Entellium CRM Scripts Sales Success for ScreenPlay, Inc.; After Outgrowing Excel, Custom A/V Environment Specialist Realizes Rapid User Adoption and Enjoys Better Decision Making.SEATTLE -- Entellium (http://www.entellium.com) today announced that ScreenPlay screenplayWritten text that provides the basis for a film production. Screenplays usually include not only the dialogue spoken by the characters but also a shot-by-shot outline of the film's action. , Inc., the leading designer and producer of customized audiovisual solutions for more than 25,000 business locations across North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. , has experienced new levels of sales effectiveness since deploying Entellium earlier this year. ScreenPlay designs and produces audiovisual environments for the retail, hospitality and business services markets as well as online content providers across North America. As the nation's leading provider of customized audiovisual environments for business, more than 300 million viewers watch ScreenPlay programming every month, both in-store and online. With nearly 75 employees supporting 25,000 retail and business locations, the "small screen" is big business for ScreenPlay. The Problem In May of 2005, the company reached a critical juncture junc·ture n. The point, line, or surface of union of two parts. . With six product groups and eight sales territories, as well as rapidly growing sales and service teams (40 and counting), ScreenPlay had maxed out the limited customer-tracking capabilities of Microsoft Excel (tool) Microsoft Excel - A spreadsheet program from Microsoft, part of their Microsoft Office suite of productivity tools for Microsoft Windows and Macintosh. Excel is probably the most widely used spreadsheet in the world. Latest version: Excel 97, as of 1997-01-14. . "Excel isn't really meant to be a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) An integrated information system that is used to plan, schedule and control the presales and postsales activities in an organization. tool, and we were experiencing the pain of trying to make it do too much," said Mitzi Graham, executive director at ScreenPlay. "The inefficiencies were crippling crip·ple n. 1. A person or animal that is partially disabled or unable to use a limb or limbs: cannot race a horse that is a cripple. 2. A damaged or defective object or device. tr.v. and the lack of data visibility across the company hamstrung ham·string n. 1. Any of the tendons at the rear hollow of the human knee. 2. or hamstrings The hamstring muscle. 3. The large tendon in the back of the hock of a quadruped. tr.v. our ability to make good decisions." Among the issues arising from an inadequate CRM system: --Non-centralized data. Customer information was typically stored in Microsoft Outlook For the e-mail and news client bundled with certain versions of Microsoft Windows, see . Microsoft Outlook or Outlook (full name Microsoft Office Outlook on each salesperson's PC, putting the data at risk should something happen to the individual's computer. --Manual reporting inefficiencies. Graham spent an average of eight hours a week compiling status reports, pipeline forecasts and revenue projections from each sales rep into a single spreadsheet. The complexity of each report reduced the amount of actionable Giving sufficient legal grounds for a lawsuit; giving rise to a Cause of Action. An act, event, or occurrence is said to be actionable when there are legal grounds for basing a lawsuit on it. insight available to management. --"Double calls." Although it didn't happen often, occasionally two sales people would call the same prospect or company offering complementary products and services -- the sales "synergy The enhanced result of two or more people, groups or organizations working together. In other words, one and one equals three! It comes from the Greek "synergia," which means joint work and cooperative action. " was lost in the process. The Selection After diligently dil·i·gent adj. Marked by persevering, painstaking effort. See Synonyms at busy. [Middle English, from Old French, from Latin d reviewing contact management systems like ACT! and Goldmine, as well as full-featured CRM from Entellium and Salesforce.com, Graham chose Entellium. She cited sales workflow and customer-friendly terms as the key reasons for her decision. "ACT! and Goldmine weren't really upgrades from Excel, and Salesforce.com made us pay for a great deal of functionality we didn't really need. Entellium eSalesForce offered multiple sales processes A sales process is a systematic approach for performing product or service sales. The reasons for having a sales process include seller and buyer risk management, achieving standardized customer interaction in sales and scalable revenue generation. , whereby each sales rep could use the ideal process for their role," said Graham. "Entellium's modular pricing and flexible terms were just an added benefit. We were up and running within a week." Entellium eSalesForce, the company's sales force automation Automating the sales activities within an organization. A comprehensive SFA package provides such functions as contact management, note and information sharing, quick proposal and presentation generation, product configurators, calendars and to-do lists. solution, is built from the "bottom-up" to make the daily lives of sales, service and marketing employees easier, with advanced automation features not found in any other hosted CRM solution. The company's recent PRO-Activity Release was based on more than 43,000 hours of usability research, with the result being the most user-centric CRM solution on the market today. In addition, Entellium's CRM suite has a lower total cost of ownership than Salesforce.com's Professional and Enterprise Editions. The Results Entellium helped turn chaos into order and efficiency at ScreenPlay. The product's high usability and reduction of "click fatigue" to get data into the system means end users reliably enter customer data and accurately log activity, while offering broad visibility to the whole company