On-Demand in New Zealand

July 4th, 2006:Software-as-a-service boosts New Zealand sporting life.

On-demand service software has traditionally been regarded with suspicion in this region. Recently there has been an increased take-up, which was exemplified in a deal a deal between Salesforce.com, a leading supplier of software-as-a-service, and RealSports.

RealSports is to use the application through the Salesforce.com AppExchange directory platform. The arrangement, which involves an 18-user license, is to help RealSports consolidate multiple business processes into a web-based Case Management System (CMS).

Neil Movold, Chief Information Officer at RealSports, said, “As an organisation, we quickly reached a size and scope where we needed a centralised Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to continue to evolve the business”. The relationship increases salesforce.com’s already significant presence in the region. Other regional clients include Fairfax, Vodafone, Pacific Magazines, AAPT, Mabin and Hutchison 3.

The implementation, which took 45 days, was efficient according to Movold, “Salesforce.com has been a great success in transitioning RealSports to exclusive Web-based delivery of our services and is more cost effective than a global software rollout.” RealSports is already working on further customising it’s applications to provide additional functionality. This will include a tracking system which will be implemented later this year to log the hours the development team devote to individual customer cases and provide metrics for customer quotes for work undertaken.

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