Botero brews a recipe for continued success.

The Northern New South Wales' town of Maclean is a popular destination with tourists and one of their favourite stops is Botero. The locally owned cafe first opened its doors in 2003 and soon began supplying coffee to businesses around the local area.

Overtime, Botero has expanded and now runs its own roastery and a growing wholesale business. The business now ships coffee across Australia and provides machinery to cafes up and down the east coast and across Tasmania.

While the growth has been exciting for the small business, it has come as a result of a huge commitment and a lot of hard work. Until recently, this included entire Sundays spent on admin.

"As we transitioned from a small business into a medium-sized business, keeping on top of our data became a full-time job. There was a spreadsheet for this and a spreadsheet for that and bits of paper with part numbers written down by field technicians," said Jayc Salter, Operations & Logistics at Botero.

The need to digitise data and grow more efficiently led Botero to Salesforce and, with the help of a Salesforce partner, it has now transformed its operations.

One of Botero's most urgent drivers for change was the need to track sales and service activities. Both sales reps and technicians spent a lot of time visiting current and potential customers, and there was no record of what happened or what was discussed. This made it particularly difficult to track and service machinery, and it was not uncommon for technicians to spend an hour or more on the phone seeking out information on past repairs.

Salter looked for a solution to track assets and, after a few recommendations, he contacted Salesforce. Following a few early discussions, he found Salesforce to be a natural fit both in regards to the technology and the team.

"I felt that Salesforce was on the same page as us and really grasped what we were trying to achieve. We trusted them to move forward and it was honestly one of the best things that we’ve done," said Salter.

Salter engaged a Salesforce partner to support Botero’s digital transformation and ensure the successful deployment of Salesforce. They've played a key role in helping Botero to digitise its data and optimise the benefits of Salesforce. This has included streamlining processes to improve the experience of employees and customers.

Botero has now centralised all of its data in Salesforce, giving it a 360 degree view of customers including details of customers’ machinery and a history of repairs. What this means is that technicians can now review this information in Service Cloud and walk into each job with knowledge of past problems and how they were resolved. Technicians can also record details of the current job, including the serial number of any new parts that are installed.

These small, but important changes have led to massive efficiency gains. Technicians no longer waste time phoning the office or ringing up colleagues to ask about service histories. Additionally, managers have clear visibility into the work performed and no longer rely on hand-written notes to know what happened. They can also create invoices in minutes by transferring details of the job and part numbers right into their accounting system.

"Invoicing is no longer a dreaded job that takes up our owner’s Sunday. It can be done in as little as 30 minutes a week," said Salter.

Botero’s business is built on relationships and it has used its transformation to keep customers at the centre of its operations. For example, Shelly Quinn who leads Sales, Service, and Training Support at Botero, is able to allocate sales opportunities through Sales Cloud and ensure reps follow up in a timely manner. She also has added visibility of customer interactions which allows her to drop into cafes and pick up on conversations where the last rep left off.

It is a completely new way of working for Quinn who has always preferred paper and pen over computers. However, the ease of Salesforce and the visibility it provides has won her over.

"After a bit of trial and effort, I found using Salesforce quite easy. I now love opening it up every morning and having all of this information at my fingertips. I can keep up with what everyone’s doing rather than bringing reps or technicians in to ask what's going on," said Quinn.

Botero plans to add to these benefits by working with Salesforce partners to improve reporting and extend the use of Salesforce to manage activities like scheduling of routine maintenance. Botero is also considering the use of FinancialForce which would allow it to integrate its accounting activities with Salesforce.

"We’ve achieved a lot in the last six months and even if we stopped now, we’d be happy. However, we also know that we’ve just scratched the surface in terms of what’s possible," said Salter.

Asked for his advice to other small businesses embarking on a digital transformation, Salter said it was important to be clear about the problem you want to solve and then trust the experts.

"We have been really lucky in our journey and had great guidance throughout, so I would say find the right people and trust them."