New Research Reveals the Missing Link for Professional Service Organisations Using Salesforce CRM

SPI Research shows Salesforce CRM customers outperform their counterparts in sales metrics, but lag the industry in tapping the benefits of integrating CRM and PSA. End Quote

(1888PressRelease) September 16, 2011 - Cloudforce, London & San Mateo, CA: FinancialForce.com, the cloud applications company, and research and consulting firm Service Performance Insight (SPI) today revealed findings of a joint benchmark study of Salesforce CRM customers in the professional services industry, Salesforce CRM and PSA Integration, at Cloudforce '11.

Previous SPI research showed that Salesforce CRM is the dominant front office solution in the professional services industry. The new research showed that by moving to the cloud, Salesforce CRM customers have achieved higher bid-to-win ratios, greater average revenue per project, and a better deal pipeline as compared to users of other third party and home grown CRM systems.

However, the study also highlighted areas where salesforce users lagged their peers, particularly in PSA integration. In a previous benchmarking study, SPI showed that the true power of CRM for service organisations can only be realised when it is integrated with PSA. Surprisingly, the new research showed that Salesforce CRM customers have low levels of integration with PSA among leading CRM apps used by PSOs.

Based on data from more than 200 professional services organisations (PSOs), the new research demonstrated that PSOs can significantly improve their performance by better integrating their CRM and PSA systems. Companies that integrated their CRM and PSA systems reported larger project backlogs, improved executive visibility, superior bid-to-win ratios, greater percentages of revenue from new clients, more projects delivered on-time, a higher percentage of billable employees, and higher billable utilisation. The full report is available for download on FinancialForce.com's website at www.financialforce.com/spi-salesforce/

"Service Performance Insight's research proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that integrated CRM and PSA provide the winning foundation for today's service organisations," said Jeanne Urich, managing director, SPI. "With FinancialForce PSA and FinancialForce Accounting both built on the Salesforce Force.com platform, relief is in sight to break-down traditional functional and application stove-pipes in favor of an integrated view from prospect to project."

"SPI Research has demonstrated the bright future provided by integrating sales with service execution," said Jeremy Roche, CEO, FinancialForce.com. "With the addition of FinancialForce PSA, companies can truly take advantage of the benefits of CRM and PSA integration."

Earlier this year, FinancialForce.com enhanced its offerings for professional service organisations by launching FinancialForce Services Resource Planning (SRP), which enables PSOs to manage their people, projects, and financials in one integrated services management application. FinancialForce SRP is the first complete solution built entirely on Force.com. Combining Salesforce CRM, FinancialForce PSA, and FinancialForce Accounting, the solution helps PSOs sell, deliver, and bill projects collaboratively and overcome the obstacles found in a siloed or fragmented systems approach. Because CRM, PSA, and Accounting teams share the same system and the same information, processes are far more efficient and customer visibility is dramatically improved. FinancialForce SRP also uniquely leverages Chatter, Salesforce.com's leading social media application for business, to create collaborative and social ecosystems around each individual project. The result is complete alignment of sales, services, and finance teams working in one collaborative environment on Force.com.

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