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Axonom Builds High-End CRM Solutions for Vertical Industries

When Microsoft® Business Solutions CRM version 1.0 was announced, Axonom was quick to embrace the application as the foundation for Powertrak, a Web-based, feature-rich customer relationship management (CRM) solution that provides businesses with high-functioning CRM solutions. The Axonom team already had a successful six-year track record building CRM solutions using Microsoft technologies. Building on that experience, Axonom developed a suite of 30 modules that focuses on the financial services and high technology manufacturing and distribution industries, and adds deep functionality to Microsoft CRM.

Together, Powertrak and Microsoft CRM provide a robust, scalable, integrated solution that is a low-cost alternative to high-end systems like SAP or Siebel. Axonom’s success is evident in increased revenues and an expanded customer base with more than 100 Powertrak customers in the first 16 months.

Situation

Axonom has been in the business of providing powerful customer relationship management (CRM) solutions based on Microsoft® technologies for a long time. The offspring of a company that provided companies with a proprietary Web-based CRM solution, Axonom was born to create presence around Powertrak, a new product offering built on Microsoft Business Solutions CRM.

Axonom's experience with CRM solutions began in 1998 when CEO Clark Dircz founded a company to promote his eCRM solution, Worldtrak. Worldtrak was written as a module within Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003, then emerging as the world’s most pervasive e mail messaging and scheduling program, and used the familiar Outlook 2003 interface to provide an easy-to-use tool that salespeople could embrace with a minimum of time and effort.

Worldtrak inspired a product line that included nine modules to help companies organize, document, schedule, and track customer accounts. Businesses could customize their solutions by adding functionality to meet specific needs. Worldtrak quickly became a leading CRM solution and began winning industry awards recognizing it as one of the top applications for mid-market-segment companies.

Success with Worldtrak and the tremendous growth potential of the CRM market segment led the company to scale operations quickly, assembling a world-class management team and launching Worldtrak version 4.5 in 2000. So, in 2002 when Clark Dircz and his team were notified that Microsoft was about to offer its own solution targeted at mid-size businesses, the company infrastructure and leadership, as well as a strong relationship with Microsoft, were already in place to refocus efforts on the new application.

"We were made aware that the product was coming and were provided with alpha-level code because of the close working relationship we’ve had with Microsoft over the years," explains Clark Dircz, Axonom’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Dircz reorganized his company and founded Axonom in early 2002 and introduced a Powertrak version 6.0, a 30-module suite only 30 days after Microsoft shipped Microsoft CRM.

Solution

Powertrak is built on the foundation of the successful Worldtrak product line. "We felt that the Microsoft CRM product would be a dominant horizontal player in the industry. Once we had the code, we began the process of porting the CRM functionality, which we had spent eight years developing, over to the Microsoft CRM product line," says Axonom’s CEO. "This was a key strategic outcome for us."

Axonom spent 18 months diligently working to port the Worldtrak CRM functionality to the Microsoft .NET Framework and the technologies used with Microsoft CRM. "We had done all the heavy lifting in terms of functionality and were able to ensure seamless integration with Microsoft CRM relatively easily," says Clark Dircz. Axonom was the first independent software vendor (ISV) to certify its application for Microsoft CRM.

The initial Axonom solution included a suite of 30 modules built on top of Microsoft CRM, using the same technology and tools, and running on the same basic Microsoft infrastructure, including Microsoft SQL ServerTM 2000, Microsoft Windows® 2000 Server and Microsoft Windows Server® 2003 operating systems, and Microsoft Active Directory® directory services. From a vertical standpoint, the company had traditionally sold in three vertical markets. Two of these—financial services and high technology multichannel manufacturers and distributors became a major focus for Powertrak development.

In the two years since the release of Powertrak, Axonom has added more modules to its CRM solution suite. "The decision to develop a module is very much customer and partner-driven. We have a formal product planning process in which we talk to customers, look at industry trends, and study the competition. We also get a lot of feedback from partners who sell into our target market segments. This feedback essentially provides us with a roadmap of where we need to go with the product," explains Clark Dircz.

Powertrak offers extensions to Microsoft CRM in the form of powerful, core modules that add marketing, e-commerce, Internet portal, call center, technical case management, XML integration and advanced workflow capabilities. The solution can be provided as licensed software or in an ASP-hosted environment. Users can work from within Outlook to handle daily customer interactions, thereby helping to keep track of important information in one place.

The Powertrak wealth management and high-technology industry solutions are scalable, Web-based applications that provide robust, industry-specific capabilities. Specialized modules that support specific industry requirements and integrate easily with enterprise resource planning, back-office, and other systems can be deployed, in addition to core Powertrak modules.

Axonom is a Microsoft Certified Partner and Authorized Microsoft CRM Reseller, and the company has been named to the Microsoft Business Solutions President’s Club for Axonom’s commitment to customers and sales achievement. Following in the footsteps of its earlier product line, Powertrak recently won the "Top 15 CRM Software" Award for Small and Medium Businesses given by ISM, Inc., a leading strategic advisor for CRM; this award represents the eighth time Axonom and one of its products have been recognized.

