Microsoft Server Product Portfolio
Customer Solution Case Study
Customer and Data Management System
Helps Maintain Growth, Increase Revenues
Overview “The solution helps automate the bid process so that
Country or Region: United States
Industry: Professional services—Computer
we produce high-quality sales certification
engineering submissions.”
Vince Haman, Vice President and Chief Information Officer, MSI Systems Integrators
Customer Profile
MSI is an IT solutions provider focusing on
a number of vertical markets. The company
is based in Omaha, Nebraska, and has MSI Systems Integrators is an IT solution provider that experienced
about 425 employees working in 10
regional offices. 83 percent revenue growth in a four-year period. The growth,
however, occurred in the absence of streamlined data and
Business Situation
Disparate information systems and customer management capabilities, resulting in inefficiency, lost
applications caused MSI to operate opportunities, and millions of dollars in lost revenues. To maintain
inefficiently and complicated the processes
of tracking customer information and its growth and capture more revenues, MSI teamed up with two
converting leads into revenue. Microsoft® partners—Axonom and KnowledgeDNA—to create a
Solution solution using Microsoft technologies and software developed by
MSI deployed a new system for managing the partners. The solution helps manage customer relationships
data and customer relationships. The
system uses Microsoft® software and and thousands of documents and e-mail messages generated
products from Microsoft partners Axonom during a typical sales cycle. Benefits for MSI include an estimated
and KnowledgeDNA.
U.S.$2.3 million return on investment and an 85 percent reduction
Benefits in the time for processing bid certifications—time that can be used
Bidding processes up to 85 percent
faster for interacting with customers and increasing revenues.
Leads and marketing efforts handled
more efficiently
Resources managed more efficiently
Company achieved a U.S.$2.3 million
return on investment
Microsoft Server Product Portfolio
Customer Solution Case Study
Customer and Data Management System
Helps Maintain Growth, Increase Revenues
“We went through a due Situation infrastructure grow with us,” says Vince
MSI Systems Integrators is an IT solution Haman, Vice President and Chief Information
diligence process of company that helps its clients maximize the Officer for MSI. “The result was that we had a
looking at various CRM benefits of their software, servers, networks, lot of information coming in, but it all resided
and data center facilities. The company has in poorly connected islands of automation
providers and felt that expertise in several specialties, including IT and information. It got harder and harder for
Microsoft Dynamics optimization, enterprise security, content us to get the full picture of what was going on
management, business intelligence, business with our business.”
CRM would provide the integration, unified communications, and
best product for our business continuity. The disparate applications and subsequent
information “islands” led to a number of
needs.” Headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, MSI problems. There was frequent duplication of
Vince Haman, Vice President and Chief partners with technology companies such as data, which increased the company’s volume
Information Officer, MSI Systems Integrators Microsoft, Symantec, IBM, Cisco Systems, of information and strained employee
Brocade, and VMWare to provide solutions resources without adding value.
for customers in a range of industries, Spreadsheets with manually entered data
including banking, insurance, healthcare, were used to track project timelines, staff
wholesale and retail operations, availability, and future staff utilization, forcing
manufacturing, and state and local employees such as regional managers and
government. administrative assistants to spend many
hours compiling and sorting through
In the past several years, MSI has information.
experienced rapid growth—its annual revenue
jumped from about U.S.$133 million in 2002 At the same time, much of the company’s
to about $343 million by the end of 2006. To stored information remained static and
support that growth, MSI has 425 employees quickly became outdated, hampering the
at 10 branch locations. About 380 of the ability of MSI staff to extract the most value
employees have jobs that directly affect from available resources.
clients, including senior executives, sales,
client project managers, engineers, The lack of a centralized CRM system and
architects, developers, client services, and data repository also created problems when
marketing personnel. MSI interacted with its technology partners.
For example, one large technology partner
During its period of rapid growth, MSI requires organizations such as MSI to go
experienced significant issues related to the through a sales certification process if they
amount and diversity of information pouring want to work with the partner on a particular
into the company. Information was scattered customer project. The certification process
throughout the company and within many requires that all documentation related to a
different kinds of applications, including customer proposal be submitted within a
various databases, a sales forecasting specified 48-hour period.
application, Microsoft® Office Excel® 2007
spreadsheet software, and several customer “The various e-mail messages and
relationship management (CRM) products, documents that we would need for a bid
such as Salesforce.com. might be scattered across 15 different PCs,”
says Haman. “Because of the difficulty of
“We had grown at an incredibly fast pace and locating and compiling all the documentation
didn’t pause long enough to let our IT for each certification, preparing a single bid
could consume up to eight hours of sales To accomplish those tasks, MSI worked with
staff time, plus several hours of two partners. The first, KnowledgeDNA,
administration time. We had millions of provided MSI with its KDNA technology. KDNA
dollars of lost sales revenue because our is a Web-based workgroup environment built
employees were spending time on paperwork with various Microsoft software, including the
instead of on interacting with customers.” Microsoft .NET Framework, Microsoft
ASP.NET, and Microsoft SQL Server™ 2005
MSI decided that it needed a solution that database software.
