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Background
Formed in 2002 by senior leaders and key employees from Intel Corporation's Network Equipment Division, Tarari, Inc. is a leading edge high-speed content processing company headquartered in San Diego, California. A Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Tarari brings to market tools that accelerate processing in such keys areas as high performance computing, network security, virus detection, message processing, and XML-based Web services. The company's award-winning product line centers on the Tarari Content Processor, a product that enables content to be managed and processed at or near line speed. Demand is driven by two market segments: the adoption of XML and Web Services and the increasing deployment of virus protection across the network. Customers include network equipment, appliance and server vendors as well as independent software vendors.
Situation
Tarari sought a reliable and easy-to-use CRM solution that could provide easy access to information and help position the company for future sales success. With XML expected to comprise 48 percent of all network traffic by 2008 and anti-virus processing already a well-established market fueled by increasing concerns over security, the company anticipated substantial growth. As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Tarari was granted free licensing for Microsoft products including Microsoft CRM and Great Plains. Having settled on the Microsoft platform, the company's primary decision was choosing a partner to implement the solution. After reviewing the credentials of the Microsoft Value Added Resellers (VARs) community of Southern California, they selected SCG as their Partner of choice - a decision based on the highly skilled team of custom developers and extensive track record of successful CRM implementations held by SCG.
Key Goals
- Develop a more efficient lead and account tracking system.
- Eventually integrate the solution with Microsoft Great Plains
- Forecast future sales using reports
Solution
SCG used its proprietary SOLUTIONSMethod to implement the logical and technical aspects of the solution. After gathering Tarari's business requirements and defining work flows, SCG used Microsoft SQL Server(tm) 2000 as the transactional data store and metadata layer of the solution, providing Tarari with a scalable and reliable platform for managing vital customer information. SCG configured Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 to receive, send, and track incoming and outgoing e-mail. Active Directory(r) directory service was used to provide tight security by managing and supporting user profiles, roles, and privileges. SCG migrated two to three years of customer data into CRM from the legacy Excel-based system. Using customization, CRM was integrated with Great Plains reports to provide the needed sales forecasting capability. SCG provided user training on the system after construction was complete.
Results
Microsoft CRM has helped Tarari position themselves so that when customers are ready to buy, they know who they are, what's been talked about, and can move in quickly to close the orders. Because Microsoft CRM is a .NET Framework-based application, critical sales and financial data is now accessible through a Web browser to everyone in the organization who needs it. Sales orders are passed to the accounting software as quickly as possible to speed up the processing and delivery of orders. On customer satisfaction, Tarari CTO, Jim Wilson, says: "We are exuberant about the project success! We have doubled revenue every quarter since the implementation. We could not have the success we have today without this tool. It has given our company the ability to manage our business better and obtain traction-able revenue."
Like many of today's growing companies, Tarari has chosen to standardize on Microsoft technologies resulting in a substantially lower TCO (Total Cost of Ownership). By choosing Microsoft Gold Partner, SCG, from among Southern California's Microsoft VAR community to implement the project, they gained a customized CRM solution that yields improved business insights and provides a solid foundation for the company's future growth. Managers now have a better view of the return on different kinds of sales efforts. They can avoid common mistakes, such as an overemphasis on high-volume accounts or on small customers that are easier to win. A detailed analysis helps organizations refine their product- and account-level strategies, allowing salespeople to target the right prospects.
Microsoft CRM is helping Tarari seamlessly manage customer information and provide higher levels of customer service. As the company continues to grow and the sales force becomes larger, Tarari plans to use the SCG team of Microsoft Business Solutions experts to enhance the solution with additional Great Plains capabilities.
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| challenges |
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Increase sales productivity |
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Centralize customer information |
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Manage company growth |
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Integrate accounting system |
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| technologies |
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Microsoft CRM |
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SQL Server 2000 |
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Exchange Server |
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Active Directory |
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| results |
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Expanded business opportunities |
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Accurate sales forecasting |
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Integration with Microsoft Great Plains |
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Stable, scalable environment |
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