Benefits

Powertrak extends Microsoft CRM to provide a low-cost alternative to the high-end solutions offered by competitors. The company's close relationship with Microsoft provides Axonom with a number of benefits, including access to an expanded customer base and vertical market opportunities.

Provides a Low-Cost Alternative to Other High-End Systems
Powertrak is a robust, feature-rich solution that can compete with high-end systems, such as Oracle Systems, SAP, Siebel Systems, and Onyx Software, as well as other well-entrenched competitors in the mid-market segment, such as SalesLogix from Best Software. Axonom and its partners have landed some significant wins for Microsoft CRM because Axonom offers complex capabilities, such as call center scripting, product configuration, and partner portals to manage leads. By laying these capabilities right over the top of Microsoft CRM, Axonom can design a high-functioning system that meets specific business requirements. "With rich functionality, proven integration, and some very robust modules, we can provide businesses with solutions that are significantly lower in cost, time, and effort than other high-end systems," explains Clark Dircz.

Expands the Customer Base
Axonom believes that using Microsoft as the underlying application for Powertrak is a strong differentiator from competitors. "Microsoft has come up with a good first release," says Clark Dircz. "We’ve signed deals in the last nine months that we have been chasing for three or four years. Maybe the customers thought that because Microsoft is getting into CRM, they are more willing to give it a shot." Currently, Axonom and its partners have more than 100 Microsoft CRM customers, sometimes adding as many as 10 new ones each month.

Customers working with Axonom get a lot of lift from the company’s eight years of experience in CRM. "It’s easier to sell Microsoft CRM to customers who are looking for rapid implementation, consistent safety of the solution, and value-added integration. We can satisfy a great range of customer requirements with technology that’s seamless and easy to adopt," says Clark Dircz. In addition, the company continues to expand its reach through strategic partnerships with other Microsoft partners and channel distributors. About 90 percent of Axonom’s business is through partners certified in Microsoft CRM in the Microsoft Business Solutions channel. The company also has a few, direct specializations that an internal sales force handles directly.

Although it no longer sells Worldtrak, Axonom continues to support customers and offers a free upgrade path to Powertrak. Many customers have taken advantage of that offer. Many of those unable to make a complete move have added some Powertrak modules to their existing solutions, and Axonom now boasts more than 300 customers running a mix of Worldtrak and Powertrak for their CRM solutions. The obvious result of these combined efforts has been an increase in revenue.

Benefits from Vertical Market Opportunities
Experience with specific industry requirements enables Axonom to focus on adding financial services and high-tech manufacturing and distribution functionality to Powertrak. Each solution adds feature-rich modules that can be added in a bundle or incrementally, an option that can help companies get up-to-speed quickly, control costs, and minimize change management issues. "A key to our strategy is that we go deeper and deeper, vertically, as Microsoft continues to broaden the reach of Microsoft CRM," says Clark Dircz.

For example, wealth management firms now compete aggressively with each other to provide a full range of financial services and effectively help customers manage their investment portfolios. By understanding the financial industry’s challenges and opportunities, Axonom focuses its vertical solution on automating complex customer-facing processes, providing self-service opportunities for customers, ensuring that firms meet SEC compliance requirements, adding technical case management and time and billing, and integrating with back-office and other industry systems.

As high-tech manufacturers and distributors expand into new market segments by using complex sales channels, they need a CRM solution that helps them manage multichannel relationships with customers and partners and helps expand their presence world-wide. Axonom’s industry solution focuses on self-service for customers and management tools for dealer loyalty, partner product authorization, and staff certification. In addition, the high-tech solution offers tight integration with other business, manufacturing, and distribution systems.

Customer Success Story
Compellent, a global data storage solutions company, sought a complete IT infrastructure that could help it compete effectively in a highly competitive marketplace. Compellent provides its solutions through a tight network of 22 business partners and knew that a CRM system would be critical in helping to manage those relationships.

"We invested in CRM upfront as an enabler of our rapid growth," Michael Beach, Compellent’s Director or Sales Operations says. "A lot of companies wait to put in a CRM system in until they’ve been in business for three or four years. We put ours in place before we even opened up our doors."

In addition to relationship management and tracking, Compellent wanted services such as lead management and product configuration tools to be made available to its partner organizations. Also, the CRM solution would be seamlessly integrated with Microsoft Business Solutions-Great Plains® back-office and manufacturing solution.

Axonom implemented Compellent’s CRM solution, deploying Microsoft CRM with Powertrak to extend its capabilities and create a powerful, self-service Internet portal for partners. The secure portal, which is accessible via Compellent’s Web site is the primary way the company and its partners share business information. "Virtually every tool that a business partner would need to use to conduct their storage practice is available via the portal," Beach says.

In addition to providing tools and information to its reseller partners, Compellent has realized other benefits from implementing Microsoft CRM and Powertrak including:

Quick and early adoption of the new solution by both Compellent and its business partners

Scalability to accommodate rapid company growth

Insight into company performance with integrated sales and business data

Axonom's portfolio of successful customer implementations continues to grow as the company gains momentum with its combined Microsoft CRM and Powertrak solution, particularly in the wealth management and high technology industries. The company’s years of experience with CRM, its long-standing partnership with Microsoft, and ability to provide a low-cost alternative to high-end competitors will help ensure Axonom’s success.