CASE STUDY
How a Global Services Enterprise Transformed Field Services Post-Acquisition
At a Glance
- Growth Heroes helped Halton Group, an international services enterprise, unify their processes, data, and stakeholders after an acquisition.
- Before our help, Halton experienced acquisition pains and misalignment, suffered inefficient manual processes, and needed to optimize Salesforce.
- After custom-designing a scalable solution, our Salesforce architects integrated Halton’s service, sales, finance, and marketing data to Field Service Lighting and Service Cloud. We managed the project, from strategy and architecture to implementation, and successfully unified 12 subsidiaries.
- Now, with standardized processes and tools, data is tracked, stored, and organized efficiently. Centralized data and unified processes generate more intelligent customer insights so Halton executives can make more informed decisions.
- The client was pleased with all the work we delivered. Halton Global Service Director said, “The right partner makes all the difference.”
“The right partner makes all the difference.”
Chris Gentry
Global Service Director, Halton Group
About Halton Group
Halton Group is a family-owned, global technology leader that manufactures and services indoor environment solutions.
Based in Finland, Halton has offices in 35+ countries and over 1900 employees. With the acquisition of Nelbud Services in 2021, Halton works across several languages and currencies.
Problem
Halton experienced acquisition pains and inefficient manual processes and needed to optimize Salesforce.
Solution
Our Salesforce architects integrated Halton’s service, sales, finance, and marketing data to create one centralized source of truth.
Service Cloud
Field Service
Sales Cloud
The Problem
Acquisitions expand products, services, and markets, but they bring a string of challenges:
- Inefficient processes.
- Fragmented data.
- Unaligned stakeholders.
After an acquisition, business alignment, and unification is critical. Halton Group, a global services enterprise, came to Growth Heroes to help unify processes, data, and stakeholders.
What Wasn't Working
Before Growth Heroes, Halton’s data collection processes were manual and inefficient, causing fragmented data, missed opportunities, and expensive errors.
Halton and Nelbud used different tech, and neither company’s tech suite was updated or efficient. Nelbud used Service Trade, which did not translate internationally. Halton used Salesforce, but it was severely underutilized.
Challenges & Goals
Halton wanted a central view of all global data in one place. They envisioned one set of clear, defined processes so every unit could produce reliable, consistent, and actionable data.
But they couldn’t do it alone.
The Challenge
Unifying 12 Subsidiaries into a Single Integrated View of the Customer and Field Service
Once they acquired Nelbud, Halton faced several challenges they needed us to help solve.
Challenge #1
Acquisition pains and misalignment
Because Nelbud used an English & USD-only service platform, Halton could not merge Nelbud’s data with Halton’s data on Nelbud’s existing platform. They could not unify processes, data, or platforms without experts to align on a new, improved process using Salesforce (Field Service Lightning and Service Cloud).
Challenge #2
Manual data entry and inefficient processes
All data entry was manual across Salesforce and other external systems. Halton needed help creating, documenting, and automating more efficient methods to generate, organize, and track reliable, actionable sales, service, and financial data.
Challenge #3
Optimizing Salesforce
While Halton used Salesforce in some countries, there was an opportunity to maximize the platform as a company. Halton needed trusted advisors to help them experience Salesforce’s benefits and build the right scalable architecture through automation and standardization.
What's Changed
Today, Halton has one end-to-end aligned process that all subsidiaries use globally. With many tasks automated and processes documented, data is tracked, stored, and organized quickly and efficiently within Field Service Lightning and Service Cloud.
510
licenses created
9,300
assets migrated
2,000
hours of designing and implementing
1,009
new assets created
20
currencies represented
73
field techicians integrated
12
subsidaries unified
8
countries represented
7+
processes improved
One comprehensive, certified CRM
Our Solutions
For two years, we worked with Halton executives to strategically align and transform their business. Our Salesforce Architects created and owned the plan to ensure the project was on track at all stages.
Through Salesforce Field Service Lightning and Service Cloud, we unified:
SERVICE
SALES
FINANCE
MARKETING
Architecture and Integration
Implementing Salesforce solutions is more than just configuration. Architecture and integration are critical to building a long-lasting and sustainable solution that supports business growth.
After working sessions with Halton executives, our Salesforce architects translated business needs into a custom Salesforce solution, including data models, system integrations, and customizations. Because of our extensive and collaborative discovery process, our solution is
scalable and high-performing, so it will grow with Halton over time.
With service, sales, finance, and marketing working harmoniously, Halton’s CRM (Customer Relationship Management) provides a more holistic view of their business.
Now, Halton has quality insights about:
Technician billable efficiency
- Billable and non-billable hours logged by Tech / Engineer
- # Jobs Completed by Tech / Engineer
- Revenue by Tech / Engineer
- Avg Rev per Job
- Open Jobs by Month (Scheduled vs Unscheduled)
Financial health and forecasting
- % to Revenue Goal – Monthly
Customer equipment and licenses, including IoT alert monitoring
- Amount of service calls by Asset Type
- Warranty repair work rates
- NOC case resolution
Market segmentation & campaign effectiveness
SERVICE SOLUTIONS
Manual processes are inefficient and inconsistent because everyone tracks separate data differently, which costs time, money, and resources.
