ALS managing director Dr Peter Harman said data synchronization between branches is critical as the organization has 300 active customers, 10,000 contacts and about 750 orders per month.

The provider of life science research products was using Sage Software Inc.'s Sage ACT, which it has since replaced with Legrand Software Inc.'s Legrand CRM.

After an extensive evaluation process, ALS chose Legrand CRM CORP edition to capture client information and distribute it across its Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth network. The application, built on SQL, manages account and contact details, tracks campaigns and sales forecasting, and can be accessed by remote sales staff via VPN (virtual private network).

"We installed the [Sage] ACT software in February [2005] to operate as a centralized database so that our people could make amendments on their computers; however, record changes made by staff in different locations would not always replicate to the master database," Harman said.

"For example, if one person in Sydney deleted a customer name, the contact would still remain in the database in Melbourne after the software was updated - it was frustrating and defeated the purpose of using CRM to track and manage customer and sales information."