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WiredContact Goes Down Under as a Global CRM Solution for Rabobank Group
The customer relationship is paramount at Rabobank Group, a Sydney-based financial institution servicing food and agribusiness companies throughout Australia and New Zealand. Rabobank Group was created in 1994, when the 100-year-old, Dutch-owned Rabobank purchased Primary Industry Bank of Australia Limited (PIBA). Today, with over nine million business and private customers, the rapidly growing Rabobank has 223 offices that employ 6,500 people in 34 countries.
As it goes with mergers and acquisitions, a transitional period followed the purchase, in which PIBA’s legacy systems were absorbed by the parent bank.
As it goes with mergers and acquisitions, a transitional period followed the purchase, in which PIBA’s legacy systems were absorbed by the parent bank.
At that time, customer and prospect information for the newly formed Rabobank Group, while a vital part of the business, was not centrally organized and managed on any of these systems.
Instead, this valuable data resided with localized account managers and financers, who compiled it into spreadsheets, Outlook files and mail merges, and then sent it to headquarters or to one of Rabobank Group's regional offices scattered throughout Australia and New Zealand. Additionally, ACT! was employed internally by some as a contact management tool, but its use wasn’t standardized, and its capabilities weren’t fully used.
Says Bill Stephinson, a senior business analyst with the financial institution, “Our business is run with a strong customer orientation. We focus on the relationships built and maintained by our account mangers. And we rely heavily on a rather extensive corporate database that has complete histories of our customers and prospects, as well as data on the global commodities market.”
Rabobank Group realized it needed a centralized solution, one that would support a growing number of users working from offices spread across a rather large geographic expanse. Australia is comparable in size to the 48 contiguous United States, and New Zealand comprises a group of islands in the Pacific. All of the users based in these remote locations needed the ability to access and manage updated information in a centralized repository, in real-time.
The search was on. Rabobank Group investigated the feasibility of a number of CRM offerings with several key purchase considerations in mind. The solution had to be easy to use, simple to implement, and customizable to its unique business requirements. Cost was also a factor in the decision-making process.
WiredContact connects
After looking at the products available in the marketplace, Rabobank Group found one that met its requirements - WiredContact. The financial institution purchased 130 licenses from ACT! Today, a Sydney-based software and consulting firm and ACT! Certified Consultant (ACC).
As an advanced Web-delivered solution for ACT!, WiredContact lets users access, share and update information, instantly and on-line, for managing customer and prospect data across the enterprise. And with its affordable, one-time, per-user license fee, the CRM-like tool also addressed Rabobank Group’s cost considerations.
Supported by the ACC, Rabobank Group was able to customize several of WiredContact’s screens to accommodate its unique requirements.
Centralizing corporate intelligence
The solution was then installed on two servers in Sydney’s corporate headquarters. One manages a database holding 7,800 records of detailed contact information about customers, prospects and referrals. Included is data about sizes of sheep herds, crop yields, farm acreage, financed equipment and the like. The database also houses up-to-date information on agricultural commodities, such as sugar cane or wool, and the marketplace.
With WiredContact in place, the bank has integrated all its customer and prospect contact information, eliminating the disconnects. Now, all of its 85 in-the-field account managers and financiers, whether they’re located in Adelaide, New Zealand or Auckland, Australia, use any Web browser to connect with a central repository to access, retrieve and enter information. This data is automatically synchronized throughout the system, so that it’s as current as the most recent update.
Just as important, the account managers and financiers are using this intelligence to make more informed and responsive decisions with customers and prospects, and delivering value-adds that solidify these relationships
“We have a strong research department with an extensive corporate database to provide clients with agricultural commodities and financial information. It’s an important offering for them. And WiredContact helps us keep that information updated and available,” notes Stephinson.
Increasing security for financial data
The second WiredContact server runs a corporate financial database. Used by about 25 employees, this repository contains critical business-banking and merger and acquisition information.
“This is a closed-door area of the bank,” says Stephinson, “so WiredContact’s security features have proved invaluable. We can allow access on a need-to-know basis.”
Through WiredContact’s easy-to-use, intuitive interface, Rabobank Group’s system administrator easily defines multiple tiers of security, by management level, to restrict database access as needed. It can control, down to a single field, what can be viewed, updated or edited. Given Rabobank’s phenomenal growth track record, safeguarding this high-stakes information with controlled access has been an important benefit.
