4-page Case Study - Posted 6/27/2007

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The Virginian-Pilot

Newspaper Improves Accountability and Reliability and Increases Ad Sales

With a circulation of 200,000, The Virginian-Pilot is the largest daily metro newspaper in Virginia. Approximately 60 percent of the newspaper’s revenue comes from selling print advertising inserts to large, local retailers. In an effort to increase insert sales and to improve sales force effectiveness, The Virginian-Pilot deployed a solution based on Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM. The innovative solution not only helps sales representatives track customer data, but also helps ensure that the print advertising inserts reach their intended audience. The new technology helped The Virginian-Pilot score 99.6 out of 100 points on an independent audit of the paper’s insert accountability system. This impressive score has been used to retain and attract more advertising revenue.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM gives us real-time intelligence from sales through fulfillment. Life is better for our sales people—and for our customers. Steve Peters, CIO, The Virginian-Pilot

Situation

With a half-million daily adult readers, The Virginian-Pilot is the largest circulation newspaper in the state of Virginia and one of the region's largest employers. The Virginian-Pilot and its subsidiaries include more than a dozen publications that serve additional customers and businesses throughout the region.

Along with the daily news, The Virginian-Pilot delivers numerous printed advertising inserts to more than 200,000 homes each day. The advertising revenue generated by local retailers who pay for these inserts accounts for more than 60 percent of the paper’s total revenue and represents a critical aspect of the business. However, with a complex value chain that spans sales and marketing, inbound and outbound logistics, warehousing, and scheduling activities, managing these inserts presents a challenge. It can take several weeks from the time a sales representative closes a sale to the moment the newspaper lands on a subscriber’s doorstep. In the interim, the paper’s warehouse facility must receive the pallets of printed inserts, confirm the amounts and check for damage, and safely store the pallets until the scheduled delivery date.

Because quality control issues with advertising inserts are common throughout the newspaper industry, the Audit Board of Circulations (ABC) exists to audit the insert process on behalf of advertisers. An ABC audit is an in-depth examination of a newspaper’s records, intended to assure buyers that a publication's circulation claims are accurate and verifiable.

In a competitive market with multiple news services, a newspaper with a high insert audit score gains credibility with media buyers, leading to competitive advantage. Conversely, a low score—or refusal to submit to an audit—can seriously damage relationships between a paper and its advertisers. Advertisers want to make sure they are getting their money’s worth and that their ads are reaching the intended audience.

Facing an ABC audit of his own insert management system, Steve Peters, CIO of The Virginian-Pilot, needed to implement a system that could provide a 360-degree view of the insert process. The newspaper’s existing system had long relied on handwritten notes, manual data entry, and a variety of homespun spreadsheets and databases to track pallets on the warehouse floor. But the system did not provide a formal link to the sales department, and communications were spotty. Too often, pallets were delivered before the receiving department was aware of the delivery schedule. Or worse, sales representatives were not notified of damaged or incomplete shipments until it was too late to resolve the issue.

Peters had already begun to explore a replacement for the aging Baan customer relationship management (CRM) system as a means to improve the effectiveness of the newspaper’s sales force. He recognized that a system that provided a detailed history of customer interactions could likely be adapted to maintain a complete history of every insert, as well. Implementing a single system for both sales force automation and insert management would not only close the loop between sales and the shop floor, it would provide the digital paper trail that would enable The Virginian-Pilot to ace the ABC audit.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM was the best option for our sales force because of its familiar interface and compatibility with the company’s existing software, particularly Microsoft Office Outlook. Steve Peters, CIO, The Virginian-Pilot

Solution

After careful consideration, Peters chose Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM over alternatives, such as ACT and Iron Force. With modules for sales, marketing, and customer service, Microsoft Dynamics CRM offered the newspaper a fast, flexible, and adaptable solution to improve business processes, enable closer customer relationships, and to help achieve new levels of profitability. And because Microsoft Dynamics CRM was designed to partner with applications based on the 2007 Microsoft® Office system, it was easy for employees to integrate the solution with their own technology systems. “Microsoft Dynamics CRM was the best option for our sales force because of its familiar interface and compatibility with the company’s existing software, particularly Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007,” states Peters.

