Capital cargo carriers considered CRM SalesLogix expensive and changed for Compass

The Capital Cargo Agency company transferred to trial operation a new CRM system on the Compass platform. After several years of operation the transport company refused old SalesLogix because of the high cost of ownership.

The Capital Cargo Agency (CCA) Ltd company performs replacement of the CRM systemof SalesLogix by a domestic CRM system "the Compass: Marketing and Management".

As the expert of the integrator performing the project told TAdviser, to Kompas company,Igor Jacobson, prior to implementation the transport company used SalesLogix CRM system for nine years (since 2001). For this period clients had no claims to functionality of a system, however, total cost of ownership turned out software (TSO) eventually too laid on for them.

"Any CRM system should reflect adequately flowing business processes of the enterprise, and conducting highly competitive business requires their continuous improvement. As a result all the time is required to enter new settings to the CRM system and even new features. Unfortunately, at SalesLogix operation it most often cannot be made without involvement of expensive third-party consultants", - Igor Jacobson told. According to the representative of integrator, at SalesLogix the procedure of completion was labor-consuming and costly.

It is remarkable that the decision on change of the software product was made by "Capital cargo agency" at the beginning of 2009, i.e. right after an active phase of an economic crisis when for most the companies sharply there were issues of cost reduction, and not least on IT.

At the same time the decision for benefit of implementation of CRM from Compass was made on set of the reasons. On the one hand, since 2002 "The capital cargo agency" uses the ERP system Compass therefore transfer of the company on the uniform IT platform was represented by quite logical step in terms of integrity of infrastructure.

Besides, CRM system "KOMAS: Marketing and management" has the instrument of the visual setup "Masters of the COMPASS" which simplifies additional tuning of a system in use. This process becomes available directly to the staff of IT department.

According to Igor Jacobson, in total "The capital cargo agency" will locate the licenses "Compass" in number of about 50 pieces. Direct setup of the solution took month consultants, is going to complete transfer of a new system to commercial operation until the end of the year. Investments into the project do not reveal.

Description of an automation object

Capital Cargo Agency (CCA) Ltd takes the leading positions among transport companies of Moscow. The agency transports different loads on a railway system of Russia, providing to customers delivery practically in any point where there are railroads, including cargo delivery to regions. Cargo delivery is performed not only directly to the railway station, but also by the principle "from a door to a door", thanks to cooperation with the regional railway and automobile transport-forwarding companies. Thus, the most part of works is performed on the basis of agreements of subcontracting. At the same time the agency performs complete calculations with the client, listing the main part of the amount to subcontractor and keeping only forwarding remuneration. This circumstance leaves the mark on the organization of accounting in the company.

Important point in work of the agency is need of operational calculation of cost of cargo transportation between the most different localities taking into account the most various conditions. One more peculiar feature of functioning of the company at the time of the beginning of the project was existence of an extensive network of branches which part had low-quality telephone lines at the order.

Software Selection

The choice of the software for control automation by the enterprise was performed by IT department of SGA in 2001. What as a fixed asset of automation was decided to stop on the ERP system "COMPASS", is explained, according to customer representatives, by the maximum compliance of software to the main selection criteria:

• existence of means of operational setup under different tasks (software "COMPASS" allows to perform it using the MASTERS tool);
• existence of the broad spectrum of modules allowing to automate all key processes of the enterprise on the basis of a single platform;
• the flexibility and openness of a system giving the chance to integrate into it highly specialized modules, in particular by calculation of railway tariffs.

General Description of the Project

The first stage of the project was implemented by consultants of the Moscow branch of KOMPAS company - KOMPAS-TSENTR LLC during the first half of the year 2002 of Software its termination completely automated such business processes as:

• complete document flow;
• accounting;
• tax accounting,
• payroll;
• unloading of data in PF and FTS in electronic form;
• registration of personnel with control of the staff list;
• personnel office-work;
• accounting of fixed assets.

During 2003 by employees "the COMPASS – the CENTER" was performed the second stage of the project during which procedures of communication with the system of calculation of railway tariffs Trunk are created, interaction with branches of the company is organized, specific procedures of recording of actions of users are developed. Afterwards the functionality of a system was increased by specialists of IT department of the agency.

In 2010 in addition to already implemented functionality replacement of SalesLogix CRM system operated in parallel with "COMPASS" (the world market leader of CRM for small and medium business) on the CRM system "the COMPASS is performed: Marketing and management". Basic reasons of replacement: difficulties of integration of SalesLogix and "COMPASS" and also much lower total cost of ownership (TCO) "COMPASS" in comparison with SalesLogix that in many respects is explained by existence of the instrument of the visual setup "Masters of the COMPASS" allowing IT department of the Agency to perform maintenances of software by own efforts, but not to attract as it was in case of SalesLogix, expensive western consultants.

From a response of the Deputy CEO of Capital Cargo Agency Ltd for business concerns V.Ya. Pchelintsev: Having stopped the choice on a corporate information system "COMPASS", we purchased the modern software and the reliable responsible partner ready to come to the rescue instantly in difficult situations. High qualification, working capacity and the personal liability of specialists of COMPASS-the CENTER branch validate our choice.

Some Specific Features of the Project

• The main part of employees of SGA is inherently account managers and service providers. They are engaged, mostly, in "paper" activity. Therefore for 75% of the automated jobs in the agency the module "Document flow" is installed.
• Activity of the Customer assumes existence of a broad spectrum of the specific managerial documents which are not provided in standard delivery of the ERP system "COMPASS". Therefore using the visual tool "MASTERS of the COMPASS" about ten new screen and tabular document forms were developed, specialized registers for their storage are organized.
• The intermediary nature of forwarding activity demanded development of non-standard procedures of automatic selection of forwarding remuneration from the total amount of payment of the Customer and setting of the selected amounts on accounting of the Sales ledger and the Magazine of Economic transactions what it was necessary to develop difficult standard economic operations on payment and shipment of the transported goods for.
• In implementation process of the second stage of the project communication with the system of calculation of railway tariffs Trunk using which calculation results automatically get into the invoice prepared for the client in the COMPASS system was developed.
• ERP system "COMPASS" is set in the branches of the company using for communication modem connection on low-quality telephone lines. Therefore it was impossible to organize work in the single database even on a basis the terminal server - in each branch the DB is used. With respect thereto specific procedures of unloading and import of documents were developed. For example, a part of fields of the document is filled at the central office then the pack of documents is unloaded from base and using e-mail is transferred to the branch located directly at the railway station. There employees make sending of a load according to the data specified in the received documents and fill other fields of the same documents. Then unloading and the return sending in the central office where documents are synchronized with data in the main DB using specially developed procedure is again made.
• Specific procedures of recording of all actions of users for work with documents are developed. The history of all changes is traced.
• Forces of staff of IT department of SGA using the MASTERS of the COMPASS tool develop functionality of budgeting on the basis of the rules adopted in the agency.
• Forces of staff of IT department of SGA using "The master of reports" develop a significant amount of the non-standard managerial reports considering specifics of activity of the enterprise.
• In process of the project replacement of the CRM system of SalesLogix (the world market leader of CRM for small and medium business) on the CRM system "the COMPASS is performed: Marketing and management". As implementation of the individual version a number of the interface features of SalesLogix which are fallen in love to the staff of SGA for years of operation of this system is transferred to "COMPASS".