Overview

An Effective Solution for Sales Managers to Coordinate Distributed Teams and Drive More Sales

Overview

Market OpportunityYou’re a sales manager with a product to sell, a limited budget, a limited amount of time and a distributed sales team champing at the bit ready to hit the phones. Without some kind of infrastructure in place you know your sales campaign could be a real problem to manage. How will you know which salesperson is calling which customer or how the campaign is progressing?

SolutionThinkscape have developed a site template for SharePoint Online to help distributed sales teams run coordinated telemarketing campaigns. Through a role based approach, the telemarketing site template helps each salesperson to track the contacts they are working on whilst the sales manager can measure the overall effectiveness of the campaign.

Benefits

Rapidly set up a new telemarketing site in SharePoint Online to support your sales team

Easy for the sales team to learn and begin using the site immediately

Helps your sales team to distribute and plan their workload efficiently while helping you to monitor the pipeline

The site is easily customizable to your exact needs

Helps you to prioritize the leads

“We recognized we could deliver a powerful business solution to support the successful execution of telemarketing campaigns using a combination of SharePoint Online and Silverlight. SharePoint Online had most of the functionality we needed out of the box whilst Silverlight helped us to deliver rich charts and handy time saving features.”Myles Jeffery, Managing Director, Thinkscape Limited

Borne out of Thinkscape’s own internal need to provide support to their

telemarketing campaign team, a SharePoint Online site was developed

in rapid time using mostly out of the box features. The site helped

Thinkscape to ensure their telemarketing team was coordinated and

working effectively even though they were based at different locations,

whilst allowing the sales manager to monitor the pipeline and step in

when those all important leads are qualified.

Thinkscape soon realised that the telemarketing site could have wider

appeal to their customers; it had worked well for Thinkscape so why

not for other businesses too? After additional enhancements and

feature additions using Silverlight, Thinkscape have now packaged

their telemarketing solution in to a reusable SharePoint Online site

template. New sites can be created simply and quickly using the

template allowing any sales team to hit the ground running.

SharePoint Online’s comprehensive out of the box features and

completely open web service API combined with the advanced user

interface capabilities of Silverlight helped Thinkscape to develop a

powerful solution for telemarketing campaigns.

Solution DescriptionThinkscape’s telemarketing solution for SharePoint Online helps distributed sales teams to coordinate and distribute their contact workload efficiently amongst team members. The solution supports two roles: the telemarketer who makes the calls and the telemarketing manager who oversees the effectiveness of the campaign.

These are the key use cases that the telemarketing solution fulfills: Making the call. A telemarketer

evaluates which contact to call next by priority or due date then logs the results of the call.

Evaluating how the campaign is progressing. The telemarketing manager can see the pipeline taking shape and ensure the team has a steady workload.

Handle qualified leads. The telemarketing manager actions a suitable follow-up for qualified leads such as escalation to an account manager.

Acquiring contact data. The telemarketing manager imports raw contact data (from a spreadsheet) in to SharePoint Online.

Solution ComponentsCampaign DashboardThe telemarketing manager uses the campaign dashboard to monitor the progress of the telemarketing campaign. Visual charting components show the pipeline developing and whether there is enough workload to keep the team busy.

Workload OrganizerThe telemarketer uses the workload organizer to manage and plan their daily schedule. It shows how well

they are doing, which contacts need following up this week, and which are the most promising contacts available to take on. The telemarketers can easily download telemarketing scripts and product information documents to send prospects.

Duplicate Contact AssistantDuplicate records can occur when the manager imports contact data from multiple sources. This presents the possibility of two telemarketers accidentally calling the same company twice. The Duplicate Contact Assistant helps telemarketers to identify whether a company they are about to call has already been called before. E.g. “Acme Ltd” and “Acme Limited” would be identified as possible duplicates.

End to End Workflow Scenario: From Setting up a new Site to Handling a Qualified LeadThe following steps present a brief end to end tour of the telemarketing solution.

