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Online Collaboration
Real Results Report
Accelerating business with
online collaboration
Four case studies
WebEx Communications, Inc.
3979 Freedom Circle,
Santa Clara, CA 95054 USA
Main: +1.408.435.7000
Sales: +1.877.509.3239
Online Collaboration Real Results Report
Introduction
Online collaboration is accelerating the way organizations do business
On any given day, companies experience changes inside and outside
their corporate borders that affect the way they go to market, sell products,
manage their operations, or comply with new regulatory mandates. In fact,
corporate success is often a result of responding to changes quickly,
effectively, and comprehensively. Fundamental to any business is the
dynamic nature in which it operates. The frenzied rate of market change
requires employees to access, collaborate, and act on growing amounts
of information in less time.
You know that old saying “time is money”; in some industries, like healthcare
and government, the saying would be “time is life.” Time-critical business
knowledge is valuable and must be shared quickly throughout the workforce.
Therefore, the need to distribute important information immediately is critical.
Knowledge rapidly gathered, developed, internalized, and applied within a
company translates directly to competitive advantage.
The possibilities with collaborating online
Online collaboration makes it possible for organizations to stretch resources,
eliminate logistical barriers, and transform online initiatives into strategic lines
of business. Business users can now rapidly inform and update dispersed
audiences on the latest product updates and initiatives inside and outside
the organization. They can also edit, archive, and store sessions in an online
library, giving geographically dispersed audiences instant on-demand
access to this valuable information.
Online collaboration makes it possible to:
• Quickly meet with and update employees throughout the organization
on process changes, product rollouts, regulatory compliance, and new
initiatives without juggling travel schedules.
• Shorten sales cycles by educating prospects and customers faster.
• Create more effective channel partners by providing more frequent and
cost-effective training while avoiding stale, canned presentations and
expensive face-to-face trips. Use online solutions for trainer interaction,
side conversations, and small group activities that boost effectiveness.
• Improve customer service and satisfaction by quickly and remotely
diagnosing and solving problems.
• Integrate surveys, tests, and interaction into online meetings and assess
the impact of materials and presentation instantly. Track performance, and
offer encouragement and support using a variety of online testing and
collaboration components.
• Generate revenue or help with resource accounting using self-service
registration and e-commerce payment features. Offer paid on-demand content in a secure, reliable environment with no additional capital expenditures.
• Can you imagine turning your cost center into a profit center?
Online Collaboration Real Results Report
Accelerating business processes with online collaboration
When business professionals first started implementing online meeting
solutions a few years ago, it was mainly to reduce costs by saving time
and money on travel. Then, business users found they could expand their
reach and do more with less. The trend has been for leaders to push online
solutions to not only save time and travel, but to embed these solutions into
actual business processes that impact the way the organization works. These
leaders are implementing online collaboration solutions inside groups like
product management, sales, marketing, training, customer support, services,
legal, and much more (see below).
Note: This list was compiled from a recent survey of 341 WebEx customers
who were asked how online meetings impact their businesses and bottom
line inside their organizations.
• Get products to market faster.
• Expand reach and meet with geographical teams more often.
• Develop more effective and efficient sales teams.
• Slash sales cycles by educating prospects and customers faster.
• Improve customer service and satisfaction.
• Create more effective channel partners.
• Reduce support costs by training customers.
• Protect company by staying compliant.
• Shorten the time for application rollouts.
• Make it easy for subject matter experts to interact with geographically
dispersed audiences.
Examples of companies accelerating core business processes
ADI Time slashed onsite client visits by 90% and expanded market reach
using Cisco WebEx solutions.
Curbstone Corporation reached a 99% close rate after adopting WebEx
meetings to conduct pre-sale presentations to prospects.
Kline and Company, Inc. shortened sales cycles and increased conversion
rates by transforming its sales process using WebEx meetings.
Objective Management increased its customer base to 5,000 by using
WebEx meetings to roll out new products faster, accelerate reseller training,
and extend market reach.
Cisco WebEx ADI Time
Case Study
“WebEx enables us to access clients’ environments and
troubleshoot issues immediately. We answer client support
requests within 30 minutes, while our competitors can take
up to a full day to respond.”
