Project Acronym: CRM ACCORD Version: 2 Contact: Joanne Child, Doncaster College Date: 30 April JISC Final Report CRM ACCORD

Transcription

1 Project Acronym: CRM ACCORD JISC Final Report CRM ACCORD Page 1 of 22 Document title: JISC Final Report Last updated: April 2007

2 Table of Contents Acknowledgements... 3 Executive Summary... 4 Background... 6 Aims and Objectives... 7 Methodology... 9 Implementation Outputs and Results Outcomes Conclusions Implications Recommendations References Appendixes Page 2 of 22

3 Acknowledgements JISC Relationship Management BCE CRM process improvement pilot project. Doncaster College acknowledges the following members of staff, without whose input this project may not have succeeded. Joan Faraday Andrew Rodney Lesley Doorly Paul Beal CITS department BSC Students and the Doncaster Business School for all their input. Page 3 of 22

4 Executive Summary This project was initiated with the view to developing the strategy, processes and culture that utilises the CRM to optimise revenue and increase the value of employer engagement through complete understanding and fulfilment of customer needs. Improving the customer experience is a fundamental principal in the College s Employer Engagement strategy. The CRM will aid the mutually beneficial relationship with the most potentially valuable customers. Customers interactions will be monitored with a view to increasing the long-term value to the College. The project developed a series of policies, procedures and common protocols. The aim was to log all interactions to build up a profile of an employer. This included all contacts, enquiries, requests and communications so that the employer s needs may be anticipated. Focus events have been established for the ERG and Assistant Directors of Academies to demonstrate how the methodology can improve employer satisfaction. It was envisaged that a series of management reports to inform the business and marketing strategy going forward would be able to be developed, but due to the numerous technical issues that this project has faced, and the lack of a web based version for all staff members to access this is not possible at this time. An in-house training development programme for staff was developed. This consisted of a formal training session accompanied with a detailed user guide. In addition to this dedicated workshop sessions were provided for staff to offer support, guidance and advice when using the CRM system. In order to encourage reflective comment throughout the lifecycle of this project a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section was set up on the front page of the College intranet site. This allowed staff to post questions and feedback on the system anonymously. A total of 44 staff have been trained on the system. The awareness and value of the CRM has been highlighted to the senior management team. This was achieved through the use of project staff delivering dissemination events at the ERG meetings throughout the life of the project. Page 4 of 22

5 It is hoped that the use of the CRM will enhance the experience of the employers through improved communication with a key account holders. This was assessed through the use of surveys and questionnaires prior to the project and will be assessed again at the end of the project. Influencing a change in culture has been the biggest problem that has faced this project. Although processes and procedures have been put in place, there is still a lack of confidence by staff, and some reluctance to engage with the CRM. The main challenge has been to achieve consistency throughout the organisation, as staff are resistant to change and academies are undertaking their own CRM-like activities. The lack of senior management involvement has also had an effect on the project, both in terms of outputs and overall success of the project. It is recommended that in order for the organisation to embed a CRM system the culture is an instrumental factor. A project team needs to be in place prior to implementation and staff need to be engaged. There also needs to be the support of senior management within the organisation who are willing to promote the use and benefits of the system. The process and procedures should be constantly reviewed in order to achieve the best system and staff training should be ongoing throughout the lifecycle. The utilisation of any CRM system relies on the usage by staff, so involving them in any decision making processes will have a positive benefit. Page 5 of 22

6 Background The aim of this project was to develop the strategy, processes and culture that utilises the CRM to optimise revenue and increase the value of employer engagement through complete understanding and fulfilment of customer needs. This is a challenge in a large and diverse organisation. Inevitably, in such a large organisation each academy has its own culture however, to have an effective CRM it is widely acknowledged that there must be one methodology of operation. The project will initially focus on the development of policies and procedures. However, with implementation of a detailed project plan and buy-in by all Academies this will move rapidly to a stage which informs strategic decision making and benefits from the information provided by a CRM embraced by the whole organisation. Currently the College has a number of departments or Academies working autonomously. This culture was preventing the College from moving forward in terms of improving the customer experience. The autonomous working meant that each academy held its own store of customer contacts and information. This meant that there was a large amount of duplication, but the culture meant that there was resistance to sharing information. This was highlighted specifically when two different academies within the College were offering the same course at different prices. To this extent it was felt that the College needed to pull together all its resources to try and improve the customer experience and to improve customer satisfaction. In addition, in time, the College is looking to acquire Training Quality Standard status. The CRM systems and processes would have to be working effectively in order for this to happen. Page 6 of 22

