FrontRange Solutions Inc. (www.frontrange.com),
headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is the developer of
GoldMine®, HEAT®, and GoldMine® CustomerIQ™ - software and solutions
that enable organizations to deliver extraordinary customer relationships
and service.
MarketCapture:
FrontRange
has recently launched GoldMine CustomerIQ.
Many consider the CRM space to be rather crowded.
How do you position GoldMine CustomerIQ in this space?
Raj
Patel: It is
not a secret that the mid-market is still a very unsaturated segment of
the CRM market. As we started looking around at what was working and
what wasn’t in this space, we realized that most mid-market companies
were looking for an out-of-the-box experience that is closely aligned with
their business processes. People in these companies ask very
pragmatic questions: “Will the software help me perform my daily tasks?
Will it work the way I’m used to working? Will it work with the
applications I’m already using?” They want the software to be
structured around their business processes and speak their language.
As an example, in the insurance industry, people want to see a solution
for Claims Management, not a generic Service and Support solution.
That’s why we decided to position GoldMine Customer IQ as an industry
solution, with the business processes, terminology, and integration that
provide the answers companies in the mid-market have been looking for.
The first two verticals we address are discrete manufacturing and wealth
management.
MarketCapture:
Previous
FrontRange products have not targeted specific verticals; what made you go
this route with CustomerIQ?
Raj
Patel: This
is not entirely true. We have ten different industry templates for
GoldMine, including templates for mortgage lending, wealth management, and
real estate, to name just a few. With GoldMine CustomerIQ, we took
this industry approach a step forward. This is something that is
both a result of the market demand we have just talked about, as well as
the fact that we have built the new product on a very flexible platform
that enables us to deliver flexible industry solutions.
MarketCapture:
I
would assume customers in these verticals love the product; how is this
new positioning received by your installed base in different industries?
Raj
Patel: The
response has been very positive.
Obviously, some are disappointed that we haven’t chosen their
industry first, but they like the vision and the approach and they are
highly anticipating FrontRange to come up with solutions for their
industries soon.
They would rather continue to use our products today and wait for
CustomerIQ to available for their industry.
MarketCapture:
FrontRange
has always enjoyed strong presence with the VAR channel; what was the
reaction of the channel to this new positioning?
Raj
Patel: Our
relationships with our channel partners are very important to us. We
have been trying to educate the channel to take a vertical approach for a
while. We believe it is a way for resellers to really add value and
create a long-term defensible advantage for their businesses. We
have a growing contingency of channel partners that have taken this route
and are prospering at it. Some address broad vertical segments, such
as financial services, and some address very unique and special niches,
such as sport franchises. These partners are very excited to see us
coming out with a product that really supports the vertical approach and
gives them better tools to work with their customers. Those that
have been sitting on the fence now see that we are serious about it and
they too are starting to buy into this vision.
MarketCapture:
While
the company has the legacy of GoldMine and HEAT, this is the first major
product release coming out of FrontRange as a unified company.
What new challenges did you encounter in the product development
and release cycle and how did you address them?
Raj
Patel: Doing
something new is always a challenge, but at the same time it is a great
opportunity. Building the product from the ground up really gave us
the opportunity to be innovative without worrying about having an existing
installed base that is concerned about change. The team that worked
on GoldMine CustomerIQ was a mix of people with HEAT and GoldMine
background, as well as some new people that didn’t work on any of the
legacy products. It allowed people that worked on the product to
break out of the mold of things they were used to and leverage best
practices from multiple disciplines and approaches to CRM software
development.
MarketCapture: Did
the decision to go vertical have any impact on your internal processes in
bringing this product to market?
Raj
Patel: It
definitely did. It enabled us to become much more intimate with
customer and market needs for specific industries. We used to think
in rather abstract terms, and here we had to be very specific about how
are products will be used for a specific industry like Wealth Management.
We worked closely with customers, partners, and industry experts to
understand the business processes, terminology, and needs of the verticals
we are addressing.
|
|
