Case Study: CRM Automation
Learn how a Kansas City insurance carrier reduced their RFP response process by 30% and significantly reduced critical data errors by building a Microsoft CRM/SharePoint solution.
Client Snapshot:
Large insurance company offering healthcare and dental insurance to companies, families and individuals.
Challenge:
The majority of the company’s revenue is generated as a result of responding to RFPs submitted by clients/prospects through independent brokers.
The company’s RFP response process requires the coordinated input across departments in a short timeframe against a backdrop of sharp increases in volume due to seasonal renewals. The manual RFP response required departments to sort through multiple file shares to find the most current/appropriate answers to questions and the RFP coordinators to constantly push the departments to turn in their responses, with limited transparency on progress and tasks to be completed. The inefficient process caused costly data input and content errors, sluggish response times and frustration for all involved, including brokers and clients.
Solution:
The company selected Fluent Consultants to automate its RFP response workflow and content creation via Microsoft Dynamics CRM and SharePoint.
Key upgrades to the system include the following:
Automation of all incoming RFP formats to a single RFP response template
Knowledge warehouse searchable by fuzzy logic of past RFP questions/answers
Automated process to identify and include the most up-to-date answers to questions
Completing CRM opportunity now kicks off automated departmental workflows
Automated workflows create alerts, shared visibility to progress, increased accountability and greater success meeting delivery dates
RFP and client records now reside in a single searchable document management repository
Final Outcome:
The solution enabled the company to reduce its RFP response time by an estimated 30%, from a minimum of two weeks to a week.
In the process, it simplified data input and substantially improved content accuracy, departmental responsiveness and process transparency. Plus, the additional time savings via automation now provides the team with a new luxury. The final review process which often focused on simply ensuring that the RFP requirements were being met can now be directed toward perfecting the overall quality and effectiveness of the company’s response and proposed solution.