7 Aims and Objectives This project was initiated with the view to developing the strategy, processes and culture that utilises the CRM to optimise revenue and increase the value of employer engagement through complete understanding and fulfilment of customer needs. Improving the customer experience is a fundamental principal in the College s Employer Engagement strategy. The CRM will aid the mutually beneficial relationship with the most potentially valuable customers. Customers interactions will be monitored with a view to increasing the long-term value to the College. In an increasingly competitive environment the College recognised the need to reduce the time taken to complete administrative tasks, increase efficiency and deliver an excellent service to its clients. The College wished to target prospective employers better by utilising more sophisticated marketing techniques in particular utilising market segmentation. Effective use of the CRM would provide a more cohesive and efficient approach. It would allow promotional campaigns to be monitored and analyse the most effective media. The College has eight different academies providing services and training to employers. The College has recently invested in CRM software however the processes and procedures for management and administration are not developed. Increasingly, employers of various sizes wish to deal with one key account holder to manage all their training needs. Typically, the member of College staff who first approaches the employer will be skill sector focused. For example in a Care Home a member of the Health and Social Care team will become the first point of contact. However, after undertaking an Organisational Needs Analysis further training requirements are identified which involve teaching staff from other academies. To ensure exceptional customer service the key account holder must be in absolute control of the communication with colleagues across the college and have the assurance that the customer has the response they expect. The project developed a series of policies, procedures and common protocols. The aim was to log all interactions to build up a profile of an employer. This included all contacts, enquiries, requests and communications so that the employer s needs may be anticipated. Page 7 of 22

8 The Employer Responsive Group a representative cross section of colleagues from across the institution has considered a number of questions from the Framework. The overall aims of the project reflects the discussion and agreement of the group when considering the question What do you want from CRM?, What are you hoping it will deliver? and What are your expectations?. The project outputs also recognise the need to measure a baseline of customer satisfaction with employers and follow this up post implementation of the CRM. This is particularly important when considering the explicit desire to move rapidly towards use of the CRM to inform strategic decision making in the College s dealings with employers. When considering the question Why now? the group has recognised that the increasingly competitive environment in which we work demands that we become commercially more aware and perform in a way more in line with the private sector. In addition the College is preparing to make an application for the Training Quality Standard. This demands that customer relationships are managed and that the impact of work with clients is monitored in a highly professional manner. Impact measurement is an important part of the third phase of the study. We will build into this study a monitoring system which is part of the management process. The TQS assessors will want to see evidence about performance and outcomes. They will examine trends and where appropriate improvements in performance over time. One of the outputs of the study will be to test methods of recording employer satisfaction to inform the TQS assessment. Page 8 of 22

9 Methodology Initially, a detailed project plan will be developed this will include further consideration of the JISC CRM study and the Self-analysis Framework developed in a previous study by Nottingham University. The initial part of the project will focus on common protocols for input. The project team will provide initial training for members of the academic administrative staff. Baseline work will be undertaken with users and employers to inform the project evaluation. Secondly, development work will take place to agree management reports required to ensure the value to academies is appreciated in the early stages to ensure continued buy-in from academic colleagues. Mid-point surveys and focus groups will provide feedback to project team this will inform continued development. Finally, the latter stages of the project will be focused on evaluation, dissemination and future developments. The results would then inform strategic decision making and gather information from employers relating to improved levels of satisfaction in customer service and impact of training on their business. It was envisaged that the evaluation would focus on the process of development and implementation as well as making judgements about the overall outcomes of the project. Page 9 of 22

