Challenge
Washington Publishing Company (WPC), based in Seattle, WA, is the world's only provider of X12 Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) standards publications, which are utilized globally across major industries. WPC's clients, called members, subscribe to gain access to various products. However, WPC's subscription and client management system was manual and based on a legacy system, making data collection and management cumbersome and problematic.
WPC needed to replace their legacy system with a cloud-based solution to increase the efficiency of their subscription process, improve their event management, and collect valuable client behavior data for sales and marketing. WPC was initially skeptical about whether the Salesforce CRM platform would be flexible enough to handle the complexities of managing X12 members.
Solution
AccelOne conducted an in-depth analysis of WPC's business processes and determined that the Salesforce cloud was the best option. To address WPC's skepticism, AccelOne offered a "Salesforce Complexities Audit," building a proof-of-concept version of the platform to demonstrate its ability to handle WPC's complex member relationship schemas. This proof-of-concept was offered on a risk-free basis, only to be paid for if AccelOne successfully proved Salesforce could meet WPC's needs. The proof of concept was completed and accepted by WPC, leading them to choose Salesforce for their subscription management system.
AccelOne assembled a blended team of developers from the U.S. and Argentina to implement the Salesforce configuration. They used the Agile framework and Trello for project management, along with daily stand-up meetings over Skype and real-time communication via Slack to manage the distributed team. Weekly demo meetings were held with WPC for progress updates and feedback.
Team
The AccelOne team included:
Senior Salesforce Architect - Seattle, WA
Senior Salesforce Business Analyst - Buenos Aires, Argentina
Senior Salesforce Developer - Buenos Aires, Argentina
Results and Impact
AccelOne placed a strong emphasis on User Acceptance Testing (UAT) to ensure the best possible outcome for WPC.
They developed User Scripts for WPC to test functionality, familiarize themselves with the solution, and provide feedback. This collaborative approach resulted in a highly effective and fully functional customized Salesforce CRM, adopted to the highly complex needs of WPC and their members, which was rapidly deployed into production. The blended-team model and Agile framework allowed AccelOne to provide a comprehensive Salesforce solution with high business value to WPC, controlling costs and enabling rapid delivery.
"We've worked with much larger companies and haven't seen the success we've had working with AccelOne."
CEO, Washington Publishing Company
Conclusion
AccelOne's use of a blended-team model and Agile development framework was crucial to the project's success. The Agile approach enabled frequent iteration and early identification of requirements, errors, and issues, saving time and money.
The close collaboration between AccelOne and WPC throughout the development process ensured a smooth deployment and high user adoption of the Salesforce solution.
