Empowering People with Microsoft’s CRM Solution

How Metalor and ORBIS built the foundation for company-wide transformation

When CRM projects fail, it is often not due to a lack of technology, but rather to a lack of user acceptance and clear structures. Previous CRM efforts had shown that technology alone is not enough: success required the right partner and the right methodology. In collaboration with ORBIS as the implementation partner and using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales as the technological foundation, the Catalyst team finally achieved a breakthrough—in the form of a pilot project that serves as a model for the entire company.

• Starting point: Customer and sales data was spread across OneNote, Excel and Outlook – workable on a small scale, but it limited consolidated visibility, made forecasting harder and slowed onboarding of new team members.
• Solution: Introduction of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales as the CRM foundation, based on the ORBIS SalesCore solution, with a seamless lead-to-quote process – rolled out first in the Catalyst business unit as a company-wide pilot.
• Highlight: A collaborative development approach – ORBIS built the first two interfaces and enabled the Metalor team to develop the rest themselves, plus integration with the existing SAP landscape as well as Outlook, Teams and SharePoint.
• Result: Full adoption across the Catalyst team, consolidated 360° customer visibility on a single platform, manual data duplication largely eliminated – and the rollout is now being extended to the Refining and Electrotechnics divisions (incl. a Copilot follow-up release).

Metalor looks back on more than 170 years of history. Founded in 1852 in Le Locle, Switzerland, the company is now one of the world’s leading precious metals processors. With around 1,500 employees, the Swiss company specializes in the refining, processing and distribution of gold, silver and platinum group metals for industries such as watchmaking, jewelry and electronics.

The Starting Point: From Scattered Data to a Centralized CRM

Before the project, the Catalyst team relied on a combination of established productivity tools – including shared OneNote notebooks, Excel files and Outlook – rather than a dedicated CRM platform. While this approach worked on a small scale, it quickly reached its limits in a broader corporate context: Customer and sales information was managed across several tools, which limited consolidated visibility and made cross-team forecasting more complex. New team members also needed time to familiarize themselves with the existing setup.

Metalor's previous experiences with CRM had sharpened the team's understanding of what it truly takes to make a solution stick. The desire for a centralized, structured solution for managing customer relationships and sales data remained strong.

The Catalyst business unit was chosen to pave the way as a pilot: its well-defined processes, manageable scope and strong existing foundation with productivity tools made it an ideal starting point for a company-wide CRM initiative.

Implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales: An Agile, Iterative Approach

The project followed an agile, iterative approach, structured in clearly sequenced phases that combined speed with quality. It began with intensive workshops in which the Catalyst team’s sales processes, data requirements and existing pain points were jointly identified.

After a structured evaluation process, ORBIS was selected as the implementation partner. A comprehensive analysis confirmed that ORBIS understood both Metalor’s business context and the specific processes of the Catalyst team, and had a realistic view of what an initial, meaningful solution should deliver for a team working with a CRM system for the first time. The chemistry was right from the very first workshops.

Julien Dolinski, Technical Project Manager at Metalor, puts it succinctly: “The collaboration worked especially well because ORBIS quickly aligned with our business context and constructively challenged assumptions where appropriate.”

The Solution: Lead-to-Quote Process on ORBIS SalesCore

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales was introduced as the technological foundation, based on the ORBIS SalesCore solution. At its heart was a seamless lead-to-quote process, complemented by a customer-specific approval workflow for new customer creation – including anti-money laundering and compliance checks – as well as tailored quotation logic for three project types in the precious metals business: product sales, refining/recycling and precious metals financing. In addition, integration with the existing SAP system as well as Outlook, Teams and SharePoint was ensured.

ORBIS and Metalor jointly managed the implementation – from the initial analysis phase through solution design and configuration to testing and go-live, with ORBIS providing the methodological framework and Metalor driving business alignment. Requirements were developed iteratively and implemented directly in development cycles. Key users were involved from the very beginning, and priorities were set consistently: core functionalities first, with selected features deliberately postponed to later expansion stages.

The agile approach paid off: assumptions could be tested early, and the solution was continuously improved based on real user feedback. Following a joint testing phase, the project successfully went live, including data migration and an intensive post-go-live support phase.

For our Technology Lead, David Gabathuler, this project stood out in a very special way: “Having spent more than 20 years building sales CRM solutions, the level of clarity, engagement and collaboration I experienced throughout this project truly stood out. Working together in such detail on the design of the solution – and then seeing the Catalyst team fully embrace it in their daily work – was incredibly rewarding. Building a CRM for people who genuinely want to work with it was great fun.”

Particularly noteworthy was the collaborative development approach: ORBIS built the first two interfaces and enabled the Metalor team to develop the remaining ones themselves – a sustainable contribution to the customer’s technical independence.

Results and User Adoption: When the Pilot Becomes the Standard

The solution was immediately embraced by users: it was fully rolled out across the Catalyst team and is now embedded in daily sales activities. Transparency and traceability of customer relationships have improved significantly and are now consolidated on a single platform. Manual data duplication, once a daily time drain, has largely become a thing of the past.

After a short stabilization phase, valuable feedback for improvement was already flowing in, and the impulse to roll out the solution to additional departments followed shortly thereafter. ORBIS has since been commissioned to introduce Dynamics 365 CE in the Refining Division and the Electrotechnics Division as well. At the same time, a follow-up release for Catalyst, including Copilot implementation, is being developed.

Andreas Price, Delivery Director at ORBIS, shares his personal conclusion: “With the Catalyst project, Metalor has impressively demonstrated what can be achieved when a team works together with clarity, commitment and openness to change. The high level of willingness to actively shape processes was a key success factor and has created an excellent foundation for further company-wide transformation.”

Key Success Factors for a CRM Implementation That Works

What is the key takeaway? Those who involve users from the very beginning, standardize processes before the project starts, and choose a partner who constructively challenges assumptions lay the foundation for a CRM implementation that truly works.

For Metalor, the Catalyst project was more than a successful rollout. It is proof that CRM succeeds when all stakeholders – especially the users – are consistently involved and engaged. And it marks the starting signal for a company-wide transformation.