BakerCorp is the industry leader in containment, pumping, filtration and trench shoring equipment rental solutions with over 100 locations nationwide and international operations in Europe, Canada and Mexico.

Headquarters
Seal Beach, CA

Solution
Sugar Professional

Solution Partner
Highland Solutions

Sugar Professional accelerates Marketing ROI and Sales Success with Sugar Mobile at BakerCorp

Business Issue

BakerCorp provides rental equipment used in a wide variety of applications for a diverse set of industries. A refinery, for example, may use its 21,000 gallon steel tanks and various sizes of pumps during a turnaround to temporarily store various waste streams generated during the plant’s maintenance process. At a natural gas well site, its frac tanks and pumps can be used to store and transfer water and hydraulic fracturing fluid. The same equipment listed above can also be used by an electric utility to pump and store transformer fluid or by an environmental consulting firm for a remediation and dewatering application. Because of the diversity of its potential customers, BakerCorp found that large national awareness campaigns were largely inefficient and this one-size-fits-all approach to its marketing communication strategy was not effective.  BakerCorp wanted to properly segment its prospects and customers not only by industry and typical application but also by typical rental frequency and duration. This would allow BakerCorp to make the best use of its marketing budget as well as create effective and trackable campaigns more closely in synch with the efforts of its sales team.

Requirements

BakerCorp was looking for a cost-effective yet feature-laden CRM solution that would allow it to properly segment its heterogeneous customer base, manage lead distribution from multiple sources, and help its more than 100 worldwide locations coordinate its sales efforts.

In addition, BakerCorp was looking for a system that could handle integrations from multiple third-party software packages. “Right off the bat we had developed some very complicated business requirements” explains Chris Macabuhay, BakerCorp’s project sponsor. He continues, “part of our plan included web services integration from third party vendors co-existing with manual .csv imports extracted from older systems. Much of our proposed business processes and automated workflow plans depended on all integrations working together seamlessly.”

BakerCorp’s reporting requirements were also heavily focused on helping them maximize marketing ROI. “Because our customer profiles are so diverse we needed a system to help us develop a one-to-one communications strategy,” describes Macabuhay, “while simultaneously tracking our response. This would allow us to build customer modeling and develop a direct response strategy that would help us get more out of our Marketing dollar.”

Solution

After evaluating a number of web-enabled and web-based CRM solutions, Baker decided on SugarCRM. Macabuhay explains, “For us, we knew that server-based software architecture wouldn’t be a good fit. The solutions we looked at were too expensive and required considerable IT resources to maintain.  When looking at web-based solutions we discovered that they provided all of the same functionality at a fraction of the cost and didn’t place any additional strain on our IT staff. SugarCRM really took affordability and functionality to the next level.”

BakerCorp worked with Highland Solutions, a SugarCRM partner, to implement Sugar Professional.  Highland used web services API’s and custom server business logic to gather, filter, merge and present customer and prospect information out of the constant streams of data from these diverse sources.

“BakerCorp’s implementation was a bit unique”, says Jon Berbaum, Client Engagement Manager at Highland Solutions, “They deployed a fairly mature solution to centralize all of their marketing channels and data feeds before deploying to the sales force. Sugar was able to handle the complex data issues and related automation.”

Sugar Professional now integrates BakerCorp’s marketing lead sources with filtered and targeted information in a precise structure and flow. In particular, it has integrated third party data sources and leads from field sales, telemarketing, shows and events as well as online inquiries from its website and multiple industry sites. It has also integrated data from its legacy ERP system.

After a three-month implementation focused on these marketing and data needs, Highland initiated pilot programs with BakerCorp’s most advanced sales offices to establish best practices and momentum within the sales organization. Two “lead” offices received focused discovery and customizations. Highland worked closely with each office to migrate and merge their existing contact data into Sugar’s existing marketing data set, and then provided multiple on-site training sessions for the new users.

Today, Sugar Professional is being adopted by BakerCorp branches across North America and Europe and is accessible by users through any Internet connection or on any smartphone.  Sales offices, both domestic and international, can request features specific to their sales process that can be implemented without affecting other user groups. Centralized marketing services feed data to the entire network.

Benefits

BakerCorp’s Sugar implementation was done in a phased, branch-by-branch approach that began with key branches in Europe and the Gulf South. It has merged valuable contact and sales data from reps at each branch as they go, leveraging the strong feedback from on-the-ground reps in each location.

Also, by bringing together all lead sources, touch points and sales data in a single location with Sugar Professional, BakerCorp can now see the activity generated by each marketing channel. “With these metrics, we know which channels to invest in and which have low returns. This information is helping us continually monitor and improve our Marketing strategy,” states Macabuhay.

