Distribution ViewPointCRM

The Project Brief

Scientific Laboratory Supplies Limited (SLS) was set up in 1991 and has since grown to become the largest independent supplier of laboratory equipment, consumables, chemicals and Life Science products in the UK. They have 234 staff and a turnover of £70m and are unique in sourcing and supplying the highest quality, best value products and brands, providing precisely what their customers need when they need it.

Before using ViewPoint CRM, specific departments within SLS were finding it hard to do their job efficiently and effectively, especially the marketing department. It was essential to SLS that they maintained their position of differentiation in the market, which revolved around their ability to be tailored, flexible and fast, always putting the customer first.

Despite having a very customer-centric model, they didn’t have anything that consolidated customer details to a degree they could use and wanted to find out more about who their customers were, what they bought and more. Their marketing department struggled to attain any data that would effectively position marketing collateral or understand where certain things worked or didn’t. Everything SLS did was static and then confined to archives of spreadsheets once completed.  

Other Pain Points within SLS. 

• No customer relationship history in Territory Sales Management (TSM) heads, including no continuity in the event of staff departure. 
• Their antiquated ERP system didn’t allow for certain functionality of modern business requirements. 
• No centralised customer data was previously being pulled from numerous other systems, and painting any customer picture would be time-intensive across multiple departments. 
• No ability to target markets without significant data-mining, taking vast amounts of time to get information that should be readily available.  
• Customer information was stored in several different places, making it very difficult for anyone without years of experience to plan sales calls effectively.
• No mechanism for pipeline management. Sales were having to collate feedback and take time out of sales calls to provide forecasts and opportunities to sales management. 
• No way to link cross-departmental activity, track it and then audit the activity. 
• Absence of any quotation package that would assist with intelligent pricing.  

SLS had been looking for a solution to their problems for several years and got some way down the line with Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics before it was clear that the cost would be prohibitive for all the functionality they required, so they came to StyleTech.