Dow Jones & Company streamlines a global information company with salesforce.com

Challenge

• Expanding financial information service with a global footprint needed a consolidated CRM system
• The CRM system had to integrate with accounting, billing, and credit card processing systems as well as with proprietary software that was regularly updated
• The company wanted to create a central repository of business information while preserving distinct interfaces for different user groups, including international users
• International business operations required software tools with built-in language capabilities
• Multiple salespeople working with each account needed to coordinate activities
• Manual billing processes were taking several days each month to complete

Solution

• Satisfaction with the performance and functionality of the Sales Cloud at other Dow Jones business units led to a rollout of the solution at a division of Dow Jones in 2004
• Strong customization capabilities meant the Sales Cloud could be quickly modified to match monthly changes in proprietary software, and the interface could be easily redesigned to reflect the priorities of different user groups
• Custom objects connected the Sales Cloud with separate systems for billing, credit card processing, and subscription tracking as well as with a PeopleSoft accounting system
• Custom objects also made it possible for marketing to craft custom offers for the Web site audience
• Products like the VentureWire, LBO Wire, and the Private Equity Analyst were stored in the Sales Cloud’s product catalogue, which is linked to the entitlement and billing systems
• The addition of custom fields for budget and forecasting to product records let managers create new financial reports
• The translation workbench let multilingual employees choose the language they wanted to work in and automatically displayed product prices in local currencies
• A stand-alone German instance of salesforce.com was brought on to the main platform in 2009
• A single administrator supported 115 users

Results

• The Sales Cloud reliably delivers financial services products to clients, streamlining fulfillment processes
• A 360-degree view of each account makes salespeople more effective
• Workflow rules are automating business processes thanks to solid integration with other corporate data systems
• By using features like templates and Force.com pages (formerly called Visualforce) to produce offer letters and contracts, sales reps are saving at least 1 hour of administration work per day
• The Sales Cloud’s product catalogue makes it easy to control which products will be available to the sales team and which will be sold on the Web via self-service
• Managers can pull data directly from the Sales Cloud, rather than requesting permission from IT or accounting, and start a reconciliation process as much as 3 weeks earlier than before
• Thanks to the addition of custom fields, managers have access to budget and forecast information that previously had to be requested from finance, empowering the sales and business departments
• By pulling information from custom objects, managers can create and run circulation reports at the user level rather than just at the order level, providing deeper insights into the business
• Together with Eloqua, an AppExchange partner, the Sales Cloud improved marketing effectiveness