10 Implementation Initially when starting the project an initial survey was conducted to act as a base line for staff expectations. The initial approach focused around creating and implementing processes and procedures involved in using the XChange CRM software. This approach involved setting up training for specific staff members, followed by a roll out to all members of staff dealing with external customers. It is hoped that future training will be provided to all members of staff within the organisation. Protocols and procedures were discussed with the Employer Responsive Group (ERG). These processes and procedures were initialised and finalised within the group. In order to achieve buy-in across all Academies within the organisation, and in combination with a new Health and Safety Procedure being implemented, it was decided that this would be the focus point upon which to base this project. In addition to providing formal training to staff, it was also decided to set up training workshops for staff. This facility would allow members of staff extra support and guidance when using the CRM system and ensure that the correct procedures were being adhered to. Health and Safety checks need to be carried out on all organisations were learners are on FE placements, Apprenticeships and Train to Gain programmes. Currently the College employs an external organisation to carry out these Health and Safety checks. As of September 2010 the task of undertaking these checks will be the responsibility of the College Health and Safety department. Staff will need to use XChange CRM to determine whether a new Health and Safety visit is required. When a visit is requested, the results would update the CRM accordingly. Throughout this detailed process all interaction will be logged on the CRM so any staff member can instantly monitor where the process is at. This process will speed up the time taken to request and undertake the health and safety check, and save time for administration staff, as they are currently ing all of the details to the health and safety company, requesting the visit details, uploading the details onto the CRM and then ing out results to members of staff. Page 10 of 22

11 Initially the procedure is to check whether they are an existing or previous customer of the College. This can be done by checking the XChange CRM database for the company as live or if they were a previous customer in the archive. This process can be conducted whilst the customer is on the telephone. Information should then be instantly available regarding the contact history of a customer. In addition In order to provide exceptional customer service to customers, key account holders were set up in order to provide one contact point for all training requirements. Previously this could only be one person, usually the first contact, but an update in the software by the suppliers now allows more that one key account holder. This allows a handover from the recruitment team to a main contact. Technical issues created barriers for staff engagement with the software. Previously the software had been web based which allowed access for all staff. However, when the software was upgraded in May last year a desktop version was only available. It was envisaged that the upgraded web based version would follow within a couple of months. However this has not happen. This has an impact on the utilisation, as there is one specific department that are unable to access the software as they are based on another site. A recent upgrade in the software to try and iron out some of the issues resulted in the software having to be installed on every desktop machine again, a Central IT Services (CITS) department resource that is already in high demand. Fortunately, a technician was made available for this process, however this is still ongoing with such a large organisation and other priority commitments that the CITS department have. marketing has been utilised to provide targeted campaigns to sector specific areas in order to achieve maximum impact. In addition the marketing facility has also been utilised to send out employer surveys. Page 11 of 22

12 Outputs and Results The outputs for this project consisted of a number of items. The first was to create a series of policies and procedures aimed at ensuring all academies use a common protocol when using the CRM. The procedures and protocols are to ensure that the customer receives consistent information and a professional approach from any member of staff that may receive an enquiry. The policies and procedures have been completed. However as these are working documents they are constantly being updated. Initially a set procedure for dealing with customer enquiries was designed. This procedure details exactly what staff should do, whether it be a customer enquiry or updating contact information on the CRM database. An in-house training development programme for staff was developed. This consisted of a formal training session accompanied with a detailed user guide. In addition to this dedicated workshop sessions were provided for staff to offer support, guidance and advice when using the CRM system. In order to encourage reflective comment throughout the lifecycle of this project a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section was set up on the front page of the College intranet site. This allowed staff to post questions and feedback on the system anonymously. It was envisaged that a series of management reports to inform the business and marketing strategy going forward would be able to be developed, but due to the numerous technical issues that this project has faced, and the lack of a web based version for all staff members to access this is not possible at this time. The change management process has also had an impact on this output not being met. In order to create these management reports to detail the information needed to influence the Employer Engagement Strategy and Marketing Strategy, protocols first need setting up at a senior management level, and this has not been possible at this time. This level of involvement from senior managers will look at the integration of the enrolment and finance systems to amalgamate all customer information. A case study has been developed with the intention of benefitting other institutions. This details the Page 12 of 22

13 Focus events have been established for the ERG and Assistant Directors of Academies to demonstrate how the methodology can improve employer satisfaction. It is envisaged that at the end of this project the College will be able to measure an improved experience from an employer s perspective through improved communication and use of key account holders and in addition evaluate how the usage of the CRM has influenced the Marketing Strategy and costs. There have been a number of results. These being that in total 44 staff have been trained in the use of CRM, and the processes and procedures explained. However when looking at the results of the surveys and the login details from XChange CRM it is evident that not all staff are using the CRM. This has also highlighted that users who have not used the system for some time have requested refresher training in order to be able to use the system. To this extent the pilot of the new Health and Safety system will make use of the CRM system a mandatory function, especially for Workforce Development Administrators, who will need to extract information from the CRM in order to complete the enrolment process for learners. Page 13 of 22