Step 1: Manager creates a new SharePoint Online SiteThe manager uploads the telemarketing site template in to SharePoint Online and creates a new site using the template.

Step 2: Manager Configures the Site to Campaign Specific NeedsThe manager customizes the site to reflect the specific needs of the campaign; in this example new columns are added to the “Contacts” list for net worth and net profit.

Step 3: Manager Uploads Contact Data in to the SiteThe manager imports contact data from several contact spreadsheets in to the site via a Microsoft Access database using SharePoint synchronization.

Step 4: Telemarketer Evaluates which Contact to Call NextA telemarketer logs on to the site and selects a contact from the “top 20 contacts” available to take on. After confirming that this contact is not a duplicate the telemarketer assigns the contact to herself.

Step 5: Telemarketer Makes the Call and Records the ResultThe telemarketer calls the contact; a result! The contact has buying intentions for the product. The telemarketer records the call in the contact’s call log and marks the contact status as “Qualified”.

Step 6: Manager Handles the Qualified Lead

Because the contact status was marked as qualified the telemarketing manager will receive a notification email with a link to the contact detail page. The contact will also appear in the manager’s “to do” list until it is handled. The telemarketing manager can now action the qualified lead which could mean escalation to an account manager and migrating the record in to an enterprise CRM system such as CRM Online.

Solution Development and ImplementationThe telemarketing solution for SharePoint Online is delivered as a SharePoint Online site template, incorporating Silverlight controls for graphical charts and advanced features.

SharePoint Online was a natural choice for Thinkscape; the powerful capabilities of SharePoint Online out of the box simplified the development process and the amount of coding required, whilst the “Online” part of SharePoint Online lowers the barrier to adoption for Thinkscape’s customers when compared to the costs and complexities of an on-premises deployment of SharePoint.

Thinkscape were also interested to see what was possible with Microsoft’s new cloud platform when compared to its on-premises cousin. When combining additional technologies like Silverlight with SharePoint Online’s web service API Thinkscape found there is really not that much difference.

The solution incorporates a number of SharePoint Online’s features which include Lists, Views, Content Editor Web Parts, Content Query Web Parts, Web Service APIs, Document Libraries and Audiences.

Silverilght 2, Visual Studio 2008 and .Net 3.5 were used to build the charting components and more advanced features such as the contact toolbar containing the Duplicate Contact Assistant and the Assign To Me button.

Thinkscape’s standard iterative development process was used combined with PRINCE2 for project management.

Step 1: Understand the Users’ Needs and the Technical Capabilities of the PlatformThinkscape talked to their

telemarketing team to understand

their key businesses processes and

the features they needed to work

efficiently.

The development team then explored

the technical capabilities of

SharePoint Online and Silverlight to

understand how best to implement

the needs of the telemarketing team

whilst ensuring the solution remained

simple and low risk to implement.

Step 2: Configuration of SharePoint Online Site StructureThe core elements of the site structure were developed first starting with the main contact list and the different views on to the contact list used by the Silverlight components and web parts.

The views made use of sorting, filtering and grouping to present the data in different ways.

The default page layout was then customised to show the various views on to the Contact list. A view on to a “Collateral” document library was used to put handy information such as telemarketing

scripts in the hands of the telemarketers.

The SharePoint Online audience feature was used to show a different display depending on which role type was logged in (telemarketer or manager). The audience feature was also used on individual list items in the collateral document library which required use of the Content Query Web Part.

Step 3: Integrating Silverlight with SharePoint Online and the Web Service APIThe Silverlight controls were built using Silverlight 2 and Visual Studio 2008. Some time was spent upfront to configure a project environment for Silverlight so that the controls could easily be built and tested outside of the SharePoint Online environment.

The Silverlight controls talked to SharePoint Online through the web service API. LINQ to XML was used to simplify the parsing and navigation of the XML documents returned by the web services.

