speos, a subsidiary of Bpost group, provides document management solutions, offering tailored and standardised services for transaction-based documents such as invoices and reminders. To make its account managers as efficient as possible and allowing them to focus on their core tasks, speos asked UPEO to optimise its existing Salesforce implementation.
speos develops solutions designed to empower companies with optimised and secure administrative and financial processes. speos offers both tailor-made and standardised solutions, such as the robust multi-channel solution ‘built2mail’, and ‘easy2mail’, a fully automated platform for all paper and electronic mailings. With about 220 employees, speos prides itself on its expertise in physical and digital document delivery, backed by a strong IT team.
Optimising and automating core processes
As document delivery changes from paper to digital, and more competitors are coming into the market, speos felt its Salesforce implementation faced challenges that impeded efficiency and growth. Cedric Gyssels, key account manager at speos explains: “We were using Salesforce more like a static database, with little to no automation or logical workflows to assist Sales and Marketing.” Many of the fields were free-form, making it difficult to track valuable data or leverage it for business insights. Additionally, internal resources for managing Salesforce were limited. “We made the mistake of assigning responsibility for Salesforce to people who didn’t use the platform regularly,” Gyssels said.
The yearly indexation of prices was one of the compelling events for speos to look for a new partner, as well as the fact that the company was not getting the necessary attention from its Salesforce implementation partner. The creation of indexation letters is a process that should happen by the push of one button once all data is correctly present in Salesforce, rather than a manual process.
UPEO: expertise and hands-on approach
When comparing potential new implementation partners, UPEO stood out due to their specialised knowledge and practical approach. “UPEO wasn’t just another big consultancy firm that would not give our projects priority,” said Gyssels. “They understood the challenges of a company like ours and offered a personalised solution. That resonated with us.” In the end, the decision came down to three factors: expertise, approachability and price. UPEO’s clear communication and understanding of speos’ business needs made them the ideal partner. “It wasn’t just about fixing problems; they were proactive in advising us on how to get the most out of Salesforce.”
UPEO began the project with a workshop to review speos’ existing Salesforce setup, decide on the priorities and find out what groundworks needed to be done before automation and optimisation would make sense. This led to a phased approach that the team then followed, step by step. The focus was on creating a system that would serve as a powerful tool for the sales team, automating processes that had previously been manual and error-prone. UPEO worked closely with speos to simplify and automate workflows, particularly around data entry and reporting.
Phased approach
The first things UPEO tackled was optimising the system on the level of leads, accounts and contacts, before doing the same thing with opportunities, meetings and contracts.
“We used to have sales reps filling out 40 mandatory fields manually, which was frustrating and led to incomplete data. UPEO helped us cut that down to just a few essential fields,” Gyssels explained. One of the major improvements UPEO introduced was a more efficient process for managing customer data, ensuring that sales reps could quickly access relevant information without being bogged down by unnecessary steps. UPEO also made it easier to export data from Salesforce to an XLS sheet that sales reps could then populate with data and import into Salesforce again.
speos also implemented the Trends Business Information connector that UPEO developed. This tool allows companies to enrich their contact list with the data from the Trends Top platform, including credit checks. To keep up to speed on contacts moving from one company to another, UPEO integrated the Pipelaunch solution. Pipelaunch ensures that contacts are automatically removed from an account if that person has left the company.
The project was a collaborative effort between speos’ sales team and UPEO’s consultants. UPEO handled the technical aspects, providing guidance and training. Gyssels served as the main liaison officer, coordinating between the speos sales team and UPEO. The partnership was structured so that UPEO would provide ongoing support without fully taking over the system.
Fewer frustrations, greater productivity
The results were clear: Salesforce became a much more user-friendly and efficient tool for speos. “We’ve seen a significant improvement in how our sales team works with the system,” said Gyssels. The reduction in manual data entry has led to fewer errors and more accurate reporting. The sales reps, who rely on Salesforce to manage leads, also reported fewer frustrations and greater productivity.
Looking ahead, speos plans to implement Salesforce Marketing Cloud, further bridging the gap between their sales and marketing efforts. With Marketing Cloud, speos expects to streamline customer communications and improve lead generation efforts. “We want to ensure that sales and marketing are fully aligned, and Marketing Cloud will allow us to do that more effectively,” Gyssels added.
In addition, speos is exploring the possibility of integrating Salesforce with other internal tools, such as TOPdesk (used by the Service department) and Navision (used by Finance), to create a seamless flow of information across departments.
Recommendations
When asked why other companies should consider working with UPEO, Gyssels was clear: “Their expertise, combined with their responsiveness, is unmatched. They don’t just implement solutions; they think along with you. We always feel supported and never like just another client. UPEO will also find a solution. If our main contact person does not have an answer immediately, she will consult with her colleagues and come up with a solution fast. I would definitely recommend UPEO to other companies who are planning to work with Salesforce. In fact, I have already done that with a customer of ours,” Gyssels concludes.