could integrate its enterprise resource
planning (ERP) and CRM processes and KDNA delivers real-time business intelligence
information. The goal was to manage its data to every MSI user by providing features and
and personnel resources more effectively, functions such as the ability to condense
streamline internal processes to respond to hundreds of related e-mail threads into a
customers and opportunities more efficiently, coherent file and audit trails for e-mail and
and maintain the company’s growth for the documents. A key facet of KDNA is its ability
“One of the biggest long term. to take unstructured data, including
returns that I’ve thousands of e-mail messages and
Solution documents, and compile that information into
experienced with the MSI decided to create a comprehensive unified discussions, projects, and tasks.
new CRM system is in solution for integrating its CRM and business These are used to create a “master record” of
processes that required making major key communications, which are stored in a
handling salespeople.… changes to the company’s IT infrastructure. central repository to be used in tasks such as
I’ve probably reduced bids on new projects.
First, the company considered several CRM
the time I spend talking solutions, including Salesforce.com and MSI also worked with Microsoft Gold Certified
to salespeople by about SaleLogix, but chose Microsoft Dynamics™ Partner Axonom to deploy Axonom
CRM, now part of the Microsoft Dynamics line PowerTrak. PowerTrak integrates with
50 percent.” of business management solutions. Microsoft Microsoft Dynamics CRM through the use of
Kevin Fratzke, Vice President of the IBM Dynamics CRM provides the tools and add-on modules that include advanced
iSeries Solutions Practice, MSI Sytemes capabilities that MSI needs to create and marketing, customer and partner portals, call
Integrators easily maintain a clear picture of customers, center capabilities, technical case
from first contact through purchase and after management, and workflow features. The
the sale. Microsoft Dynamics CRM includes Axonom product includes the PowerTrak
modules for sales, marketing, and customer Forecasting Module, which helps MSI in
service. creating more accurate sales forecasts.
“We went through a due diligence process of Additionally, MSI installed an accounting
looking at various CRM providers and felt that application that is part of the Visual Business
Microsoft Dynamics CRM would provide the Suite. An ERP software package from VBS
best product for our needs, which included Software, Visual Business Suite is designed
integrating with other tools,” Haman says. for IT solution providers and technology
resellers.
MSI also needed to customize its CRM tools
and install technology that could help The solution combines three systems—the
manage and coordinate the large amounts of Microsoft Dynamics CRM and PowerTrak
information coming in from its employees and component, the accounting application, and
various offices. the KDNA activity management technology—
“To sustain our revenue to deliver a single, unified view of information while providing a solid platform for future
to MSI staff. Information coming into the growth.
growth, we’ll need to do company is handled by the appropriate
more in terms of acquir- component and then saved in a central data Bidding Processes Up to 85 Percent
repository, which makes the information Faster
ing new customers widely available. For example, all accounts One of the most dramatic changes that the
and … increasing created and modified in the accounting new solution has delivered to MSI is the
application are synchronized with the ability to move much more quickly than in the
sales…. The efficiencies Microsoft Dynamics CRM database daily so past when creating detailed bids for projects,
delivered by our new that sales staff, account managers, and particularly with the large partner that has a
others have access to important client strict time limit. “The new solution with the
system will help us information. Information captured by the Microsoft Dynamics CRM, PowerTrak, and
do that.” KDNA technology is also consolidated and KDNA components ensures that the
displayed within the Microsoft Dynamics CRM materials we need are easy to locate,” says
Gina Morkel, Vice President of Marketing and application, and all bid activities that are Haman. “The solution helps automate the bid
Communications, MSI Systems Integrators generated within Microsoft Dynamics CRM process so that we produce high-quality sales
are automatically integrated with KDNA data. certification submissions.”
MSI began working with KnowledgeDNA and Although the solution has only been in
Axonom on the comprehensive solution in production for a relatively brief time, it is
2006. A production pilot of the solution was already delivering dramatically improved
deployed in December 2006 to a limited results for the bid process, says Gina Morkel,
number of MSI users in a controlled Vice President of Marketing and
environment for testing. The full solution went Communications for MSI.
live in early February 2007 and was initially
available to 200 people in the company’s 10 “In the past, we would spend anywhere from
offices. MSI plans to make at least some of four to eight hours—sometimes more—on a
the functionality available to other company bid that we would have to submit in a 48-
employees, eventually increasing the number hour window,” says Morkel. “With the new
of users to about 300. solution, the process can be done in less
than one hour, and sometimes it takes as
Benefits little as 20 or 30 minutes. That means that
By redesigning its IT system using the our employees can spend far less time on
Microsoft software and the products provided paperwork and more time on working directly
by Axonom and KnowledgeDNA, MSI has with customers and pursuing leads that may
dramatically transformed its internal generate revenue.”
processes and procedures. The company has
improved its ability to move quickly when Leads and Marketing Efforts Handled
submitting bids to its partners. It is managing More Effectively
internal processes such as handling sales Morkel says that the new technology is
leads and conducting marketing campaigns helping MSI handle its lead generation and
more effectively. The solution is helping MSI related marketing activities more effectively.
with its resource management tasks, from “We do a lot of marketing and have a
supervising sales staff to freeing up more rigorous, documented process of conducting
time for salespeople to pursue opportunities. and evaluating campaigns, approvals, and
These benefits are also delivering a execution,” she says. “In the past, it was all
compelling return on investment for MSI done with paper. But now we’ve been able to
add a campaigning component to Microsoft customer organization, and so on,” he says.