The content editor web part made integration of Silverlight in to SharePoint Online straightforward.

Step 4: Incorporating Microsoft Access for Contact Data ImportsMicrosoft Access was seen as the simplest solution for the bulk upload of contact data in to SharePoint Online via its in-built synchronisation capabilities.

A simple interface to Microsoft Access was developed to assist manager’s connecting Access to SharePoint and then importing and uploading contact data.

Step 5: Creating a Workflow for Sending NotificationsSharePoint Designer 2007 was used to develop a notification workflow for sending out emails to managers when a lead has been marked as qualified. A standard pattern was used to ensure the workflow executed once only when the status column is changed to Qualified.

Benefits of SharePoint OnlineCustomer BenefitsThe choice of SharePoint Online for the telemarketing solution helps Thinkscape’s customers by: Lowering the barriers to

SharePoint adoption; only a SharePoint Online subscription is required

Giving control to customers over their own data. The data is in simple SharePoint Online list format that is easily exported to Excel or Access

Provides an open and user friendly platform for customers to extend the telemarketing solution themselves

Partner BenefitsSharePoint Online helped Thinkscape implement a solution using mostly out of the box features with minimal custom coding.

Introducing the Business Productivity Online SuiteMicrosoft Online Services provide software delivered as a hosted service directly from Microsoft data centers, managed by Microsoft staff, and with a guaranteed 99.9 percent Service Level Agreement. These standardized solutions are designed so that partners can rapidly deploy services to their customers at a low, up-front investment with predictable, recurring costs.

The all-new Business Productivity Online Suite provides streamlined communications, simplified management, and business-class reliability and security.

The customer can order this service for as few as five seats at a time.

The Business Productivity Online Suite includes the following services, which can be purchased on a monthly subscription basis either separately or as part of a suite:

Microsoft Exchange Online, based on Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, offers businesses e-mail, calendaring, other messaging-based capabilities, and archiving. It also enables coexistence, which means

new online users can interact with users on local servers.

(Introducing the Business Productivity Online Suite, Continued)

Microsoft SharePoint Online, based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, provides a single integrated location where employees can efficiently collaborate with team members, find organizational resources, search, and manage content and workflow.

Microsoft Office Communications Online enables people to communicate easily with

their colleagues across locations and time zones via instant messaging (text), voice, and video.

Microsoft Office Live Meeting is a hosted Web conferencing service that connects people in online meetings, training, and events through a reliable, enterprise-class hosted service.

Microsoft Exchange Hosted Filtering protects businesses’ inbound and outbound e-mail from spam, viruses, phishing scams, and e-mail policy violations.

Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite Microsoft Exchange Online Microsoft SharePoint Online Microsoft Office Communications Online Microsoft Office Live Meeting Microsoft Exchange Hosted Filtering

For More InformationFor more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to www.microsoft.com

For more information about Microsoft Online Services, visit the Web site at www.microsoft.com/online

Thinkscape is a software engineering company specializing in the design and build of on-premises and cloud based business systems using Microsoft technology. Since the commercial release of Online Services and the announcement of Azure, Thinkscape has been working with its customers to help them understand and discover the exciting applications and benefits made possible by Microsoft’s new

About the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite

The Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite provides businesses with virtually anywhere access to rich communication, collaboration, and productivity applications via subscription-based, Microsoft-hosted, online services. This hosted solution helps organizations offset the burden of managing and maintaining business systems, freeing information technology (IT) resources to focus on initiatives that can deliver competitive advantage to the business. The solution is part of the Microsoft’s Software-plus-Services delivery model to provide customers more choices than traditional, hosted, or on-premises solutions, allowing them to make deployment decisions that best fit the needs of their organization.

For more information about the partner opportunities provided by the Business Productivity Online Suite, see http://partner.microsoft.com/online .

© 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This solution brief is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft, SharePoint, Win32, and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.