THIS IS HOW i CRM: Cells4Life Builds Trust, Security...

IN-DEPTH CASE STUDY

THIS IS HOW i CRM: Cells4Life Builds Trust, Security Through Automation

Cells4Life - 2SugarCRM

ABOUT CELLS4LIFE:

Description: Cells4Life is the first

private company in the United Kingdom

to provide umbilical stem cell collection

and storage. Expectant parents turn to

the organisation to safely and reliably

manage their stem cells, a precious

personal commodity with the potential

to save lives. It’s a lifelong relationship

whose success is rooted in trust,

within a highly regulated industry that

demands strict data security and

laboratory oversight.

Headquarters:

Burgess Hill, UK

Locations:

Cyprus, Spain, Italy; with distributor

relationships in United Arab Emirates,

Romania, Bulgaria, Pakistan and Kenya

Founded: 2002, by physicians and

scientists

Staff: 30

Website:

www.cells4life.co.uk

The next time you worry about where you filed a 2-year-old sales contact or opportunity, think about Wayne Channon at Cells4Life.

By law, Cells4Life must keep records for 30 years AFTER a client relationship ends. The company is currently managing more than 20,000 contracts, and continues to grow rapidly.

Cells4Life is the first private firm in the United Kingdom to provide umbilical stem cell storage and collection services in the emerging and highly competitive market of regenerative medicine.

Revenues for stem cell products hit an estimated $6.5 billion in 2013, with more than 100 companies participating in the market. Back in 2006, there were just 17 stem cell product companies, and Cells4Life, a B2C-focused firm, was among them.

It is a highly personal business in which Cells4Life manages decades-long relationships that start with expectant parents on an emotional and scientific journey that could someday save the life of their children. The stem cells, taken just after birth from the umbilical cord, may be used to regenerate bone, muscle, cartilage and other specialised types of cells, and to treat diseases.

The Cells4Life contract includes a commitment to properly label, catalogue, and store the cells, and to provide adequate security gateways that keep confidential family identification away from those who work with the cell samples.

Considering compliance with government regulations, stringent European privacy laws, and the stewardship of potentially life-saving materials, the responsibilities at Cells4Life necessitate a system built to handle massive amounts of paperwork and data storage. Not to mention a flexible platform capable of managing the day-to-day processes of running such a company.

INTRODUCTION


ENTERPRISE-CAPABLE, FROM SALES TO LABORATORY MANAGEMENT

It was a huge task when Wayne began researching the move from a contacts database to a

CRM-enabled business platform that would take on most of the regulatory compliance and

privacy responsibilities, manage laboratory equipment and processes – from intake of cell

inventory to temperature logging and maintenance – and be an indispensable asset to sales

and marketing.

“Just for laboratory management systems, we were getting quotes ranging from $50,000 to

$800,000,” recalls Wayne, the Cells4Life chairman and a former IBM systems engineer.

He chose Sugar Professional because of its intuitive nature, scalability and easy

customisation.

“With Sugar, we have recreated expensive laboratory management systems with something

that was custom-made for us for a fraction of the cost,” Wayne says. “Our platform not only

has more functions than those we looked at, it is more powerful. It is the best laboratory

information management system I have ever seen, and we have hospitals now asking us if

they can use our system.”

While the laboratory management accomplishments are substantial for controlling costs and

meeting compliance standards, the components directly influencing the customer lifecycle

processes – from marketing to invoicing – also are showing substantial improvements.

The company has remained lean while growing revenue by automating many processes and

government-mandated standard operating procedures that otherwise would have added at

least five positions to the 30-person company.

From marketing automation to accounting, from legal to laboratory management, Cells4Life is

setting new horizons for data management and process automation through Sugar.

“Beginning to end Sugar runs our organisation,” says Channon.

CHALLENGE: Automate processes, including government and privacy compliance; increase data confidence; widen information

sharing without compromising security of clients’ personal information; manage the laboratory and business sides under a single platform.

SOLUTION: Sugar Professional, hosted on-site, deployed to 100% of the headquarters-based workforce.

RESULTS: Saved 20 staff hours per week by automating laboratory management; improved data storage and customer lifecycle

management; enhanced employee information sharing; continued revenue growth without additional staff.

