Curveball Solutions
The SME Productivity & Innovation Centre (PIC) at Edge Hill University delivers impact through an intensive fully-funded programme that helps established SMEs, with the vision and potential for growth, build a coherent business model strategy to scale-up.
Curveball Solutions case study
“The programme came at a great time for us. As
Daniel Brown
a small business, dealing with the complexity of
embedding a new CRM system left us little time
for strategic planning. The online innovation and
facilitation tools helped us to take a fresh look at
our strategy, processes and structure to support
our long-term business growth. We are
passionate about helping businesses implement
technology solutions that inspire productivity,
security and innovation and welcome our continued
collaboration with Edge Hill.”
Operations Director – Curveball Solutions
Benefits and impact:
Technology adopted
- Adopted a new digital technology into a new CRM system.
Jobs created
- 2 new jobs created
Efficiency
- New acquisition process to deliver a high-quality service and customer experience.
Business profile: Print Logic Reprographics Ltd
| Sector | Curveball Solutions |
| Product/service | Managed service provider |
| Size | 25 |
| Location | Knowsley, Liverpool City Region |
The challenges
Curveball Solutions joined the programme with the aim of becoming a North West market leader in the IT managed service sector. The Senior Leadership team had an established range of effective products, an inbound marketing strategy that produced optimum SEO rankings and visibility for the business, but the number of leads
generated was not reflective of their efforts. The Senior Leadership team had begun to implement a new CRM system that required a greater injection of time and resources than the team had scoped. This major transformation project had also identified skills gaps within the structure and country wide recruitment issues within the IT sector. The pivoting efforts to implement and embed the CRM system into the business, left the Senior Leadership team with little time for strategic planning.
The opportunity
The Managing Director and Dan Brown, Operations Director from Curveball worked with the SME PIC’s business experts on the intensive programme. They identified various areas of the key business processes which needed addressing to improve productivity. To maximise profitability, they needed to improve performance data visibility across the business, increase efficiencies, improve staff morale and ensure better allocation of resource across the business
The key changes
Curveball Solutions shifted their marketing strategy from inbound to outbound focused to improve control of their targeted activity. The new strategy is backed by data-driven insights and has integrated new toolsets into the CRM system to improve efficiency of lead and sales generation. Two new roles were created to support the new strategy. The new Customer Experience Manager role is focused on analysing metrics to understand performance and uses the outcomes to develop processes to improve the customer journey. The Head of Managed Services role is part of the technical restructure and focusses on bridging the gap between the sales and technical teams and to review/enhance their technical proposition and team structure, providing the customer with an efficient, quality experience.
The plan and outcomes
Dan and David spent time consolidating a new business model to define their service offer, enhancing Curveball’s customer experience was a significant part of their plan. Clarity of key management data would help to identify measurable changes required to drive the new repeatable systematic sales processes through the new CRM system. The team has improved internal communications, and all new targets and processes are clear and understood by the team. Onboarding of new staff to address identified skills gaps will help facilitate the successful implementation of the new technology into the CRM system and develop a sustainable recurring revenue stream.
Members of the Curveball team including Dan have also accessed the University’s fully funded Leadership and Management qualifications (Chartered Management Institute) to support the business to improve their performance and resilience.
What we offer
”The programme provides you with the opportunity to work on the business and not in it.”
Professor Simon Bolton – Director, SME Productivity & Innovation Centre
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