MIND Research chooses ExtendSync and reduces IT support cases by 50%
Industry:
Education
Headquarters:
Irvine, CA
Products Used:
ExtendSync for Outlook | CRM: NetSuite
Since licensing ExtendSync, our sales leaders now have much more accurate pipeline forecasts due to the improvement in detailed communications being logged in NetSuite by our users.
Senior ERP/CRM Administrator, MIND Research Institute
About
MIND Research Institute is a nonprofit, neuroscience, social impact organization that creates comprehensive education solutions to ensure that all students are proficient in math. Started in the early 1990s by three University of California researchers, their flagship product, ST Math, is a PreK-8 visual instructional program that builds a deep conceptual understanding of math through creative problem-solving.
Background
Arash Davani, Senior ERP/CRM Administrator at MIND Research Institute, leads the team that oversees the NetSuite CRM with over 200 employees. Arash’s team helps to serve over 1.2 million students, 56,000 teachers, and 4,300 schools in 48 states.
The Challenge
MIND Research had already recognized how critical it was to get important email communications and files into NetSuite so that others in the organization could benefit from them. Arash states that, “We didn’t have detailed communication logged for our opportunities and pipeline forecasting was more of a challenge because of that.”
MIND Research Admins had a mashup of legacy software that employees were using to attach files and emails to NetSuite. Users on Macs were using an Exchange-based product to connect emails to NetSuite that they did not have control over. They would drag files into a specific folder and hope for the best. PC users were using NetSuite’s free Outlook integration despite the fact it was slowing down their overall Outlook experience. Arash’s team was fielding support cases from internal uses multiple times per day and they began a search for a better solution.
Updates were also a challenge requiring individual users to download .exe files and go through a complex process to update their application.
Since implementing ExtendSync, our internal IT caseload has dropped by 50% and NetSuite user adoption has gone up. It’s incredibly intuitive and user friendly.
Senior ERP/CRM Administrator, MIND Research Institute
The Solution
Arash saw a blog post on LinkedIn that was written by Chris Corcoran, General Manager of Celigo’s CloudExtend team. The post explained why CloudExtend decided to build its own Outlook integration, ExtendSync, despite the competition, some of which was free. According to Arash, “knowing the Celigo name was behind the CloudExtend brand made me feel comfortable I was making a sound choice.”
Arash and several power users started a free trial with zero implementation time required by installing the ExtendSync app directly from the Microsoft Office store. Arash and his team were especially pleased to receive timely tips during his trial both in the app itself and by email. He appreciates that his users can contact CloudExtend with questions directly from the app.
MIND Research licensed the ExtendSync Enterprise Edition for 70 users. Due to its approval as a Microsoft Outlook Add-In, Arash can perform the installation on behalf of users directly from the Office 365 Admin center. End users can now focus on being productive at work from the second Arash’s team installs the app.
End-user training was provided live via a Zoom session. The session was also recorded and is used as part of the on-boarding process for new hires at MIND Research.
The Bottom Line
By moving to ExtendSync, the IT team has reduced internal tickets by 50%. When updates are available, they are delivered in a true SaaS fashion without any human intervention required, saving end-users the hassle of dealing with complicated update processes that often broke in the past.
Users at MIND Research now have one application to attach emails and files to NetSuite regardless of their Operating System. As an added bonus, they can even attach emails from the Android and iOS versions of Outlook.
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