Unified Cloud CRM Modernizes Rights Management Operations at CLA

At the heart of the UK’s content ecosystem, the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) enables organizations to legally access published content while ensuring rights holders are paid fairly. As CLA’s operations expanded and regulatory expectations evolved, the systems supporting licensing, customer service, and billing began to show their limits.

CLA relied on a desktop-based CRM that required extensive manual workarounds and offered limited flexibility. Customer journeys spanned across licensing, renewals, service, invoicing, and compliance, but teams lacked a unified, reliable view of customers and contracts. Reporting was constrained, integrations were rigid, and everyday processes demanded more effort than they should.

To continue supporting the creative economy at scale, CLA needed a modern, cloud-based CRM that could unify customer operations, reduce manual effort, and provide the flexibility required for long-term growth and compliance.

Ascendion designed and delivered a cloud-first CRM transformation that unified customer operations across sales, service, and billing. The goal was simple; reduce manual effort, improve visibility, and create a platform that could evolve with the business.

Sales Cloud and Revenue Cloud were implemented to standardize lead management, product configuration, pricing, and quoting across customer sectors. Core onboarding, cancellation, and service workflows were automated to improve consistency and reduce operational friction. To ensure end-to-end continuity, Salesforce was integrated with SAP for invoicing and payment management, creating a single source of truth across customer and financial data.

The solution emphasized out-of-the-box capabilities and best practices, minimizing technical debt while enabling seamless upgrades and future integrations.