Pultex GmbH

Since 2019, SMARTCRM has been supporting sales field and office staff at Pultex. With the introduction of a CRM system, the company wanted to create more transparency for all employees, especially in the field. For instance, no project nor offer should be lost from sight anymore. In the course of the CRM selection process, however, Pultex discovered that software offered on the market often did not meet the company’s requirements or that the functionalities could not map the work processes.

On the contrary, SMARTCRM impressed Pultex on several levels: both the clear focus on customer relationship management and the flexibility of the CRM system were convincing. The modular structure and individual configuration options ensure extensions and customer-specific adjustments at any time, even after installation. SMARTCRM scored as CRM manufacturer as well as with optimal support during sales process and beyond. Thomas Bongard, Managing director at Pultex GmbH summarizes the selection process: “Actually, a CRM software for our trading company was already overdue. However, choosing the right software proved to be very difficult. Because usually there are only rough solutions from software manufacturers that have nothing to do with reality. SMARTCRM, on the other hand, focuses only on CRM and not also on enterprise resource planning, financial accounting, etc.”

Interface to ERP system Sage 100

The ERP system Sage 100 was quickly and easily connected to SMARTCRM via a standard interface. Customers, suppliers, products, quotations including positions, samples as well as figures – turnovers or order backlog items and open items – are automatically transferred from Sage using this. Like the CRM system itself, the functions of the interface can be customized. Fine-tuning and enhancements are thus possible at any time, even retrospectively. This also convinces Pultex Managing Director Thomas Bongard: “The interface is great because the possibilities here are also unlimited.”

BI evaluations on the screen in one click

The figures are not only imported from the ERP system, but are also evaluated by SMARTCRM at different levels. Before the CRM implementation, analyses had to be sent out to employees in a time-consuming manner and detailed evaluations were not possible. Thomas Bongard describes the situation before SMARTCRM as follows: “The sales representatives used to receive various lists and evaluations from which they had to gather information. Today, all employees can call up exactly the current analyses they need at any time and thus recognize developments and potentials more quickly. With SMARTCRM, sales figures as well as offers and project information can be retrieved down to the smallest detail and at extreme speed.”

Planning tours, tracking activities

The field staff also benefits from this information gain, as all CRM data is available to them on their notebook via offline access. CRM support is particularly important for Pultex‘s field service when it comes to consistently tracking activities, such as sending quotations or consumer inquiries and planning tours. SMARTCRM ensures both: for instance, the customers to be visited within a tour can be visualized in Bing Maps in order to plan the optimal route there. The corresponding appointments are conveniently created with a click in the SMARTCRM.Organizer and planned activities are created in the customer file. Thus, the employees always keep track of their upcoming and past tours. After a visit, the sales representative conveniently documents the report in the activity and sends tasks, for example, for writing quotations, sending samples or information material. With the help of reminders and due dates, these are tracked until completion. This means that no outstanding response from the customer or prospective customer is lost and employees are always informed about the current status of communication thanks to the seamless activity history.

For Pultex Managing director, Thomas Bongard, the benefits SMARTCRM has brought to his sales department are clearly visible: “ We were able to optimize our sales processes and make them more efficient. Before the CRM implementation, information was managed with Microsoft Excel, Word, OneNote, Outlook and via various apps and stored in different places. Now, we have all data centrally in one system. This allows us to obtain comprehensive information about a customer – from sales trends to open quotations to purchased machines. The central documentation of all activities and their traceability are also a great benefit for us. Simply, no information is lost anymore.”

100 percent acceptance of SMARTCRM

Since Pultex is also extremely pleased with the user-friendliness of the CRM solution, it does not come as a surprise that SMARTCRM is accepted by the employee with no exception. According to managing director Thomas Bongard, working without the CRM software is no longer an option at Pultex. For the near future, the company therefore also plans to exploit the full potential that SMARTCRM has to offer and for example also connect the marketing department. “Sooner or later, we will use all SMARTCRM modules.”