1) L.B. Foster was using multiple instances of ACT! CRM across its business units, lacking enterprise-wide visibility of customers. It engaged Plus Consulting to recommend an enterprise solution. 2) Plus Consulting analyzed L.B. Foster's needs and recommended Sage SalesLogix for its flexible quotation tools and intuitive interface. Plus Consulting then customized Sage SalesLogix to meet L.B. Foster's specific business requirements. 3) The new centralized CRM system in Sage SalesLogix, implemented by Plus Consulting, provides L.B. Foster with enterprise-wide data visibility, streamlined processes, and insights to improve customer service and business decisions.

1. About
L.B. Foster Plus Consulting Forges Strong CRM Foundation
For L.B. Foster
A Sage SalesLogix Success Story
Copyright 2010 PLUS Consulting, Inc.
L.B. Foster is committed to meeting custom-
er requirements and increasing buyer satisfaction
through the continual improvement of its products
and services. Three years ago, the sales teams at L.B.
Foster were using ACT! by Sage. “ACT! is a great
product, but we were ready for an enterprise-wide
CRM solution, and were at the upper edge of the
capabilities of ACT!,” recalls Bruce Hezlep, manag-
er of business systems and operation integrations.
“Because we had three separate implementa-
tions of ACT! to serve our three business units, we
didn’t have company-wide visibility into our cus-
tomer base. This created a customer service chal-
lenge because many of our customers are served by
more than one business unit,”he explains.
Right Partner, Right Solution
With a desire to gain enterprise-wide visibility, in-
crease the cross-selling opportunities, and garner
better insight into its sales pipeline, L.B. Foster en-
gaged Plus Consulting to perform a needs analysis
and provide recommendations for the company’s
next step. “They did a complete review,” says He-
zlep. “They interviewed key players in each area,
documented our business processes, and made
valuable recommendations for how we could
streamline our processes.”
After the thorough analysis, Plus Consulting
recommended Sage SalesLogix. “It came down to
Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Sage SalesLogix,”
Hezlep adds. “Sage SalesLogix has a more flexible
quotation generation engine, plus the user inter-
face has a more intuitive, familiar feel, so we se-
lected Sage SalesLogix.”
L.B. Foster also engaged Plus Consulting
to design and engineer the customizations they
needed.“Plus Consulting impressed me with their
complete confidence in their ability to meet our
needs. Plus Consulting knows precisely what the
product can do and understood precisely what we
needed done. There is a great deal of talent on that
team,” says Hezlep.
Powerful Sales Tool
One of the company’s goals for the new CRM
solution was to deliver a powerful quotation
generation tool to its sales team. Plus Consulting
met that challenge and exceeded expectations.
“We often quote multiple contractors on the
same project and communicate with several sub-
contractors regarding the job as well. We needed a
way to organize many contacts under a main proj-
ect and Sage SalesLogix allows us to do that. We
also can track competitive data at a proposal and
project level which is a distinct strategic advantage
for us,” explains Hezlep.
Client Information:
Headquarters:
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Industry:
Manufacturing
Web Site:
www.lbfoster.com
Solution:
Sage SalesLogix
Client Profile
For more than a century, L.B.
Foster has supplied transpor-
tation, construction, utility,
energy, recreation and agricul-
ture markets with the materials
necessary to build and maintain
North America’s infrastructure.
With 600+ employees in multi-
ple locations and annual rev-
enues in excess of $400 million,
L.B. Foster requires a sophisti-
cated, scalable, enterprise-wide
customer relationship manage-
ment solution. For L.B. Foster,
that CRM solution is Sage
SalesLogix, expertly implement-
ed and supported by the team
at Plus Consulting.

2. The other business units at L.B. Foster re-
quired different types of quotation engines. Using
the flexibility of Sage SalesLogix, Plus Consulting
delivered on this requirement as well.“Our build-
ing division needed a tool to customize our stan-
dard configuration to meet a customer’s unique
requirements,” Hezlep explains. “We now have
that tool within Sage SalesLogix.”
A third business unit rents metal piling prod-
ucts and Plus Consulting executed a customized
rental agreement within the software that is quick,
easy, and reliable for staff to use.
“Now all of our customer-related data is
stored in one database,”Hezlep says.“We can view
and monitor activity across all business-units and
uncover potential new opportunities that other-
wise would not have been obvious to us.”
Pipeline Visibility
Many projects that L.B. Foster bids on are years in
the making.Before implementing Sage SalesLogix,
there was no centralized place to store early details
of these projects and track the timetable of various
events leading up to the bid award.
To solve this problem, Plus Consulting engi-
neered a bid calendar within Sage SalesLogix that
allows L.B. Foster to monitor future projects and
ensure that deadlines and milestones along the
way are not overlooked.
Visibility into the company’s sales pipe-
line and analysis of its wins and losses has never
been easier. “We used to have a group of num-
ber-crunchers that performed win/loss analysis in
Excel, and it took a long time to get the data out,”
recalls Hezlep.
With the help of Plus Consulting, L.B. Foster
has a system designed to capture and provide ac-
cess to all the data needed.“Now we get the infor-
mation instantly in the form of a single report in
the software. We can use this information to im-
prove our success rate.”
L.B. Foster is pleased with their CRM solu-
tion. “Our business processes are streamlined,”
Hezlep concludes.“And using the enterprise-wide
data that Sage SalesLogix provides we are able to
improve customer service and make better, more
informed business decisions.”
“Now all of our customer-related data is stored in one
database. We can view and monitor activity across all
business-units and uncover potential new opportunities
that otherwise would not have been obvious to us.”
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