“We have a huge conversion rate, and it is all because of Sugar.”

Wayne Channon Chairman


INCREASE WINS WITH SMART MARKETING, SALES PROCESSES

By pairing Sugar with marketing analytics from Google and DCStorm, Cells4Life is

increasing sales and creating a clearer picture of its customers.

From the time expectant parents first visit the Cells4Life website, DCStorm is tracking their

interests and feeding the information into Sugar: what pages they viewed, what information

they downloaded, the types of case studies they read.

That arms the Cells4Life sales staff, so that when an enquiry is made, a sales person knows

about the potential customer’s interests and can tailor the conversation.

Typically, potential customers can request information through a welcome pack or via the

“Contact Us” link.

As soon as a contact is made, Sugar sends a link for a downloadable information packet

about the company and the process, and tracks whether the parents return to the site

for more information. It also coordinates a drip marketing campaign in which the potential

customer gets a Sugar-generated email every two weeks.

“We have a huge conversion rate, and it is all because of Sugar,” says Wayne. “When

somebody requests a welcome pack, we convert a significant number of those. If they

come from our contacts page, we convert an even higher number.”

Once a sale is closed, Cells4Life uses Sugar and associated software integrations to complete

the process to get the expectant parents signed up and ready for the birth of their child.

The process involves a digital contract that is electronically signed by the parents, returned

and logged into Sugar; followed by a Sugar-generated invoice and a receipt of deposit,

which is posted within the customer’s account record.

Once those steps have been completed, Sugar generates an order to send out the kit that

will be used to extract and return the cord blood tissue sample to Cells4Life for catalouging

and storage.

The automation also has improved the client comfort level with the process of stem

cell collection.

Previously, Cells4Life printed and sent out the contract, and expectant parents – balancing

so many of the immediate details of daily life, pregnancy and an impending birth – would

forget to sign and return the critical document.

That created havoc at the time of birth, both for the parents and Cells4Life, and potentially

fostered unwanted legal exposure regarding the mother’s informed consent.

“People intend to sign the contract, but the baby comes two weeks early. The water has

broken and they want to sign now. We were recording telephone calls with women who

were in labour where we were reading a six-page maternal consent document and getting

them to agree orally,” says Wayne.

INTEGRATIONS

Google: Adwords and Remarketing

Drupal: lead acquisition via website

DCStorm: Multi-channel tracking

software, records website touchpoints

by user

DocuSign: electronic signature

functionality

Xero: invoicing

Eway: online payment gateway

“We have taken people out of having to do tasks that are now done by Sugar, and Sugar doesn’t get it wrong.”



“We have 2.5 times the staff in the laboratory, processing double the number of samples, but I haven’t had to double me.”

Rebecca Roberts Operations Director

“Today, when Sugar sends the document, they have time to read it on their tablet or

smartphone, talk about it, sign it and hit ‘send’ when it is done. It is much more pleasant for

all involved.”

Through Sugar, Cells4Life has created a smoother, more accurate process internally and

vastly improved the customer experience.

SAVE TIME, PROTECT REVENUE

From the ground up, Sugar is making a difference for Cells4Life employees.

Rebecca Roberts has worked at Cells4Life for a decade and was its first full-time

employee. Because she has done virtually every job in the place, she sees the

benefits of Sugar for every member of the Cells4Life team.

As operations manager, Rebecca oversees departments ranging from the

laboratory to human resources. All the workflow processes of the laboratory – from

regulatory compliance to tissue storage and handling – are under her eye.

Previously, she would spend three to four hours per day checking paperwork for

accuracy and regulatory compliance and to assure that all necessary documents

were entered in the system.

“I’m saving 20 hours per week, easily, and managing better because of Sugar,”

she says.

“I know exactly the maximum amount of time it takes a sample to go from Point A

to Point B, and I get an instant email notification the second it has gone over the

expected time,” Rebecca says.

Not all delays create crises, so Sugar prioritises the notifications for Rebecca,

drawing her immediate attention to mission-critical events. That also prevents

complications from errors that are compounded because they are not caught for

hours or days.

“If a problem arises, Sugar tells me, and I can take immediate action to prevent

extended consequences. I can capture a problem, work out the cause and put in

place effective corrections that are a long-term solution,” she says.

