New Data on CRM for the Healthcare Industry

I just read a report from Grand View Research that said the global healthcare CRM market is expected to reach USD $17.4 billion by 2025. For comparison’s sake, the same report said healthcare firms will spend about $6.5 billion on CRM in 2016 . The study said, “rising demand for workflow automation and a single platform for tracking medical information provides coordination of patient care, service and timely delivery which is expected to drive the industry growth.”

At SugarCRM, we obviously like hearing about growth in CRM no matter what industry. However, our customers in the healthcare industry have always been some of our favorites. Doing our part to improve the relationships between providers and patients, caregivers and those in need, and helping to simplify the complicated medical insurance industry is extremely gratifying.

In fact, we just received a new report from Nucleus Research that examines the success of a global healthcare provider that relies on Sugar. Because of the sensitivity of patient/insurance data, we are withholding the name of the customer for security reasons. But here are the highlights:

The Company

The company profiled is a global provider of eHealth and digital imaging solutions, specializing in radiology, enterprise imaging, hospital IT and integrated care.

The Challenge

Prior to SugarCRM, the company had a homegrown funnel management application. Customer data was siloed between software solutions, preventing a single view of the customer across departments, and made it difficult for marketing and sales to cultivate and manage opportunities effectively.

The Strategy

The company began exploring potential CRM solutions in January 2013, putting together a list of business requirements and sending a request for proposal (RFP) to six qualified CRM vendors. Salesforce, SAP, and SugarCRM were evaluated, and ultimately the company’s global team unanimously chose SugarCRM based on the following reasons:

• On-premise solution: With its unique interfaces, the company believed it would be better served by an on-premise solution. SugarCRM has both SaaS and on premise, which would allow the company to transition to the cloud later if they so chose.

• Mobile: Of the vendors considered, SugarCRM had the most robust mobile solution, on and offline, which was essential for the company’s sales teams.
  

• SugarCRM ecosystem: The company was attracted to the large number of apps that integrate with SugarCRM, because they had many solutions to interface with including SAP, Lotus Notes, and a third-party quoting tool.

The company began customizing the solution to fit its business needs and deployed it for testing in January 2014. In October 2014, it went live in North America and employees underwent one full day of training. In preparation for deployment in Europe, the company performed gap analysis and worked with Sugar to make minor adjustments for the European market, going live there in October 2015. Sugar continues to manage design and development for the company. By June 2016, design work was complete and the solution was live in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America with over 500 licenses.

Key Benefits

Implementing SugarCRM enabled the company to replace its customer relationship management processes with an on-premise, CRM solution that meets its global business needs. SugarCRM has broken down data siloes, enabled sales and marketing to become more effective at managing accounts, and increased profit overall at the company. Key benefits driving increased profits include:

• Growth of new business: SugarCRM enabled sales to manage prospects more effectively, equipping them with the tools to capitalize on new opportunities and move them through the sales cycle seamlessly.

• Expansion of existing accounts: With a single view of its customers, the company has a more complete picture of customer histories, enabling it to maintain relationships more effectively and take advantage of upsell opportunities.

• Improved collaboration between marketing and sales. SugarCRM has provided a framework for sales and marketing to collaborate and manage accounts, reducing duplicate efforts or opportunities falling through the cracks.

Key Costs

Over the three-year period, the largest cost area was software, taking into account both expensed and capitalized software costs. Other costs included consulting, personnel, and training.

Best Practices

With so many offices located around the world, the company needed a highly customizable CRM solution which would suit a wide range of needs. The company also needed a partner which could design, develop and integrate customizations into the platform for them. With SugarCRM’s open platform and third-party integration capabilities, it can integrate other applications while still having a unified, on premise solution.