UK-based Endsleigh Insurance’s decision to upgrade its CRM solution to Microsoft CRM 3.0 has enabled the company’s two divisions to quickly access data specific to their own needs. Prior to upgrading, both divisions had to search through a consolidated database to find information, which involved team members searching through a substantial body of information to find the data they required.

Endsleigh Insurance’s two divisions included the business development area and the commercial area. Originally, both divisions used a CRM system based on a combination of Lotus Notes and paper-based documentation.

As the company grew and became more complex, that system became problematic and the company had problems with the integration between Lotus Notes and other products, said Paul Nicholas, business project manager for Endsleigh Insurance.

“We also discovered Lotus Notes struggled to format mail received or sent to systems other than Lotus Notes. This caused large levels of frustration when dealing with external parties,” Nicholas said.

In addition, the limited scope meant that the commercial division could not manage any more clients through the existing system.

Working with international systems integration consultancy firm Ciber, Endsleigh corrected many of those issues by replacing the Lotus Notes-based system with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. As Endsleigh had already converted several other functions to Microsoft technology, including Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services with Active Directory, Microsoft Dynamics CRM provided seamless integration and scalability at a reasonable cost.

Endsleigh then upgraded to Microsoft CRM 3.0, whose rich functionality has enabled users in each division to access the data they need quickly and accurately and has saved employees significant time throughout the day, improving efficiency.

“We are currently in the process of standardizing on Microsoft technology, and therefore we really needed a CRM solution that would fit well with that solution stack,” said Rebecca Smith, another business project manager with Endsleigh Insurance.

As part of the conversion, Endsleigh Insurance has recently installed Microsoft Dynamics GP for Financial Management as its finance solution.