—Lori Bello, Client Services Manager, ADI Time
ADI Time gains business efficiencies and client
loyalty with WebEx.
Customer and industry
ADI Time, high tech
Cisco WebEx services
WebEx Meeting Center, Training
Center, Support Center
Summary
ADI Time wanted to find an efficient
way to work with prospective
and existing global customers
on an ongoing basis. ADI Time
implemented WebEx solutions
throughout its sales, technical
support, and training organizations.
As a result, the company’s client
response times are now a fraction
of its competitors’, fostering greater
client loyalty and increasing sales.
WebEx also optimized ADI Time’s
resources by cutting client site visits
by 90% and expanding customer
reach. With only one trainer on staff,
ADI Time strengthened its training
offerings while providing eLearning
convenience to clients.
About ADI Time
• Line of business:
Time and attendance solutions
• Headquarters:
East Providence, RI
• Number of employees:
45
• Target market:
Mid-size enterprises
• WebEx customer since 2000
Founded in 1983, ADI Time is a leading
developer of time and attendance solutions that help thousands of businesses
worldwide successfully manage their
workforces. Designed for a wide variety
of workforce management needs, ADI
Time solutions address the most complex
challenges facing labor-intensive industries today. The solutions integrate easily
with popular human resource, financial
management, and payroll software —
resulting in tangible savings and improved
productivity for clients everywhere.
The challenge
With clients spread throughout the nation
and across the world, ADI Time wanted to
find an efficient way to work with prospective and existing customers on an ongoing
basis. “To perform software implementation and sales calls, our staff had to travel
to client sites, and spent several days a
week on the road,” recalls Lori Bello, Client
Services Manager at ADI Time. The company tried to interact remotely with clients
by implementing some of the connectivity
applications on the market at the time. Bello
explains, “In the late 1990’s, we tried PC
Anywhere and different DOS programs, but
the slow performance of these early software packages made it difficult to share
our applications with clients.” In addition,
ADI Time wanted to provide remote technical support to clients and value-added
resellers located across the globe, from
New Zealand to Kuwait. As web-based
meeting applications entered the market,
ADI Time began searching for a strong
online collaboration and support tool.
The solution
In 2000, Bello researched web-based
meeting solutions on the Internet and
found WebEx. “WebEx technology was far
more advanced than any other solution on
the market. We chose WebEx because it
was clearly the industry leader,” she says.
WebEx ease of use and sophisticated
reporting functionality were also important
factors for ADI Time. “We knew that WebEx
reports could provide us with metrics to
help us streamline our sales and support
processes,” she says.
ADI Time initially implemented WebEx
Meeting Center for pre- and post-sales
activities. Today, the sales team uses
Meeting Center to conduct product demonstrations, which consist of one-on-one
meetings with clients. According to Bello,
“We set up sample databases, making it
possible for clients to touch and feel our
systems via WebEx. WebEx also enables
our sales team to conduct joint sales calls
with VARs and their clients when needed.”
In addition, the company conducts weekly
and bi-weekly calls with new clients to
guide them through every stage of product
implementation. “With WebEx, we’re in constant communication with our clients, even
if we only talk for half an hour to check on
their implementation. Our clients can have
as many people on the call as needed.
They feel well-supported, and we can
ensure they use our products successfully,” explains Bello.
“Thanks to WebEx, our technicians now travel to client sites maybe
once out of every ten software implementations. This 90% cut in travel
translates into a huge productivity gain. And because our sales team
conducts almost all demos via WebEx, they now make more sales calls
each day, increasing the number of prospects they reach.”
—Lori Bello, Client Services Manager, ADI Time
Soon after implementing Meeting Center,
ADI Time adopted WebEx Support Center
for its technical support organization. The
company now uses the WebEx Remote
Support module within Support Center
to provide extensive technical support to
700 clients, as well as second and third-tier
support to twelve value-added resellers
worldwide. “WebEx enables our technical support staff to see client problems
onscreen, greatly facilitating troubleshooting. Now they solve issues instantly,”
says Bello.
Most recently, ADI Time employed WebEx
Training Center to facilitate client trainings.
