Port Group Case Study
Company Background
Port Group operates a group of network communication businesses, traditionally selling a range of hardware and services B2B, and more recently, B2C also. In 2019 Port Group acquired a new company and developed a business plan to acquire 3 more within the next 6 months. At this point, the group needed to consolidate operating systems and processes from 3 different organisations in order to obtain a single view of Sales activity, common commercial processes, and a robust governance framework with transparent, accessible management information.
With this client, the priority was to understand what was operational at the point of engagement and how they wanted to operate going forward. It was then our role to assist in defining a process that would operate consistently for their sales teams, whilst providing management with the necessary information and results across the entire group of businesses. The process would run from lead generation to opportunity management for product sales, managing inbound and outbound products against purchase orders, and providing full integration into their accounting platform.
The Journey
The solution for the group comprised of many layers, with multiple, complex automated processes intersected across various objects to deliver on the requirements.
These include bespoke Purchase Order, Quote, and Product Creation flows, allowing users across various teams to easily create multiple records based on Opportunity data, bypassing the normally laborious task of manual creation.
In addition to this custom automation work, we integrated this process with Breadwinner (finance software), to bring in their financial system data from QuickBooks Online, to generate a holistic picture of all their business activities.
The Results
The implementation of Salesforce within their operation has resulted in increased efficiency across the group, and for the individual businesses too. Salesforce offers a full view of performance across the group, as well as automating a good portion of work, tailored specifically for the business needs. These automations have significantly reduced the administration work required by their sales team, which in turn has had the positive effect of improving system adoption.
Since implementation, there has been a fundamental shift in the way users perform their day-to-day tasks, moving towards a fully technological, tracked and online methodology.
From a reporting perspective, they are able to see which Opportunities have been quoted, invoiced, and paid, allowing them to chase unpaid invoices at a granular level.
The Future
The future is particularly bright with this client and we look forward to watching them grow. We have successfully built a solid working relationship and regularly assist different members of the group with helping them solve, or consider how the Salesforce solution can further support their growth objectives.