The Challenges

After a year of multiple mergers and acquisitions, Harbor had a big problem: all of their acquired companies had different CRM systems, including homegrown, NetSuite CRM, and Salesforce Sales Cloud. Each had different rules, were used for slightly different purposes and operated in unique ways.

Harbor found itself relying on excessive manual effort to make sense of its data, with no surefire way to see the complete picture and leverage the full power of its growth. Having to rely on reporting that was exported from each system and then collated separately in a BI Reporting system, having true visibility into Harbor’s pipeline was a daily hurdle to managing external reports. The team decided to accelerate reporting by consulting a specialist that could advise on the shortest path to integration of its CRM systems.

Our task, while challenging, was clear: find a way to consolidate all of these CRM systems into a single organized one, all within 4 months to meet year-end deadlines. We knew that Salesforce was their CRM of choice, but our journey had just begun. 

Our Approach

For our first phase, we worked alongside several of Harbor’s team members to get a better understanding of the involved systems. The systems ranged from shared Excel sheets, financial systems, multiple Salesforce Sales Cloud instances, NetSuite CRM, and some knowledge distributed across teams, so we took our time to get acquainted and start connecting some dots.

As part of this initiative, we allocated much of our time and resources towards:

• Validating project plans and establishing short and long-term goals, ensuring the critical points were attained in the initial phase by the go-live deadline
• Advising best practices for optimal implementation for long term strategy and minimal re-work for future processes 
• Coaching on steps taken and processes implemented to allow the Harbor team to maintain the system and be self-sufficient post-project
• Conducting extensive system reviews to identify otherwise invisible optimization opportunities
• Strategizing the reporting process between Salesforce and their other important tools
• Supporting hands-on configuration, development and documentation, whenever we were needed

Given our storied track record for providing Salesforce-focused solutions, Harbor was confident in our abilities.

All in all, both teams remained organized and on-task. The demanding 4-month project was followed by an additional 26 weeks of support and optimization efforts.

‍The Results

After months of detailed work of consolidating and optimizing Harbor’s systems, the job was complete. In this time, our combined efforts effectively led to:

• A fully optimized consolidation of CRM systems on schedule
• End-to-end account, contact, and opportunity visibility for the whole organization and cross-team collaboration
• Reduced licensing costs via platform consolidation
• An implementation of Salesforce best practices

Harbor’s challenges were complex, but thanks to Saltbox’s array of dedicated professionals and a receptive client team, they were able to optimize and consolidate all of their systems and achieve crucial visibility into their sales pipeline and processes. 

Wrapping Up

As businesses grow, so do their challenges — that’s why they turn to Salesforce in the first place. But Salesforce is only as powerful as those who wield it. So if your company needs to fine-tune your CRM systems, you can trust the Saltbox experts to handle everything. 

Have questions about your Salesforce platform? Get in touch.

‍