Case Studies: e2impact

e2impact Increases Customer Retention by 37 Percent

e2impact, a technology and communication firm based in Orlando, Florida, operates on the leading edge of the Web-based business movement. The company provides clients with a variety of Web-based solutions including CRM, marketing, communications and publishing applications. The company itself is run entirely online. Built on the principle that today's businesses must have Web access to critical sales and service functions to compete, e2impact's employees enjoy true anytime anywhere access to their systems and data.

"It is so rare to find a company that actually delivers great customer support. I felt an obligation to thank the management team for their support and professionalism throughout the process. The iLinc team made it possible for us to do in 60 days what would take most companies six months." Christian Warren President and CEO e2impact

To support this model and to accommodate predominantly international clients, e2impact relies on integrated Web conferencing and Voice over IP (VoIP) communications rather than traditional switch-based telephone lines. Web conferencing enables the company to quickly respond to clients' needs with more relevant, interactive communications while being capable of delivering essential one-to-many online marketing events.

Because e2impact's applications are sold on a subscription basis, they dedicate approximately ninety percent of their marketing efforts to customer retention. Clear and engaging communications have a direct affect on the company's bottom line.

Previously, the company was experiencing significant reliability and latency issues with their Web conferencing platform. It became a high-priority initiative to find a replacement that offered the flexibility, reliability, security, and scalability e2 clients demand. Having endured repeated network crashes during live Webinars, the company quickly recognized Web conferencing as a critical component of their customer-retention strategy and ultimately, their overall success.

According to Christian Warren, president and CEO, "Because our financial lifeline depends on technology working as close to 100 percent of the time as possible, it didn't take long for us to realize that if we are going to be the leader in our market, we better partner with a leader in the Web conferencing space."

In searching for a new solution, Warren's team spent months analyzing vendors on several key factors, namely reliability, customization capabilities, customer service, and price — all of which were non-negotiable requirements.

"We were not going after a discounted solution that compromised reliability and flexibility. We wanted best-in-class across the board. Ultimately, iLinc met each of our requirements at the level we required," explained Warren.

Working with iLinc to Increase Service Offerings

Before examining Web conferencing vendors, e2impact had seriously considered building their own platform. They possessed the in-house expertise to develop an online collaboration solution, but after familiarizing themselves with iLinc, realized that it would be more beneficial to utilize proven technology and expertise.

"We were going to build our own conferencing product," said Warren. "Once we began investigating, it was clear that the iLinc relationship made more sense. The benefits far outweighed the alternative."

In addition to improving internal communication and customer retention, e2impact also sought to dramatically expand their relationship with the iLinc platform by embedding collaboration technology into their existing application suite. To achieve this, the two companies co-developed a fully integrated version of iLinc bundled into the e2Impact suite of business tools. Notably, iLinc is the first third party product that e2impact has deemed qualified to support such a high-level integration project.

"Our clients love the MeetingLinc environment," commented Warren. "They don't have to leave the office or home. They don't have to get on a plane. Our clients see the immediate productivity gains and efficiency offered by the iLinc platform. Our clients can literally manage a global enterprise using the iLinc technology and they can do it at the office, at home, or on the fly."

After the two companies solidified their relationship, e2impact embarked on approximately 120 days of real-time testing, working closely with iLinc support staff to ensure a successful deployment.

Warren described the experience, "It is so rare to find a company that actually delivers great customer support. I felt an obligation to thank the management team for their support and professionalism throughout the process. The iLinc team made it possible for us to do in 60 days what would take most companies six months."

Using iLinc to Increase Customer Retention

iLinc immediately solved the reliability and latency issues that e2impact suffered with their former product. Now, when hosting customer-facing events, which can have as many as 1000 participants connecting through iLinc platform, they no longer worry about embarrassing technical failures or poor system performance.

"One of the critical benefits of the iLinc platform is the significant reduction in bandwidth on a per-session basis," said Warren. "When we are in a real-time situation using VoIP and application sharing, which hogs a lot of bandwidth, we can easily adjust the bandwidth needs to deliver immediate performance improvements to the end-user. Before, we had none of that control."

Since switching to iLinc, customer retention at e2impact has jumped from 50 to 87 percent. Going forward, the company plans to continue increasing customer satisfaction, earning ongoing return-on-investment on their iLinc software, and sharing these benefits with clients by offering iLinc as part of their application suite.