→ Introduction

UnternehmerTUM is Europe's leading center for innovation and entrepreneurship, located in Munich, Germany. Founded in 2002 as an institute affiliated with the Technical University of Munich (TUM), it has grown to become the largest startup and innovation center in Europe. UnternehmerTUM’s mission is to turn visions into successful businesses, providing extensive support to startups, entrepreneurs, and companies in their innovation and business creation processes.

✕ Challenge

As a hub of entrepreneurial activity, UnternehmerTUM’s representatives frequently attend and host networking events, connecting with new stakeholders in the startup ecosystem. These interactions often result in the exchange of business cards, leading to a large volume of new contacts—sometimes up to one hundred per event.

To maintain the high data quality required for effective relationship management, representatives must manually enter each new contact’s details into their CRM system, Salesforce. This manual data entry process is tedious, time-consuming, and prone to errors, creating a significant administrative burden. As the number of networking events and new contacts grew, UnternehmerTUM recognized the need for an automated solution that could streamline the process and ensure that no valuable contact information was lost.

✓ Solution

NOA developed a custom solution that integrated Slack, Salesforce, and Make.com, leveraging OpenAI for data extraction. The core of this solution is a custom Slack app, designed specifically for the needs of UnternehmerTUM's representatives during networking events. The app provides two primary functions:

Business Card Scanning

The app connects with the representative's smartphone camera directly through Slack, enabling them to scan business cards on the spot.
Using OpenAI, the scanned image is processed, and the contact data is extracted from the business card.
The app includes a human-in-the-loop feature, allowing the representative to review the extracted data through a Slack message before it's automatically transferred to Salesforce. They can approve or modify the data within a day, ensuring high data accuracy. </aside>

Manual Data Entry & Follow-Up Customization

For cases where manual input is needed, representatives can enter additional information directly into Slack. These fields, such as the event where the contact was met, conversation topics, or preferred language and form of address, take precedence over the extracted data.
The app also facilitates automated follow-ups by creating personalized email drafts through ChatGPT. These follow-ups reference the event and conversation details, suggesting a 30-minute meeting.
In Salesforce, a follow-up task is created, containing the ChatGPT-generated email text, with a due date set for within seven days. </aside>

By embedding the entire process within Slack, representatives gained a seamless and user-friendly way to manage their contacts without needing to switch between multiple platforms.

★ Results

The automation solution delivered by NOA provides UnternehmerTUM with several key benefits:

NO LEAD LEFT BEHIND

The integration between Slack and Salesforce ensures that every new contact from networking events is accurately recorded in the CRM system. This eliminates the risk of missed leads, allowing for more effective follow-ups.

ENHANCED DATA QUALITY

The human-in-the-loop review process improves the accuracy of contact data entered into Salesforce, reducing errors common with manual entry.

The ability to add contextual details, such as conversation topics and preferred communication methods, enriches the CRM data, providing a more complete picture of each new contact.

IMPROVED FOLLOW-UP

The automated follow-up feature allowes for timely, personalized communication with new contacts, improving engagement rates.

The seamless transition from data capture to follow-up task creation in Salesforce ensured that representatives could maintain consistent communication with potential partners.

STREAMLINED WORKFLOW

Representatives no longer have to spend time on manual data entry, freeing them to focus on building relationships and engaging more deeply with stakeholders.

The intuitive Slack-based interface makes the solution easy to adopt, enhancing user experience and ensuring a smooth transition to the new process.

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Hear From Our Clients: What UnternehmerTUM Reports About Partnering with NOA

“At UnternehmerTUM, we attach great importance to offering the highest quality in our collaboration with our customers, partners and startups. Structured and efficient processes are essential. This also includes working with the startups from our ecosystem. With NOA’s expertise in process design, the integration of (AI) tools and the development of automation solutions, we will continue to meet this requirement in the future. The collaboration is therefore absolutely recommended!”

– Christian Mohr || CCO at UnternehmerTUM

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By partnering with NOA, UnternehmerTUM transformed their business card management process, turning a once laborious task into an efficient, automated workflow. This solution not only saves time but also improves the quality of data and follow-up interactions, enabling UnternehmerTUM to focus on its core mission of driving innovation and entrepreneurship in Europe.

With NOA's support, the company set a solid foundation for further future growth.

➤ Contact

[email protected]

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+49 155 10028939

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noa.tech

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calendly.com

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