on vital account details. ScreenPlay relies on Entellium for many facets of customer engagement -- even the company's office manager uses Entellium eSalesForce. When a customer calls, she quickly types in the company name into the application, and it shows her the most appropriate ScreenPlay representative, as well as alternates if the primary representative is not available. This ensures maximum customer service -- all while being completely transparent to the caller. ScreenPlay's New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of sales representative has a short sales cycle -- sometimes deals close in an hour. In this scenario, Entellium's application serves as an instant activity tracking and management tool. The end user can quickly judge the return on investment of a particular product and promotion at a moment's glance. In contrast, ScreenPlay's major accounts representative in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. has a sales cycle of 12 to 18 months. This sales professional uses Entellium to manage the entire sales process. Prospects are first identified by a sales assistant sales assistant n (BRIT) → dependiente/a m/f sales assistant (US), sales clerk sale n → vendeur/euse via research, news articles or other documents that could produce opportunities. The sales assistant then enters the contact information for the prospect, and the appropriate follow-up activity for the major account representative. The sales rep then opens his Entellium dashboard (1) See Mac Dashboard. (2) A software-based control panel for one or more applications, network devices or industrial machines. Dashboards display simulated gauges and dials that look somewhat like an automobile dashboard. and is presented with a daily list of to-do's, and can quickly view his pipeline of leads and opportunities. The application keeps him on target with a large volume of accounts (that are all in different stages of the sales cycle), ensuring that he doesn't miss important deadlines or follow-up opportunities. These end-user benefits have a powerful impact for senior managers as well. Because it's easy for representatives to log everyday activity, the reports produced by Entellium are highly accurate. The end result for managers is more actionable insight into sales activity and better decision making by senior management. Simultaneously, Entellium has reduced the number of "double calls" to sales opportunities and increased the amount of "team-selling" between sales reps complementary roles -- these "joint calls" have resulted in a greater close percentage. Finally, Entellium has centralized cen·tral·ize v. cen·tral·ized, cen·tral·iz·ing, cen·tral·iz·es v.tr. 1. To draw into or toward a center; consolidate. 2. critical data in a secure and "always-on" environment, ensuring the company has on-demand access to its most critical asset. ScreenPlay's CRM triumphs are the latest is a flurry Flurry A drastic volume increase in a specific security. of milestone achievements for Entellium. The company was recently named the winner of Frost & Sullivan's Customer Service Leadership Award for Hosted CRM for 2005. The analyst firm said that the free customer support offered by Entellium rivals the "experience that enterprise level firms usually received at a price." In August, Entellium received top scores for usability, customer service and price in a head-to-head review by the venerable Network Computing Storing and/or running applications in servers in a network. See cloud computing and network computer. Magazine, which reviewed six top hosted CRM providers. In this review, Entellium's $59 PRO-Activity Release landed in a virtual tie with Salesforce.com's $125 Enterprise Edition. Earlier this year, Entellium received top scores from Forrester Research Forrester Research is an independent technology and market research company that provides its clients with advice about technology's impact on business and consumers. Corporate facts
About Entellium Founded in 2000, Entellium's suite of CRM solutions has been designed specifically for small and mid-size companies and divisions of large enterprises who want a powerful solution that strikes the right balance between the everyday needs of sales and service representatives and the reporting requirements of management. Entellium has won several industry awards for innovation in usability, and was recently recognized by Forrester Research for top scores in Usability and Cost among leading CRM providers (The Forrester Wave: Hosted Sales Force Automation, Q1 2005(1)). Entellium is headquartered in Seattle, Washington  This page is protected from moves until disputes have been resolved on the .The reason for its protection is listed on the protection policy page. , with a global R&D Center in Malaysia and sales operating worldwide via its partner network. For more information, visit http://www.entellium.com. About ScreenPlay, Inc. Founded in 1989, ScreenPlay, Inc. (www.screenplayinc.com) designs and produces audiovisual environments for the retail, hospitality and business services markets as well as online content providers across North America. ScreenPlay offers complete video solutions including custom programming, advertising, streaming and on-demand video. Located in Seattle, ScreenPlay operates a state-of-the art video production house. With the strongest label relations in the industry, the company receives virtually every release from the major and independent record labels as well as full service from movie studios and game manufacturers. Corporations such as Blockbuster, CompUSA, Journeys and Harley-Davidson, partner with ScreenPlay to deliver the most effective video solutions. Entellium is a trademark of Entellium Corp. and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. All other product and firm names mentioned are the property of their respective owners and are mentioned for identification purposes only. (1) The Forrester Wave: Hosted Sales Force Automation, Q1 2005, L. Herbert (with Erin Kinikin and Jessica Harrington), March 31, 2005. |
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