“Our trainer was using WebEx Meeting
Center for trainings for quite some time
but then we realized Training Center would
better support our growing needs,” says
Bello. Today, ADI Time offers monthly
WebEx trainings that are open to all existing clients. These hour-long sessions
highlight key product features and attract
up to 70 attendees at a time. The trainer
records the sessions and posts them on a
password-protected section of the corporate website for clients to access at their
convenience. In addition, ADI Time uses
WebEx to conduct complete one-on-one
trainings with new clients. “We typically
have a copy of the clients’ configured databases, and we train them on our software
by showing them their own data onscreen
during a WebEx session,” says Bello.
The benefits
WebEx ensures ADI Time consistently
delivers on its commitment to high-quality
client service, resulting in a competitive
edge as well as increased sales. “WebEx
enables us to access clients’ environments
and troubleshoot issues immediately. We
answer client support requests within 30
minutes, while our competitors can take up
to a full day to respond,” says Bello. WebEx
reinforces the company’s reputation for
being highly responsive to client needs,
further strengthening customer relationships. “By enabling us to deliver excellent
customer service, WebEx helps us cultivate client loyalty. Some of our clients have
been with us for ten years. They provide
repeat business as well as great referrals
that help us generate even more sales,”
she says.
WebEx also dramatically reduced the
need for travel at ADI Time, optimizing
technical support, implementation, sales
and training resources, and increasing
overall productivity. “Thanks to WebEx,
our technicians now travel to client sites
maybe once out of every ten software
implementations. This 90% cut in travel
translates into a huge productivity gain.
And because our sales team conducts
almost all demos via WebEx, they now
make more sales calls each day, increasing the number of prospects they reach,”
states Bello.
Highlights
• WebEx ensures ADI Time consistently delivers on its commitment to high-quality service,
resulting in a competitive edge, greater client loyalty, and increased sales.
• WebEx optimized ADI Time’s technical support, sales, and training resources by cutting client
site visits by 90% and increasing customer reach.
• Using WebEx, ADI Time improved the efficiency of its training programs, expanding its offerings
with only one trainer on staff and providing maximum client convenience.
As a result of using WebEx, ADI Time has
improved the efficiency and convenience
of its training programs. “WebEx enables
us to break our trainings into short twohour sessions. We have increased the
number and frequency of training sessions with only one trainer on staff, and our
clients are pleased that their employees
don’t have to dedicate an entire day to
training. They can learn how to use our
products without leaving their desks,”
she says.
The future
As ADI Time continues to grow its workforce, it intends to continue expanding
WebEx usage. “Over the next couple of
years, we hope to add more implementers, trainers, tech support staff, and sales
people who will all use WebEx,” says Bello.
She also plans to use WebEx reports more
extensively to gain better visibility into client support activities. “The reports will help
us determine which clients are using our
technical support services and the length
of each support call,” she says. In reviewing
ADI Time’s experience with WebEx, Bello
states that the company is very pleased.
“Our relationship with WebEx is great.
WebEx is always offering new services
that we find very useful. We look forward
to continuing to leverage all WebEx has to
offer to support our growth.”
Cisco WebEx Curbstone Corporation
Case Study
“WebEx has absolutely helped us eliminate any of the doubt that
normally causes prospect fallout between the time of first contact
and order completion—resulting in an impressive 99% close rate
on deals.”
—Toni Pattison, Inside Sales Supervisor, Curbstone Corporation
Curbstone credits revenue growth and service
excellence to WebEx.
Customer and industry
Curbstone Corporation, high tech
Cisco WebEx services
WebEx Meeting Center and
Support Center
Summary
Curbstone needed a way to deliver
complex information more effectively
to prospective customers. Curbstone
now uses WebEx Meeting Center to
conduct visual pre-sale presentations,
helping the company achieve a 99%
close rate. With WebEx Support
Center, Curbstone works with
customers online to resolve issues
quickly, remotely, and securely. Thanks
to WebEx, Curbstone people now
work smarter and more efficiently,
enabling the company to double its
revenues in one year with minimal
additional staff.
About Curbstone Corporation
• Line of business:
Independent software vendor
• Headquarters:
Ball Ground, GA
• Number of employees:
14
• Target market:
Companies using IBM AS/400
midrange systems
• WebEx customer since 2005
Curbstone Corporation develops, sells,
and supports credit card processing
software for the IBM AS/400 (iSeries, System i) midrange platform. The company’s
specialized platform expertise provides a
distinct advantage over competitors, and is
the primary reason companies of all sizes
deploy Curbstone solutions as part of their
mission-critical operations. Curbstone
customers include industry leaders such as
Conde Nast Publications, MIT Press, New
York Life, Rand McNally, Swiss Army Brands,
Terminix, and travelocity.com.
