Loihde – Combining Three CRMs into One

Centralizing Information Under One Roof

Loihde's strategic aim is to develop and unify the group's operations. The current organizational model is a result of numerous acquisitions and previously operating under different brands. As a consequence, the company had multiple customer relationship management (CRM) systems that needed consolidation. Loihde decided to bring together the businesses ensuring business continuity for its customers – Loihde Advance and Loihde Factor decided to merge three different CRM systems into one to achieve sales and marketing synergy benefits.

After comparing different CRM systems, Loihde chose HubSpot and partnered with Kaksio Labs, known for its expertise in technical HubSpot implementations, for the deployment. HubSpot's CRM platform enables companies to provide first-class customer experiences with a solution that is unified, customizable to customer needs, and user-friendly – precisely what Loihde was seeking.

Well-managed customer relationships rely on accurate and precise information about customers, who may have numerous touchpoints with the company: sales, marketing, experts, and company leadership. Loihde's goals for the new shared CRM system were clear – to make customer management effortless for salespeople with an easy-to-use tool and, at the same time, provide a view of different business functions' sales to serve the needs of customers and network members more efficiently. People always came first – as they do in everything Loihde does.

Key Success Factors in the Project

Three things stood out in bringing together different CRM systems under one roof: 1. Organizational CRM maturity, 2. The company's ability to change, and 3. The partner's agility to understand the customer's business and processes.

Although it ultimately involved transitioning to a single CRM system, in Loihde's case, CRM maturity had to be considered from the starting point. Three different sales organizations, each with its own way of managing sales and using CRM as a tool. In this case, the crucial role was played by the iterative adoption of the new CRM.

"Because of the leadership of the three different sales organizations, we had different ways of working internally between different organizations and systems," says Jere Teutari, Marketing Director of Loihde

Since there was no prior common "CRM culture," it was important to start building it with the adoption of the new system. Preparations for this had been made at Loihde, but practice revealed the kind of ground the new CRM had to be embedded in. Both Loihde's and Kaksio's abilities to tolerate incompleteness and make things happen on the fly retrospectively emerged as the most valuable part of the project.

Organizational change capability is something that cannot be measured. Ideally, the client's management demonstrates courage in implementing changes, but commitment to implementation can be a challenge. In such situations, ensuring smooth collaboration is crucial, as it significantly affects the outcome of the CRM project. Kaksio's expertise lies in understanding the client's goals and guiding projects within those frameworks to successful completion. It is essential to understand the client's true ability to change and adapt the project execution to the right situation so that the project goals set by management and users' willingness to change are met.

"Change leadership happens internally at the client, in their own operations; we cannot do it for them. We can support it by offering materials to share and such, but it is very much in the client's hands. What workshops and system development currently enable the client, if facilitated in a way agreed upon by the client, is also the spread of the new CRM culture in the organization. The general discussion about it and also questioning it," describes Lotta Laukkanen, Kaksio's Project Manager.

A new CRM system is a good servant but a poor master. In the best-case scenario and in capable hands, it streamlines operations, but in the management of an uncommitted and fragmented user base, it serves no one. In Loihde's project, Kaksio's ability to understand challenging change and respond to different needs played a key role.

"My job became easier when Kaksio people were leading this whole thing. I was initially very skeptical about whether we could combine three CRMs in four months, but that's exactly what happened. Of course, it helped that we are in the same industry, so we benefited from our own expertise. However, it doesn't change the fact that the project was well-led and executed. Many things could have been done more efficiently, and there's always some minor criticism of the partner, but in the big picture, this went excellently," says Teutari.

Kaksio has experience with dozens of HubSpot projects, but no project is identical. This is purely because of the people in the projects. Business and processes are run by people, and as no person is the same, no project is the same. The working principle is always human-to-human. In Loihde's renovation, this meant considering and engaging dozens of people at different stages when factors in every stage of the process could be multiplied by three. It was about merging three CRMs into one.

Towards the Future with a Single CRM

The CRM systems' complex structure is now history at Loihde, replaced by a system that better serves its users and organization, created to streamline operations and create transparency between different business units. Loihde and Kaksio successfully completed their joint project, and most importantly, the new CRM system has been enthusiastically welcomed. Exploring the sales pipeline is interesting, and practical results have started to show.

"I couldn't believe it when we discussed this in December 2022, that we would have a functional CRM in March 2023. But that's exactly how it was," recalls Teutari, reminiscing about the project's successful outcome.