NGO Fost Plus organizes and funds the selective collection, sorting and recycling of household waste within Belgium. "We handle the coordination, so that plastic, metal and beverage cartons, glass, paper and cardboard can be picked up from your home, sorted and recycled," clarifies Jeroen Van de Sande, IT manager at Fost Plus.
Sustainable packaging economy
"As the driving force for the recycling chain, Fost Plus has a central role," Jeroen Van de Sande explains. Fost Plus members are companies that sell packaged products, such as Colruyt, Danone and Unilever. These pay the costs relating to the collection, sorting and recycling of their own packaging, funding the system as a whole.
Partners are all those businesses and organizations with whom Fost Plus collaborates to achieve a sustainable recycling chain, from intermunicipal waste associations and collection companies to sorting centers and recycling companies. Fost Plus acts as the hub of this ecosystem, supporting and fostering the establishment of a sustainable packaging economy in Belgium.
Personalization is primary
To ensure an efficient collaboration between all those partners and members, easy, clear communication is of primary importance. "Our strategic goal is for our collaboration and communication with our members and partners to be as personal as possible," says Jeroen Van de Sande, who, as IT manager, shares responsibility for Fost Plus' digital transformation.
This ambition was no longer attainable within the existing CRM environment. At first, the IT team was asked to find a solution to upgrade the old, outdated system. "That complex CRM system was sorely in need of replacement. It was making it impossible for us to maintain a good overview of our interactions with members and partners."
Besides, Fost Plus used different systems for stakeholder management, customer service and marketing, and the integration between these was rather less than desired. "The separate systems were being used in parallel. Any solution that could improve on this situation was extremely welcome."
Use the Salesforce!
A technology-neutral market consultation, which involved Fost Plus asking multiple parties for advice, produced Salesforce as the best technology supplier. "Salesforce allows for maximum personalization to meet our organization's requirements," according to Jeroen Van de Sande. "After all, we're not a business in the traditional sense, with customers and all that. For example, one of our requirements was an ability to link different contacts to different organizations. Salesforce was one of only a few suppliers capable of meeting our specific demands."
Choosing Inetum-Realdolmen as the implementation partner was the result of previous positive experiences. "We already work closely with Inetum-Realdolmen in several different areas," says Jeroen Van de Sande. "Besides, once again Inetum-Realdolmen had a very strong presentation that demonstrated their thorough understanding of our requirements. Furthermore, they had plenty of prior experience with Salesforce. They were also able to offer us a full-service solution within that supplier's range of technologies."
One integrated cloud platform
On Inetum-Realdolmen's recommendation, Fost Plus decided to combine Salesforce's stakeholder management solution (Sales Cloud) with its solutions for customer service (Service Cloud) and marketing (Marketing Cloud). "Before, our colleagues were constantly switching between various tools. That's much less the case now, as in combination with our operational system, one integrated cloud platform offers them all the features and information they require for professional relationship management, quality customer service and efficient marketing communication. Besides, they can now achieve a perfect, 360-degree overview of all our members and partners and of all communications with those members and partners, too, from emails and newsletters to tickets and cases."
Jeroen Van de Sande and his IT team have benefited from the new IT environment themselves as well. "Managing only one platform is simply much more efficient than when you've got three. And as these are SaaS solutions, it also means an end to any need for us to worry about server updates and the like. That frees up time for other tasks with more added value."
Smooth collaboration
Collaboration between Fost Plus and Inetum-Realdolmen was a smooth affair. "Inetum-Realdolmen listened carefully to our desires and adapted themselves to our requirements and ways of working." An additional advantage was the fact that even after the delivery, Fost Plus could continue to count on Inetum-Realdolmen to handle things for them. "There's a team standing ready to help out with any bugs, change requests or other issues." Thanks to Salesforce, Fost Plus now has a future-oriented platform. "We're convinced that digitalization is one of the most important building blocks available to any future-proof organization," concludes Jeroen Van de Sande.