The challenge
Curbstone Corporation’s growth strategy
focuses on increasing efficiency, not head
count. In the early days of the company,
Curbstone sales people qualified pro
pects, then set up a phone conference to
conduct a more formal “needs analysis”
as the next step in the sales process.
However, conveying complex transaction
processing concepts and complicated
industry merchant rules to prospects
was highly challenging. Curbstone
President, Ira Chandler, took the lead in
the phone conference, painting tedious
“word pictures” about the process and the
software to describe specific applications.
“Unfortunately, after the teleconference,
prospects retained about 5% of what they
heard,” he says. Chandler wanted to make
a more visual, compelling presentation,
reduce the number of follow-up questions
from prospects, and accelerate the sales
process. “I needed to find the right tool to
help my small staff grow sales volume,”
says Chandler.
The solution
To accomplish its goals, Curbstone decided
to move to web conferencing for its sales
presentations. Curbstone evaluated
GoToMeeting, iLinc, Microsoft NetMeeting,
and virtually every other provider before
selecting WebEx. Only WebEx offered the
brand recognition and reliability Curbstone
needed for its specialized market. “Our software is mission critical for companies, so it’s
paramount that customers have the highest
confidence in our company as well as the
tools we use to collaborate with them. Since
WebEx is universally recognized for web
collaboration, our customers feel comfortable using it,” states Chandler. In addition,
Curbstone needed a solution that would
work properly and consistently on hundreds
of different machine configurations. “I have
never found any software as reliable at
establishing user connections as WebEx.
We have complete confidence going into
a conference that it’ll work correctly every
time,” says Chandler.
Curbstone selected WebEx Meeting Center
to streamline its sales process, enabling
the company to convey information visually
to prospects for the first time. Now, Curbstone’s three sales people qualify leads by
phone, and then direct prospects to fill out
an online needs analysis on their current
credit card processes. Next, the Curbstone
salesperson schedules a one-hour WebEx
conference to conduct an in-depth customer sales presentation and needs analysis. According to Chandler, “Credit card
processing is an art, not a science. WebEx
enables us to customize presentations
easily to match each customer's industry
type and unique business process.
“We doubled our revenue in one year while adding only two
employees. We attribute our ability to do this to WebEx.”
— Toni Pattison, Inside Sales Supervisor, Curbstone Corporation
We dynamically select from over 100
standard slides to present the set of 20
or 30 best-suited to each prospect.” He
adds, “With WebEx, we also impact the
broad spectrum of decision-makers all
at once—from accounting and customer
service to IT management and programmers.” Once a quote is generated, and
the software licensed, WebEx helps
Curbstone jump-start new customers with
formal implementation kick-off meetings. Curbstone project managers use
WebEx Meeting Center to guide customers through a complete implementation
plan, identifying the unique milestones for
each client’s particular installation. WebEx
Meeting Center also helps foster staff
collaboration since Curbstone employees
telecommute from home offices. “WebEx
helps us develop a sense of community
within the company. We use it to encourage interaction among employees as
well as to collaborate on projects.” Today,
Curbstone employees confidently rely
on WebEx to help get the job done better
and faster.
To improve business efficiency even further, Curbstone implemented WebEx Support Center Remote Support for secure,
remote support. Because Curbstone software is independently audited—ensuring
it adheres to the Payment Card Industry’s
“Best Practices Security Standards”—
customers expect the company to employ
state-of-the-art, secure tools. “In today’s
securityconscious environment, older
methods of gaining access to customer
systems have become problematic.
With its SSL encryption, WebEx Support
Center enables us to access customer
systems securely without entering a
company’s virtual private network (VPN),”
says Chandler. Now, customers show
Curbstone their issues on-screen, and
watch the tech support staff resolve them.
“Using WebEx for support is standard
for us,” explains Chandler. “The old ‘Type
this command’ and ‘What do you see’ is
archaic now. WebEx enables fast, efficient
service at the first hint of a problem.”
