C A S E S T U DY

FrontRange Solutions Inc.1125 Kelly Johnson Blvd.Colorado Springs, CO 80920www.frontrange.com

GoldMine® Keeps Tabs on Prospect, Customer Relationships and All Opportunities for Software Development/Consulting Firm

S O F T W A R E

Organization:

Effective Enterprise

Management (E2M)

Industry:

Software Development/

Consulting

FrontRange Products:

GoldMine® Corporate Edition

GoldSync®

Web site:

www.eem-inc.com

Quick Stats:

Employees: 6

Users: 6

Operating environment:

Windows XP, SQL

COMPANY PROFILE

Effective Enterprise Management (E2M),

based in Osceola, Indiana, helps small

and mid-size manufacturers better

utilize resources to increase profitability.

Established in 1996 as Custom Data

Solutions, E2M has evolved into a software

development and full-service information

and resource management consulting firm.

E2M offers fully integrated business and shop

floor management tools that have a proven

track record of reducing costs, enhancing

productivity and increasing profitability.

BUSINESS NEED

Like any small business, E2M must be

extremely efficient in all aspects of its

operations. The company can’t afford to

duplicate efforts or fail to follow up on

any leads. E2M needs a centralized way of

tracking all interaction with customers and

prospects so that every member of the team

knows the current status, and when further

action is necessary. The company also needs

a way to report on completed and pending

activities, and view its sales pipeline to know

what opportunities might be near closing. It

simply can’t risk missing a single opportunity.

GOLDMINE SOLUTION

When E2M formed in 2001, a sister company

introduced it to GoldMine® Corporate

Edition to help manage all of E2M’s

business relationships effectively. Since then,

GoldMine remains an increasingly integral

part of the company’s processes. With each

new GoldMine feature or functionality

E2M integrates into its operations, the

company only realizes more efficiency and

greater peace of mind that it’s not losing

any opportunities to serve prospects or

customers.

“As a small company, customer

service is the only way we

can compete. With GoldMine,

nothing falls through the

cracks. I feel like we really

take care of our customers,

which would be close to

impossible without a tool

like GoldMine.”

– Melissa Jones, Vice President,

Customer Service

“GoldMine is the central repository for all our

information, for everything we need to know

about a customer,” explained Melissa Jones,

vice president of customer service for E2M. “If

it’s not in GoldMine, it didn’t happen.”

INFORMATION SHARING WITH GOLDSYNC

E2M employees manage all of their contacts

and activities in GoldMine, logging every

interaction with customers and prospects. The

Copyright © 2004 FrontRange Solutions USA Inc. All Rights Reserved. GoldMine, HEAT and other FrontRange Solutions products, brands and trademarks are property of FrontRange Solutions USA Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. Other products, brands and trademarks are property of their respective owners/companies.

team stays on the same page by synchronizing

its records over a VPN network several times a

day with GoldSync, an add-on synchronization

tool from FrontRange Solutions. With shared

information, each consultant knows if a fellow

E2M employee has contacted a customer and

where things stand. Plus, it gives managers

and consultants the freedom to access current

information when they’re on the road or

working from home.

Company managers tap into the information

to determine whether customer issues were

resolved effectively, or if there’s anything

they still need to address. Whenever a user

changes the status of a customer or prospect

relationship, the president receives an alert,

ensuring he also always knows the status

of that relationship. With all the details in

GoldMine, the company spends more time on

sales and servicing customers – instead of in

status meetings.

“We started off small, and the more you grow,

the harder it is to relay information,” Jones

said. “GoldMine sorts the information and

gives us what’s important. Because we’re

not chasing our tails, we can concentrate our

efforts where they need to be.”

A WINDOW INTO THE SALES PIPELINE

Opportunity Manager, a GoldMine tool that

allows sales reps to categorize their prospects

by their phase in the sales process, serves as

a window into the company’s sales pipeline

for managers and sales representatives. Reps

rely on the feature to sort and filter their

own prospects based on their category of

“readiness” and target different sales efforts at

each group. The tool gives them piece of mind

that they aren’t missing any opportunities and

that they don’t contact anyone prematurely.

