GoldMine® Helps Polar Electro Shape Up for Greater Growth, Profitability (email this article)

DUBLIN, CA (December 2, 2005) Just as an athlete outgrows the same old workout routine, Polar Electro, a fitness equipment manufacturer with operations in more than 80 countries, outgrew its basic contact management system to the point of limiting the reach of marketing programs and hindering profitability. So, the company turned to GoldMine® Corporate Edition from FrontRange Solutions (Company Profile, Past Stories, Case Studies) and FrontRange Solutions Partner Simple Technologies, a subsidiary of 2M Technologies Inc., to synchronize e-mail, calendars and contact records.

Polar Electro has been an innovator in training technology as a major manufacturer of sports instruments, and heart rate monitoring, registering and evaluation equipment since 1977. Last year, Polar's North America operations - Quebec, Canada; Lake Success, New York; and Albuquerque, New Mexico - aimed to expand sales and marketing efforts to reach deeper into multiple segments, such running, biking, fitness, sports clubs, outdoor, education, health care, and government.

The company's contact management system, however, was not up to the challenge. Integrating its contact records with its e-mail application, Lotus Notes®, was difficult and hindered productivity. Sales reps e-mailed in Lotus Notes, and then manually updated the contact database to reflect that activity - a redundant step that cut into valuable sales time. In addition, separate contact databases for 12 target groups meant Polar could not comprehensively track and measure sales opportunities in North America.

Simple Technologies introduced BDS GoldNotes®, a solution made by FrontRange Solutions Technology Partner Business Development Solutions (BDS) that synchronizes GoldMine and Lotus Notes. The BDS application links e-mail, calendaring and contact records between the two systems, reducing double entry and disparate, inconsistent data for users. Simple Technologies also simplified data management by migrating data from 12 disparate contact databases to a single Microsoft SQL database, and then cleaned and categorized the data so that teams could market specifically to each target group. Finally, data was synchronized between multiple offices to enable daily updates.

The integration saves users time every day by eliminating duplicate entry, according to Cynthia Stewart, Senior Network Administrator for Polar.

"GoldNotes really helps our sales people work and document what happens with contacts without having GoldMine open all the time," said Stewart. "It's all documented in GoldMine as they work. Before, they had to go back and do that documentation manually."

Stewart added that the marketing groups at Polar can input specific criteria and build a list to target campaigns to specific groups in certain geographic areas by just clicking a mouse. She explained that this efficiency frees the teams to reach out and build relationships with a greater number of prospects.

"Marketing is able to offer products and promotions to specific groups that we sell to, whether they are trainers, clubs or doctors, on a scheduled basis," Stewart said. "They easily pull out who they are and get in touch with them through e-mailing or mass mailing."

As a result, Stewart said, Polar - a company built on using measurement to enhance sports results - has an unprecedented level of insight into the success of its efforts with GoldMine reporting that tracks results by group and campaign, enabling the company to refine and continuously improve its campaigns. "In terms of our profitability, this quarter, we have been able to meet and exceed our goals," Stewart said. "Marketing has said that, this year, they were able to reach a larger audience than last year using GoldMine. They directly link that to our increased profitability."

About 2M Technologies Inc.
Since 1987, 2M Technologies Inc. (2M) has been helping companies improve their business process through the strategic use of procedures and technology. Armed with both experience and technical knowledge, 2M can be a powerful partner in helping get businesses of all types to the next level. For more information, call 631-231-3255 or visit www.2mtech.com ..

About Business Development Solutions, Inc. (BDS) Since 1991, BDS has specialized in providing both off-the-shelf and customized database integration solutions to help customers have a single view of customer information to increase sales, decrease costs, and comply with government regulations. BDS GoldNotes is sold throughout the world and synchronizes e-mail, calendar and contacts between GoldMine and Lotus Notes. For more information, call (856) 787-1500 or visit www.bdsdatabase.com .

About FrontRange Solutions
FrontRange Solutions develops award-winning software and solutions used by more than 130,000 companies and over 1.2 million users worldwide to manage a wide variety of business relationships and provide exceptional service. FrontRange product families, designed specifically for small-to-medium-enterprise (SME) and distributed enterprise organizations include: GoldMine® for business relationship management, team-based contact management and sales force automation solutions; IT Service Management with HEAT® and ITIL® standards-based modules for complete service management; Communication Management including IP Contact Center for reduced telephony costs and increased agent productivity, streamlined customer service and communications; and Infrastructure Management, which provides the ability to optimize the full lifecycle of a company's assets. Customers representing 44 percent of the Fortune 100 and 76 percent of the FTSE 100, include Coca-Cola, Shell Oil, Prudential Securities, Électricité de France, Mack Trucks, Campbell Soup, Avaya, Bechtel Corp, Bank of America, and Turner News Network. For more information, call (800) 776-7889 or visit www.frontrange.com. ###