Case Study - A post-sales system for a high growth events organiser
Fortem International's post-sale process ran across several disconnected tools, with no shared view of a deal from signature to invoice.
- Client
- Fortem International
- Year
- Service
- Intelligent Middleware
Overview
Fortem International runs trade exhibitions worldwide, from e-commerce and technology to hospitality and food and drink, organising more than 35 events a year.
During a period of rapid growth, that scale ran into a post-sales process split across disconnected, off-the-shelf tools: contract errors, double-booked stands, slow deal approvals and invoices that went missing between departments.
DGxC built an Intelligent Middleware platform that unified Fortem's key systems, including Salesforce, Pipedrive, Xero, DocuSign and its floorplan software. Double bookings dropped by 100%, deal approvals became 10x faster, and Fortem gained a foundation it could grow on.
The problem
During a growth phase, Fortem adopted several off-the-shelf tools to handle post-sales tasks such as contracts and invoicing.
Each tool was used in isolation by a different department, with no operational oversight connecting them, so mistakes slipped through unnoticed.
- Hampered deal closing.
To close a deal, the sales team had to jump between systems to pull together the information needed for a contract. That produced contract mistakes, and in the worst cases, collapsed deals.
- Stand double-booking.
The sales team allocated stands first come, first served, with no way to check whether a stand had already sold. Large numbers of contracts had to be redone once double-booked stands surfaced.
- Disjointed approval process.
Deals needed sign-off from several departments before they counted as complete, and that sign-off happened over email, in long chains with multiple people copied in. It was slow, hard to track, and gave nobody an operational overview, so mistakes and friction between departments followed.
- Siloed financial processes.
Invoicing happened directly in the accounting system, and only certain people could raise an invoice once a deal was approved. That created a bottleneck, and with no visibility into which deals had been approved, invoices went unraised.
The team at DGxC really took the time to immerse themselves in our processes and get an understanding of our frustrations and requirements.
Head of Global Operations
Fortem International
The build
DGxC met with Fortem's stakeholders to see where the deal process broke down, from the sales team's daily work through to what senior leadership wanted the finished process to look like.
DGxC designed the Intelligent Middleware platform around the lifecycle of a typical Fortem deal, then walked Fortem's senior leadership through an early draft to check it met what they needed.
The finished platform, nicknamed "the hub" by Fortem's own team, is a secure, scalable system built around how Fortem actually works.
The platform connected Fortem's existing tools, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Xero, DocuSign and its floorplan software, surfacing each one only when a deal needed it for the next stage of its lifecycle.
Listing pages gave an operational overview, so users could see the status of every deal at a glance and act on the ones in their own department.
- Automatic deal population.
The integration of Fortem International's sales and CRM platforms sends client information directly to the middleware when a deal is being done, speeding up the sales closing process and preventing data entry errors.
- In-app stand selection.
Integrating the floorplan software directly into the middleware ensures that only non-reserved stands are available to the sales team, eliminating the risk of double-booking stands.
- One-click deal approvals.
Instead of unwieldy email chains, deal approvals are now managed and actioned from the middleware at the click of a button with all pertinent information on display. Whatever the outcome, interested parties are notified so they can take action.
- Directly raise invoices.
Specific notifications and overview pages alert need-to-know users about un-invoiced deals. Invoices can be generated directly on the middleware and pushed onto the finance platform, speeding up this part of the process and releasing operational bottlenecks.
Integration list
DGxC were a pleasure to work with and have become a valued extension of our team, ensuring the continued success and development of our systems.
CEO
Fortem International
- Reduction in double bookings
- 100%
- Faster approval times
- 10x
- Reduction in un-invoiced clients
- 100%
- Reduction in subscription fees
- £100k p/a