EXPERT INTERVIEW:How Bluewolf Helps Companies Implement salesforce.com and AppExchange

Expert: Eric Berridge
Title: CEO
Company: Bluewolf
Web: www.Bluewolf.com

SP: What is Bluewolf all about?
EB: We started Bluewolf at the end of the year 2000 because we saw the need for a new breed of professional services firm that could provide immediate value to the customer base. With over 500-plus salesforce.com integrations under our belt, we’ve become one the world’s fastest growing providers of software customization and integration services for CRM. Bluewolf is also an AppExchange partner with software products like Bluewolf Replicator and Bluewolf Integrator.

SP: Who was your first customer?
EB: We did a project with Ann Taylor, the New York City-based retailer to launch a new e-commerce site. They had been working with a big five consulting firm that is no longer in business and the project had been a long and tough one. We came in and, in a very short period of time, turned the project around and launched a successful e-commerce site that now drives a substantial amount of revenue for the corporation.

SP: How do you engage your clients?
EB: We come into a client establishment and assess the technology landscape. Then we figure out very quickly how customers can leverage technology to drive revenue. To do this, we engage our clients using a very defined process that’s ingrained in our culture. This process allows us to quickly understand what the customer needs in order to succeed, and how that success can best be measured. Because of this process, our clients know from day one exactly what they’re going to get out of an engagement.

SP: How important is it for your clients to have a solid sales process before implementing CRM?
EB: If you deal with a client that has a good understanding of their sales process, it is fairly easy to overlay a CRM solution that responds to that process. However, with the advent of CRM systems that are easier to deploy, like salesforce.com, the application acts as a catalyst for business process change. In the past, if you were deploying an on-premise application like Seibel or SAP, you had to get your business process down first because the cost of changing the application was very high. With today’s on-demand applications, the cost of changing the application is much lower.

SP: What has been your biggest success?
EB: Recently we’ve been providing CRM professional services for media companies like The New York Times, NBC, Dow Jones, and the Wall Street Journal. Some of our biggest successes in those organizations have involved taking old-school sales organizations and shedding light on the value of technology and how technology can help them work more closely with customers and drive more revenue.

SP: And what has been your biggest blunder?
EB: Our biggest blunders have been when we’ve gotten stuck in the trap of trying to over-engineer technology for an organization that doesn’t really need it.