The Atlanta-based company is working with Microsoft Gold Certified Partner I.B.I.S. Inc. to convert from its existing Salesforce.com customer relationship management (CRM) solution, synthesize its customer data and business intelligence, and reduce its total cost of ownership (TCO) for CRM technology by more than an estimated $400,000 over the next five years.

Marc Datelle, president of Cypress Care, credits the superior use of business IT as a key to the company's rapid growth to more than $100 million in annual revenues in less than six years. "The switch to Microsoft Dynamics CRM will expand Cypress Care's Microsoft® software platform, providing the unified technology base needed to accelerate the company's growth," Datelle said.

"We had data about our customers all over the place. Our selling groups were stepping on each other's toes," Datelle said. "With Microsoft Dynamics CRM and I.B.I.S.'s implementation and integration expertise, we can pull all of our customer information into one universal view - one that each business unit can take ownership in, and that gives us new ways of managing and servicing our customers."

With modules for sales, marketing and customer service, Microsoft Dynamics CRM provides a fast, flexible and affordable way for businesses of all sizes to improve a wide range of business processes. "Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers sales and marketing organizations a new, clearer lens through which they can more precisely identify new customers, build existing relationships, manage marketing campaigns and drive sales activities," said Michael Park, corporate vice president for the U.S. Small and Midmarket Solutions and Partners Group at Microsoft Corp.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Creates "Enterprisewide Customer Management"

The close integration between Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Cypress Care's other Microsoft software - including Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft SQL Serverâ„¢, and Microsoft Office Outlook®, Word, Excel® and SharePoint® Server - will provide Cypress Care with "enterprisewide customer management" for the first time, Datelle said. Specific benefits include the following:

- More useful data. Cypress Care employees used to consider updating the customer databases "a chore," Datelle said, so most of them did so only once a week. Easy access to Microsoft Dynamics CRM from within Outlook has dramatically increased the amount of customer data that employees capture, because "it is part of what they are already doing" in Outlook, according to Datelle.

- Accurate forecasting. Cypress Care's revenue and growth forecasts were as much as 40 percent off because of incomplete or inaccurate customer data. With Microsoft Dynamics CRM, the four independent pipelines of customer data that Cypress Care maintains will soon be largely united. Close integration between Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Cypress Care's existing Microsoft Dynamics GP systems in particular will make it possible for employees on its three sales teams and in its accounting and other departments to combine and share more than a dozen types of specific information, including forecasting and planning activities.

- Customized data. Too much information can be as daunting as too little. Personal dashboards within Windows® SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 combine customer sales data and other information gathered by Microsoft Dynamics CRM and other Microsoft software into single, onscreen view, each catered to the needs of the specific employee.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Offers Significant Cost Savings

Norcross, Ga.-based I.B.I.S., a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and a two-time winner of the Microsoft Dynamics Outstanding U.S. Partner of the Year Award, is implementing the Microsoft Dynamics CRM package. The company's deep knowledge of Microsoft's technology platform was essential in identifying the right technology for Cypress Care's business needs.

"In reviewing Cypress Care's business challenges, it was apparent an integrated Microsoft CRM solution was the answer," said Peter Bertell, a managing consultant for I.B.I.S. "Through Cypress Care standardizing on the Microsoft platform, they are able to leverage the Microsoft stack of technologies to operate a People-Ready Business."

I.B.I.S. estimates that Cypress Care will reduce the per-user cost for CRM from $1,300 per year to an average of less than $350 per year during the five-year contract. The more than $400,000 total savings does not factor in additional costs associated with integrating Salesforce.com with Outlook and SharePoint - Microsoft.