The solution? An efficient CRM platform. Our architects helped Halton transform their slow, manual data collection process into an efficient system tracked from end to end using Salesforce Service Cloud and Field Service Lightning.
Together, we:
- Documented the entire service lifecycle—from quote processes to delivery, service, invoicing, and beyond.
- Reimplemented field service configuration from scratch, using the standout processes as guidelines to standardize remaining subsidiaries. By unifying all subsidiaries into Service Cloud and Field Service Lightning, we ensured consistent and accurate data collection globally.
- Optimized technician billing efficiency by standardizing key processes like time tracking, work order management, inventory management, automated billing, and documentation.
Now, Halton’s standardized field service management processes enhance customer service, streamline operations, and improve analytics and reporting.
SALES SOLUTIONS
Without comprehensive data, sales doesn’t have insight into the post-sales lifecycle (customer success) or marketing pre-lead data, like web visits or ad clicks.
When done correctly, the proper CRM implementation generates quality insights to help sales leaders standardize processes, forecast better, and increase revenue. Automation equips sales reps to deeply understand prospects, identify buyers most likely to convert and send the right message at the right time.
Our Salesforce architects developed a robust sales system for Halton. Together, we created:
- One centralized, real-time, 360° view of customers.
- Efficient internal processes to shorten and simplify their sales cycle.
- Improved customer onboarding and quote-generating processes.
- Cleaner, more reliable, and more accurate data.
- Processes to measure success and track key metrics.
With better processes and customer insights, Halton can understand and activate prospective customers faster and more efficiently.
FINANCE SOLUTIONS
Integrating finance solutions with Salesforce increases operational efficiency, improves customer experience, and provides a complete view of a customer’s financial relationship with your business. To help Halton gain visibility into their Finances, we:
- Integrated Salesforce with NetSuite One World to merge all legal entities (+14) into one system using Celigo.
- Aligned each system’s options so the platforms could seamlessly interact.
- Consolidated everything into one place to eliminate manual data entry and error.
Now, Halton has better data about customer interactions, invoices, and payments. Using these comprehensive insights, Halton leaders can make more informed decisions.
MARKETING SOLUTIONS
We integrated marketing with Salesforce to generate, collect, and store better customer insights. To streamline and integrate marketing, we:
- Automated email marketing activity through Salesforce Account Engagement (Pardot).
- Integrated email list data into Account Engagement to remove friction, streamline marketing
efforts, and collect accurate data for Sales. - Configured Customer 360 to increase personalization and gather more intelligent customer
insights.
Now, Halton has a real-time view of prospects from their first site visit to conversion. By merging marketing data with customer profiles and data from sales, service, and finance, Halton marketing leaders can create more targeted and personalized marketing campaigns. Standardized data collection processes and automation enable seamless data flow from marketing to sales, optimizing conversion rates.
Impact
While our partnership is ongoing, Halton has already experienced the value of our work.
“Our project is complex because it involves multiple countries, languages, and currencies,” said Chris Gentry, Global Service Director. “From the design of our Service Management System to diving deep into the nuts and bolts of the SMS tool, Growth Heroes has been great. Growth Heroes has a systematic set of tools and procedures to ensure the project goes as planned.
The right partner makes all the difference in the world!”
Our team is proud of our partnership with Halton, and we’re excited to continue solving problems for such a great team. “Transforming field service is challenging but incredibly impactful,” said Jim Bartek, CEO of Growth Heroes. “There’s so much to it, and when done right, it can completely change the trajectory of the business.”
We’ve helped other enterprise clients achieve measurable growth through field service and digital transformation tools. See our System Scale case study, where we helped a scale manufacturer and distributor achieve 5x increased profits.
Results
“Halton’s service strategy was to bring all of our service organizations throughout our 35 country footprint under once service management system. We chose to work with Growth Heroes based on prior experience with a service company we chose to acquire.
Our test project was to merge multiple Salesforce instances into one and perform a feasibility study to compare the use of our existing tool Service Trade vs. the use of Salesforce Field Services. The study proved that Service Trade was unable to handle the global footprint and we made the decision to move forward with our conversion to Salesforce Field Services.
I was very satisfied with the Growth Heroes expertise and dedicated support. The bonus was the development of a partnership that felt like our two companies were one of the same. The desire, responsiveness, and professional work ethic are world class!”
Chris Gentry
Global Service Director, Halton Group
Ready to Get Started?
At Growth Heroes, we are your trusted Salesforce advisors from strategy to implementation. Our business architects always build with your unique goals at the center.
Through collaborative working sessions and candid conversations, we learn your business and translate your challenges into custom, long-term solutions. Together, we hone your vision, craft and implement an outcome-oriented strategy, and create processes to measure success.
Ready to unify your processes, data, and stakeholders? Contact us to learn how our experts can help transform your business.