Base Connections and Oncontact CRM Software

Base Connections is an extremely successful Telemarketing company that has been operating since 1994 and has maintained an impressive 75% growth from year to year. It has achieved this through its rigorous recruiting and training programs which have produced a highly motivated, multi-skilled workforce that is capable of performing all of the traditional telemarketing tasks including:

• Internet response handling
• Appointment setting
• Market research
• Customer care
• List building and cleaning
• Lead generation and qualification
• Seminar follow up

Base Connections has performed these tasks for a wide variety of clients from diverse industry backgrounds and the key to its success is recognizing that each client's need is different and adapting its service accordingly.

Oncontact Software's CRM Challenge
The problem that Base Connections identified was while its agents could handle virtually any task handed to them, the flat-file database system being used to capture the data and drive the calling processes simply could not adapt to the ever changing demands put upon it.

They recognized that they needed a flexible front-end CRM system incorporating a fully relational database that would support core business functions and included features that:

• Could be changed at a moment's notice to meet new campaign requirements
• Allowed agents to capture data quickly and easily even when switching from campaign to campaign
• Enabled new data capture screens and scripts to be created for new campaigns
• Was able to store and retrieve records rapidly from databases often in excess of 750,000 records
• Was able to maintain often complex relationships between sets of data
• Allowed other applications, e.g. financial programs, to be tightly integrated
• Enabled target record selections to be performed using multiple criteria allowed sophisticated data mining tasks to be performed
• Provided comprehensive client report generation using
  using a variety of reporting tools

Oncontact Software was chosen because it met all of the criteria set by Base Connections and as Ari Snider, Partner at Base Connections says, "Oncontact's CRM software has given us the ability to provide a better service to our clients. We now have the comfort of knowing that we are able to run the most complex of projects. We can compete for clients we could not do before. In the end we, chose Oncontact because it delivered the same functions as all the leading CRM vendors at a quarter of the price."

The 30 user CRM application from Oncontact Software was up and running in just 3 months.

The CRM implementation involved:

• System design specification
  
• Prototype system development and testing
  
• Operational system development and testing
  
• Installing SQL Server and the Oncontact CRM database
  
• Importing 700,000+ records from other databases
  
• Integrating with e-mail and fax servers
  
• Training for 30 operators and management personnel
  
• Development of client and management reports

The Results
The implementation of Oncontact's CRM application has given Base Connections the confidence and capability to take on any telemarketing task and adapt their campaigns very quickly, thus giving them an edge on their competitors.