SugarCRM Maximizes Efficiency for RedGlaze Network of Companies

As an architectural and engineering group with eight companies that provide products and services to the construction industry, RedGlaze is a diverse organization that struggled to find a CRM solution with capabilities to meet the unique needs of all its businesses. Employees were consistently "maxing out" the functionality of the company's last CRM solution but seeing only limited results, Sean Pinegar, software engineer at RedGlaze, recalls. As the solution it was using became increasingly overloaded with data, the company began to look for an alternative. SugarCRM's management platform became "a lifesaver," Pinegar says.

Though SugarCRM wasn't a stranger to firms in the construction industry, RedGlaze's vastness and variety provided a new challenge. "RedGlaze had a ton of different types of data, but the structure of its old CRM solution was just too rigid for its needs. It was looking for something that would offer a high-level business platform and deliver value to different individuals in its organization," according to SugarCRM Vice President of Marketing Jennifer Stagnaro.

In January 2013, RedGlaze began doing away with its previous tool and transitioning to SugarCRM's professional on-site solution. Thanks to the highly customizable offering, RedGlaze was able to easily integrate other software into the solution and customize SugarCRM's modules with specialty portals for subcontractors and internal departments. RedGlaze also created its own modules for operations, document storage, projects, and photo management, as well as Web site analytics. Most of the customization was done through Sugar Studio, which relies on a user-friendly drag-and-drop functionality rather than custom coding.

"With our previous solution, we couldn't make core code customizations. Essentially, we had to break it to make it work, but with SugarCRM, it's like we don't even have to bend it," Pinegar says. "The platform was extremely flexible, and we were able to link together all of the systems that we rely on daily without much of a hassle. We know that all of the data will stay organized, up to date, and easily accessible to our entire team," Pinegar adds.

Once most of the core modifications were made, SugarCRM was able to help RedGlaze integrate its CRM platform with Callinize, which tracks caller ID and contact information; DocuSign, which facilitates electronic signatures; FeneVision, a glass industry ERP for order delivery and tracking; Google Maps, for aerial or street-level views of project locations; Picasa, for image storage; Piwik, which delivers Web site analytics and several other applications.

A "lifesaver on the back end," SugarCRM's platform has made a significant difference for the sales and marketing teams at RedGlaze's eight businesses as well, according to Pinegar. For example, the solution populates RedGlaze's photo assets with rich metadata and allows marketers and salespeople to quickly access images and gauge important information regarding building materials, square footage, architect or general contractor, and other key pieces of information about a construction job. "Having quick access to that kind of information can help marketers when they're creating visual content, and can help salespeople that are in the field," Stagnaro says.

Giving its employees access to more streamlined ways to store and retrieve data was crucial as well, given the company's extended customer life cycle. With construction projects spanning several years, RedGlaze's companies must ensure that all customer-facing personnel have answers to questions from clients and prospects. "Our goal was to have as many employees as possible leveraging this data to deliver great customer experiences, and [as of April 2014] we've got over seventy-four percent of the people in our organization using the platform," Pinegar says. That, Stagnaro says, is a testament to how dynamic the solution can be.

In addition to fulfilling its goal of getting most of its employees' tasks integrated into one CRM system, RedGlaze also experienced a 60 percent reduction in server space use and a 30 percent improvement in efficiency. "To us, that's a measurement of how many more projects we can take on without taking on any additional people. We're able to do a lot more work in a more efficient way," Pinegar says.

The Payoff

Since implementing SugarCRM's platform, RedGlaze has seen:

• a 30 percent increase in efficiency;
• a 60 percent decrease in server space use; and
• a 74 percent adoption rate across the company.

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