Case Study: SDN Technologies
Business Issue:
SDN Technologies is a division of South Dakota Network (SDN) Communications, one of the largest broadband providers in the upper mid-west region. Founded over 20 years ago, SDN Communications provides telecommunications services for over 400 businesses. With a network of over 21,000 miles of fiber optics extending into eight states in the United States, SDN strives to connect people by offering a strong commitment to service.
In early 2010, SDN realized it had outgrown its existing CRM solution. The homegrown system consisted of spreadsheets and manual note-taking supported by an industry standard solution. The system’s inability to support its business led to inaccurate reporting and results; inefficient tracking and billing processes; and an overall lack of visibility into its operations.
Requirements:
- Ease of use that supported use of internal IT resources
- Flexible solution that can be tailored to support specific industry needs
- Quick deployment for immediate user adoption
- Mobile access to increase efficiency of field service teams
- Cost-effective system to support order tracking and service ticket management
- Include accounting services such as financial tracking and billing
Solution:
SDN ultimately decided on SugarCRM for its ability to scale and adapt to SDN’s specific requirements. It began a phased-implementation of Sugar Professional with the help of DataSync, a Sugar solutions partner. The combined efforts of SDN and DataSync resulted in an implementation period of less than 60 days, with a roll-out to its customer service team and offsite technicians.
Benefits:
- Eliminated Manual process and shortened billing cycles by 10 – 15 days.
- Increased billable service hours by 7.5 percent with Sugar Professional and Microsoft Outlook Integration.
- Increased billable expenses by 15 percent with improved field expense tracking using Sugar Mobile on the Blackberry
- Created custom order-ticketing module that manages an average of 500 service calls per month
