The Executive Institute of Management (EIM) works with some of the biggest names in corporate Australia as well as a range of government organisations, in providing career and industry specific training programs and accreditation.
As an RTO (Registered Training Organisation), they deliver both accredited and non-accredited training in a wide range of disciplines including business management, sales, finance, information technology, retail, tourism, hospitality and personal development courses.
The complex nature of their business processes meant EIM needed a CRM and contact management system that was easy to use and could be easily adapted to meet their unique requirements. Previous to implementing ACT! by Sage they had been using the Teams version of Salesforce.com, Nick Bottrall, director of EIM, comments, “We bought the teams version of Salesforce.com, which is one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made. It was far too limiting, it was difficult to drive and very difficult to get reports from.” They had outgrown the level of Salesforce.com they were using and to upgrade to the next level it was going to cost them $30,000 per year instead of $3000 per year. EIM considered this jump in price excessive, so they began to evaluate their options.
As a former user of ACT!, Nick Bottrall started to investigate what the latest version could do. Patrick Twomey from Act Today went out and demonstrated the new features and enhanced functionality of the latest version. “Though there were some really good new features, it was similar to the old ACT! I used before and it was great. Really user friendly, a simple yet powerful reporting system and the opportunities system was simple. Patrick Twomey from Act Today also showed us how we can use it as a web based program”.
EIM now relies on ACT! by Sage to run their entire business, where everyone has access to the information they require to do their job. Bottrall says, “Everyone is now working far more effectively and at a click of a button we can easily see where we are for the month and exactly how we’re going for the next month.” Communication between their different offices and campuses has been greatly improved. Regardless of where people are located or if they are working remotely they can access one central database.
EIM’s use of ACT! by Sage is still in the early stages, where they are still finding out things that it can do as they go along. But so far EIM are very pleased with the results. Bottrall comments, “I think it’s absolutely the best value for money. You might upgrade occasionally, but you don’t pay an ongoing fee. Once you buy the licence it’s yours”.