IN-DEPTH CASE STUDY

IronFX Online trading giant achieves impressive gains with Sugar

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ABOUT IRONFX:

IronFX is a global leader in online

trading, specializing in trading CFDs

(contracts for difference) on Forex,

spot metals, stocks and futures. IronFX

serves customers in 180 countries

on six continents in 45 languages. Its

customer-centric strategy provides

customers with 24/7 access to

experts who speak the language

of the customer’s country and can

immediately discern client needs

because of the company’s 360-degree

customer view. A dedicated account

manager and local offices ensure the

personal service that differentiates

IronFX in the trading market.

IRONFX BOOSTS REVENUE, TRIMS COSTS AND ENHANCES CUSTOMER SATISFACTION WITH SUGAR

Minutes mean millions in financial markets, whether you are the trader or the brokerage

house.

Timing and speed are essential to success.

So when IronFX, an international leader in online trading, wanted a robust, enterprise-

grade Customer Relationship Management platform, it chose one that could shave time

off transactions by seamlessly integrating with other financial software while providing

exceptional security and ease of use.

MEETING SOME TOUGH REQUIREMENTS

When IronFX set out to find a CRM platform, they began with a demanding set of

requirements. CIO Panayiotis Panayides wanted a workhorse that would handle process

automation, incorporate complex regulatory requirements and archive data without incurring

expensive developer time for stacks of new code. He also needed to sync seamlessly with

the company’s Forex trading platform, the IronFX revenue backbone, and other proprietary

applications unique to the IronFX business model.

When he tested for user interface and data migration, one Customer Relationship

Management solution stood out for functionality, ease of use and versatility in integrating

other applications: Sugar.

CHALLENGE: Implement a Customer Relationship Management solution that easily integrates with the sophisticated software of

the financial services industry, provides a 360-degree customer view, promotes digital document storage, is easily and efficiently

customized, and fosters process automation and regulatory compliance.

SOLUTION: IronFX chose Sugar for its ease of use, flexible deployment options, integration with global enterprise applications and

data sources, and in-depth customizability.

RESULTS: • Increased new account sign up from 250 per day to 4,000 per day by compressing screening and processing time from

30 minutes to less than one minute • Increased trading volume from 4,000 trades per day to more than 100,000 worldwide • Created

360-degree customer view, with country-specific information regarding trading regulations and regulatory compliance • Implemented

advanced automated leads routing based on geography, language and nature of campaign • Realized $100k annualized savings by

eliminating paper and copier costs through digital documentation • Enhanced safeguards against money laundering • Managed 1,300

percent employee growth over two years without losing focus

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Sugar provides IronFX with in-depth customer information that equips sales and marketing

with a panoramic view of customers: investing preferences, attitudes toward risk, long-

and short-term goals, and a variety of other personal preferences.

“Nothing is more personal than investing, and Sugar helps us build customer confidence

because our internal transparency means we can see the entire customer picture,”

says Panayiotis. “When the customer is successful in meeting goals, that means return

business and upsell possibilities for IronFX.”

By hosting Sugar on-premise, which is not possible with many other CRM systems,

IronFX avoided potential exposure and liability connected with cloud databases, which are

more vulnerable to data security and privacy threats.

“The ability to host on-premise was a critical consideration for our customer’s data

security,” Panayiotis says.

With Sugar, IronFX has increased sales, enhanced customer relationships, increased

security, improved profitability and virtually eliminated printing and document storage

costs.

RAPID TIME TO MARKET

Implementing or changing a CRM system is a huge strategic decision for a maturing

business.

Before IronFX implemented Sugar, it had been through two CRM iterations: an in-house

platform that focused mostly on sales leads, and a Salesforce implementation that was

difficult to use and expensive to modify.

After data-migration and user testing, IronFX knew Sugar was the only choice -- for its

rapid, flexible deployment, ease of integration, usability and cost-efficiency.