Jones also stays on top of customer service

and opportunities with regular reporting.

The company created SQL reports to extract

data from GoldMine such as “Opportunities”

and “Closed Sales.” On a weekly basis, the

company pulls reports and meets to discuss

current activities. Jones visits customers or

prospects armed with complete histories of all

interaction with those contacts, enabling her

to pinpoint ways to help customers further.

The company’s president, Ron Mee, relies

on sales forecasts and historical data to plan

company resources and budgets. Plus, the

contact information keeps him “in the loop”

without requiring him to contact customers

himself or check in with sales reps.

TIME TRACKING IN GOLDMINE

ELIMINATES DUPLICATE EFFORTS

E2M also leverages GoldMine to record its

time. When employees finish an activity,

whether sales or work with a customer, they

complete an action in GoldMine, noting the

duration of the activity and tagging it with

the appropriate client and activity categories

using the “Code” and “Result” fields. This

serves two purposes, tracking time and

keeping up with all contact activity, which

eliminates duplicate efforts and probably

saves consultants hours each month.

With a Microsoft Access front-end, E2M then

extracts timesheets bi-monthly to support

billing. Because GoldMine gives employees

an infinite amount of space in which to

record details about their activities, the

company can provide extensive background

information on invoices about how they

served customers, which reinforces the value

of E2M’s consulting.

Business Benefits

Realized with GoldMine

• GoldSync gives employees

access to updated contact

details, and the freedom to

input and look up information

while in the field.

• With all contact details in

GoldMine, the company

spends more time on sales and

servicing customers – instead

of in status meetings.

• Every activity and its duration,

including time tracking

and billing, is tracked with

GoldMine’s Complete Action

feature.

• Sales reps categorize

prospects by their “readiness,”

giving them and managers a

view into the sales pipeline.

Copyright © 2004 FrontRange Solutions USA Inc. All Rights Reserved. GoldMine, HEAT and other FrontRange Solutions products, brands and trademarks are property of FrontRange Solutions USA Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. Other products, brands and trademarks are property of their respective owners/companies.

“For us, it was a complete no-brainer,” Jones

said. “Otherwise, employees would also have

to keep track of their timesheets. Now, they

don’t have that housekeeping, which makes

it easier for them to concentrate on what they

need to. As soon as it’s in GoldMine, they’re

done with their part.”

ORCHESTRATING EMAIL BLASTS

E2M also turns to GoldMine for distributing

e-mail campaigns. The company uses Microsoft

Outlook for e-mail, so it exports contact records

from Access into Outlook, then launches e-mail

blasts. Using filters in GoldMine, E2M segments

targeted groups of its database to tailor

messages accordingly, whether contacts are

current customers or prospects.

E2M gives each e-mail campaign a result code.

A few weeks after the campaign, the company

pulls up the result codes to determine whether

a response came back. It can gauge the success

of each campaign and integrate the most

effective techniques into future campaigns.

E2M appreciates that GoldMine has grown

with its evolving needs – and the company is

confident that it will continue to do so. The

company continuously finds new features it can

leverage to further streamline its processes.

SUMMARY

From the outset of relationships with

prospects to serving existing customers,

GoldMine ensures that E2M takes the right

steps at the right time. With synchronization,

every E2M employee has access to a

centralized database, and knows the exact

status of relationships and what they need

to do next. They don’t waste time piecing

together what last happened with a contact,

and they have the peace of mind that they

aren’t missing a single opportunity. Ultimately,

the software enhances productivity and the

company’s competitive edge.

“A growing company is always understaffed

and you certainly can’t afford to let

opportunities pass because of a forgotten

follow-up or a failure to communicate,” Mee

explained. “I don’t think we could have been

successful with our first national product

release without GoldMine. It helped us to

manage the overwhelming tasks of mass

marketing, fulfillment and follow up.”

“Customer service is the only way we can

compete,” Jones added. “With GoldMine,

nothing falls through the cracks. I feel like

we really take care of our customers, which

would be close to impossible without a tool

like GoldMine.”