Dial Telecom Romania Success Story

Dial Telecom Romania (DTR) believes that customer satisfaction is paramount to success, and this belief led the company to seek a better customer relationship management (CRM) solution. After a thorough selection process, DTR (www.dialtelecom.ro) chose Soffront Software CRM to improve customer service and communication. California-based Soffront Software, Inc. the leader in mid market CRM triumphed over several well-recognized CRM giants to secure the DTR deal. DTR is a regional telecom holding company, meeting the demanding and sophisticated needs of corporate customers in Central-East European markets.

Wanted: a time-tested, cost-effective, and flexible solution

“A key corporate value at DTR is the belief that the customer always comes first,” explained George Rizescu, IT and billing Manager for DTR. “With that in mind, we wanted a superior tool that would help us better evaluate our relationship with customers. Additionally, we needed to more effectively handle customer information.” Rizescu continued, “We had gaps in our business processes that led to communication difficulties between several departments, such as customer service, sales, and technical department.”

In their quest to find an efficient CRM solution, DTR sent out a request for proposal (RFP) to various CRM companies. The company implemented a balanced scorecard rating system that tracked the responses by numerous factors including company stability and expertise, application functionality and flexibility, cost, and references. The top three companies were then sent a technical RFP with a list of requirements.

In June 2006 DTR selected Soffront CRM over leading CRM companies such as Oracle, SAP and Microsoft. According to Rizescu, “We choose Soffront because the application fulfilled most of our requirements, the solution fell within our project budget, and it could be successfully implemented within a reasonable amount of time.” Rizescu continued, “Soffront CRM was ideal for our needs because of features such as process automation, workflow processes, and a customer portal.”

DTR purchased the CRM server suite through Soffront’s local partner, Printec (www.printec.ro). DTR began deploying the Soffront on-premise solution in June 2006. The solution consisted of the following modules: marketing automation, sales force automation with lead management, customer helpdesk, customer portal, knowledge management system and Outlook Integration.

Immediate improvements

Rizescu explained that since going live with Soffront CRM, DTR has achieved improved management of customer information. In the past, they company didn’t retain most of their communications with customers in the databases, resulting in difficulties understanding the client’s needs. “Without this information, we couldn’t see patterns and be proactive in meeting our customer’s demands. Additionally, our staff wasted too much time meeting basic customer requirements, because we had to rummage through a lot of information.”

Rizescu added, “With the business workflow we can now see if we have a problem and implement corrective actions right away. Using Soffront, we have a great deal of customer information at our fingertips. And with the help of Soffront CRM reporting, we can aggregate this information and improve our efficiency.”

According to Rizescu, DTR was particularly happy with Soffront’s Customer Portal. “We wanted our customers to be able to easily access all relevant information online. Using Soffront, customers can quickly view important items such as invoices, billing details, purchased products, and special offers.”

Customers can also submit special requirements or feedback by filling out a complaints form via the web. Rizescu explains, “Now we have a business workflow implemented in the CRM system that allows the technical team to see current problems immediately. Soffront CRM allows us to react faster so that our customers receive better service.”

“Soffront did an excellent job with their CRM application,” concluded Rizescu. “Soffront CRM is a robust solution that we quickly implemented and easily customized to match our business processes.”