The benefits
WebEx Meeting Center streamlined the
sales process at Curbstone, enabling the
company to improve communications
and generate phenomenal revenue with
a small staff. “We doubled our revenue in
one year while adding only two employees. We attribute our ability to do this to
WebEx,” says Chandler. WebEx helps
Curbstone convey complex processes
visually, instead of drowning prospects
with words. “WebEx has absolutely helped
us eliminate any of the doubt that normally
causes prospect fallout between the time
of first contact and order completion—
resulting in an impressive 99% close rate
on deals,” adds Chandler. Equally compelling for Chandler is the value Curbstone gets from WebEx Support Center.
Curbstone now processes support issues
much faster, while increasing the level
of customer service it provides. “It’s just
another reason WebEx is worth every
Highlights
• Curbstone boasts a 99% sales close rate for prospects who attend a WebEx needs
analysis presentation.
• WebEx Support Center enables Curbstone to deliver highly efficient and secure customer
service remotely.
• WebEx Meeting Center streamlined the sales process at Curbstone, enabling it to double
its revenues in one year while adding only two employees.
penny,” comments Chandler. “We don’t
sell support or implementation services.
When a customer licenses our software,
they get unlimited technical support.
Because we’re not billable, we need to be
especially efficient. Curbstone provides
24/7/365 support to an installed base of
approximately 200 customers—with only
three front-line support technicians. While
this is a testament to the reliability of our
software, it also highlights the extreme
efficiency of WebEx-based support.”
The future
Going forward, Curbstone plans to leverage WebEx to further improve company
efficiency and service to the client. For
instance, the company is considering
conducting portions of the kick-off meetings using pre-recorded WebEx presentations. Curbstone is also thinking about
using WebEx during the lead qualification
process. “Using a WebEx presentation
will ensure consistency of the information
we deliver to every lead,” says Chandler.
He summarizes the many positive effects
of using WebEx at Curbstone. “Without
a doubt, WebEx enables our company
to operate more efficiently, appear more
capable to prospects and customers, provide a higher level of customer service and
support, and make the sales process more
efficient.” As Curbstone continues its successful growth, WebEx is there to help it
do more with less. “I can’t imagine growing
this company at this rate without WebEx,”
concludes Chandler.
Cisco WebEx Kline and Company
Case Study
“When we launched our new database product, we converted
100% of our prospects into sales within 30 days by conducting
WebEx demos.”
—Jim Weatherall, Senior Vice President for Kline Research Group
Kline & Company transforms global processes
with WebEx.
Customer and industry
Kline & Company, global
management consulting and
market research
Cisco WebEx services
WebEx Event Center, Meeting Center,
Production Services
Summary
Kline & Company needed to improve
global customer interaction, expedite
project turnaround times, and reduce
expenses. Using WebEx Meeting
Center, Kline increased the quality
and frequency of project interaction,
engaging customers throughout
project lifecycles and improving
communication without travel.
WebEx Event Center transformed
Kline’s sales process, slashing
sales cycles and increasing
conversion rates dramatically
while boosting productivity.
About Kline & Company
• Line of business:
Global management consulting and
market research
• Headquarters:
Little Falls, NJ
• Number of employees:
110
• Target market:
Chemical and materials, consumer
product, and energy and life science industries
• WebEx customer since 2003
Established in 1959, Kline & Company, Inc.
provides leading management consulting
and market research services to the world’s
largest multinational companies, as well as
local and regional start-up firms. Whether
supporting growth initiatives or demands
for improved business performance, Kline
management consulting services offer
practical solutions based on robust analysis
and close collaboration with client teams
across the globe. Kline’s market research
group provides a variety of comprehensive
reports and services covering the industrial,
professional, and consumer sectors.
The challenge
In 2001, Kline & Company began looking
for a way to improve global client outreach.
The company’s consulting assignments
normally require frequent meetings with
clients during every project stage, but travel
was becoming increasingly challenging.
“Constant travel was financially unfeasible,
and adhering to timelines was difficult.
We needed a solution that would help
us reduce operation costs and expedite
project turnaround times for teams that
spanned the globe,” says John Hadley,
Director of IT for Kline & Company. “We
wanted everyone to have the same meeting
experience virtually, as if we were all sitting
in one room.”
