Updated on July 14, 2020 
Hanna Commercial, the Pittsburgh’s leading commercial real estate firm, decided to consolidate its multiple CRM systems to unify processes, improve efficiency and save money. Keep reading to learn their CRM story and what helped them successfully implement a shared database across multiple offices in multiple markets.
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Meet David
David Noble is Vice President of Market Research at Hanna Langholz Wilson Ellis.
David’s CRM and tools:
David: Hanna Commercial is the commercial division of Howard Hanna and was formed through the acquisition and merger of numerous existing independent commercial offices throughout the region.
We currently operate full-service offices in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany and Lehigh Valley, with support for additional commercial agents in other markets.
Challenges
Ascendix: Why did you decide to replace your existing CRM software and what challenges did you face?
David: When searching for a replacement to our existing CRM system, our situation presented several challenges, the most significant of which was the fact that our individual offices were all using different systems.
Different systems meant different processes and different workflows for the users. It also meant that the data migration process would be multiplied by the number of systems that we used.
The Homepage of Hanna Commercial Real Estate
We decided to consolidate our various CRM systems into a cohesive environment in order to improve efficiency, save money, and create a culture of continuity among all commercial offices.
Sharing information across market lines, providing background to contacts within our existing network, all lead to an improved ability to effectively service our accounts.
It was for these reasons that we chose to work with Ascendix.
Solution
Ascendix: Could you tell me how you tackled CRM consolidation project?
David: After our initial discussion with the Ascendix team, we quickly realized that we were speaking with a partner in this process, someone as invested in our success as we were.
Our needs for CRM were simplified down to a few ‘must-haves’ and a streamlined workflow to encourage user adoption and utilization.
Our must-haves included Outlook integration and synchronization (calendars, contacts, and email history) and an available mobile interface.
And our workflow was reduced to Contacts, Companies, Tasks, Groups, and Deals.
Outlook synchronization created significant headaches, as we struggled to get a consistent and trustworthy result.
It was because of the diligence of the Ascendix team that we were able to resolve the issue and get a reliable connection with our Outlook account.
They worked in coordination with Salesforce reps directly to diagnose the issue and solve the problem.
And as mentioned, we worked to limit the ability of new users to get ‘lost’ in the myriad features available.
It was decided internally to learn to crawl before we walk and walk before we run.
To that end, Ascendix worked with us to limit the visible features to just the ones that we wanted to emphasize with our users.
The Payoff
Ascendix: Let’s talk about results. Could you explain how Ascendix’s solution has helped your team?
David: I believe we’ve seen higher adoption rates than we would have had we overwhelmed new users with too many options.
As a result, we’ve successfully implemented a shared database across multiple offices in multiple markets.
In the coming months, we hope to capture additional users that were still on the fence about adopting a new workflow model. We will also begin to slowly roll out additional capabilities of the software and integrate these processes into the environment.
Since going live with our data, Ascendix has continued to improve the experience by rolling out new features, addressing follow-up questions, and assisting/empowering our internal database management group with the knowledge to utilize the software to its fullest.
I would unconditionally recommend Ascendix, both for the software and the management and support team.
Key Takeaway
It is not a rare situation when different offices use their own CRM systems and follow their own processes. Sooner or later, management realizes that they are not able to get a complete picture of all operations and they don’t get valuable information about their operations in a timely and consistent manner.
As a result, they can’t make strategic decisions with the help of the data but have to guess and assume.
We understand that CRM consolidation is not an easy project, but the future outcomes in most cases will overweight the required investment:
- You’ll be able to unify your business data, start tracking KPIs (key performance indicators), spot trends and inefficiencies, benchmark your offices and faster react to critical situations.
- Most likely, you’ll save your CRM-related costs thanks to moving to one vendor and might even get volume discounts that wouldn’t be possible otherwise.
Ascendix Technologies is a CRM consultant with over 22 years of successful work. We’ve helped multiple businesses in their CRM consolidation projects and will be happy to help you. Get in touch with us for a free consultation.
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