General31.05.2013

Wesgro invests in Sage CRM with eMarketing

Wesgro, the official destination marketing, investment and trade promotion agency for the Western Cape has invested in Sage CRM with eMarketing, the preferred vendor is AWCape, an official supplier of Sage CRM solutions.

This investment follows the successful implementation of Sage 300 ERP with Procurement eWorkflow at Wesgro. “We have experienced exceptional growth in the last year and Sage CRM, with full eMarketing functionality, was the next step to support this growth,” says Ian Blackie, Chief Financial Officer of Wesgro.

“AWCape’s ability to deliver on time and within budget, together with their high levels of support, gave us the confidence to embark on this major CRM and eMarketing project. Further to this, they have a successful track-record with our company and have the ability to deliver solutions that will support Wesgro’s changing and challenging business processes,” says Blackie.

“Our ability to effectively project-manage major implementations through our formal structures of Services Management, supported by a Customer Support System hosted on SharePoint, provides our customers with peace of mind,” says Henry Hattingh Chief Executive Officer at AWCape.

Wesgro effectively keeps a firm finger on the pulse of business and tourism in the Western Cape region, being the first point of contact for foreign buyers, local exporters and investors who wish to take advantage of the unlimited business potential in the region. One of the critical success factors in the brief to AWCape, was a need to fully capitalise on the marketing opportunities that arise and to successfully manage these opportunities to ensure efficient business growth in the Western Cape. “Successful retention of business opportunities and follow-through to ensure 100% completion was high on our agenda as previous attempts to install CRM systems were not successful,” said Blackie.

AWCape embarked on the project to install Sage CRM with opportunity workflow for seven divisions in Wesgro. Sage CRM will also be integrated with Wesgro’s website and Sage’s Swiftpage will be utilised to launch and manage marketing campaigns. “Full integration of the CRM system to the ERP system was a key requirement, and this is one area where Sage CRM and Sage 300 ERP work extremely well together,” commented Hattingh.

“Sage CRM is a powerful, easy-to-use customer relationship management solution that integrates directly with Sage 300 ERP. It is designed to improve business relationships with every interaction and uses industry-leading technology to facilitate efficient information exchange between an organisation and its customers. It further integrates with other business applications through an intuitive Web services interface and therefore businesses are no longer limited by incompatible applications,” says Keith Fenner, senior vice president for sales at Sage ERP Africa and Middle East.

Wesgro’s CRM implementation and development is expected to be completed by the end of 2013.

Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter