Gail Erickson owns Adventure Works Cycle, a manufacturing company that produces and distributes metal and composite bicycles within North America. Based in Killington, Vt., her company has 150 employees, including 15 salespeople and eight customer service representatives.

During the past two years, her business has experienced rapid growth, and she's found it increasingly difficult to manage sales and service needs for her customers. Gail decided to implement Microsoft CRM because it integrates with the existing applications that her business uses, offers a low total cost of ownership, and can improve sales and service employee productivity quickly, with minimal training.

Gail likes to stay involved in her business, so she can keep in touch with her customers' needs. On a daily basis, she plays many roles: salesperson, customer service representative and systems administrator.