The company
Avineon, Inc. is a privately held, family-run company with 32 years of expertise in providing information technology and geospatial services for clients worldwide. Initially focused on supporting the U.S. Federal Government, Avineon has expanded globally, with offices in the United States, Canada, India, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates.
Avineon serves a diverse clientele, from national, regional, and local governments to utility and private companies across various industries, including retail, transportation, and hospitality. Its primary focus is on delivering high-quality, service-oriented solutions tailored to customer needs.
The challenge
Until 2019, Avineon made limited use of Salesforce, which salespeople used at the end of each month to satisfy monthly and quarterly reporting—not as part of their global business processes.
The company decided to embrace a CRM system as a critical part of their business fully and opted for a new CRM solution since Salesforce hadn't seen much adoption from their users.
The solution
Joining forces with Zoho's partnership network
After evaluating multiple tools, Avineon chose Zoho CRM Plus for its ease of use and affordability as an offering with a complete suite of CX tools in a single ecosystem. To implement this system, Avineon sought the help of 3LeafCRM, an Authorized Zoho Partner, who have been a huge help for Avineon in migrating from Salesforce to Zoho, creating workflows, streamlining processes, and configuring automation.
"3LeafCRM's extensive experience and knowledge from working with similar clients allow them to provide us with insightful guidance," says Joel Campbell, Senior Vice President of Commercial Assistance at Avineon. "They bring relevant expertise to the table that helps us make informed decisions efficiently. It's been a great partnership—we'd be lost without them."
What sets Zoho apart
Avineon implemented Zoho CRM on a global scale to manage their entire sales process—from leads to deals won—and according to Campbell, this was the first time the company was able to get a true global picture of their sales activities. The speed of deploying new modules and automations in Zoho was also new to Avineon; unlike Salesforce, where even minor changes could take months, Zoho enables updates and enhancements within days. This agility has enabled the company to refine its CRM environment continuously to meet evolving business needs.
Streamlining the sales process
With Zoho CRM, the company manages marketing leads from various sources, which the sales team then handles as they progress through the sales process. The company generates leads through contact forms, social media posts, and other online interactions. Once these leads are automatically captured in Zoho CRM, regional reps manually assign them to sales personnel, who are responsible for assessing lead quality as well as managing and following up on their assigned leads.
However, the majority of Avineon's leads and pipeline opportunities come from the sales team's own efforts, including networking and conference activities. Conferences play a key role in lead generation, with attendees being added to Zoho CRM for post-event follow-up. The company also conducts outbound email campaigns—particularly when participating in conferences—for which they leverage Zoho CRM's integration with Zoho Campaigns.
These leads are typically qualified by email or phone contact to assess their validity. The assigned salesperson manages the prospect until there's a tangible opportunity for a proposal. At this stage, they create a proposal and establish a deal in the CRM system as they progress through the sales process—from selection and negotiation to closure or cancellation. All deal records remain in the system for historical reference and tracking. Lead-related tasks like scheduling meetings, managing calendars, and logging notes flow seamlessly through Zoho CRM.
Secure signatures with the Zoho Sign integration
Integrating Zoho CRM with Zoho Sign enables the electronic sending, signing, and return of documents like quotations and contracts. Proposals are frequently sent through Zoho Sign, enabling customers to sign and return agreements electronically. If a proposal is sent outside Zoho Sign—such as via a PDF attachment—and results in an executed contract or purchase order, the document is still captured and stored in Zoho CRM for proper record-keeping in a custom module called Contracts. This ensures Avineon has a centralized repository for all agreements.
Automation: Minimal effort, maximum efficiency
The company has implemented extensive automation with workflow rules to streamline contract creation and subscription management. When they receive a signed agreement, they can generate a contract record with a single button click, which automatically populates key details, such as start date, contract value, and contact information. Additionally, for annually renewable subscriptions, another automation enables them to create the subscription record directly from the contract with minimal effort.
They've also introduced several automations to simplify sales processes. For example, if an expected closing date is set for tomorrow but the deal closes today, updating the actual close date will automatically adjust the expected close date. These small but effective automations improve data accuracy and efficiency.
Integrating Zoho Desk for enhanced customer experience
Beyond sales and marketing, Avineon leverages Zoho Desk for customer support operations. Managed by a dedicated team, the system ensures that support requests are processed efficiently and can involve the broader technical team when needed. Initially considering external solutions like Zendesk, the team opted to integrate customer support within the Zoho CRM Plus bundle to ensure seamless access to customer data and a fully customized help desk system.
Read the detailed story on how Avineon reduced labor costs by nearly 50% and achieved transparency with Zoho Desk here.
Data-driven decision-making with Zoho Analytics
Additionally, the company benefits from robust reporting capabilities. A global analytics dashboard provides real-time insights which they review regularly to track business performance. A weekly Global Business Development call further relies on Zoho-generated reports to assess the status of opportunities across the pipeline, including those won, lost, or closed. The company has leveraged Zoho Analytics to develop insightful dashboards and reporting tools.
"There's visibility into the value of what we're doing with Zoho."
As the Senior Vice President of Commercial Systems, Campbell values Zoho Analytics' real-time dashboards and reports for their ability to streamline decision-making. The dynamically updated dashboard offers a snapshot of sales performance, pipeline status, top performers, and key metrics, all of which provide an instant business snapshot for the management team.
Zoho Analytics further enhances insights by tracking deal types, average sizes, and trends, while custom reports simplify subscription renewals, contract statuses, and financial tracking. The account-level related list view consolidates customer activities, deals, contracts, and signed documents to enable quick access to client history.
This has been essential for data-driven decision-making and operational efficiency, as it provides a centralized, real-time view of the business.
Driving adoption with an intuitive approach
3LeafCRM has implemented 15 custom functions and 13 workflows behind the scenes, many of which operate unnoticed by users. These automations handle lead processing, routing, and calculations to ensure data flows efficiently to the right places. This air traffic control approach optimizes operations and makes Zoho smoother and more intuitive for end users.
Benefits
The transition to Zoho CRM Plus from Salesforce has provided a centralized, standardized system for accessing information across global teams. Previously, Avineon collected data in fragmented formats from different regions, which made it difficult to analyze and act upon. Now, with Zoho, executives have on-demand access to consolidated business insights, significantly improving decision-making and operational efficiency.
Additionally, Zoho's impact on business operations has been substantial. Several years ago, Campbell managed only a handful of active projects within a single territory; today, that number has grown to 250. The shift to Zoho CRM Plus has enabled this scalability by ensuring that project management and sales operations remain efficient despite increasing complexity. The company began with a small pilot program of just six users, which has since expanded significantly as they scaled the CRM solution rapidly and saw adoption across the organization.
- Industry typeIT Services and Consulting
- Employees1,000 - 5,000
- Type of businessB2B
Looking forward
The organization has adopted Zoho as its default system for operational processes and reduced their reliance on separate, siloed tools. Whenever a new business requirement arises, their priority is to explore whether they can manage it in Zoho before considering external solutions. This strategy has led to increased efficiency, reduced complexity, and greater alignment across departments.
Ultimately, Avineon's goal is to consolidate as many operational processes as possible in Zoho. By centralizing data, automating workflows, and integrating key business functions, Zoho has become an essential tool for driving efficiency and growth across the organization.