Kodak Alaris saves 61% of marketing automation costs with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights

Kodak Alaris is the information capture technology company that divested from Eastman Kodak and has emerged to be a leading provider of intelligent document processing solutions. When Kodak Alaris was formed as a separate entity in 2013, the newly formed business needed to start from scratch, setting up new marketing and sales infrastructure on the fly. With a small team and a global reach, Kodak Alaris implemented a range of solutions to address specific needs. Over time, the fragmented nature of the solutions made it difficult to gather insights, and multiple vendors drove up costs. “We were having difficulty integrating our existing customer relationship management (CRM) solution with our other marketing tools and extracting data was time-consuming and unintuitive,” says Iva Kanova-Divinnie, Global Marketing Automation Manager at Kodak Alaris. “Not only did implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights lead to high-cost savings through consolidation but we have also seen improved efficiency and are better able to respond to customer needs.”

Improving analytics and saving 61 percent of marketing automation costs with Microsoft Dynamics 365

Before moving to Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, Kodak Alaris already used other aspects of Microsoft Dynamics 365 for its CRM needs. The opportunity to create a seamless experience for employees using a holistic suite of CRM and customer data platform tools was a big driver for the move, says Kanova-Divinnie. “One of the most compelling features of Customer Insights was the seamless integration with the rest of Dynamics 365 and other Microsoft tools like Teams and Outlook, which we were already using.” Transitioning to the new service took just nine months. And, while it required an initial investment, the move has helped Kodak Alaris save costs through consolidation. “Comparing pure cost of our legacy marketing automation solution versus Microsoft Dynamics 365, we are now spending approximately 61% less than we would have,” says Kanova-Divinnie.

Reporting and analytics is one area that changed thanks to the implementation of Dynamics 365 Customer Insights. “In the past, in-depth reporting was a challenge and marketing attribution was time-consuming and difficult to track,” says Kanova-Divinnie. Today, marketing teams use Dynamics 365 Customer Insights to get accurate, real-time insights into the success of their efforts. “We are getting better data on the actual pipeline marketing leads are generating and how successfully and quickly they are being closed or followed-up on,” says Sue Rodeman, Vice President of Global Marketing at Kodak Alaris. “All of this is visualized through Power BI and allows the team to pivot when necessary and configure our yearly budget for better ROI year-over-year.” Gaining a more holistic view of customers was a focus area for Kodak Alaris before switching to Dynamics 365 Customer Insights. “Contact Insights and the timeline features in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights have become a crucial spot for understanding customer interactions. It’s often our sales and marketing team’s first source for information on marketing generated customers,” says Rodeman.

Building powerful connections between marketing and sales teams

With a unified platform for CRM, customer data, and journey orchestration, Kodak Alaris teams are always in sync. “We have seen great benefits when it comes to collaboration between the marketing and sales organization,” says Nick Amorese, Global Client and Partner Operations Manager at Kodak Alaris. Working together in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales and Dynamics 365 Customer Insights helps sales and marketing teams coordinate their efforts and react in real time. The result is a more cohesive organization that responds proactively to a holistic view of customers, and a greater degree of consistency between Sales and Marketing efforts. “The marketing organization is able to offer more support to sales initiatives, helping them be on brand and consistent with messaging,” says Rodeman.

When marketing and sales teams are better aligned, it creates a more seamless customer experience. Today, when customers fill out a form on the Kodak Alaris website, they are quickly connected to a salesperson who uses Dynamics 365 Customer Insights to help guide a productive and personal conversation. “The salesperson is able to see all history relating to prior interactions with marketing content,” Amorese explains. “This ensures that customer conversations are more strategic and informed.”

Creating more personalized customer journeys, faster

Kodak Alaris has used Dynamics 365 Customer Insights to create real-time marketing journeys. “Journeys have been an integral part of our work as they tie together all the assets we build and make interaction with customers and partners possible,” says Kanova-Divinnie. Typically, Kodak Alaris teams use the module to respond to customer behavior in real-time, such as meeting requests.

Real-time marketing journey orchestration represents a new frontier for Kodak Alaris. “Real-time marketing is opening new possibilities for us to connect with customers in the moment and build relationships,” says Kanova-Divinnie. And, the module lends itself to a global business like Kodak Alaris. “We often serve multiple markets in a variety of languages,” she adds. “With the help of the real-time marketing journeys, email personalization and conditional content in Dynamics 365, we have been able to streamline the process and execute global campaigns in a more structured manner with fewer assets to maintain.” 

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights for efficiency gains and reduced complexity

Embracing the bourgeoning AI capabilities in the Dynamics 365 platform is another win for efficiency at Kodak Alaris. “With the use of AI enabled features in Dynamics 365, we believe we can provide a better experience for our team, our partners, and our customers,” says Amorese. As part of the Dynamics 365 Customer Insights Copilot Early Adopter program, Kodak Alaris benefited from a close collaboration with Microsoft and gained insights into the new, AI-powered direction that Copilot is taking.

Kodak Alaris is beginning to use Copilot to suggest content and build journeys. “Using Content Ideas to suggest text for common emails like event invitations and newsletters will save a lot of time for the team, especially as the feature is now available in multiple languages,” says Kanova-Divinnie. Kodak Alaris employees have also started building complex journeys quickly and easily with Dynamics 365 Customer Insights; “It’s a great place to kickstart the journey building and cuts down on manual work,” says Kanova-Divinnie. She also envisions using Copilot to streamline how global campaigns get built. “Next generation AI tools like Copilot allow us to rethink what we spend our work hours on and streamline tasks which might not be the best use of time for our team,” concludes Kanova-Divinnie.

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