VTT: AI-proofing sales and customer experience

VTT is a visionary research, development and innovation partner for companies and society. With over 80 years of experience, VTT is a non-profit company and one of the leading research organisations in Europe.

VTT aims to solve the world’s challenges by bringing together people, businesses, science and technology. They create solutions in three areas: carbon-neutral solutions, digital technologies and sustainable products and materials. Research projects vary from innovations in food production to the sustainable reuse of plastics.

“Our scientists create the coolest stuff on earth – and in space, by the way – but we were on a fundamental level when it came to using technology to aid our sales, marketing and customer relationship processes,” says Mikael Back, Sales Development Lead and CRM Product Owner at VTT.

VTT’s sales and researchers were navigating a jungle of different platforms and apps. Scattered data meant they couldn’t get a 360 view of their customers. Sales, marketing, and research were working in silos, and exchange of information was difficult.

The time of using legacy systems was over, and the new mission was clear: make VTT’s sales, marketing and customer experience future-ready.

Reimagining CRM for a brighter future

VTT set out on a mission to renew its CRM system. They wanted to cater to user needs and daily work in all functions. They also sought simplicity and minimising the number of platforms in use without sacrificing usability and functionalities while improving data quality.

“Our sales and researchers were using an old, not user-friendly user interface that wasn’t supporting customer work. The system was not supporting them, so they only used it as mandatory,” Mikael describes.

Selecting Salesforce as a platform was clear, as VTT didn’t want to build on current working methods but wanted a system that could adapt to future requirements. The target was to create an optimal user and customer experience. Hence, they wanted marketing automation, customer activity, pipeline management and data on the same platform.

As a public organisation, VTT needed to ask for tenders publicly. They selected Fluido as their partner, not for the lowest possible price, but for the company’s employees’ quality of work and expertise.

“We focused on people’s Salesforce skills and knowledge, quality of work and great references of past projects, and therefore, Fluido was the logical choice for us,” Mikael says.

The first MVP version of the new CRM system took only a few months, and the development continued in rapid two-week sprints from thereon.

“The work with improving our sales processes and implementing Sales Cloud started quickly with Fluido. They were an integral part of our fast-paced team,” Mikael describes the project.

From software change to mindset change

VTT’s CRM change meant so much more than the technology: as an organisation, VTT needed to change their working methods and, ultimately, the entire customer relationship culture.

“Right from the start, we understood with the project team that it wasn’t a software change, but a cultural change. We would train our sales and researchers to use the new software, but we also needed to change their mindsets,” Mikael says.

The project team selected seventy enthusiastic people from the organisation as the pilot users and trained them during an intense two-week period. The team asked for open feedback via a dedicated Q&A section. After the first weeks, they had 200 feedbacks in the backlog to prioritise and use for further development.

“Of course, we will continue to build the system and the culture in the coming years. But the start already has proven we are on the right track,” Mikael says.

Enhanced customer experience and AI integration ahead

VTT and Fluido completed the implementation project in the Autumn of 2022. In the end, the project was highly successful. With Fluido and Salesforce, VTT now has a 360-degree view of their customers. Having all the data on the same platform and used for sales, marketing, and research improves lead generation and sales effectiveness.

Having one CRM with a modern user interface makes the daily life of a salesperson and researcher easier and supports customer work. They save time using only Salesforce instead of recording the same information to different systems. VTT’s sales and researchers can now understand their customers better, and this, in the end, improves the customer experience.

“Fluido is our strategic partner in CRM and Salesforce platform development. They helped us get the best possible out of Salesforce and its new features and sparred us onwards and upwards on the way,” Mikael says.

Next up for VTT is utilising AI with Salesforce to handle manual, repetitive, and time-consuming process-related tasks. Besides efficiency, they see AI as crucial to excellent customer experience enablers in the future.

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Written by Mirka Kurkela