Farm Credit Services of Missouri
Background:
Farm Credit Service of Missouri (FCSM) has been providing financial support
and services to farmers, ranchers, and rural inhabitants since 1917. The
Farm Credit system is a Government sponsored program offering assistance
exclusively to those in agricultural development, or in very remote regions
of the United States. The organization functions like many large financial
services enterprises (excluding checking account systems) holding loan
accounts in excess of $1.3 billion. The firm operates out of 29 offices,
and maintains 185 employees.
Situation Analysis:
Two years ago FCSM went through a merger, during which time they experienced
the overwhelming need for a contact management system that would facilitate
systematic and time-efficient information allocation. Most importantly,
in July 2001, the firm’s new loan officers mandated the need for
a competent contact / sales management tool. The years prior to the merger,
FCSM had attempted to use a contact management tool that is very well
known. However, this tool was inefficient due to its inability to migrate
and merge pertinent information with an increasingly important email system—a
system the company relied on both to communicate and to function. Their
database and information systems were functioning at an unacceptably low
level.
FCSM employees were faced with the added tasks associated with researching,
generating, maintaining, and following-up with established clients, as
well as supporting all of these needs for ever crucial future prospects.
The need for hands on, inter-personnel, customer knowledge was simply
going unmet.
The Solution:
After several months spent researching nearly every contact management
solution available, FCSM came across GroupLink’s ContactWise software
solution. Upon discovering ContactWise, Dennis Risinger, CIO of FCSM,
was able to easily install a demo program and immediately get a feel for
the system. After the decision to buy had been reached, the process unfolded
rapidly and installation began. “No sooner was the installation
complete than we were loving the integration,” said Risinger. “The
interface is so intuitive; my employees could figure it all out on their
own. It was accepted right off the bat.” With the inherent ease
of operation associated with GroupLink software solutions, Risinger and
his limited IT staff of five were able to get an immediate feel for how
ContactWise would increase the effectiveness of communication channels,
and therefore generate a significant increase in business productivity
on the whole.
Having an established Novell 5.2 platform and utilizing GroupWise 6.0,
Risinger was able capitalize on an established investment, while concurrently
leveraging an existing operating system. The seamless integration of GroupLink’s
ContactWise with Novell GroupWise provided FCSM with a contact management
system that enables its staff to handle contacts and clients with the
care necessary in any successful business.
“The majority of feedback I receive from my staff is in regard
to the just how easy it is to incorporate all aspects of contact management
into one completely interactive and user-friendly package,” said
Risinger. “We are particularly impressed with the capabilities to
facilitate the mail, merge, documents, and labels instruments that have
always been lacking within our previous system.”
“There are many new avenues open to us at this point that were
not before we integrated to ContactWise,” said Risinger. “Our
employees are encouraged and rewarded by our incentive programs. Be it
new money growth and retention, operating cost efficiency, risk management,
net operation rate, or corporate operation differential, our performance
incentive structure will continue to be expanded through the implementation
of GroupLink solutions.”
A recurrent theme among GroupLink customers is the company’s emphasis
on customer care and satisfaction. The one-day, on-site installation by
GroupLink’s installation personnel is as user-friendly as the solutions
they provide. “GroupLink’s on-site sales work-force training
was great. They had no trouble in walking us through each and every step.
While the product itself was extremely intuitive, any gray area was met
with care and concern. Each and every question, both in person and over
the phone, was answered right away. We were pleased to have established
such a positive relationship.”
Conclusion:
FCSM’s need for contact management was met by GroupLink through
the seamless integration of ContactWise. Mishandled leads, misappropriated
information, poor communication, and wasted time translate into poor customer
care, inefficient time-allocation, and ultimately lost business. The ability
to direct and maintain specific efforts through information sharing via
email was a necessity for FCSM; this was easily met through the implementation
of GroupLink’s ContactWise. Important contact information sharing,
as well as company-wide employee time management is now a reality for
Farm Credit Services of Missouri.
www.farmcreditofmissouri.com
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