The solution
Kline heard about WebEx through MCI.
“We began using WebEx as part of our
MCI teleconference package but as our
needs grew, we needed a fully integrated
web collaboration solution,” recalls Hadley.
Kline evaluated Raindance, 1,2,3 GO, and
Microsoft Live Meeting. “Live Meeting had
operating system limitations and required
specific software to make it work. WebEx,
on the other hand, is platform independent
and doesn’t require software installation on
client computers,” he says. Working directly
with WebEx also provided additional
benefits, including integrated telephony,
integration with MS Outlook, and a Klinebranded portal site from which users
launch WebEx solutions.
Initially, Kline used WebEx Meeting Center
within its management consulting group to
facilitate client and project team interactions.
“More than 75% of our projects have clients
and management teams spread across
the world,” explains Tom Aldred, Director
of Customer Engagements for Kline
Management Consulting. Kline manages
approximately 40 projects at one time with
three to six people working on each. “Each
project team meets approximately 20 times
over the duration of the project, which
normally lasts three months on average.
That’s 800 global meetings, and we conduct
all of them using WebEx,” says Aldred.
“With the types of time, geographic, and efficiency challenges
our company and our customers are facing, the only logical
solution is WebEx.”
—John Hadley, Director of IT, Kline & Company
Kline soon expanded WebEx into its
market research group, adopting WebEx
Event Center for pre- and post-sales
activities. “Now we host a 30-minute
WebEx seminar for every study we
produce and reach up to 50 prospects at
a time,” says Jim Weatherall, Senior Vice
President for Kline Research Group. The
seminars start the group’s sales cycle
by generating interested leads. “WebEx
seminars often lead to one-on-one
online meetings or in-person visits by
our sales team,” he explains. For existing
subscribers, Kline’s market research group
conducts one-hour WebEx sessions to
review reports in detail, giving customers
the opportunity to interact with Kline
project managers. “These WebEx events
help us maintain lasting relationships
with our customers by ensuring they use
their reports on an ongoing basis,” says
Weatherall. In addition, Kline records all
Event Center sessions and posts them
on the company website, enabling both
existing subscribers and new prospects
to view them at their convenience.
To create professional online events, Kline
turned to WebEx Production Services.
“Initially, we tried to produce an event
on our own and found that there were
more components than we realized,”
says Hadley. The WebEx Production
Services team worked with Kline through
every stage of the event, providing
presentation scripting, on-hold music,
and a professional moderator.
Today, Kline also uses WebEx
enterprisewide for internal company
communications. “Our telecommuting
corporate culture and distributed global
enterprise make WebEx an essential tool
for us,” explains Hadley. Kline uses WebEx
for all types of interactions, including
quarterly and sales meetings. “There is not
one meeting at Kline that does not have a
WebEx component,” he remarks. Recently,
Kline also added WebEx WebOffice
to facilitate file sharing with associates
around the world, without having to
connect through the corporate VPN.
With WebEx, Kline increased the quality
and frequency of customer interaction
significantly, engaging customers
comfortably throughout their projects.
“Without incurring additional costs or time
commitments, our teams now conduct four
interim project meetings with customers
instead of one. Frequent WebEx meetings
ensure we deliver what the customer
expects,” he says. “With the types of time,
geographic, and efficiency challenges our
company and our customers are facing,
the only logical solution is WebEx,”
Hadley remarks.
The benefits
WebEx transformed Kline’s sales process,
shortening sales cycles and increasing
conversion rates dramatically while
boosting productivity. “WebEx increased
our market reach by enabling us to
present our offerings to 12 people at a
time, on average. Visiting each person
individually would take us months,” says
Weatherall. Recently, Kline started using
Meeting Center to demo its new products.
“When we launched our new database
product, we converted 100% of our
prospects into sales within 30 days by
conducting WebEx demos,” he says. Using
WebEx has improved sales efficiency
as well. “WebEx streamlines our sales
process, makes us more productive, and
yields faster success,” states Weatherall.
