Hultafors Group Implements A Scalable CRM Solution To Support Sustainable Growth

Hultafors Group is one of Europe’s largest companies to supply workwear, footwear, head  protection, hand tools, tool carriers and ladders for professional users. Approximately 1800 employees strive to create quality products and services.

In recent years, this firm foundation has enabled the business to grow at scale, to the extent that Hultafors Group now encompasses a suite of 15 premium brands across the retail sector. These include internationally recognized brands – such as Snickers Workwear, Hultafors, Solid Gear, EMMA Safety Footwear, Toe Guard, Hellberg Safety, Wibe Ladders, CLC, Johnson Level & Tool, Kuny’s, Scangrip and EripioWear. In 2021, the portfolio expanded with the acquisition of Scangrip, Fristads, Kansas, and Leijona.

Exceptional growth means the organization is now one of the leading players in a competitive market in terms of functionality, safety, protection, and efficiency in the end-users’ workday. But with a large amount of retailers and customers across Europe, the business was in need of a unified and scalable CRM system to better serve their customers and sales teams across multiple brands and locations.

The challenge

Both organically and through acquisitions, Hultafors Group had entered a period of sustained growth and reached a point where they wanted to take their existing CRM solution to the next level to meet the demands of their expanding business. So they did what any forward-thinking company would do, they sought out a partnership to join them on their journey going forward.

With an expanding portfolio of brands, 300 users across multiple locations, plus an ever-growing number of large retailers to serve, Hultafors Group required an agile and adaptive CRM system that could ensure they were future-ready and able to respond rapidly to growth and change. 

Having worked with the server-based version of Dynamics for some years, they migrated from the on-premise solution to Dynamics 365 around 3 years ago. Given how much the company had changed in that time, it was clear that it was time to accelerate the development of the system to be able to adapt to the growth of their organization. So it seemed natural and logical to invest in a strong and collaborative partnership that could help the business further embed Dynamics 365, bringing all their sales teams into one unified system.

That’s when they brought CRM-Konsulterna (CRMK) on board.

The solution

Rather than simply paying for services, with CRMK, Hultafors Group got a collaborative approach. Instead of just outsourcing implementation to a solution provider, the working relationship was immediately collaborative. It began with the proof of concept, testing out the feasibility of proposed functionality, and having CRMK alongside the company’s vision for growth and future ways of working in terms of case management. Not all partnerships are the same, and the advantage of this approach was that it gave both parties to test out the relationship.

They quickly established an Agile way of working, with team members from both organizations involved in the sprint cycles. This helped to generate a shared responsibility for each set of sprint goals and facilitated an iterative approach to the system. Using this method enabled continuous feedback on the data, and helped to leverage the benefits of collaboration to achieve better outcomes for their customers and sales teams.

How? CRMK brought in technical expertise and experience of similar implementations, whilst Hultafors Group had the in-depth knowledge of their business and their needs. Hultafors Group have also been used to customize the system on their own, which made it easy for them to speak the same language and to quickly enter into joint projects.

This iterative approach, with its focus on smaller projects, facilitated a process of continuous improvement, rolling out and testing different parts of the system to ensure they were working effectively before moving on to the next. Rather than developing then handing over a complete CRM system to be tested, this process of ongoing feedback and to develop the system together helped both partners to stay aligned, from a cultural perspective, as the project evolved.

Adopting this approach to the new CRM means that Hultafors Group also has a workable solution going forward, because the flexibility of Dynamics 365 enables the company to adapt and be ready for whatever comes next. The advantage of this system means that functionality can now be added or removed as their business needs change.  It also provides seamless scalability, enabling their CRM system to grow with the company, supporting the business and the changing needs of customers, rather than becoming a barrier to scalability. It also gives a greater sense of unity to their processes, which will continue to improve based on user-feedback, and ongoing testing.

The impact

Through their partnership with CRMK, Hultafors Group was able to realize an integrated solution to their business needs. They now have an ongoing collaboration which is proving to be highly effective, making day-to-day work easier throughout the sales process.

The result? Across multiple locations, the organization is seeing greater engagement from their sales teams. It’s also much easier for onboarding staff to work with existing customers because there is a complete customer view in one place, with a history of orders and communications. Staff can now connect more easily to the data they need, when they need it the most. They also have enough data at their disposal to make meaningful use of if.

Having tried simpler, less comprehensive alternatives, Hultafors Group knew they needed a solution which could add-value to their business, and put barriers in the way of functionality. Dynamics 365 allows the organization to build iteratively for their users, adding new functionality when needed through configurable, ready-made apps. Not only that, with CRMK they have developed a successful partnership that can help them reliably and sustainably grow.

After all, a CRM system is business-critical software.