Cross Media, based in the Netherlands, started as an advertising sales company for healthcare publishers in 2008. Over the years, they have grown into a full-service marketing agency with 35 employees, specializing in B2B communication in healthcare, financial, legal, education, and government sectors.
The Challenge
As they expanded, Cross Media was struggling with data fragmentation, endless hours spent searching for correct information, and lots of tedious manual work.
To better manage their business and processes, they started looking for an end-to-end solution to replace their existing toolkit – consisting of numerous spreadsheets and a rather basic version of a CRM system called Sage ACT.
With the growth of the company in mind, it was essential to find a solution that could unite the CRM tool with the booking and project management side of the business.
Why Scoro?
After considering a variety of tools – all the way from Salesforce to a number of niche players – Scoro was the only platform that had customizable product and project management functionalities that Cross Media needed to fuel the company’s growth goals.
“Scoro's highly customizable system perfectly matches our company’s structure and gives a real-time overview of our work, sales, and finances.” – Bart de Wilde, Senior Account Manager
In addition, Scoro’s interlinked data enabled Cross Media to capture a complete overview of their business – from managing their bookings, projects, and media plan to after-sales, invoicing, and reporting.
Business Benefits
With over six years of Scoro experience under their belt, Cross Media has doubled not only the number of employees and Scoro users but also the turnover of the company. In 2021 alone, they had over 400 more projects compared to their first year with Scoro in 2016.
Real-Time Overview
With Scoro being Cross Media’s central system for CRM and project management, they have gained a detailed overview of their business, including:
- All the activities of their sales team;
- Real-time insights into their media plan;
- Available advertising positions to set up new campaigns.
In addition, thanks to linking their customer portal to Scoro, they have enabled real-time reporting to their clients. De Wilde explains: “Our clients get real-time insights in their media plan and their advertising material calendar, and publishers will have real-time insights into the numbers of advertisements and turnover in their journals.”
“Scoro has made our life much more structured and efficient, as all the data is in one system. Before, we had to reach out to our colleagues, or find information from spreadsheets. You can imagine how much time we have saved now!” – Bart de Wilde, Senior Account Manager
Time Management
Before implementing Scoro, Cross Media did not have any time management processes in place. De Wilde follows: “Looking at our processes of creating quotes, booking media, and reporting to publishers before and after Scoro, I believe that we have saved around 20% of that time. This has an enormous impact when you realize we now have 400 more projects per year compared to 2016.”
Cultural Aspects
De Wilde states: “I think the most important thing is that our whole team knows what is happening in the company and what their part of the success is. So they feel more connected to the team and the company through that.”
Additionally, as a result of keeping all essential information in one system, the amount of unnecessary contact moments has decreased drastically. “Everyone working with Scoro has become more self-sufficient and independent, which, as a result, improves our cross-team collaboration and client relationships.”
Life During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Like many agencies, Cross Media was affected by the global pandemic. Fortunately, with Scoro in use for so many years and everything set up in one digital workspace, it was easy to react quickly and adapt to the situation. De Wilde follows: “Scoro is the main system for 80% of our colleagues. Thanks to that, we were able to work from home in a short period of time.”
The Future Is Automation
Cross Media has experienced significant growth in recent years. With Scoro remaining as their central system, Cross Media’s next steps include the automation of sales and marketing flows by connecting Scoro to Hubspot via Zapier, and making their clients more self-sufficient by their client portal. The end goal is to get more output from all Cross Media’s account managers and focus on relationship management and consultancy for their clients.
When asked to describe Scoro in three words, de Wilde concludes: “Scoro is insightful, flexible, and progressive.”
About Scoro
Scoro is an award-winning end-to-end work management software loved by agencies, consultancies, and professional service firms around the world. With Scoro, you can manage your entire workflow all in one place, from the first hello to the final invoice.