IES Holdings Customer Spotlight
International Equipment Solutions, LLC is a global engineered equipment company that focuses their extensive resources on supporting their customers with strong value propositions and outstanding customer service across domestic and international markets. IES’ industry-leading manufacturers serve a wide range of markets including industrial, construction, agriculture, landscaping, infrastructure, aviation, recycling, demolition, mining, and energy. Their companies, Paladin, Genesis, Pengo, Jewell, CWS, Crenlo and Siac, employ more than 2,800 people and operate 18 manufacturing facilities throughout North America and other parts of the world.
Below is our interview with Jim Messer, Director of Information Technology with IES Holdings:
O: IES is well respected in the industry; what do you attribute to that reputation?
A: The companies that we own and operate are each market leaders in their respective segments of the industry. Each company has a reputation of providing our customers with a high level of customer service while delivering innovative and high quality products.
Q: What was the impetus for the move to a CRM?
A: The organizations desire to continually improve the level of service that we provide our customers and the recognition of the need to empower our teams with enhanced tools.
Q: Did you evaluate other CRM options? If so, which ones?
A: We reviewed Salesforce, but quickly realized the challenges we would be faced with to integrate it into our internal systems.
Q: What departmental challenges had you been facing before implementing Infor CRM?
A: Communications and functionality of the internal and external systems were not always as aligned or in sync as would like.
Q: What’s the biggest misconception you had about deploying a CRM solution?
A: That it is a technology challenge to get implemented, when in reality, the biggest challenge is aligning the goals and objectives of the business with the team members that are going to use the tool.
Q: How has productivity improved since using Infor CRM?
A: Still early in the adoption to determine but it’s looking promising so far.
Q: How have IES’ employees reacted to using Infor CRM?
A: Its been mixed. I think those that are open to change and willing to use technology, have had success. Those that are don’t like change, have been slower to adopt the system. The training from Syncsite has definitely helped everyone quite a bit.
Q: What’s the biggest surprise you had once Infor CRM had been up and running?
A: From a technical perspective, the solution came together and was implemented pretty quickly. Training of the team members using the tool took some time, but not as much as aligning the goals of the team and defining the targets of what was expected from them in terms of usage. If you just implement the technology and the solution and just expect adoption, you will be disappointed, but if you work with the leaders and the team in an ongoing fashion, that is where you will see the greatest benefits. We have recently started working with the leaders of the organization to provide metric reporting on system usage and viability into how the system is being used and appears to be enabling them to better drive system adoption.
Q: How has IES’ management reacted since utilizing Infor CRM?
A: They have some pretty high expectations given the investment that has been made, but are open to partnering with the IT team to drive visibility and system adoption.
Q: How much has the ability to access your data from any device and anywhere in the world made an impact to IES?
A: Still early in the adoption to determine but it certainly has been appreciated.
Q: How would you describe your experience working with Syncsite?
A: They have been an excellent partner on all sides of the project. They understand technology, the CRM system and how it operates from an end user perspective. Because of this, they are able to work with and communicate with all parties involved in the project.
Q: What advice would you give another company about implementing Infor CRM?
A: First realize, it’s not just a technology or system project. You have to partner with the business. You need a strong partner like Syncsite that can operate and communicate on all fronts and with all members of the project team. Define and set some realistic business goals to drive adoption and provide metric reporting for the business leaders to give them the visibility they need to monitor, drive and guide the adoption.
Q: Would you recommend Syncsite to another Infor CRM prospect?
A: Absolutely. They have been an incredible partner for this project on all fronts.
Q: What improvements/enhancements would you like to see from Infor?
A: Not even sure where to start on this one…. This much I can say, if it were not for Syncsite and if we were left to try to manage this project alone, the project would have been a complete failure and we would still be working towards getting the system up and running and a launch.
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