Metadata Technologies - Customer Relationship Management Solution Case Study

Property service Company Prepares for Growth with CRM, Data Management Solution
Overview Country/Region: United Arab Emirates Industry: Real Estate Customer Profile Asteco is UAE's leading property services company responsible for a large number of retail, commercial and residential properties in the UAE. The focus of the company is to provide innovative property solutions and quality service to its customers business Situation At present its sales force had been using email and their own departmental databases but the lack of a unified sales solution was causing problems. The company faced the challenges of inconsistent and inaccurate information leading to higher administrative costs and customer dissatisfaction. Solution Asteco went live with a Soffront CRM solution provided by Metadata Technologies. Asteco decided to take two modules from Soffronts CRM portfolioa sales force automation module (SFA) and a ticket-tracking module. Asteco sales force gets automated with Soffront CRM solution.

Company Profile and situation

Asteco is UAE's leading property services company responsible for a large number of retail, commercial and residential properties in the UAE. The focus of the company is to provide innovative property solutions and quality service to its customers with trust, transparency and professionalism as the cornerstones of our business ethics maximizing shareholders value and nurturing their employees. At present while its sales force had been using email and their own departmental databases but the lack of a unified sales solution was causing problems. With large number of proactive sales force, management of sales leads was becoming a headache. Many leads were either going to the wrong sales persons or going to the sales persons mobiles with no proper tracking of leads or managed co-ordination between departments, Asteco management found that as many as 20% of leads were lost. Maintenance of Asteco properties was also a problem, as many calls were not acted upon, and co-ordination with third party contractors for maintenance was not automated. The company being a part of the Bin Sulayem group is also respon sible for Palm Island, the massive new development off the coast of Dubai. In order to manage its growth, Asteco knew that it needed an enterprise solution. That solution would have to capture all needed information on prospective and existing customers, eliminating the need for multiple databases and isolated data repositories

Solution
The IT team evaluated a number of potential customer relationship management (CRM) solutions and implementation partners within UAE. Metadata Corp with more than 10 years of regional expertise, numerous successful cases of implementation and CRM consulting for varied industries in the region, offering high quality CRM services to customers became the choice. The expertise in implementation and speed of implementation are major differentiating factor Asteco went live with a Soffront CRM solution provided by Metadata Technologies Asteco decided to take two modules from Soffronts CRM portfolioa sales force automation module (SFA) and a ticket-tracking module. Asteco sales force gets automated with Soffront CRM solution. The new

With a large, proactive Sales force, management of Sales leads was becoming a headache Ajith Mathew, IT Administrator

solution will deliver much more than cost cutting. Implementing a CRM system providing a 360-degree view of clients and will enable company to provide better coordinated services. Metadata worked with Asteco for the deployment, which took around twenty days. One project manager and a technical consultant handled the work on Metadatas side, and the company also used resources from its Calcuttabased development centre.
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Benefits Why Metadata

Expertise Metadata Corp with more than 10 years of regional expertise, numerous successful cases of implementation and CRM consulting for varied industries is the regional leader for CRM implementation Speedy Implementation Looking at the competitors, like Siebel or SalesLogix, they take a long, long time to deploy, months not days, and they charge a lot for their services. Because they have a long implementation cycle, their charges for implementation can be almost the same as the cost of the product we can do deployment for a third of the product cost. A complete solution provider Metadata focuses on the part that CRM is not just software but a part of strategy supporting decisions. With CRM implementations there is need to bring change in attitude. The sales peoples first reaction is to try and protect them because they feel that they are being watchedyou have to make them understand No need for additional hardware The Soffront system was also able to sit on Astecos existing server, meaning that there was no need for additional hardware, just software and services. As a web-based solution, it is able to serve all of Astecos offices in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Customized solution Alongside the low cost of ownership, Asteco was also keen on the level of customization that was possible with the solution. Only around 20% of the product had to be tailored directly to Astecos requirements, but the system is open enough that the company will be able to handle any modifications itself. Also, the query function of the system, The Soffront solution has a much faster deployment time than many of its competitors in the CRM market, making it a lot more cost effective to roll out Speedy deployment The speed of deployment is one of the main advantages of Soffront. The Soffront solution has a much faster deployment time than many of its competitors in the CRM

market, making it a lot more cost effective to roll out. Shortening the sales cycle The system has certainly made an impact with Astecos sales force. Although the team had to get used to entering their sales data into the system, it has actually cut the time taken for the sales cycle by 50%, by allowing for much greater management and transparency. Effective communication, tracking and recording The ticket tracking system is also proving to be a success. Often in the past requests for maintenance would get lost in the system, and not acted upon. Now the ticketing system ensures that requests are sent to the correct person, and monitored every step of the way, to make sure that the proper action is taken. Where maintenance contracts are held with outside companies, these companies are also given access to the system, so that they can track and record their activities. A link from the CRM to the companys web site allows customers to log maintenance requests 24 hours a day. A service department is being established to provide 24x7 coverage for these requests

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that it is helpful for them enabling them to set up their own queries and so on, without having to call in external support. Metadata worked with Asteco to train the initial batches of users, carrying out five or six training sessions, and there are now twenty sales people and ten managers using the system. For this contract, Metadata handled the training itself. The reason for this training is the need to create a cultural change within the client organization, to get the most from the system. It is the sales force driving the system, it is customized to them.

Consolidated database Another important gain from the system is that all of the different departments residential, commercial, retail and saleshave consolidated their different databases, to provide a single repository of data on the companys 152 properties. This allows Asteco to have greater visibility of its assets. The company is using this data to launch various marketing projects. Automated email and fax marketing campaigns, also part of the Soffront solution, are being used for a variety of different functions, such as automatically contacting customers that lease properties, to ensure that discussions with Astecos sales team begins before the end of the lease, so that they can either renew or find new tenants. While the system is web-based, meaning that the sales team can enter their data through any Internet browser. They are also considering introducing more mobile functionality. By implementing another module of the Soffront system, the sales team will be able to use GPRS-enabled PDAs to access the system while they are on the move.

Metadata Technologies 2013