The future
With WebEx serving as the company’s
core communications infrastructure, Kline
plans to continue leveraging the solution
to support global expansion. “We recently
opened new offices in Shanghai, Delhi,
and Prague, and as we continue to grow,
we’d like to use WebEx for new employee
training,” says Hadley. Kline is investigating
the addition of WebEx Training Center
for internal and customer training and
WebEx Support Center to provide better
technical support to international offices.
The company is also exploring the WebEx
multipoint video capability to replace
its existing videoconferencing system.
Hadley concludes, “As the complexity of
our organization, our customers, and our
projects increases, we will rely on WebEx
even more. WebEx is a much more effective
way of doing business.”
Highlights
• WebEx Event Center transformed Kline’s sales process, shortening sales cycles and increasing
conversion rates dramatically while boosting productivity.
• Using WebEx Meeting Center, Kline increased the quality and frequency of project interaction
significantly, engaging customers and improving team communication.
• WebEx serves as Kline’s core communications infrastructure, used for nearly every internal, project,
and sales meeting the company conducts.
Cisco WebEx Objective Management Group, Inc.
Case Study
“By expanding our geographic reach, WebEx helped us build our
business to 5000 customers around the globe. WebEx solutions
are part of our company culture.”
—Dave Kurlan, Founder and CEO, Objective Management Group, Inc.
Objective Management grows global customer
base with WebEx.
Customer and industry
Objective Management Group, Inc.,
sales training consultancy
Cisco WebEx services
WebEx Meeting Center, Training
Center, Event Center
Summary
With resellers and clients located
around the globe, Objective
Management Group wanted to roll
out new products faster, accelerate
reseller training, and reach prospects
and customers more easily. The
company adopted WebEx Meeting
Center, Training Center, and Event
Center to support reseller sales
and product training, reach out
to its market, and deliver keynote
speeches remotely to executive
groups. As a result, Objective
Management Group was able to
grow its customer base rapidly,
while saving time and boosting
employee productivity.
About Objective Management
Group, Inc.
• Line of business:
Sales force evaluations, sales
candidate screening
• Headquarters:
Westborough, MA
• Number of employees:
10
• Target market:
TBD
• WebEx customer since 2000
Founded in 1990, Objective Management
Group, Inc. is the pioneer and industry
leader in sales force evaluations and
sales candidate screening. The company’s
sales candidate evaluations, Express
Screens, have proven to be an accurate
predictor of sales success in a variety of
industries. Founder and CEO Dave Kurlan
is the author of Baseline Selling and
gives frequent keynote speeches
on sales and sales management to
audiences worldwide.
The challenge
In 2000, Objective Management Group
realized it needed to improve training
delivery and strengthen reseller sales.
“We have an unusual, but successful
go-to-market model,” says Dave Kurlan,
Founder and CEO. “We interact directly
with end-users but rely on authorized
resellers to perform evaluations and
screenings and present the results to
customers. For this model to be effective, we must deliver excellent sales and
product training to our resellers.” With
120 resellers in countries as widespread
as South Africa, Hungary, and Lebanon,
Objective Management had to travel
constantly. “On average, we conducted
in-person trainings in five cities over a
three-week period every month,” recalls
Kurlan. Objective Management needed a
way to save time and increase productivity.
The solution
Throughout its history, Objective Management has taken a proactive approach to
business technology acquisition. Explains
Kurlan, “We’re always looking for the next
leading-edge technology to help us grow
our business.” As Kurlan recounts it, one
of his associates had evaluated WebEx
Meeting Center and was impressed by
its capabilities. “Our first foray into WebEx
was almost accidental, though,” he says.
“We were on our way to conduct a regional
training session in Los Angeles and experienced flight delays that kept us at the
airport in Pennsylvania. We called WebEx
and, within minutes, had our meeting room
set up and everyone connected. WebEx
even provided someone to sit in on the
session in case we needed help.”
After this initial success, Objective
Management rapidly expanded its use of
WebEx. According to Kurlan, “We knew
that WebEx Meeting Center would enable
us to expand our training program. We
started with monthly regional trainings,
then moved to bi-weekly and finally, weekly
sessions.” Today, the company also uses
Meeting Center to host promotional web
conferences for potential clients. In addition, Objective Management frequently
joins resellers in WebEx presentations to
clients, helping resellers clarify or expand
on sales force evaluation findings when
necessary. “WebEx makes it easy for us to
reinforce the service resellers provide our
customers,” says Kurlan.
