Switching from online spreadsheets to a B2B CRM system helped vStack not only manage deals more efficiently, but also create more mature business processes in sales, marketing and partner relations.
About the company
vStack is a Russian software company, the vendor of the enterprise-level hyperconverged virtualization platform of the same name. The key idea of vStack is to create a fully managed virtual data center of Enterprise level on the basis of standard server equipment. This is a more affordable, but no less productive alternative for import substitution of foreign solutions.
The vStack solution covers the tasks of IT departments in companies from absolutely different areas. With the hyperconverged platform, businesses can reduce costs and expenses on IT infrastructure and ensure stable operation of information systems.
How vStack worked without CRM
vStack is a rapidly growing company that already works with more than 50 customers. Since the company sells a complex technical solution, the average deal takes anywhere from 3 months to 2 years or more.
Salesforce started in vStack without a CRM, with all customer and deal information stored in online spreadsheets. This order worked until the company started to grow rapidly – there were more partners who supplied the vStack solution, new large clients came.
When there were more deals, it became necessary to implement a CRM system to track the customer journey through the funnel and manage relationships with partners.
“We started with something small and came to something bigger – we used to work with deals manually, but as the company grows, we need to develop business process automation as well,”
— says Evgeny Karpov, CEO of vStack.
Solution Selection
The vStack team began their search for a system that would allow them to conduct complex consultative sales and work with partners. Solutions were selected based on the following criteria:
- possibilities for detailed analytics
- convenient dashboards for analyzing deal stages and partner actions
- stability of the solution
- responsive CRM vendor that listens to customers and makes changes to the system based on the company’s wishes
- convenient and modern interface, thoughtful UX
- easy and fast scalability
- adaptability and flexibility of customization
Taking into account the most important criteria, vStack decided on SimpleOne B2B CRM – a Russian system based on a low-code platform, which allows for quick customization and customization of CRM.
Implementation of SimpleOne B2B CRM
In March 2023, vStack began implementing SimpleOne B2B CRM, a process that took only 1 month. 600 contacts, over 150 companies, and 150 transactions were migrated into the new system from various sources.
At the time, SimpleOne B2B CRM was a new solution on the market, so vStack actively shared feedback. The SimpleOne team listened to the client’s requests and developed functionality to suit vStack’s individual needs. For example, the CRM now has more functionality for working with partners.
Immersion in the system took 3 months – during this time the team became fully familiar with the CRM and began to gradually update business processes.
New vStack sales processes
Now SimpleOne B2B CRM closes tasks in the following areas of vStack work:
- Deal analytics. The company now has end-to-end analytics for all stages of a sale. Thanks to this, the number of deal stages has increased from 4 to 9. Now the team has a better understanding of what stage of the funnel the customer is at and how to interact with him in order to bring the deal to completion.
- Creating and managing deals. Managers in vStack’s commercial department track leads and customers using CRM, while partner managers see partner sales and can connect to the deal in a timely manner.
- Marketing campaigns. Marketers of vStack manage marketing campaigns in CRM and can also link them to specific leads. The system displays all analytics for each campaign, allowing you to quickly determine their effectiveness.
- Utilization of methodologies. With the implementation of CRM, vStack sales department began to work more systematically with the methodologies of sales, goal setting and management: SPIN-sales, Kanban, SMART-targets. The functionality of SimpleOne B2B CRM allows you to use all these techniques in a single system, for example, the CRM has Kanban boards and the ability to customize the sales funnel by SPIN technique.
Result: deal cycle reduced by 10%
vStack has been running in SimpleOne B2B CRM for over a year now, and in that time the deal cycle has already started to decrease.
“CRM gives us the ability to apply SPIN and systematically track the deal cycle. We are striving to reduce cycle length and are already seeing the first results from implementing the system,”
— says Evgeny Karpov, CEO of vStack.
| Indicator | Change |
|---|---|
| Transaction cycle length | -10% |
| Number of vendor partners | 80 |
| Implementation period | 1 month |
| Adaptation period | 3 months |
Perspectives
vStack is moving towards partner sales development, so in the future CRM will be used more for task management and analytics. Partner engagement is one of the most important aspects for the company, and the SimpleOne team is helping to realize the goals.
For example, the first version of the partner portal has already been created for vStack, where partners will be able to register deals independently, and the vendor will be able to control the process and ensure sales progress.
