CEDX
B2B services · United States
Northline Systems
Northline collapsed six tools into one estate so new reps quote, sign, and bill on the same customer graph.
120 employees · multi-region sales
- Industry
- B2B services
- Region
- United States
- Footprint
- 120 employees · multi-region sales
- Products live
- CRM, Pipeline, Quotes, Books, Sign
- Primary metric
- ≤7 days to first deal
- Scenario type
- Illustrative reference
Executive summary
At a glance
- B2B services firm with six logins between CRM, quotes, sign, and billing.
- Pilot: two sales pods on CRM + Quotes + Sign + Books.
- Target: first deal in days; one forecast source.
We stopped reconciling spreadsheets at midnight. The number is just the number now.
The challenge
What was broken
Onboarding meant six logins and a tribal knowledge wiki. Quotes lived in Word; books lived somewhere else.
Forecasts were rebuilt every Monday by hand. Legal redlines stalled deals because Sign was a separate vendor.
New reps shadowed for weeks before they could issue a clean quote.
The change
What CEDX replaced
CRM through Quotes, Sign, and Books on one estate. Pipeline stages match how Northline actually sells.
Price books and approvals sit next to the deal. Finance sees the same customer sales closes.
Enablement is the live app — the page demos the product they open on day one.
Outcomes
What changed on the floor
Results used as pilot targets - the shape of success, not vanity dashboards.
- Reps close their first deal in days, not weeks.
- Leadership defends the forecast without a side spreadsheet.
- Quote-to-cash handoff no longer needs a reconciliation meeting.
Team impact
Who feels the change
AE
Quotes and signs without leaving the deal.
VP Sales
Defends one forecast number.
Controller
Sees the same customer sales closed.
Why an estate
Why not another point tool
One customer graph
Sales, service, and finance stop arguing about whose record is authoritative.
One login
Operators do not maintain six passwords and six partial truths.
Live product demos
What you evaluate on the website is the build you implement.
Wave-ready architecture
Start with one motion; add products without a second platform.
Rollout
How they got live
Typical shape - your pilot may compress or expand by product footprint.
Week 1
Stage design
Pipeline stages rewritten with sales and revops.
Week 2–3
CRM + Quotes pilot
Two pods live with price books.
Week 4–5
Sign + Books
Contract and billing on the same record.
Week 6+
Full sales org
Legacy CRM read-only, then retired.
Risks
What this design avoids
- Shadow spreadsheets reappear when systems disagree — the estate is designed so the live number is the board number.
- Tool sprawl after the pilot — success criteria and hypercare keep the team on one stack.
- Training debt — enablement uses the live product, not a parallel slide deck of screenshots.
Your next 90 days
Playbook you can copy
Same skeleton Harbor, Northline, and Atlas-shaped programs use.
Days 1–14
Estate map
Sponsor, operators, systems list, retire list, pilot metrics.
Days 15–45
Pilot live
One pod or region on production-shaped config.
Days 46–75
Expand wave
Second region or adjacent product family.
Days 76–90
Hypercare exit
Metrics review, owner map, BAU support path.
In the room
Software that respects the people running it
Northline Systems runs day-to-day work in CEDX - the same apps you can open from every product page.
FAQ
About this scenario
Is this a named public case study?
It is an illustrative composite on live demo tenants. Named case studies publish with customer approval.
Can we pilot the same products?
Yes. Products in this scenario: CRM, Pipeline, Quotes, Books, Sign.
Who implements?
CEDX, a consulting partner, or both - decided in the estate map.
Architecture notes
What sits under the pilot
Identity
One login for operators in scope. Entitlements follow the product graph.
Data
Customer graph ownership is written in the estate map before imports.
Integrations
Prefer estate events and first-party connectors over brittle nightly CSV.
Commercial shape
How programs are usually bought
Pilot SKU
Products in the first motion, seats for the pod, success metrics, hypercare window.
Expansion
Wave-two products and regions after metrics clear - written in the original map when possible.
Related scenarios
More operators on the estate
Harbor Retail Group
Harbor put POS, CRM, inventory, and desk on one login so store close and support share the same customer.
LogisticsAtlas Cold Logistics
Atlas put field jobs, parts, and contact-center voice on one desk record across three provinces.
Food & beverageCedar Foods
Cedar connected campaigns to CRM to orders so marketing and ops stop arguing about whose number is real.
Map a b2b services program like Northline Systems
Thirty minutes. Products, retire list, and pilot metrics - before anyone configures.