Sugar empowers her as a leader because she can pull reports on time gateways or

document logging, and adjust staff workloads or revise processes.

“The staff have a lot more confidence when I say, ‘You guys look like you are

running into problems.’ They know I am not going to sit down and spend hours

discussing it,” Rebecca says. “It means they can come to me and say, ‘You will

have seen we have had so many instances where this issue has occurred.’ And I

simply make the changes needed.”

CUSTOMIZATIONS

Laboratory Information Management

System – Residing within Sugar, this

system uses bar codes for inventory

management; monitors all processes

and environmental conditions within

the laboratory; handles the bulk of

regulatory compliance procedures; and

is built to track samples for 30 years

after the last client tissue sample has

been used or discarded.

Email and Print – Creates PDF letters

from email templates within contracts

process


Because the audit functions and trend-spotting are easier with Sugar, Cells4Life

managers can focus on improving processes, rather than identifying issues,

Rebecca says.

Ultimately, Rebecca knows Sugar’s scalability will meet her needs.

“Knowledge in the human tissue business moves on quickly and you have to be

reactive and make changes immediately. With Sugar, I don’t have to get a third

party involved in coding or creating a workaround,” Rebecca says.

Sugar has eased Rebecca’s daily workload and allowed her to take on more

functions within Cells4Life as the company has grown.

Says Rebecca: “From just a few years ago, we have 2.5 times the staff in the laboratory,

processing double the number of samples, but I haven’t had to double me.”

Through the creation of processes and protocols within Sugar, Cells4Life is saving

time and money, growing market share and retaining profitability in a growing and

competitive market.

REGULATORY COMPLIANT, AND BEYOND

When IT Director John Millis evaluated the CRM systems that might be suitable for

Cells4Life, his criteria included flexibility and security.

“We needed to automate the standard operating procedures required by

government – we are run by them and the overhead was killing us. The SOPs were

paralysing and prone to mistakes. We needed a way to remove that and scale the

organisation, and we got that in the modifications we made to Sugar,” John says.

“We wanted a system that could go beyond a customer management system. We

had the laboratory to think about, in addition to the usual business functions,” he

says. “Sugar allows us to customise and extend in any way we can come up with.”

Sugar’s ability to be deployed on-site gave it a leg up on some of the competition

that required cloud-based data storage.

“The regulatory standard operating procedures were paralyzing and costly. Using Sugar for automation, we removed that problem.”

John Millis IT Director


Because Cells4Life has to comply with numerous government regulations ranging

from health-care laws to data privacy standards – which can differ in the European

Union and the Middle East – John wanted the security Sugar on-site provided.

“We are dealing with a lot of personal information, human tissue samples, and we

didn’t want to have that information exposed in any way,” John says. “We have to

control who can access the data, how samples are stored, and what records are

tracking the environmental conditions in the laboratory at all times.”

Launching Sugar took about two months and included migrating more than 10,000

existing data files.

For John, who was with a multi-national telecom company for 15 years and had

become accustomed to corporate lethargy, the implementation’s speedy results

were an eye-opener.

“It was a ‘wow!’ moment for me because Sugar made us much more nimble

immediately,” he recalls.

Wayne adds: “With the ability to integrate different modules, Sugar is amazingly

powerful. It is so flexible. We didn’t think we would be able to automate so many

processes so easily. As a small business and we need all the help we can get, and

Sugar has made a huge difference to our business.”

SOLUTION PARTNER

The customised deployment at Cells4Life

has been developed, implemented, and

managed by Enable Technologies, the

oldest SugarCRM Partner in Europe.

Focusing solely on SugarCRM, Enable

Technologies provide Sugar consultancy,

licensing, hosting, training, development,

migration and integration with third party

systems. Enable Technologies has been

named a Three-Star VAR Award Winner

and Platinum Partner by SugarCRM.

+44 (0) 1473 618980

[email protected]

www.enablecrm.co.uk

“With Sugar, we have recreated expensive laboratory management systems with something that was custom-made for us for a fraction of the cost. It is the best laboratory information management system I have ever seen, and we have hospitals now asking us if they can use our system.”


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www.sugarcrm.com

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THIS IS HOW i CRM: Cells4Life Builds Trust, Security...

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