A smoother process for sourcing and selling IT equipment

Infrastar Statistics

  • Computer infrastructure and networking specialists
  • Privately owned
  • Cyber security accredited procurement experts
  • Serve SMEs and public sector organisations
  • Based in Gloucester, UK

Value added by Performa IT

  • Engaged in 2022
  • Customise Salesforce instance for smoother operation
  • Development and support relationship

Infrastar’s Background with Salesforce

As a rapidly growing organisation specialising in IT procurement and solutions consultancy, Infrastar appreciated the value of the Salesforce platform to support and scale their business. They invested primarily in Salescloud licences and began to capture customer details and sales information.

However, they were working so hard in their business they didn’t have the capacity to work on their Salescloud configuration to best assist their way of working.

They needed help fast. One Salesforce consultant they approached was not agile enough to get them up and running in the timeframe they required.

Then they found Performa IT.

Infrastar’s requirement

“We were using Salescloud to store emails and register new business,” says IT lead at Infrastar Josh Stinchcombe, “but we were continuing to operate the business outside the platform.

“For example all our quotes, Purchase Orders and Invoices were still done in Excel and just attached to the customer details in Salescloud. There was no easy way to track the sale or the profit.

“We wanted better integration of our sales and finance information, with more functionality, greater transparency and a better return on investment from our licence fee!”

Why Performa IT?

“Our CEOs met at a local business networking event and found they shared a passion for cars!” says Josh.

“When the Performa team came in to talk to us about what they could do for us they had some great ideas.

“They found flexible ways of developing links between sales and finance that wouldn’t incur ongoing cost. And they were keen to deliver functionality straight away rather than do lengthy discovery sessions about our operation.”

Salescloud customisations

Develop Opportunities

“Performa began with putting all our Excel-based invoices and quotes into Salescloud, and then developed a single interface where we could generate all our quotes, invoices and Purchase Orders per customer,” Josh explains.

Separate Sales and Support

“As we need to research the market and find the best prices for equipment to resell to our customer base, we wanted an easy way to link customer requests to supplier offers.

“In the Case area Performa enabled us to match requests to offers and keep track of all email correspondence with suppliers. By viewing all the options in one place, linked back to the request Case, we can determine the best deals for our customers,” Josh says.

Automated exchange rates

“We used to check the exchange rate daily and manually key it into a spreadsheet for our quotes,” says Josh.

“But Performa automated this so that Salescloud applies the most up-to-date exchange rate in our quotes and Purchase Orders.”

Integrated telephone calls

“Although all our customers’ emails were held in Salesforce, quite a lot of information and negotiation happens by phone,” Josh comments.

“Performa adapted the platform so that all our calls could be received through Salescloud too – making sure that all correspondence could be captured by customer opportunity or supplier case.”

Benefits of Performa IT’s customisations

Describing how Performa’s work has helped Infrastar Josh says: “All information and activity around Opportunities and Cases can now be tracked and easily traced back to the correct customer.

“So much time is being saved in collating information and checking it’s for the right opportunity!

“There is far more structure and logic in our operation now, and each Salesforce user has their own chain of activity, which helps the team take ownership and work more efficiently and accurately.

“Performa are helping us eliminate the risk of manual mistakes by automating margin and discount calculations based on buy and sell prices and exchange rates. We can rely on the platform to update margins and keep sales prices the same.

“This is making our financial profit information more transparent and easy to monitor.”

New Possibilities

“We are moving towards holding a more complete list of products that we can click to select. This will make our sales process even smoother,” says Josh.

“As we come to trust and rely more and more on the platform we will no doubt be inspired to ask Performa to add more customisations and enhancements to support our growth.”

Recommendation

“Performa IT are very helpful and are always willing to adjust and find alternative ways to deliver what we’re asking for to save us money in the long run,” says Josh.

“The team is always available to answer questions and will definitely go the extra mile to add value. I would definitely recommend them to other SMEs wanting to get up and running with Salesforce.”

Performa IT says

We are excited to be supporting a great local business in our area! Infrastar are neighbours of Performa and it’s great to work with an organisation that’s close by.

Not only that but Infrastar is a great business with really good potential for growth, especially now that they are getting better performance from their Salesforce investment!

Infrastar is the kind of business Performa IT cut its Salesforce teeth in – it’s very rewarding to see them drive more ROI from their platform.