Lombard Risk – Microsoft Dynamics CRM Upgrade
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Business needs
Lombard Risk provides collateral management and regulatory compliance solutions for financial services organisations around the world. But although the business had an on-premise instance of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 in place, by mid-2015 it was clear to global sales operations director Nigel Rohan that there were a number of weaknesses in the way that this supported the firm’s marketing and sales processes.
“We needed to be better at capturing contacts, storing marketing data centrally, and then actively using that information to drive marketing campaigns and manage our sales pipeline,” he sums up. “Instead, we were mainly using CRM within the sales function—with our marketing usage of it being limited, and our legal and commercial people making almost no use of it. The more we looked at the situation, the more we realised that we needed something better.”
Challenge
The initial strategy, he explains, had been to use Microsoft’s Business Intelligence functionality to provide the required reporting and dashboard functionality, and then try to drive higher CRM adoption rates through organisational means.
Unwilling to rely solely on the Microsoft solution partner that had implemented the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 solution, Lombard reached out to eBECS on the recommendation of the business’s IT director, who had prior experience of working with the award-winning firm.
A meeting with eBECS in March 2016 proved an eye-opener, recalls Rohan. While happy to talk about a Microsoft Business Intelligence solution, the eBECS team took time out to examine how the existing Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 system had been configured, and offered advice on how to bring it closer to what were clearly Lombard’s real underlying requirements.
Intriguingly, though, says Rohan, the eBECS consultant in question pointed out how most of those real underlying requirements would be better met by Microsoft’s latest CRM solution, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016.
Why eBECS?
It’s fair to say, stresses Rohan, that eBECS had surprised Lombard with its knowledge of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 and how to leverage its capabilities. Very quickly, Lombard had found itself with a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 system that was significantly closer to what it needed.
But equally clearly, he adds, eBECS was just as knowledgeable in respect of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016, and a persuasive case could be made for a migration to the newer version, incorporating the same improvements that had been made to the 2013 system.
“eBECS was very, very client-focused, and was giving us a lot of advice about how to do things better,” sums up Rohan. “We could see a way forward to a CRM solution that finally really would give us the benefits we were looking for.”
Solution
Another surprise was to come, though. Longer term, explains Rohan, Lombard had been open about an eventual move to the Cloud, and had already made a decision to move the business to Microsoft Office 365.
That said, the original vision had been to move to yet another on-premise instance of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016. But the eBECS team held out the tantalising prospect of a move directly to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online—a move that would not only create migration efficiencies, but which would also offer new functionality.
“We were delivering a lot of valued information to the senior executive team, and receiving requests to be able to view it on mobile devices such as iPads,” explains Rohan. “With an on-premise instance of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016, we would face the same challenges in terms of going through the on-premise firewalls—but with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, those challenges went away.”
Moreover, he adds, with the goal of driving uptake of the system, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online also made sense in terms of maximising user adoption. Accordingly, the decision was made, and implementation began in July 2016.
Benefits
Just two months later, in early September 2016, Lombard went live with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, prompting Rohan to pay tribute to eBECS’ “professional and world class project management.”
As eBECS had promised, the required functionality delivered on Lombard’s requirements far more than the earlier Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 system, and the Cloud migration had helped drive higher user adoption levels.
“Our legal and commercial people are using the system as a repository for contracts, marketing are using it far more than before, and our senior executive team very much value the greater access to information,” reports Rohan.
And the new system is delivering real business benefits, he stresses.
“Our forecasts are more accurate, we can undertake more marketing campaigns, and we can better measure the impact of those marketing campaigns: it really is making a difference—and while we know that there’s a long way to go, we’re making incredible progress.”
At root, he concludes, the migration to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online has been more than just a system implementation.
“We have benefited from world class project management, coupled to thought leadership and the sharing of best practice. We didn’t have an extensive budget, and eBECS has helped us to extract a significant amount of genuine value from that budget.”
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