14 Outcomes The majority of the outcomes of the CRM project have been met throughout the lifecycle of this project. The awareness and value of the CRM has been highlighted to the senior management team. This was achieved through the use of project staff delivering dissemination events at the ERG meetings throughout the life of the project. It is hoped that the use of the CRM will enhance the experience of the employers through improved communication with a key account holders. This was assessed through the use of surveys and questionnaires prior to the project and will be assessed again at the end of the project. The promotion of the JISC e-learning and BCE agendas has been supported with information on the Doncaster College website. In addition the LSC Skills agenda has been supported by providing exceptional service to employers. This has been achieved by an increase in communication across all academies and the use of key account holders to manage the training requirements of an individual organisation. Page 14 of 22

15 Conclusions Influencing a change in culture has been the biggest problem that has faced this project. Although processes and procedures have been put in place, there is still a lack of confidence by staff, and some reluctance to engage with the CRM. The main challenge has been to achieve consistency throughout the organisation, as staff are resistant to change and academies are undertaking their own CRM-like activities. The lack of senior management involvement has also had an effect on the project, both in terms of outputs and overall success of the project. The vacant post of Vice Principle External Partnerships and Planning has also impacted on the project, with no one driving the Strategy for Employer Engagement. At times it was found hard to change the culture of the organisation from the bottom up without the support from above. The project has highlighted the duplication of information across academies and the need for a central store of information within the Organisation. In addition it has highlighted the need for a single view of customer data, something that the organisation does not currently have. Page 15 of 22

16 Implications Training will need be ongoing to continue to enable all staff to be fully trained using XChange CRM. Only then will staff see that the system has the support of senior management and the College Executive. Page 16 of 22

17 Recommendations It is recommended that in order for the organisation to embed a CRM system the culture is an instrumental factor. A project team needs to be in place prior to implementation and staff need to be engaged. There also needs to be the support of senior management within the organisation who are willing to promote the use and benefits of the system. The process and procedures should be constantly reviewed in order to achieve the best system and staff training should be ongoing throughout the lifecycle. The utilisation of any CRM system relies on the usage by staff, so involving them in any decision making processes will have a positive benefit. Page 17 of 22

18 References Page 18 of 22

19 Appendixes Page 19 of 22

20 APPENDIX 1 CRM ACCORD USER SURVEY PROJECT START-UP - Initial Baseline Survey This information will be used to make judgements about the progress made during the project in the development and implementation of the CRM. All the information you provide will remain confidential to the project team if you do not wish to provide your name please use an unique identifier which you can repeat at the end of the project so both sets of results may be compared. ABOUT YOU Name: Current Job Title:. Academy / Faculty / Department:. Q1: Your involvement in this project is via: Your role as Assistant Director WFD Your management role in your Academy/Dept Your role as administrator Other please specify.. Q2: Rate your level of knowledge on the college s CRM, its value to the organisation, its operation and your responsibilities relating to this. On a scale of 1 5 ( 1= low, 5 = high) Rating Q3: Rate your current level of confidence on the college s CRM, its value to the organisation, its operation and your responsibilities relating to this. On a scale of 1 5 ( 1= low, 5 = high) Rating Page 20 of 22

21 Q4: Estimate the number of times during the last two months you have forwarded or processed information for the CRM. Number Q5: Estimate the number of times during the last two months you have accessed information from the CRM. Number Q6: Estimate the number of external contacts you deal with annually as part of your day to day responsibilities. Number Q7: Do you currently use the CRM? YES NO Q8: If Yes to Q7 How many times during the week do you use the CRM? Number Q9: What do you currently believe is the CRM s greatest value to the College? Please rank the top five issues 1 = highest rank Record of visits/contacts Ability to view contact activity by others Central record of external contact information Record of key account holders Market information Providing better customer service Increasing potential for revenue generation Enabling improved promotional activity Other Other Page 21 of 22

22 Q10: What do you currently believe is the greatest barrier to embedding CRM across the College? Please rank the top five issues 1 = highest rank Lack of appreciation of the value of CRM Lack of training Reluctance to share information Lack of support from senior management Higher priorities Concerns about how information will be used Concerns about others contacting my contacts Other Other Thank you for your opinions and time you have taken to complete this baseline survey. CRM ACCORD Project Team Page 22 of 22