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
Cells4Life - 3SugarCRM
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
Cells4Life - 4SugarCRM
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.”
Wayne Channon Chairman
Cells4Life - 5SugarCRM
“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
Cells4Life - 6SugarCRM
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
Cells4Life - 7SugarCRM
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
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.”
Wayne Channon Chairman
10050 North Wolfe Road | SW2-130 Cupertino, CA 95014 T: 408.454.6900 | F: 408.873.2872 [email protected]
SugarCRM Deutschland GmbH Erika-Mann-Strasse 53 | 80636 Munich | Germany T: +49 (0) 89 1 89 17 20 00 | F: +49 (0) 89 1 89 17 21 50 [email protected]
www.sugarcrm.com
Copyright © 2014 SugarCRM, Inc. All rights reserved. SugarCRM and the SugarCRM logo are registered trademarks of SugarCRM, Inc. in the United States, the European Union and other countries. All other trademarks are the properties of their respective companies.
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