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Highlights
- At least one year of development time saved
- Dramatically faster product to market timescales
- New visualization capability adds ‘wow’ factor and increases sales
Introduction
A US-based KeyLines customer worked with Cambridge Intelligence to harness the power of network visualization for Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
Their suite of software products is designed to improve CRM systems to ensure maximum sales productivity, consistent processes and accurate, relevant messaging at every stage of a sales opportunity.
One of their newest products is a CRM application that maximizes sales efficiency by systematically reinforcing best practices and holding staff accountable throughout an opportunity’s lifetime.
From the point of customer on-boarding, the software maps connections between sales reps and the customers. The sales cycle is planned out with clear roles for all stakeholders, leading to a clear strategy, defined roles and a more social approach to selling.
KeyLines’ network visualization capability has been incorporated into our customer’s CRM product, creating a powerful tool unlike any other on the market.
The problem
Our customer combines expertise in sales best practice, with technology to build products that integrate with a variety of CRM systems. There are, however, many other organizations operating in the same niche.
To maintain a strong competitive advantage, the company adopted a strategy of innovation, utilizing cutting-edge technology to stay ahead of the competition.
KeyLines was identified as a potential source of differentiation for the company and their products. In particular, KeyLines has enabled the company to create new functionality that stands out, but also maintains a balance between practicality and the commercial wow factor.
The Requirements
Our customer’s requirements for a web-based network visualization solution were:
- Mapping relationships between objects
- Allowing the user to apply attributes to different objects
- Assigning different types of relationship between objects
- Drag and drop type interactions
- Complete visual customization to match the wider application
- Supporting older browsers and mobile devices.
After evaluating the different products available – including the option of building comparable functionality in-house, KeyLines was chosen as the best option.
The Project
Having settled on KeyLines, our customer’s development team started work on building the new product, incorporating KeyLines. Throughout this time, KeyLines’ dedicated developer support team was on hand to answer technical questions and offer best practice network visualization advice.
Within just four months of first setting their requirements, the company had built a functioning MVP including visual relationship mapping, saving more than a year of development time and resource, compared with building their own solution from scratch in-house.
The Result
Following the launch, the product has received excellent feedback from both customers and industry analysts.
The company estimates that they were able to save at least one year of development time compared to trying to build KeyLines’ functionality in-house. Not only does this represent a saving of expensive resource, it has also enabled our customer to get their product to market faster – reinforcing their reputation for industry-leading innovation.
Our customer concluded that KeyLines allows them to differentiate their product by adding intangible value in the form of visual appeal and a commercial ‘wow’ factor, whilst maintaining a useful, practical application. They also said that KeyLines demonstrated real, tangible added value, augmenting the sales process and helping the product deliver on its goal of making sales activities more sociable.
Finally the customer added that Cambridge Intelligence’s development support team is a credit to the company, working closely with their own developers and offering genuine expertise to help them build and integrate KeyLines into their new product.
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