Success Stories
Sample of CRS Projects
The following success stories detail past projects. Scroll down to read the stories organized by predictive model type used in the engagement.
Model: Customer Segmentation and Targeting
Customer: Software Company
Challenges: With the Company’s lack of profitability, the investors (non-managers) were tired of funding the business each month and seeing little progress. They wanted to stop the bleeding and try to recoup their initial investments.
The software product filled a market need, but was being undersold and never took off as planned. The investors needed to know what it would take to get the business in a saleable condition and if a market for such a company existed.
Solution: We were contracted to provide a market assessment to determine the viability of the product and whether the market potential was large enough to sustain the business. The analysis looked at past sales data, customer profiles, customer survey data, competition, and market potential.
With the assessment completed, a number of observations and supporting analysis was discussed. Indeed there was a viable market, all be it a small market for the specialized software package, but the company was selling to the end customer in an indirect manner. Using insurance brokers to sell to the end user was proving to be an ineffective method.
In addition, the best prospects for the software were not being targeted by all of the brokers. Based on the customer segmentation and targeting analysis, there were significant opportunities to target more effectively and sell direct to these identified companies.
In terms of choosing the best course of action (the company was considering, prior to our assessment, investing in significant upgrades to its software or developing a new marketing infrastructure – more targeted lead generation, partner relationship, more effective marketing materials, etc.). The choice was now easy.
It did not make sense to enhance the software without first fixing the engine that generated the sales. After reviewing the results of the assessment with management and the owners, it became clear what the action steps were.
Results: While the analysis called out a number of recommendations to increase sales and profitability, it was re-focusing the marketing effort on the right targeted end user that made the difference.
Model: Free-up Cash Flow and Cash Forecast
Customer: Pharmaceutical Company
Challenges: The Company’s successful drug had come off patent and was experiencing a gradual decline in sales and profitability due to generic drug competition. Their new drug introductions into the market were a number of years off. The company needed to free up cash flow to meet its working capital requirements and sustain itself during the lean times.
Treasury’s traditional role was limited to transferring funds, investing, borrowing and foreign exchange. They had little involvement in the day-to-day processing of cash transactions which was handled by the operating divisions.
Solutions: With a clear mandate to free-up cash flow, we proceeded to identify the trend in working capital usage (identifying periods of negative cash throw-off) and look at all of the activities in the cash management process.
With backing of Treasury, new procedures were installed in the billing and collections areas to dramatically speed-up depositing of receipts. The centralization of the inflow of receipts (bank lockboxes) was institutionalized and the change dramatically reduced the instances of local offices handling checks and delayed deposits.
Instead of using first-in, first-out methods for paying invoices, payments were scheduled based on due dates and discounts taken. More efficient use of bank services and monitoring of bank service charges were initiated.
A rolling 13-week cash forecast was developed to predict the availability of daily bank balances. Borrowing costs were minimized and the return on invested funds was improved as the result of the cash forecast.
Results: The Treasury department took over complete responsibility for the cash management functions of the company. With the implementation of all of the recommendations, the company realized a before tax increase in profits of $1.5 million while freeing up tens of millions of dollars of cash.
Model: New Product Analysis and Introduction
Customer: Payroll Services Company
Challenges: The Company’s new service offering required a different and unfamiliar marketing and sales approach. The outsourcing of the entire payroll, benefits and HR administrative functions was new to both the company and the marketplace.
Used to selling services costing dollars per employee per month, the new contracts were multi-year agreements priced in millions of dollars per year. The company needed a completely different marketing and sales approach.
Solutions: With the challenge defined, the first step was to complete a market analysis to identify the target market, its size, competition, level of the decision maker, benefits statements, and the product fit.
With little hard data to go by (new product offering), we did some primary research (customer surveys) and modeled the results (Perceptual Maps). Using the knowledge from the research, we drafted the selling messages to convey the strong value proposition to the HR executive. Tools were built to perform detailed ROI analyses to help justify the purchase and explain the financial benefit.
In addition to these tools, marketing/sales collateral material and an executive presentation were completed. With a typical long sales cycle, the account executive’s selling time needed to be optimized. To meet this objective, a simple but effective lead generation and qualification process was developed using data mining and predictive modeling techniques.
The focal point of the process was a lead qualification scorecard, completed by the account executive, in which values and weights were assigned to the opportunity. Along with the scorecard, a monthly report measuring sales performance was designed and implemented.
Results: The market analysis helped senior management to understand the strengths and weaknesses of its new service in comparison to its competition. Because of the market analysis and modifications to the service and marketing/sales approach, the launch was a complete success with the year’s sales goal reached in the first six months. Success of the new service was a key attraction for the suitor that eventually acquired the company.