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SunTrust moves to Salesforce, with vital assistance from Pervasive integration

In late 2003 SunTrust was ready to transfer its millions of client records from multiple applications to a single, accessible online CRM system. However, the company didn’t have the expertise or manpower to map such large amounts of data. Through the suggestion of Salesforce.com, SunTrust chose Pervasive’s data integration solution to help quickly and efficiently standardize its data and transfer it to Salesforce for easier accessibility by more than 2,000 sales representatives, sales managements and support staff.

To retire multiple relationship management applications and migrate 12 years worth of client data into Salesforce

Like many companies working on CRM solutions, SunTrust had not established sales management and contact data standards for its systems. Until the implementation of Salesforce most officers determined their own methods, either manual or automated.

With aging technology, applications becoming too expensive to support, and no standardized format for data, SunTrust knew the time had come to standardize and move all of the data to a more accessible and innovative CRM. Although Salesforce had the functionality SunTrust desired, the bank didn’t have the software to transfer the data. Nor did it have a large IT staff to dedicate to the effort needed to implement the solution. SunTrust viewed the much-needed refresh as the perfect opportunity to upgrade not only its technology but also its data standards for sales staff in the field.

Pervasive data integration migrates over one million sales, contact and call history to Salesforce

Migrating over a million sales, contact and call history records was an undertaking that SunTrust had never attempted. The bank needed the expertise of an experienced software provider to ensure a smooth transition. Based on the advice of Salesforce.com, SunTrust chose Pervasive’s data integration technology application to migrate massive amounts of information from its current applications to Salesforce.

A month-long pilot was the first step in assuring functionality and validating test files. “The installation of Pervasive’s data integration solution took only hours to complete while the initial pilot training took less than a week,” recalls Jim Wilson, group vice president and Delivery Solutions manager at SunTrust. “The first fully-verified data loads were completed in less than 30 days – well within our allotted timeframe.”

Salesforce.com trained the SunTrust application team on Pervasive’s data integration solution and, according to Wilson, was effective because the training was directly related to what the bank was doing. “Having Salesforce.com train us was logical because it started us off with practical experience,” he states.

Large and geographically spread, no matter—Pervasive standardizes and loads SunTrust data into Salesforce 

Jim Wilson, group vice president and delivery systems manager, said, “Everyone left the training more confident that they could store and retrieve their data virtually effortlessly.” Each bank officer’s client data was extracted from the old applications, formatted and loaded into Salesforce overnight. SunTrust officers accessed the data from the old application one day, and from Salesforce the following day in their last hours of training, seeing firsthand the real tangible benefit of Pervasive Data Integrator and Salesforce. “The first impression is always critical,” explains Wilson. “When our officers were in training, we had to ensure their specific sales data was current and available that day. This was ‘just in time’ delivery.

He added, "Pervasive did exactly what we hoped: it accurately and smoothly loaded individual sales information from one system to Salesforce. It made a great first impression.” After the successful pilot, the entire rollout took only six months to complete, mostly involving the logistics of training more than 2,000 employees across multiple states. Despite various applications being used to save client data, with Pervasive, SunTrust was able to map and load the data in time for hands-on training. “We had the tools to immediately transfer the data even if the officer was using an unknown, one-off application,” says Wilson. “With a large effort such as this, when you’re geographically dispersed, Pervasive came through with flying colors in helping us standardize and load our data into Salesforce.com.”

Efficient data integration helps SunTrust move toward a 'true CRM system'

Jim Wilson, group vice president and delivery systems manager at SunTrust, remains impressed with the performance of Pervasive’s data integration solution. “We could not have accomplished this project without Pervasive,” he says. “Transferring over a million records could have posed a real technology problem for us but Pervasive and Salesforce.com have enabled us to resolve our data issues without worrying about the technology. Pervasive and Salesforce.com are terrific companion products.”

Since the implementation of Pervasive’s solution, Wilson has yet to receive a single maintenance call. “Pervasive is reliable and stable,” he says. “It was easy to install and learn, meets all of our business objectives and, with Salesforce.com, is the standard for data migration.”

The efficiencies of Pervasive’s data integration solution at SunTrust are apparent in that one person can accomplish all of the previous and current data migration. Although cost savings are difficult to quantify at this point because data migration is a new capability at SunTrust, Wilson points out that Pervasive has replaced two previous applications SunTrust was supporting. “We can make direct updates through Pervasive to Salesforce,” he says. “Once in Salesforce, all of the account, sales and pipeline data are standardized, helping us move towards a true CRM system. We realized immediately the value of Pervasive.”