In addition, Sugar’s mobile capabilities allow sales reps to look up customer information and log meeting notes while on the road using either their laptops or mobile phones. Macabuhay explains, “Many reps used to spend hours every week logging calls on an excel file. Now call logs happen on the move and in real time.”

“Sugar Professional is essential in developing synergy and efficiencies between our sales force and marketing” Macabuhay concludes. “We now have a better infrastructure for delivering leads, identifying and nurturing opportunities and monitoring customer satisfaction, all of which help us solve more of our customer’s liquid containment problems and ultimately improves our customer experience.”

Highland’s innovate solution brought clarity to a complex work process by connecting data providers, information processors and customers to Competiscan’s massive database with the exact tools each group requires.

Competiscan provides a massive, constantly changing competitive intelligence database of direct mail and email solicitations to customers in the insurance and financial industries.

 

Competiscan’s business is to bring clarity out of a massive amount of information. Their unique workflow requires a web-based platform that can be accessed and updated by service providers, remote analysts, third-party offshore information processors and customers across the country. Each of these groups needed to interact with Competiscan’s competitive intelligence database differently.

 

Competiscan had previously contracted with an offshore firm to create their application, but it was not as simple or powerful as their business required. Competiscan approached Highland to evaluate their current application and provide a system that could communicate clearly with their providers and customers.

 

By using rapid, agile development techniques, Highland worked closely with Competiscan’s team to define their technological and collaborative needs, and then reform and expand their system. Database optimizations, content management tools, end-user data mining capabilities and automated reports and workflows simplified interactions for providers and customers alike. Competiscan’s system delivered the clarity in action that matched the clarity it delivered through information.

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Highland empowered Electronic License Service to grow from a strong idea to the market leader in less than two years.

Electronic License Service (ELS) provides web-based systems to financial institutions to process vehicle and vital record transactions with state, county and city government entities.

 

ELS approached Highland with an ambitious idea: to provide a web-based system to financial institutions to process vehicle registrations and titles. Highland immersed themselves in ELS’ business ideas and needs, and provided a strategic and technical team that touched virtually every part of ELS’ growing business.

 

Highland designed and developed the ELS on-line service, which integrated with government legacy systems for real time financial and inventory controls as well as with a CRM system for sales and customer support. A carefully designed user interface and transaction process handles tens of thousands of error free transactions in a single day.

 

Highland also designed, installed and maintains the high availability data center footprint for ELS’ expanding systems, as well as ELS’ office network, productivity tools and automated processes.

 

With Highland’s team, ELS continues to expand into related services and is aggressively entering new markets with significant competitive advantage.

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Highland revolutionized Hilco’s workflow with a custom web application that eliminated redundancy and maximized employee efficiency.

Hilco Appraisal Service, LLC provides valuations of large machinery and other industrial capital.

 

Hilco Appraisal Service sends consultants around the world to perform valuations for their customers. Though a leader in their field, Hilco identified the lack of supporting technology as a major barrier to continued growth.

 

On-site consultants recorded valuations by hand, which were then typed and formatted by office staff, and finally reviewed and cross-checked against similar valuations by the consultants. This workflow was redundant and laborious.

 

Highland conducted a thorough business process analysis with key Hilco staff, and then designed and developed an online system that allow consultants to input valuation data directly from the field, including images and notes. Consultants can quickly check their valuations against comparable items in the system. Valuation data is automatically formatted into a PDF report that can be immediately delivered to the client.

 

Highland’s web-based solution drastically reduced the overall time required to complete a valuation report, increased the productivity of valuation consultants, and eliminated a time-intensive process for support staff.

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Highland Solutions transformed Robinson & Maites’ IT infrastructure from a cost center to a competitive advantage.

Robinson & Maites is a Chicago agency that combines marketing consulting and creative program development for clients such as Verizon, Discover Card, Deloitte and FedEx.

Robinson & Maites asked Highland Solutions to perform an assessment of its IT infrastructure. Highland drew up a solution that would streamline existing IT architecture, reduce the need for high-level support, and increase the value of IT to the business, all while reducing costs.

The impact was immediate and measurable:

1. The agency’s existing server infrastructure was reduced by two-thirds.
2. Incidents requiring technical support reduced from daily to once or twice a month.
3. The office network was optimized and data management improved.
4. Web-based productivity tools were introduced to simplify network requirements.
5. Highland’s helpdesk and remote-management reduced the need for on-site support.

With a reliable, well-maintained IT architecture, the Robinson & Maites can maintain its focus on value-added, client-focused activities.

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