From Disconnected Data to Unified Operations

A Complex Business Demands a Flexible SolutionSolution Solution is a combination of ideas, strategies, processes, technologies and services that effectively helps an organization achieve its goals or hurdle its challenges.

When Tenille Villebrun joined EMCS Industries Ltd., the Canadian company had already implemented Pipeliner CRM—but it was being used primarily as a dataData Data is a set of quantitative and qualitative facts that can be used as reference or inputs for computations, analyses, descriptions, predictions, reasoning and planning. repository. “It was basically a place to dump information,” she recalls. Recognizing the disconnect between the sales and operations teams, Tenille raised her hand to transform how the company used the platform.

EMCS operates in the maritime industry, managing complex relationships where a single company might own multiple vessels, each operating like its own business entity with numerous invoicing accounts. Traditional CRM structures simply couldn’t accommodate this complexity. Information was getting lost in SharePoint, teams were working in silos, and data was being duplicated across systems.

“I love that I’m not stuck to whatever a CRM company built and said, ‘This is the best for sales.’ We’ve taken Pipeliner to the next level and adapted it to our business.” — Tenille Villebrun, General ManagerGeneral Manager General Manager is an executive with varying levels of importance and range of responsibilities depending on corporate structure, but who generally leads a company unit or a branch, overseeing its performance, profitability and daily operations., ShipCarePro at EMCS Industries Ltd.

The Challenge: Beyond Traditional Sales Tracking

“The way our business is set up, it’s not strictly company and clientClient A client is an entity who pays another entity for products purchased or services rendered. Also called a customer. or contact,” Tenille explains. “We have a company that owns vessels, but each vessel kind of runs like its own company. It was a matter of tracking how we invoice these people, what we have on each ship, and how many ships does the big company have. We have a lot of scenarios!”

Before the transformation, the sales team worked in Pipeliner while operations managed projects in Microsoft tools. This created a constant cycle of duplicating data and manually passing information between teams—a significant drain on productivity for a small, agile organizationOrganization Organization is a cohesive group of people working together and formally bound by a shared identity (e.g., one team, company, club, etc.) and a common purpose (e.g., business growth, athletic victory, etc.)..

The Solution: One Platform for Everything

Self-described as a “figure it out kind of person,” Tenille dove into Pipeliner’s capabilities, learning to build automations, create custom fields, and design workflows that matched EMCS’s unique business model. The results exceeded expectations.

“We’re not just using it for sales anymore,” she says. “We do all our project management in here. We’ve taken Pipeliner beyond what was initially envisioned. We have pipelines for sales, production, and service. When an opportunity moves from the sales pipelineSales Pipeline Sales Pipeline is a type of visualization showing the status of each sales prospect in the customer life cycle or sales process. to production, the automatizer does its thing, and the forms adjust to fill in the right information.”

The flexibility of Pipeliner’s form views proved particularly valuable. Operations team members can focus on their specific needs without needing to wade through sales notes—but when that rare situation arises where historical context matters, everything is accessible in one place.

The Impact: Streamlined Operations, Unified Teams

The transformation has been so successful that, as Tenille shares with a laugh, “It has been great to watch how well Sales & Operations are working together.” Documents and notes are consolidated in one location. Teams no longer duplicate data or rewrite information when passing work between departments.

• Unified sales & operations workflow
• Eliminated data duplication
• Multiple pipelines for different functions
• Automated handoffs between teams

The Power of Built-In Automation

Pipeliner’s built-in Automatizer has been a game-changer for EMCS. “I love that it’s within Pipeliner,” Tenille explains. “When you’re using Zapier or Make, it’s outside the platform. The Automatizer is just built in, so I don’t need to make Zapiers for internal pieces.”

The automation capabilities allow her to rename opportunities in formats preferred by different teams, automatically tag records, transfer field information between stages, and ensure that valuable contact and accountAccount Account refers to a record of primary and background information about an individual or corporate customer, including contact data, preferred services, and transactions with your company. data gathered during sales flows seamlessly into future opportunities.

World-Class Support When It Matters

For Tenille, one aspect of the Pipeliner experience stands out above all: the support. “I love that Pipeliner has live customerCustomer Customer is an individual or an organization that purchases a product or signs up for a service offered by a business. support. It’s not an AI bot first—it’s straight to a person. If you’re closed, it says you’ll get back to me, and you get back so quickly.”

The support team doesn’t just solve problems—they consult. “Especially for me, because I’m doing these wild scenarios, they help me figure things out. They’ve always been super helpful and so responsive. I really appreciate the support.”

“Would I recommend Pipeliner to other businesses? 100%.”
— Tenille Villebrun, General Manager, ShipCarePro at EMCS Industries Ltd.

Always Learning, Always Growing

Despite having mastered complex customizations, Tenille continues to discover new capabilities. “I think Pipeliner is so powerful, and there’s so much to learn. I feel like I’ve learned quite a lot, but there’s always something more.” She particularly values Pipeliner’s webinars: “I’ll learn little tidbits because I’m not the person who’s going to start at lesson one and go all the way to lesson 100. I figure out things as I go.”

Most recently, she’s been leveraging document templates to create historical debriefs for sales teams—pulling together account histories, contact information, and relevant notes without cluttering up the opportunity view. It’s yet another example of finding creative solutions within the platform.

About EMCS Industries Ltd.

EMCS Industries Ltd. is a Canadian marine technology company founded in 1955 in British Columbia and the pioneer of the Marine Growth Prevention System (MGPS). EMCS designs, manufactures, and installs advanced biofouling and corrosion-prevention systems (MGPS, ICCP, and Suricle) that protect vessels and reduce maintenance costs.

ShipCarePro Biosecurity Ltd., EMCS’s sister company, delivers a cloud-based platform providing automated Biofouling Management Plans (BFMP) and record books to meet evolving global biofouling compliance regulations.