CLIENT:
Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Senior Products
SERVICE:
Application Consulting
PROJECT:
SalesLogix Implementation
In his role as Manager of Marketing and Volunteer Programs for Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Senior Products, Greg Horner is responsible for market analysis and developing strategy and messaging for the health insurance company. As the largest insurer of the medicare eligible population in Western Pennsylvania, and the fifth largest MCH+HMO in the country, quite a few customer requests and new leads stream through his division on a daily basis. Horner knew he could improve on how quickly his organization responds to information requests from customers and prospects, and that his team needed a better method for follow up contact and closing on new leads.
To achieve Highmark's objectives, however, several technology issues had to be overcome. "We used an Access database to move data around for our staff to respond to customers and prospects, and it wasn't as efficient as we would have liked. In addition, our system for reporting on leads was difficult. We needed a better method overall to track and see what our lead pipeline looked like."
After evaluating high-end and low-end technology solutions, Horner and his team selected software from SalesLogix as the best product to achieve its goals. He then began due diligence on the best consulting firm to help with its installation and implementation. Horner sought a local firm capable of "coming on-site quickly if we had issues." He also wanted consultants with "a good grasp of systems issues, because we run many different systems." And, he needed a firm with a willingness and reputation for working within tight time constraints.
"We selected Plus Consulting due to its expertise in SalesLogix implementations, its well known client references in southwestern Pennsylvania, and because it had proven itself on a previous project for Highmark," says Horner. "We were also impressed with the depth and breadth of Plus' experience with various systems - which was critical."
To achieve Highmark's goals, Plus Consulting developed a customized version of SalesLogix, creating highly specific scripts to facilitate the management of new leads and to quickly report information related to phone calls by Highmark's sales representatives and by its staff to customers. Because Horner's team must follow mandatory language in describing projects internally and when speaking with customers and prospects, it was imperative for Plus to get the correct language into every script - which it did.
Horner reports that his organization is already observing the impact of the customized system Plus Consulting installed. "We've experienced a huge surge in leads and membership for our MCH+HMO plan already this year. Given that this is a new system and that we went straight from the old system to the new one, we didn't miss a beat in the transition. And, we are witnessing record-breaking membership this year."
Horner believes he made the right decision in awarding the engagement to Plus. "Given our organization's goal of applying the SalesLogix solution within a short timeframe, Plus Consulting was able to come in and look at the technology that we had, identify the related business processes and map the software to meet our critical business requirement. What's even more impressive is that Plus was able to meet all of our critical requirement and get the system live in only eight weeks."
