The Guardian recently put into use a $15,000 computer software program called Sales Force, which was provided free of charge by The Sales Force Foundation.
Sales Force, according Business Manager for The Guardian Jared Holloway, “is for customer relationship management and the big name in sales software. It keeps track of customers, what they buy, how much they buy, what their interest level is and puts it all together.”
According to Holloway, The Guardian was able to obtain the software free of charge from The Sales Force Foundation, through a sponsorship that they offer to universities.
“It’s really expensive,” Holloway said. “[But] they want students and universities to start using it so if they ever start a business, they already know it and it’s a good skill, because so many big companies use it.”
The Guardian will make use the software by keeping track of their advertising clients.
“We have tons of companies that advertise in our newspaper, anything from Amazon advertising their books to Taco Bell next door. We’re mostly using it to keep track of advertisers, keeping all their emails, phone calls, everything all in one place,” said Holloway.
The business staff of The Guardian is turning to Sales Force as a solution to a slight decline in funding that has recently occurred.
“[We’re] bringing in almost all of our revenue with advertising sales to keep such a large staff, we have to keep the advertising sales up. The past few years, sales have been lagging, so we have to fix it," Holloway said.
Holloway is optimistic about Sales Force in what it can do for The Guardian, as well as Wright State University students.
“I think it will definitely increase ad revenue, which means we can print more, and get more things to the students. We can just be more productive and efficient on the business side. Eventually, we will be able to hire more staff. We were thinking about an app, and different things like that to reach the student body.”