In addition, the offline functionality of Microsoft Dynamics CRM enables the sales field to work effectively even when they are out of the office. The IT improvements at The Virginian-Pilot included laptops and mobile connectivity that would enable representatives to spend more time in the field interacting with customers. With better visibility and mobile or remote access to the complete sales and insert distribution process through Microsoft Dynamics CRM, the sales force remains fully informed and able to meet customer demands anytime, from anywhere.

The Virginian-Pilot worked with Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Customer Effective to ensure a smooth, phased implementation of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution. Customer Effective also performed the customizations that extended the solution beyond the sales force, enabling The Virginian-Pilot to track, in real time, the arrival and distribution of thousands of inserts on a daily basis.

“We created custom entities to enable The Virginian-Pilot to track the thousands of inserts from arrival through distribution,” explains Trent Lowe, Senior Consultant at Customer Effective. “These entities enable the receiving department to capture specific data about the pallets—for example, their Tare weights and micrometer readings measuring the thickness of each insert—within Microsoft Dynamics CRM. They can then check these figures against the quantities on the order and notify the appropriate sales rep immediately of any discrepancies.”

These capabilities enable The Virginian-Pilot to show auditors a complete paper trail—from the moment the sales representative accepted an order, to the time a pallet of inserts arrived at the warehouse, and finally to the instant the inserts were distributed with the daily newspaper—often weeks later. Further, the solution provides the sales force an opportunity to proactively contact customers regarding insert problems and to make insert production and distribution information available for all employees to view.

“All The Virginian-Pilot employees and management can now see the insert process and communicate through a single system,” says Lowe. “The warehouse operators are able to capture key data on incoming pallets and provide sales representatives up-to-date information on them, such as overages, underages, and spoilage. This information allows sales representatives to address issues with customers before they become issues.”

Benefits

Microsoft Dynamics CRM allows The Virginian-Pilot to provide rich CRM capabilities to its sales representatives, sales management, and even warehouse

All The Virginian-Pilot employees and management can now see the insert process and communicate through a single system. Trent Lowe, Senior Consultant, Customer Effective

Improves Customer Service
Microsoft Dynamics CRM provides sales representatives with visibility into the insert process, allowing them to track the status of their orders from point-of-sale, to receipt of inserts, and finally to distribution. While occasional printing errors and damaged shipments are unavoidable, the new system ensures that issues are identified and dealt with in a timely fashion—and customers are never surprised on the day their advertisement is due to be published.

“For the first time, we have handshaking between sales and operations,” explains Peters. “Microsoft Dynamics CRM gives us real-time intelligence from sales through fulfillment. Life is better for our sales people—and for our customers.”

Creates Credibility with Customers
Microsoft Dynamics CRM has helped The Virginian-Pilot demonstrate to customers their commitment to service and accountability. The newspaper scored a near-perfect score of 99.6 out of 100 points for distribution management and reliability in the insert management system audit. This score will deliver competitive advantage for The Virginian-Pilot and provide sales representatives with additional credibility as they approach potential customers.

Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, adaptable business management solutions that enables you and your people to make business decisions with greater confidence. Microsoft Dynamics works like familiar Microsoft software such as Microsoft Office, which means less of a learning curve for your people, so they can get up and running quickly and focus on what’s most important. And because it is from Microsoft, it easily works with the systems that your company already has implemented. By automating and streamlining financial, customer relationship, and supply chain processes, Microsoft Dynamics brings together people, processes, and technologies, increasing the productivity and effectiveness of your business, and helping you drive business success.

For more information about Microsoft Dynamics, go to:
www.microsoft.com/dynamics

For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:

www.microsoft.com

For more information about The Virginian-Pilot products and services, call 757.446.2000 or visit the Web site at:
hamptonroads.com/pilotonline

For more information about Customer Effective products and services, call (864) 250-2170 or visit the Web site at:
www.customereffective.com

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.