Success Story

CPU Retail Architects

spot colors:

CPU Retail Architects implemented Riva CRM Integration from Omni Technology Solutions to enable full integration between its CRM system and its Novell® GroupWise® e-mail and collaboration platform. The solution enables sales personnel to keep contact lists in perfect synchronisation and automatically convert e-mails into opportunities—saving time and effort while accelerating the sales cycle.OverviewCPU Retail Architects is a specialised retail architecture team, dedicated to the concept and concept development of retail properties around the world. CPU Retail Architects is part of the CPU Consultores group, which is also active in the fields of architecture, urban planning and property valuation. Founded in 1983 as a single company by Architect-Planner Adriano Callé Lucas, CPU today operates as a group of companies, with a subsidiary for each division. The group is headquartered in Lisbon, Portugal.

ChallengeWith around 100 professionals working at seven global offices, CPU found growing difficulties in sharing information and con-verting sales opportunities. Employees tended to use a mixture of spreadsheets and shared network folders to manage activity on customer accounts and business opportunities.

The reliance on shared documents forced employees to spend significant amounts of time making manual updates to information, and caused delays in following up on sales leads. Equally important, the difficulty in sharing information was potentially leading to lost opportunities for converting leads and for cross-selling to existing customers.

CPU had migrated from Microsoft* Exchange to Novell GroupWise for e-mail, calendaring and collaboration, achieving a 20 percent reduction in costs, better security and higher availability. The company wanted a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution that would integrate tightly with Novell GroupWise, to enable a more structured approach to sales and customer management that would also keep admin-istrative effort and delays to a minimum.

SolutionCPU reviewed a variety of options, and asked Omni Technology Solutions to run a live Web demonstration of its Riva CRM Integration solution. Impressed by Riva’s ability to connect Novell GroupWise with a wide range of software, CPU then asked Omni to recommend a CRM package, ultimately choosing info@hand, a derivative of SugarCRM.

“It was crucial to ensure full integration between the CRM system and our Novell e-mail and collaboration platform,” said Marcus Svensson. “Riva CRM Integration from Omni Technology Solutions enabled us to link our CRM solution seamlessly into Novell GroupWise, creating a complete environment for end-to-end account man-agement and new business development.”

CPU Retail Architects at a glance:Multidisciplinary consultancy group

Industry: Consultancy—Retail Architecture

Location: Portugal

Products and Services: Novell GroupWise

Riva CRM Integration from Omni

Technology Solutions

Results: – Migrated from Microsoft Exchange

to Novell GroupWise, achieving a 20 percent cost saving

– Achieved full integration between CRM system and e-mail/calendaring

– Enabled faster creation of new opportunities in CRM system

– Saved an estimated 520 hours per user per year

“Riva CRM Integration from Omni Technology Solutions enabled us to link our CRM solution seamlessly into Novell GroupWise, creating a complete environment for end-to-end account management and new business development.”

Marcus SvenssonManager, Business Development Team CPU Retail Architects

Omni Technology Solutions and Novell worked closely together to help CPU customise the solution to meet its business requirements, while a training manual for staff and simple CRM views were built to get them started were created in CPU by Marcus Svensson.

Rather than spending significant amounts of time manually updating information, CPU Consultores employees can now quickly move the relevant information into the right place in the central CRM system. It is then immediately available to all other employees, creating a fully accessible “corporate memory” of activity on any given customer account.

“The real value of CRM is in enabling sales teams to work smarter, and this is precisely what the Omni and Novell solution offers,” said Svensson. “If I receive an e-mail from a contact in the CRM system, I can simply drag the message from my inbox into a special folder, where it is automatically converted and filed in the correct part of the database.”

The integration between info@hand and Novell GroupWise also enables address book synchronisation, ensuring that changes to contact details are automatically cascaded to all users. Employees can drag sets of contacts from the CRM system into their local Novell GroupWise address book, which is in turn synchronised with their BlackBerry* hand-held devices.

ResultsThe introduction of a centralised corporate CRM system, fully integrated with Novell GroupWise, has eliminated significant amounts of time and effort from the sales cycle at CPU. With improved visibility of information and consistent standards for recording activity, sales teams can more easily develop new opportunities and share information.

“We estimate that moving all informa-tion from unstructured spreadsheets and network folders into the consistent central CRM system is saving around five hours of administrative work per person per week,” said Svensson. “Thanks to the integration between Novell GroupWise and info@hand, and the synchronisation with our BlackBerry devices, we save a further five hours per person per week.”

With a total saving of up to 520 hours per sales person per year—or 65 man-days, based on a typical eight-hour working day— CPU has freed up key personnel from tedious administration and enabled them to work to their full potential in supporting customers and winning new business.

“The Omni and Novell solution is a huge value-add for our business—creating a new opportunity in the CRM system is now as simple as dragging and dropping an e-mail,” said Svensson. “The combined effort and commitment from Novell and Omni has been superb: if we have a par-ticular business requirement, we know that they can always make it happen!”

“The combined effort and commitment from Novell and Omni has been superb; if we have a particular business requirement,

we know that they can always make it happen!”

Marcus Svensson Manager, Business Development Team

CPU Retail Architects www.novell.com

spot colors:

For More Information:To read more customer success stories, visit: www.novell.com/success

Contact your local Novell Solutions Provider, or call Novell at:

France+33 1 55 62 50 00

Germany+49 211 56 31 0

Italy+39 02 360 46 335

Netherlands+31 10 286 44 44

Poland+48 22 537 5000

Russia+7 495 697 1914

Spain+34 91 640 25 00

Sweden+46 8 477 41 00

Switzerland+41 43 456 23 00

South Africa+27 11 322 8300

United Kingdom+44 1344 724 000

Novell, Inc.404 Wyman Street Waltham, MA 02451 USA

468-EE1316-001 | 03/09 | © 2009 Novell, Inc. All rights reserved. Novell, the Novell logo, the N logo and GroupWise are registered trademarks of Novell, Inc. in the United States and other countries. *All third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Novell Logo 1 The registered trademark, ®,

appears to the right and on the same baseline as the Logo.

Minimum Size Requirements The Novell Logo should NOT be printed smaller than 3 picas (0.5 inches or 12.5 mm) in width.

Clear-space Requirements 2 Allow a clean visual separation

of the Logo from all other elements. The height of the "N" is the measurement for the minimum clear-space requirements around the Logo. This space is flat and unpatterned, free of other design elements and clear from the edge of the page.

3 picas (0.5 in)

(12.5 mm)

2 1 3

3