The automotive finishes division of Sherwin-Williams has been in business since Henry Ford created the Model T. They provide automotive paint and supplies to dealers and body shops all over the country. They literally cover everything from small cars to jumbo jets. Despite being part of a F500, international company, the automotive team was still using spreadsheets—albeit very sophisticated ones—to track customers, file weekly reports, and forecast sales.

In this day and age, an innovative divisional marketing team with an independent streak can take matters into their own hands. Rather than waiting for IT to put their project in the queue, the automotive marketing team decided to launch a CRM pilot on their own.

Sherwin Williams knew they wanted a commercial open source solution to reduce cost, increase flexibility and speed time to market. The ability to integrate with incumbent systems was a must. SugarCRM Enterprise, with its ability to run on Oracle, and integrate with the Blackberry and IBM Lotus Notes, made it the logical choice.

The automotive division brought in CorraTech to quickly stand up a SugarCRM pilot system. Requirements included custom modules, heavy-duty system configuration, complex reporting, and end-user training. The pilot was a definitive success and the system is now being rolled out division-wide in the US and Canada.