“WebEx made it possible for us to eliminate in-person trainings
and use the time saved on travel to generate more revenue.”
—Dave Kurlan, Founder and CEO, Objective Management Group, Inc.
When WebEx introduced WebEx Training
Center and Event Center to the market,
Objective Management recognized it
could leverage these solutions to meet
specific needs more effectively. “Every fall,
I participate in a speaking tour hosted by
our resellers. Now, I conduct an increasing
number of my keynote speeches through
WebEx Event Center, reaching 100 to
200 CEOs at once. WebEx enables me to
continue participating in these unparalleled sales opportunities while lightening
my travel schedule,” says Kurlan. WebEx
Training Center has had an equally positive effect. “Training Center is especially
designed for online training delivery, and
our resellers have noticed. They feel as
if they are in the classroom with us,”
says Kurlan.
The robust capabilities within WebEx
make it easy for Objective Management to
schedule and host online meetings, while
creating an engaging audience experience. “The user interface is so simple,”
notes Kurlan, “that it tends to overcome
resistance from users who are not so
technologically savvy.” In addition, Objective Management uses a number of WebEx
interactive features, such as polling, chat,
and white boarding. “I usually poll participants two or three times during the course
of a session to keep them engaged,”
remarks Kurlan. Participants ask their
questions via chat. “During the second
half of the session, I use the white board
to illustrate the answers more effectively,”
he says.
The benefits
WebEx enabled Objective Management to
improve productivity significantly, maximizing sales opportunities and growing the
company’s customer base. According to
Kurlan, “When you consider that a typical
business trip consumes two to three days
and yields an hour or so in front of the
customer, the time we save with WebEx
is huge. WebEx made it possible for us to
eliminate in-person trainings and use the
time saved on travel to generate more revenue.” The company also credits WebEx
with helping it increase market exposure.
“We’re interacting with people we might
otherwise not reach. By expanding our
geographic reach, WebEx helped us build
our business to 5,000 customers around
the globe. WebEx solutions are part of our
company culture,” he says.
meetings or large events attracting hundreds of attendees, depending on our
objectives,” he says.
WebEx strengthened Objective Management’s business development activities by
providing closer, more frequent interaction
with customers, prospects, and resellers. “Trying to find a common hour when
everyone is available to gather in person
can delay meetings indefinitely. WebEx
meetings make it easy to find a mutually
convenient time for all parties involved,
facilitating the sales process,” notes Kurlan.
Objective Management uses WebEx
approximately 40 to 50 times per month
to stay in front of the customer. “Thanks to
WebEx, we now experience much greater
continuity in business relationships with
clients and resellers. WebEx provides the
flexibility to conduct small customer
The future
Kurlan plans to continue expanding the
company’s use of WebEx capabilities.
“Because WebEx registration functionality
automatically collects important data on
attendees, we would like to begin using it for
our promotional web events and eventually
use it for our other sessions,” he remarks.
The company is also discussing implementing live video streaming for Kurlan’s keynote
speaking events. “My WebEx rep keeps me
abreast of new features as well as those we
just haven’t discovered yet. I hear from other
vendors on occasion, but we’ve stayed with
WebEx because it continues to introduce
forward-thinking solutions and features,”
says Kurlan.
Highlights
• WebEx enabled Objective Management to improve productivity significantly, eliminating in-person
trainings and growing the company’s global customer base to 5000.
• WebEx strengthened Objective Management’s business development activities by providing
closer, more frequent interaction with customers, prospects, and resellers.
• WebEx enabled Objective Management to transform operations through enhanced training
capabilities that accelerate time-to-market.
WebEx also enabled Objective Management to transform operations through
enhanced training capabilities that
accelerate time-to-market. “With WebEx,
we introduce new products and features to
our resellers more rapidly, which enables
them to deliver our services to the market
faster,” says Kurlan. With a training program
that is easier to fulfill and manage, the
company keeps in constant contact with
its resellers. “In the past, we waited until
our monthly regional meetings to communicate with resellers. Now we provide
training whenever we need to, ensuring
resellers have the right knowledge to sell
and deliver our products,” says Kurlan.
Online Collaboration Real Results Report
Copyright © 2009 WebEx Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco, WebEx,
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