Efficiency and Transparency in Administer Group's CRM Operations by Transitioning to a Unified HubSpot Portal

Introduction

Administer Group has experienced rapid growth in recent years. Acquisitions and going public served as a critical trigger for Administer Group to gain a more comprehensive view of the entire group's clientele and prospects. Within the group, various companies operating under different brands had overlapping sales discussions with clients and prospects, which the move to a unified HubSpot portal aimed to address. To initiate the project and execute demanding migrations, Administer Group searched for potential partners for the task. Kaksio Labs was chosen as the partner for the project, as their strong expertise in technical skills, especially in integrations and migrations, had impressed the Administer Group for the upcoming project.

Transitioning from Portal to Portal

At the beginning of the joint project between Kaksio and Administer Group, transparency was a key objective. Silta, Administer, and Emce, operating under the group, all had their own HubSpot portals in use. The decision had to be made whether to migrate everything to an existing portal or to build a completely new unified portal. After weighing various options, the latter was chosen.

"Luckily, everyone was very satisfied with using HubSpot, and it was obvious that it was the system we would continue with. We started thinking that it made no sense to have different portals, and we wanted visibility into our entire group's clientele and prospects, which was lacking when we were on different portals," says Susanna Suomela, Administer Group's Marketing Director.

Coincidentally, in the initial stages of the project, HubSpot launched its business units feature, enabling the management of different brands from the same portal. Although different brands operated under the same group, the new units required individual features and customizations to best serve different user group needs.

Kaksio Labs' experts tackled the challenge by conducting a thorough analysis of Administer Group's needs and existing HubSpot environments. Necessary customizations were designed for individual business units; for example, basic elements of company cards were defined universally, but at the same time, business-specific data was created, visible only to the personnel of that particular business unit. Different user groups were given various access rights, ensuring that each user received the necessary information for their needs.

Enhanced Collaboration Within a Single Portal

The new HubSpot environment brought significant transparency and systematicity to Administer Group's management of different business functions. Alongside transitioning to a single HubSpot portal, as the project progressed, there was a need to standardize lead handling processes, harmonize marketing aspects such as email templates, and customize sales pipelines. Customer service also transitioned from another system to Service Hub. Administer Group's main benefit was seen particularly in the transparency among different functions.

"Working in a single portal has increased openness and clarity between business functions. It's now easier to see who is handling each customer, which, in turn, greatly aids collaboration between customer service and sales. Though we are still in the early stages, we have successfully made the basics work well, and we have received a lot of positive feedback from users."  Says Suomela

Administer Group sees future opportunities, with the continuously expanding features and functionalities of HubSpot, combined with professional support, as the real recipe for success.

"Our goal is to further expand the use of HubSpot internally, allowing people to actually see and leverage the information available there. HubSpot offers so many possibilities, and there are constantly new features to utilize. However, we see it more as a marathon than a sprint." Suomela describes the development plans for HubSpot use at the Administer Group

The Right Partner Supporting Development

Administer Group sought technical expertise for the demanding data migration project but ultimately forged a fruitful partnership that continues with monthly development meetings and a dedicated Kaksio consultant to resolve HubSpot-related challenges.

"The collaboration with Kaksio has been invaluable. Without their help, building such a comprehensive setup would have been impossible alone. The Kaksio team possesses exceptional expertise and genuinely invests in understanding the customer's needs to find the best possible solutions. We have given guidelines on how we want things to work, and Kaksio has been instrumental in finding these solutions," summarizes Suomela, highlighting the benefits of the collaboration.

In essence, the collaboration between Administer Group and Kaksio Labs signifies a pivotal shift towards operational unity within the Administer Group organization. By migrating to a unified HubSpot platform, the initiative addressed the challenges of disjointed data and sales processes, fostering transparency and efficient collaboration. This successful partnership not only streamlined operations but also paved the way for continued growth, harnessing HubSpot's evolving capabilities supported by a robust and innovative partnership.