Travelex: A CRM Case Study - Salesforce.com

Industry
Financial Services
Geographies
Worldwide
Challenges
At Travelex, different regions had
adopted disparate CRM solutions
including Siebel, Salesforce, GoldMine,
and Excel spreadsheets. The company
found that the absence of a global,
real-time, consolidated customer
database was a major barrier to
continued rapid growth and great
customer service.
Solution
Travelex selected salesforce.com’s
Enterprise Edition for an initial 305
users. Salesforce.com, including Offline
Edition, was implemented in three
months across Travelex divisions on
five continents.
Results
“We achieved in a short time frame
a consolidated, real-time customer
database,” says Travelex’s Brian Eagle-
Brown. Time to market in rolling out
new products and time spent on
reporting and forecasting have also
been significantly reduced. “We now
know who our major global customers
are. We have a much more coordinated
approach to our key global customers.”
CUSTOMER CASE STUDY
Travelex Adopts Salesforce to Manage Global
Customers Across Almost 100 Countries
We now know who our major global customers are,
whereas before it was difficult to identify this across
regions and across different CRM systems. We now
also have a much more coordinated approach to our key
global customers.
— Brian Eagle-Brown
Business Manager
Managing Global Customer Accounts
Travelex is a global provider of foreign exchange and international payment solutions. The
company operates in over 100 countries serving over 29 million customers. In 2001 Travelex
acquired Thomas Cook Global & Financial Services and today employs approximately
6,000 people.
Brian Eagle-Brown is business manager for Travelex globally, reporting directly into the group’s
COO, Nicholas Page. Eagle-Brown’s remit includes business development, process improvement,
and acquisitions.
Travelex has grown rapidly from its original bureau de change operations and has maintained its
reputation for customer service. However, a recent senior management conference concluded that
a major barrier existed to continued rapid growth combined with great customer service—the
absence of a global, real-time, consolidated customer database.
Travelex is regionally managed but globally coordinated. Different regions had adopted disparate
CRM solutions including Siebel, Salesforce, GoldMine, and Excel spreadsheets. “As a result,
we did not have a consolidated global view of corporate customers,” comments Eagle-Brown.
“Different regions could be dealing with the same customer, but the diversity of systems made it
difficult to identify this interaction.”
Collating data and developing global reports and forecasts took significant management and
administration as well as sales time. “In addition, the data was less than accurate,” says Eagle-
Brown. The complexity of some of the existing systems meant that many salespeople were not
using them properly. “Any CRM system is only as good as the data inputted. If it is too difficult to
use, you have a problem.”
Seamlessly Implemented Across Almost 100 Countries
Eagle-Brown was appointed global project leader to find a solution. The selection criteria
included user adoption, ability to implement globally, short lead time, and total cost of ownership.
“Rather than reinvent the wheel, it made sense to examine if we could expand what we already
had,” he says.
He initially conducted research amongst Travelex users of its existing CRM programmes. The
most enthusiastic feedback came out of North America, which had implemented Salesforce.
“Salespeople found Salesforce easy to use,” said Eagle-Brown. “They could input data offline.
Administration time on reporting was minimal, as they only had to input data once. Salespeople
like to be selling or be with the customer — they don’t like sitting at their desks filling in reports.”
At the same time, Eagle-Brown implemented a major cost-benefit analysis programme, looking at
total cost of ownership from implementation and licensing to IT maintenance and support. “Again

The beauty of
a solution like
Salesforce is that you
know exactly what
you’re going to pay
for. There are no
hidden costs, and
there are significant
cost savings in terms
of ongoing maintenance,
support, and
upgrades—all of
which are free.
— Brian Eagle-Brown
Business Manager
For More Information
Contact your account executive to
learn how we can help you accelerate
your CRM success.
The Americas
The Landmark @ One Market Suite 300
San Francisco, CA 94105
United States of America
1-800-NO-SOFTWARE
www.salesforce.com
Salesforce came out top because of its business model,” comments Eagle-Brown. Salesforce.com
provides the power of enterprise-class CRM software as an on-demand Web service for a monthly
subscription per user.
Because Salesforce was Web based, it made it much easier and quicker to implement across the
Travelex network. “The thought of implementing a traditional client/server solution across five
continents was daunting in terms of internal resource, cost, consultancy, and lead time,” says
Eagle-Brown.
Following tenders from the major vendors, Travelex selected salesforce.com’s Enterprise Edition
for an initial 305 users. Enterprise Edition includes Offline Edition, which enables users to
update contacts on a plane, in a coffee shop, or anywhere there is no Internet access. Data is then
synchronised at the click of a button once the Internet is available again.
No Hidden Costs
“The beauty of a solution like Salesforce is that you know exactly what you’re going to pay for,”
comments Eagle-Brown. “There are no hidden costs in terms of ongoing maintenance, hardware,
software, or hosting. Indeed there are significant cost savings in terms of ongoing maintenance,
support, and upgrades—all of which are free to customers.”
Salesforce.com was implemented in three months across Travelex divisions on five continents. One
of the benefits of a Web-based solution is that it is customised centrally, which provides a consistent
picture across the globe. “We achieved in a short time frame and very cost effectively one of our key
objectives, which was a consolidated, real-time, customer database,” says Eagle-Brown. This has
major advantages not only in terms of customer service but also in revenue potential. Time to market
in rolling out new products has been significantly reduced.
“We now know who our major global customers are, whereas before it was difficult to identify this
across regions and across different CRM systems,” continues Eagle-Brown. “We now also have a
much more coordinated approach to our key global customers.”
Time spent on consolidated reporting and forecasting has been axed. “Senior managers can see
what’s going on anywhere in the world and get a consolidated global view of our business in
minutes,” says Eagle-Brown. “In the past it would take weeks to access similar information and you
could not rely on its accuracy.”
Travelex is making use of the cases facility in Salesforce, which boosts customer service and
response times. “Sharing of information between sales and service means that salespeople can be
part of the solution, and this makes them look smarter and more responsive to their customers,”
says Eagle-Brown.
Travelex is also starting to implement the marketing campaign tools in the system. “The beauty
of Salesforce is that it can be as comprehensive or as stripped down as you need,” says Eagle-Brown.
“You can have an A to B saloon car, but you don’t need armies of outside consultants or engineers
to turn it into a Ferrari.”
Japan
Ebisu Business Tower 18F
1-19-19 Ebisu, Shibuya-ku
Tokyo, 150-0013
Japan
+81-3-5793-8301
www.salesforce.com/jp
Asia/Pacific
9 Temasek Boulevard
#40-01 Suntec Tower 2
Singapore 038989
+65-6302-5700
www.salesforce.com/au
Europe, Middle East & Africa
Ch. de la Dent d’Oche 1B
1024 Ecublens
Switzerland
+353-1-2723-500
www.salesforce.com
Copyright ©2006, salesforce.com, inc. All rights reserved. Salesforce.com, the “no software” logo, and Team Edition
are registered trademarks, and AppExchange, “Success On Demand,” and “The Business Web” are trademarks of
salesforce.com, inc. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the properties of their respective owners.
travelex_CS_0406_v2