Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 “Essures” Growth of Conceptus Breakthrough

Microsoft Corp. today announced that Conceptus Inc. has chosen Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM 3.0 to help assure the continued growth of the Essure® system, Conceptus’ flagship medical device.

Since FDA approval of the Essure system, a permanent birth control procedure, in 2002, sales have grown to over $40 million, including 100 percent year-over-year growth in 2006. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company selected Microsoft’s premier customer relationship management (CRM) software to streamline tracking of Essure-trained doctors and stimulate the customer demand and discovery of these physicians.

“Building a worldwide market for a paradigm-shifting medical procedure requires a large, coordinated marketing, sales and training effort,” said Jeff Letasse, senior director of IT for Conceptus. “Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 offers the powerful technology tools needed to turn an emerging breakthrough like the Essure procedure into a gold-standard procedure in a matter of years, rather than the decades that it often used to take.”

ISS Group Inc., a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, developed the CRM system and assisted in integrating it with the company’s Web sites and other systems using the ISS Group’s iBridge data connector for Microsoft Dynamics CRM (which has been Microsoft tested and certified). Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 provides a complete suite of marketing, sales and service capabilities, all with a familiar and consistent user experience based on the Microsoft® Office system and Microsoft Office Outlook®.

The software’s service-oriented architecture enabled VelocIT Inc., another Microsoft partner responsible for the Web integration portion of the effort, to create loosely coupled services that integrate data and processes from throughout the company.

Specific benefits that Conceptus has begun realizing since ISS, VelocIT and Conceptus completed deployment in January include the following:

• More reporting options. Conceptus’ network of more than 100 field salespeople and trainers and other employees can enter customer information and reports about doctors via role-based CRM features. Data and reports can be entered through Microsoft Office and Outlook, a Web browser, or a broad range of mobile devices. The wide array of electronic data-entry options has eliminated manual retyping of reports into the system, a task that used to require a dedicated full-time employee.

• Easy data input. Close integration with Outlook enables employees to look up customer information, send and manage e-mail, set up appointments, and capture customer or doctor discussions from within the familiar environment of Outlook. Since deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0, the amount of customer and other data captured by Conceptus has increased tenfold each month since the upgrade, according to Letasse.

• Integrated data and Web services. Close integration between Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 and Microsoft BizTalk® Server has helped Conceptus synchronize data about its growing network of Essure-trained doctors with the mapping and other locator services available to potential patients on Conceptus’ Essure brand Web site. New doctors are added to the location services automatically after Conceptus employees enter their information into the CRM system. The process used to take days, according to Letasse.

• Ease of upgrade. “Using the Microsoft upgrade methodology and the inherent service-oriented architecture of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0, we were able to upgrade a highly configured CRM 1.2 system to CRM 3.0 within just three months,” said Mark Klein, senior manager of IT at Conceptus. The process was expedited by the ability to reuse existing Web objects defined in the older version. “We only had to update the Web services and test, versus rewriting each object, taking months out of the project timeline,” Klein said.


“Customer relationship management software is only as good as the quantity and quality of the data that businesses capture,” said Michael Park, corporate vice president for U.S. Microsoft Dynamics. “Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 gives businesses what they want most in a CRM system: easy integration with their existing systems, and tools and features that allow employees to easily and frequently capture customer data throughout the workday.”

About ISS Group

Founded in 1986, ISS Group® (Integrated Systems & Services Group) is a Gold Certified Microsoft Business Solutions provider specializing in Sales and Customer Service solutions for the Manufacturing & Distribution Industries. ISS Group’s solutions portfolio includes Microsoft Dynamics CRM, ISS Group eCommerce Applications, other Microsoft technologies such as SharePoint®, BizTalk, Exchange, SQL Server™, Microsoft Office, Microsoft mobility, Microsoft Office Business Scorecard Manager, Visual Studio® and Microsoft Operations Manager, as well as additional 3rd Party products which integrate with and compliment the Microsoft and ISS Group applications. For additional information on ISS Group, please visit our Website at www.issgroup.net.

About Conceptus

Conceptus, Inc. manufactures and markets the Essure Permanent Birth Control system, an innovative medical device and procedure designed to provide a non-incisional alternative to tubal ligation, which is currently the leading form of birth control worldwide. The availability of the Essure procedure in the U.S. is expected to open up a market currently occupied by incisional tubal ligation and vasectomy, which combined account for more than 1 million procedures annually.

About Microsoft Dynamics

Microsoft Dynamics is a line of financial, customer relationship and supply chain management solutions that helps businesses work more effectively. Delivered through a network of channel partners providing specialized services, these integrated, adaptable business management solutions work like and with familiar Microsoft software to streamline processes across an entire business.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics, Outlook, BizTalk, SharePoint and Visual Studio are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.