Because the Sugar team worked closely with IronFX in the discovery phase, the Sugar

implementation took fewer than 90 days. Not in a single department, but throughout a

company that works on six continents and in 45 languages.

“Time to market was crucial for us in choosing a CRM. In order to keep up with the pace

of business growth, our data integrations couldn’t be time-consuming or expensive,” says

Panayiotis.

With Sugar, IronFX keeps pace with growth, executes more trades per day and makes the

signup process more convenient for customers.

After implementing Sugar, IronFX went from closing 4,000 trades per day to more than

100,000 worldwide. Its new accounts went from 250 daily to 4,000. Customer enrollment

was faster and smoother; trades were executed more quickly in every currency; and

deposits were verified and available to eager traders in minutes instead of hours.

“With Sugar, we get an individualized view of each customer, their preferences and trading patterns.”

Panayiotis Panayides, CIO, IronFX

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HIGHER QUALITY SALES LEADS

Being in the financial services business, IronFX has more stringent regulatory compliance

obligations than most businesses. It does the typical credit and financial history profiles on

new customers, but it also is required to make sure customers are not laundering money

through investment accounts.

Although the company had its own Anti-Money Laundering software prior to implementing

Sugar, the benefits of the credit checks and deposit verification weren’t being fully realized.

Sugar brought the divergent systems together and produced in-depth prospect profiles for

all the teams to see.

The effort paid off in improved sales productivity as well as in security.

“By having our prospective client data cleansed and pre-screened, we are producing better-

quality sales leads with a higher potential for closing,” says Panayiotis, adding that the CRM

has trimmed the sales cycle.

“We can welcome new customers almost immediately and understand the needs of current

customers because our representatives have a complete view of the appropriate customer

data -- name, number of accounts, trading pattern and history,” he says.

With Sugar, customers get convenience and continuity, while IronFX staff enjoys a faster,

easier workflow with a higher percentage of closes on qualified prospects.

A CUSTOMER-FOCUSED CRM

While most CRMs still focus on managing sales, Sugar has matured into a business

transformation engine that enhances revenue by providing companies with a deep

understanding of their customers.

The IronFX experience is just one of many Sugar success stories; its metrics tell a familiar

tale of the company-customer relationship enhancement.

Within months after deploying Sugar, IronFX began attracting new daily leads by the

hundreds via website and marketing campaigns that relied on Sugar as their backbone.

“We were able to achieve daily growth from 500 to 1,000 and up to 3,000,” Panayiotis

says, explaining that just by instituting new business process in Sugar that focused on the

customer, IronFX created more leads and closed more sales.

“We are producing better-quality sales leads with a higher potential for closing.”

Panayiotis Panayides, CIO, IronFX

in new account creation when Sugar

cut processing time from days to

milliseconds

in trading volume to

trades/day

1,600% increase

2,500% increase

100,000

IRONFX - 5SugarCRM

For example:

• Customers who inquired about opening new accounts were now being automatically routed to people who spoke their native language.

• Documents -- such as user instructions, regulatory compliance requirements and legal agreements -- were made immediately available in the customer’s own language, drawn automatically from the Sugar documents archive and delivered effortlessly. The process eliminated hundreds of hours of manual translation, and made customers feel more welcome.

• New signups, trading orders and deposits were being processed more rapidly, because sales and portfolios were managed through a single system in Sugar, giving IronFX account managers clear and timely information about accounts.

With Sugar’s enhanced customer-focused approach, IronFX improved business

development, saved time in translations and gained new customers.

BETTER FRONT- AND BACK-OFFICE INTEGRATION MEANS HAPPY CUSTOMERS

Most business cultures include habits and techniques that evolve in response to needs.

Often, these workarounds or shortcuts become institutionalized. They may look right in the

short term, but in the long run can often impede change and lead to convoluted, inefficient

business processes.

