TalkTalk ditches NetSuite for Salesforce's Sales Cloud

TalkTalk has replaced its NetSuite CRM solution with the Sales Cloud from software-as-a-service provider Salesforce.

The service has been rolled out to 100 people within the business and sits across four of the company's channels: sales, partner, field sales and reseller distribution.

Marcus Baxendell, head of sales operations at TalkTalk Business, said the company replaced the NetSuite solution because it wanted a system that it could customise easily.

"The latest CRM solutions are more about APIs and mashing up applications. We had 10 developers working on our original CRM solution from NetSuite, and each modification required developers to make alterations to the core system," he said.

"With the Salesforce solution we can plug additional modules into the solution, or expand it into our own systems without accessing the core system."

TalkTalk opted for Sales Cloud after first considering Microsoft Dynamics and Sage's CRM solution. Baxendell said he opted for Salesforce because it was "a hosted application that sits in the cloud. This means it is much less time consuming to run and manage."

The system took just three weeks to install, and has since been integrated with a company-wide Cisco telephony system.

"This means that when we receive a phone call, the system recognises the customer's phone number and forwards the call to the relevant person," he said.

"Sales Cloud then presents that sales assistant with a pop-up window containing that customer's history."

Salesforce's Sales Cloud has also been embedded into TalkTalk's ordering portal, and sales staff are able to access the service using their BlackBerry or iPhone remotely.

The company is currently considering taking on Service Cloud from Salesforce, a product that integrates several social-orientated elements and helps companies make the most of opportunities provided by social media.