Dynamics CRM that allows us to document “With that information, we can create
and archive our campaigns.” documents and schematics that help our
This, she says, leads to a much more sales personnel, including teams with several
automated process of getting approvals from people, more easily understand what they
regional offices and business managers. need to be working on.”
“This technology is helping us narrow the gap
between marketing and sales,” Morkel says. Knowing what sales priorities are is critical
“We can handle leads effectively in the because the sales cycle for a typical MSI
system and track them all the way to closure. customer can stretch out over many months.
In the process, the system helps us to During that time, all personnel involved in a
determine why we won or lost a sale and how sale need to be kept up-to-date, and MSI
significant that win or loss was to the management needs to understand what
business. The system gives us clearer personnel resources are focused on which
insights into the scope of our marketing projects.
campaigns and clarifies the return on
investment that we get from our marketing “One of the biggest returns that I’ve
efforts.” experienced with the new CRM system is in
handling salespeople,” Fratzke says. “I don’t
The solution is also helping with forecasting have to bother them as much or spend as
activities. Using the PowerTrak Forecasting much time every week on the phone with
Module, MSI can build forecasts quickly and them because our information is more
instantly view updated versions as employees complete and up-to-date. I’ve probably
enter data into the system. The PowerTrak reduced the time I spend talking to
Forecasting Module enables users to drill salespeople by about 50 percent.”
down into specific details, including individual
accounts and specific periods of time. Users Obtaining a $2.3 Million Return on
can build reports that show actual progress of Investment
opportunities first entered in Microsoft Morkel says that MSI’s new solution is
Dynamics CRM. expected to deliver a significant return on
investment in the first year of use. “We
Resources Managed More Efficiently project that our return on investment in
By consolidating information related to leads, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and the related
sales, and customer data, MSI is also able to products in the solution will be about $2.3
manage its internal resources more million,” she says.
effectively. Kevin Fratzke, Vice President of
the IBM iSeries Solutions Practice for MSI, “This calculation comes from analyzing all the
says the unification of information within the tasks that are being streamlined by the new
enterprise has helped MSI get a much better system, and all the time that will be freed up
understanding of sales documentation and for employees to pursue revenue-generating
the resources available to pursue sales activities. The system will help us increase
opportunities. sales, reduce costs, and increase our
productivity.”
“The CRM system helps us handle the
important information about customers, such In the future, MSI expects that the technology
as who are the main contacts, who are the will also help provide a solid platform for
decision makers, who reports to whom in a growth. “We expect to keep growing at a rapid
For More Information pace,” Morkel says. “To sustain our revenue Microsoft Server Product Portfolio
For more information about Microsoft growth, we’ll need to do more in terms of For more information about the Microsoft
products and services, call the Microsoft acquiring new customers, spending more server product portfolio, go to:
Sales Information Center at (800) 426- time with existing customers, and increasing www.microsoft.com/servers/default.mspx
9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft sales without necessarily adding a lot more
Canada Information Centre at (877) 568- staff. The efficiencies delivered by our new About Certified for Microsoft
2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of- system will help us do that.” Dynamics Solutions
hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone Microsoft set the bar high by developing the
(TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in You can read more about the PowerTrak Certified for Microsoft Dynamics accreditation
the United States or (905) 568-9641 in solution that MSI chose in the Microsoft for business solutions built on Microsoft
Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Dynamics Solution Finder. Dynamics software by partners. It sets a
Canada, please contact your local small group of proven, tested, and
Microsoft subsidiary. To access information recommended business solutions apart from
using the World Wide Web, go to: thousands of other solutions that have not
www.microsoft.com met the rigorous requirements. Solutions that
are Certified for Microsoft Dynamics are:
For more information about Axonom Designed to meet your unique business
products and services, call (888) 814- and industry needs.
2880 or visit the Web site at: Tested and seamlessly integrated with
www.axonom.com Microsoft Dynamics products.
Used and recommended by other
For more information about companies like yours.
KnowledgeDNA, visit the Web site at:
www.knowledgedna.com
For more information about MSI products
and services, call (402) 965-2300 or visit
the Web site at:
www.msiinet.com
Software and Services Technologies
Microsoft Server Product Portfolio − Microsoft .NET Framework
− Windows Server 2003 Enterprise − Microsoft ASP.NET
Edition
− Microsoft SQL Server 2005
Microsoft Dynamics CRM
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT
MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS
SUMMARY.
Document published June 2007