IronFX had the familiar problems: standalone, fragmented systems that didn’t communicate

well, if at all. Pick a team -- accounting, sales, document translation, customer validation

and credit checks – all had outdated practices. Panayiotis and Lead Developer Christos

Ioannides attacked the margin-eaters first, by creating new, streamlined, automated

workflows.

“We knew we could do a lot of things with Sugar, but the workflows had to be first, that’s

where the highest return was,” says Christos.

Change was quick and effective.

Now, leads, previously assigned manually, are routed via Sugar to the appropriate regional

office the moment they arrive. New account signups are processed in “milliseconds,”

instead of days, says Panayiotis. Credit and anti-money laundering checks, which used to

occupy days and hold up deposits, are done in minutes.

Because Sugar is handling so much of the front-office work, the IronFX back office today

processes 20 times more customer applications and deposits each day, and feeds that

new, qualified customer information into Sugar. Clients are guaranteed they can start

trading within a few hours after signing up, and funding automation means deposits can be

verified and available for trades in one to two minutes.

“Sugar has surpassed expectations in its ability to handle the work and integrate with our other applications,”

Panayiotis Panayides, CIO, IronFX

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The increased transaction speed has accelerated IronFX’s daily closed trades past 100,000

– a record any business would envy. The velocity on closes has moved the company from

an international Top 20 brokerage into the Top 10, based on trade volume measured against

similar companies, says Panayiotis.

“When you are handling that kind of volume, you have to have a CRM capable of the load,

and Sugar has surpassed expectations in its ability to handle the work and integrate with

our other applications,” Panayiotis says.

A SWEET FUTURE FOR CUSTOMER LOYALTY

It is a given that it costs more to develop new customers than to retain current ones.

In the financial services industry, keeping customers can be more challenging than in most

industries. Sometimes bad Trading decisions can lead investors to switch to new financial

service providers.

A trading firm can’t prevent a trader’s market loss, but it can mitigate the damage by

influencing a trader’s perspective about doing business with the firm.

With Sugar, IronFX tracks customer goals and increases customer satisfaction and retention

by clearly understanding individual needs.

Some incentives are straight-forward--financial bonuses for new customers or rebates when

customers add money to existing accounts.

But in-depth customer information helps IronFX make things more personal, and even more

fun.

Because IronFX has a 360-degree view of its customers, it tailors contests -- lotteries,

trading matches, highest returns competitions – and pinpoints a customer’s interests. World

Cup tickets for the Manchester United fan; supercars for the auto racing buff; financial

bonuses for the straight-ahead investor.

“We can do this today because Sugar helps us know our customers. With our value-added

service and personal touches, we keep customers because Sugar helps us know our

investors,” says Panayiotis.

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INTEGRATIONS

• SAP & Client Portal: Enables full automation of back office functions around client and account management, including review and

approval of funding related records

• Meta Trader 4: Forex trading platform integration – real time view of trading activity through Sugar

• SendGrid: Handles unique email list and distribution; automatically assigns leads/clients to emailing list using configuration modules

• WorldCheck: Database used to validate the prospective trader

CUSTOMIZATIONS

Dynamic lead assignment across 1,200+ sales staff, based on multiple filters/rules through business rule automation

Proprietary Anti-Money Laundering Module

Proprietary translation form module with side-by-side view of translation form and document.

Proprietary automatic trading account processing using custom configuration modules

• Automatic trading server selection (account opening) based on business rules (configurable at run time)

• Automatic processing of additional accounts

Fully customizable and interactive ticketing system built on Cases Module.

• Status sequence control mechanism that allows only pre-defined statuses to be available for specific users types and case statuses

• Sub-ticket mechanism that automatically creates sub-cases from status sequences. Able to control closing or status change of parent ticket when sub-ticket is closed

• Automatic ticket creation and assignment

• Custom workflow engine with complex rules

• Quick view and edit

• Custom workflows that integrate business logic across modules to allow automatic processing of records

CUSTOMIZATIONS AND INTEGRATIONS

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CS-07-23-2015