As an added bonus, Rabobank has also found that the WiredContact solution integrates tightly with its marketing and communications efforts. They are using it to customize direct mail campaigns to prospects, segregating by fields such as commodity group, interest levels and other specialized characteristics.
“WiredContact has delivered on its promises,” summarizes Stephinson. “It’s a powerful tool that’s become an integral part of our strategy for building and maintaining customer relationships.”
Instead, this valuable data resided with localized account managers and financers, who compiled it into spreadsheets, Outlook files and mail merges, and then sent it to headquarters or to one of Rabobank Group's regional offices scattered throughout Australia and New Zealand. Additionally, ACT! was employed internally by some as a contact management tool, but its use wasn’t standardized, and its capabilities weren’t fully used.
Says Bill Stephinson, a senior business analyst with the financial institution, “Our business is run with a strong customer orientation. We focus on the relationships built and maintained by our account mangers. And we rely heavily on a rather extensive corporate database that has complete histories of our customers and prospects, as well as data on the global commodities market.”
Rabobank Group realized it needed a centralized solution, one that would support a growing number of users working from offices spread across a rather large geographic expanse. Australia is comparable in size to the 48 contiguous United States, and New Zealand comprises a group of islands in the Pacific. All of the users based in these remote locations needed the ability to access and manage updated information in a centralized repository, in real-time.
The search was on. Rabobank Group investigated the feasibility of a number of CRM offerings with several key purchase considerations in mind. The solution had to be easy to use, simple to implement, and customizable to its unique business requirements. Cost was also a factor in the decision-making process.
WiredContact connects
After looking at the products available in the marketplace, Rabobank Group found one that met its requirements - WiredContact. The financial institution purchased 130 licenses from ACT! Today, a Sydney-based software and consulting firm and ACT! Certified Consultant (ACC).
As an advanced Web-delivered solution for ACT!, WiredContact lets users access, share and update information, instantly and on-line, for managing customer and prospect data across the enterprise. And with its affordable, one-time, per-user license fee, the CRM-like tool also addressed Rabobank Group’s cost considerations.
Supported by the ACC, Rabobank Group was able to customize several of WiredContact’s screens to accommodate its unique requirements.
Centralizing corporate intelligence
The solution was then installed on two servers in Sydney’s corporate headquarters. One manages a database holding 7,800 records of detailed contact information about customers, prospects and referrals. Included is data about sizes of sheep herds, crop yields, farm acreage, financed equipment and the like. The database also houses up-to-date information on agricultural commodities, such as sugar cane or wool, and the marketplace.
With WiredContact in place, the bank has integrated all its customer and prospect contact information, eliminating the disconnects. Now, all of its 85 in-the-field account managers and financiers, whether they’re located in Adelaide, New Zealand or Auckland, Australia, use any Web browser to connect with a central repository to access, retrieve and enter information. This data is automatically synchronized throughout the system, so that it’s as current as the most recent update.
Just as important, the account managers and financiers are using this intelligence to make more informed and responsive decisions with customers and prospects, and delivering value-adds that solidify these relationships
“We have a strong research department with an extensive corporate database to provide clients with agricultural commodities and financial information. It’s an important offering for them. And WiredContact helps us keep that information updated and available,” notes Stephinson.
Increasing security for financial data
The second WiredContact server runs a corporate financial database. Used by about 25 employees, this repository contains critical business-banking and merger and acquisition information.
“This is a closed-door area of the bank,” says Stephinson, “so WiredContact’s security features have proved invaluable. We can allow access on a need-to-know basis.”
Through WiredContact’s easy-to-use, intuitive interface, Rabobank Group’s system administrator easily defines multiple tiers of security, by management level, to restrict database access as needed. It can control, down to a single field, what can be viewed, updated or edited. Given Rabobank’s phenomenal growth track record, safeguarding this high-stakes information with controlled access has been an important benefit.
As an added bonus, Rabobank has also found that the WiredContact solution integrates tightly with its marketing and communications efforts. They are using it to customize direct mail campaigns to prospects, segregating by fields such as commodity group, interest levels and other specialized characteristics.
“WiredContact has delivered on its promises,” summarizes Stephinson. “It’s a powerful tool that’s become an integral part of our strategy for building and maintaining customer relationships.”
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