Towergate TLC

Towergate is the UK's fastest growing niche insurance intermediary employing more than 3,000 people across 100 offices. The company offers 200 specialist insurance products covering everything from military insurance through to aviation, marine, education and motor Sports.

Company name: Towergate TLC
Company site: http://www.towergate.co.uk
Product: Sage ACT!
Date: 05/10/09
Region: Warwick
No Of Seats: 16

Situation:

"We'd been using ACT! for some time," explains Towergate's , Senior IT Analyst, Stuart Clark. "But the need for upgrades plus massive company expansion meant we needed to bring a training and support partner on board."

Stuart was already happy with ACT! as a CRM solution. As he's quick to point out, "When you find something that's good there's no point in changing it!" However there was a pressing need to upgrade. "It was three years ago now. Our Peterborough office had four access databases and our sales guys were continually pinging from one to the other," he explains. "An upgrade gave us the chance to pull all the data together and consolidate it all in one place - a single point of call for everyone."

But if Sage ACT! itself wasn't new to Towergate, finding a suitable supplier who could also help their sales team get a handle on the new upgrade was. "First time round we'd taken a more basic approach to training," Stuart readily admits. "We simply bought the product and a book and did the whole thing ourselves. That approach worked then when we were smaller, but it wouldn't have worked with the upgrade."

Solution:

"To be honest, I initially chose DMC because they were close to our Peterborough office. They seemed to be tailor-made for us offering everything I required to get our sales guys clued up on the new software, customised to the database I needed. "They came to our site and made a copy of our database so staff could work on it over the half-day sessions. Afterwards our guys could simply go back to their machines and apply what they'd been taught to the real thing. It was spot on." The result? "Our sales guys now whiz through things," Stuart laughs, "I don't have to give them support at all."

Stuart is glowing in his praise for DMC, referring to the service as "superb" and the support as "fantastic". As he explains, "Our point of contact there, has been just great from the start, always going that little bit further to make sure we have what we want." Like many busy people, Stuart has no time for so-called support services where you get through to a different person with no knowledge of your particular database.

"With DMC you know you'll get straight through to the person you need and they will know exactly what you're talking about. They'll say, 'Yes, that's right. Last time we told you to do this and that happened, didn't it, so let's see what happens when we try something different'. You build up a relationship and that always works better in business." So do Towergate call on their support regularly? "We do, and even more so now we have upgraded ACT!. I haven't got the time to sit down with staff and go through things. But you know it's just a matter of a quick call and DMC respond. You know that basically they get things done there and then. I had some issues with merging information in from different sources. I called DMC and knew they'd come back with a fix. And they did."

Benefits:

Stuart has no doubts about the benefits of the new upgrade and DMC's support. "It's been indispensable for our sales team," he explains. "They don't have to sit there looking for clients. Instead we've got one administrator who does it all for them, setting up phone calls, meetings and so on. All the sales guys have to do every week is come in, see who they've got to go and see and they're off! ACT! is an amazing business tool really."

And the relationship with DMC doesn't stop with ACT! At the time of talking, Towergate is in the process of installing Sage 50. So did Stuart ever consider going elsewhere for the support?

"No, not at all," concludes Stuart. "We've stayed with DMC because you know exactly what you're going to get with them. We know the service and support will be there for Sage just as it's been for ACT! "After all, there's no point in shopping around - when you know you've got something good, you stick with it, don't you!"