Recruitment firm finds hire benefits from Cloud CRM

Recruitment firm Verticality has sliced 30% off its customer relationship management (CRM) costs and improved sales leads by swapping Cloud-based SalesForce for another Cloud solution from SugarCRM.

SalesForce had been in place for three years, but Verticality was frustrated by the time and investment needed to customise it to meet changing requirements. So, in January 2010, the company began migrating to Sugar Professional, wooed by its greater flexibility and cost effectiveness. 

Says Rob de Main, director of Verticality: “We decided on SugarCRM because it is open source and we could develop what we wanted with just a small investment.”

As a small company with 34 staff, Verticality doesn’t have the in-house resources to implement new software, so it enlisted the help of SugarCRM partner EnableIT to transform their CRM wish list into reality. 

Says de Main: “We’re the epitome of a small business. I’m sales director and I do IT. I can’t afford to sit down and work on SugarCRM every day.”

With SugarCRM in place, the management has far greater insight into its key performance indicators (KPIs) and sales strategies, helping it to cut its annual business planning and review process by 32%. Operational CRM costs have been slashed by 30% since the switch in supplier.

Integrating Sugar with EnableIT’s email system provides a better understanding of how to manage email campaigns. The recruitment specialist used to send out just a few campaigns a month, but can now fire off 15 to 20 better targeted and more successful campaigns. 

Next step is add social media feeds as well as mobile access through smartphones, so staff on the road can keep bang up to date on customer news.

De Main explains: “It’s key for our sales people to be able to look at leads and have the visibility into the business and be more responsive.”