CASE STUDY. Local Government Implements Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Platform. Business Needs

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1 CASE STUDY Local Government Implements Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Platform New requirements can be turned around in weeks versus months. Customer: Southern California Association of Governments Web Site: Location: Los Angeles, CA Industry: Public Sector Partner: Brite Global, Inc. Web Site: Solution: CRM / xrm Audience: Business Decision Makers Software and Services: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Microsoft SQL Server Microsoft Exchange Server Microsoft Visual Studio Microsoft Silverlight Windows Communication Foundation Software Architecture CRM Design Development CRM Customization and Configuration Custom Software Development Aric Levin, VP of Technology and Principal Solutions Architect The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) is a joint powers regional planning agency, govern by a Regional Council composed of 76 board members who also serve as locally elected officials in various jurisdictions, with a staff over 100 Full- Time equivalent positions. Over the past four decades, SCAG has evolved as the largest of nearly 700 councils of government in the United States, functioning as the Metropolitan planning organizations for six counties: Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura and Imperial. The region encompasses a population exceeding 18 million persons in an area of more than 38,000 square miles. As the designated Metropolitan planning organization, SCAG is mandated by federal and state law to research and draw up regional plans for transportation, growth management, hazardous waste management, air quality and housing needs. Business Needs After a successful implementation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, SCAG was seeking to upgrade their Microsoft Dynamics CRM system to version 2011, and take advantage of the new features and capabilities of the system.. The system needed to have modeling flexibility in order to customize the way the data is gathered and entered and have the ability to view data across multiple areas of the contact management.

2 Solution: Moving to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Brite Global assisted SCAG in determining the solutions that would best fit their business needs based on their requirements. The answer to SCAG s dilemma was Microsoft Dynamics CRM. SCAG needed a CRM system that would be compatible with their existing.net environment so that their IT staff could use development skills they already had. They also needed to host the CRM solution in house to safeguard sensitive information. Based on these criteria, as well as some others, SCAG chose Microsoft Dynamics CRM over Salesforce.com and other competition. The solution was by far the most adaptable to the SCAG IT environment. SCAG also felt that the intuitive CRM interface and the integration with Microsoft Outlook would make transitioning easy for users. SCAG teamed up with Brite Global, Inc., a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner based in Beverly Hills, CA. Brite Global designs and implements enterprise-wide information management systems based on Microsoft technologies, and specializes in Customer Relationship Management and Custom Development Solutions. Working with Brite Global, SCAG was able to implement the Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution. The solution included the major redesign of their existing CRM application in order to leverage many of the features that were now available with CRM After the initial configuration and new customizations of the system were complete, the Brite Global development team start working on the application business logic which included the development of Plugin processes, integrated Silverlight applications, JavaScript code and Xml customizations to handle the User Interface requirements as well as data retrieval from other entities

3 Solution Features The Contact creation process in the SCAG CRM solution has been modified to enable entering the contact information in a single location that will populate that information across multiple entities. The Contact-Account relationship model that SCAG uses is different than the out-of-the-box CRM relationship model. Contacts can have multiple positions and roles and belong to multiple organizations (accounts). There is a many to many relationship between Contact and Account by using an entity called Position. When a contact record is created information is being populated in multiple entities that include Contact, Contact Address, Position, Assistants, as well as additional information being retrieved from the Organization and Organization Address entities in order to allow tracking and management of contact, position and address information

4 Group extends the Microsoft Dynamics CRM functionality by enabling to use the out-of-the-box entity, and using it to send Mass s to Committees, Distribution Lists and other records types, that have a relationship with the contact entity. The Group generates a Master message, and then creates a personalized message to each member of a committee or distribution list. This accomplishes SCAG s objective of quickly viewing and reporting on outreach activities. In addition, the Group Auto Populates the CC field to add supporting staff, such as Elected Officials, Planning Directors, City Managers, Executives, as well as other contacts that have one or several assistants that have to be copied on the correspondence. SCAG has been able to significantly expand outreach efforts using tools such as our customized Group . The enhancements that Brite Global designed enable SCAG to retrieve and report on correspondence that has been sent to Distribution Lists, Committees, and individuals. Centralizing important communications in the CRM system significantly reduces the likelihood of costly Exchange Mailbox ediscovery efforts for potential public information requests. Additionally, participation in SCAG events and major initiatives such as the annual General Assembly and Regional Transportation Plan process is bolstered through Group distributions that target most of SCAG s 9,000+ contacts., says Leigh Guannu, IT Project Manager at the Southern California Association of Governments. Exchange Synchronization is a WPF application that communicates between Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Exchange Server in order to Synchronize between the members of CRM Committees and Distribution Lists (Marketing Lists) and Distribution Lists that exist on the Exchange Server. The application verifies that the same members exist in both location, and modifies or adds information to the Exchange Server based on changes in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. This enables sending via Microsoft Outlook/Exchange to the most updated lists of users and contacts in Exchange. The application has recently been revamped to run asynchronously at configurable times set by SCAG personnel, so that any modifications to the CRM system will be reflected within the Exchange environment

5 The Preferred Address solution was developed to assist SCAG in their challenge of managing contact data as contacts may hold multiple positions within multiple organizations and have multiple address records. Many of the elected officials hold both private sector and additional public sector positions. We were able to solve this problem by using custom address entities to store the address information for these contacts, and having a Silverlight application within the contact form, that allows the management of all the address and position records of particular contacts. This allowed users to modify address, change their preferred addresses and run reports on these address records. The Solution contains over 20 custom developed Plugin assemblies, Silverlight Components, and extensive use of JavaScript and Xml related code. Some of the additional features include: New User Interface Enhanced Microsoft Outlook Integration Custom Built-in Silverlight applications Integration with their Public Facing web application Organization and Contact Address management Committees and Committee memberships with enhanced security Data Migration and Mass Data Updates via custom-built utilities Processes for deactivation of records and historical record tracking New features are constantly being added to the system. We have in the process of developing custom WCF services to integrate between SCAG s Internet Facing SharePoint web site that will allow logged in users to manage their own contact records within CRM as well as allow them to add themselves to distribution lists and event registration with a profiling process that will secure the data that is being modified on the CRM side. A Profile Verification Process, Subscription Management and Event Management add-ons are in the process of development and will be added within the next few months

6 Benefits By leveraging the applications native workflows, integration capabilities, relationship model and custom plug-in implementation SCAG dramatically improved the efficiency of work of their users. The custom implementations, both internal and external to CRM use capabilities that the alternative solutions could not match. The configurability of forms, entities and workflows dramatically shortened the turnaround time to implement changes in the business requirements and mandates. New requirements can be turned around in weeks versus months., says Aric Levin, Vice President of Technology and Principal Solutions Architect at Brite Global, Inc. SCAG plans to use the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform to develop additional tools for use within the organization. By leveraging the initial CRM investment and using existing resources to develop other applications using the Microsoft.NET environment, managers will increase the speed of developing and managing new tools while reducing development costs. Today, over 100 SCAG employees throughout the different counties use this application. The application is currently accessible SCAG locally or accessible via VPN. The ing component is used heavily by most of the users, and including the other features of the system. For More Information For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) Customers in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone at (800) Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web go to: For more information about the Southern California Association of Governments, visit the website at For more information about Brite Global products and services, call Brite Global at (855) To access information using the World Wide Web go to: