Case Study: Google Places CRM

The Challenge

Build a flexible web-based platform to support an important strategic initiative: Direct sales to local businesses.

How do we make it easy for teams of sales reps on the go to report up-to-the-minute progress? How do we simplify management processes as we expand to cities across the U.S.? These were the key challenges presented to us by Google’s rapidly growing Places team.

Our Solution

We used Refinery CMS as the platform to develop and launch this CRM in about eight weeks. Ongoing development over the next several months added new features and functions such as a bulk importer, as well as integration with the SalesForce.com API.

Refinery allows us to take an existing interface and modify it to suit our clients’ needs by adding custom “engines.” We developed four custom engines, each of which acts as an “area” users can access depending on their defined roles.

The Business Engine 
Displays a master list of all businesses in the database. Administrators can add, edit or delete them. Selecting an individual business shows a summary and map of that business. 

The Rep Engine 
Lets administrators add, edit and delete reps from the CRM. Select a rep and see a summary of that rep which includes overall percentages and a map with pins for each business the rep is responsible for.

The Visits Engine 
Enables reps to record all the required data associated with a visit to a local business using their Android Tablets or other mobile device. Data is transmitted directly to the Business Engine.

The Dashboard Engine 
Generates summary and detailed graphs and puts them into a web page. Data is live and graphics are displayed using the Google Chart API. 

The Results

Replacing the cumbersome spreadsheets with a management control panel saved a huge amount of tedious administrative time. Managers have up-to-the minute information about every business and each rep. The CRM accommodates the ongoing expansion into new products, services and marketing areas.

“Your team have done a stellar job of building a platform from scratch.”

Bo Mangels, Strategic Accounts Manager, Google