are upgrades or maintenance to the application, it is handled by Commence and the support we get as a hosted client is endless.”

With the solution in place, SPL is able to use data to drive better decisions as well as leverage their brand as an industry leader to customers. It has also enabled the sales departments to combine efforts and increase efficiencies, eliminate redundant effort, and save money in the process. Among others, one way in which it has improved processes is by ensuring tight collaboration.

“We encountered a situation where our environmental department had an unresolved issue with a client and the hydrocarbon group had a past due invoice for the same account,” said Ritch. “We were able to investigate the history with the client and learn about the issue prior to approaching them for payment. When we saw the documentation that noted the issue was resolved, we were able to approach the client and get the invoice paid. The Commence solution enabled us to work collaboratively and make a responsible decision from a sales, marketing and reputation perspective.”

Along with better customer service, the solution also helps streamline SPL’s proposal process. A key component to success is ensuring proposals are submitted to clients and that timely follow up ensues. Sales cycles vary from as little as one day to as long as 18 months. To further increase efficiencies, SPL has integrated the Commence system with QuoteWerks sales quotation software. Together the two applications have allowed the hydrocarbon division to generate thousands of quotes and close nearly 80 percent of them.

“Commence is the repository for all the contact information and QuoteWerks is the repository for the products and services that we sell,” explained Ritch. “A core competency of Commence is the management of time sensitive information. QuoteWerks enables us to keep track of how many products we’ve sold and our profit margins. It’s a perfect marriage between the two solutions.”

By having this improved process in place, SPL has become more profitable and had its highest sales revenue year at the close of this past fiscal year. Another way the solution is impacting the business is it is serving as impetus to support the company’s brand management strategy.

“Instead of giving the appearance that we are a bunch of little companies, Commence enables us to be consistent in service and demonstrate the cohesiveness of our organization,” said Ritch. “It allows all our offices around the country to have access to the same up-to-date information and we produce a consistent response to every inquiry that comes into the company regardless of what division receives it.

“It’s a very reliable solution that I’ve been using since 1994,” he concluded. “I have never had a corrupt database error and I haven’t had that type of success with any application. We have been able to demonstrate our effectiveness using the solution and generate more sales than we ever did in the previous 17 years without the use of this application.”