How To Integrate A Contact Centre With A Casework Management System

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1 CASE STUDY: The Royal British Legion Integrating CRM with casework management application to provide a faster and more efficient service for those who need it most.

2 Executive summary Business Need: The Royal British Legion the UK s largest Armed Forces charity now deals with over 100,000 enquiries for assistance every year. After opening a contact centre in 2013, to enable a more effective entry point for assistance, the Legion wanted to integrate its CRM with the more widely used casework management application. Solution: Having originally developed the casework management system that the Legion uses, MSM software was in the perfect position to help. MSM created an API to link with the new CRM, successfully completing the project in just six weeks. Key Benefits: Integrated CRM and casework management system provides a faster and more efficient service for applicants Automatic linking of new enquiries and existing casework information reduces chances of errors and application delays Pioneering project leads the way for other armed forces charities that work with the same casework management system 2

3 MSM Software helps The Royal British Legion provide an even better service for those in need MSM played a key part in making the partnership and the integration work, with the result that the whole project was completed from end-to-end in just six weeks. Rob Ryan, Application Development and IT Projects Manager, The Royal British Legion The Need As the UK s largest Armed Forces charity The Royal British Legion provides comprehensive support to members and families of the British Armed Forces past and present. It s also one of the best known charities in the country. The Legion famously organises the Poppy Appeal, runs one of the UK s largest membership organisations, and is recognised as the nation s custodian of Remembrance. With this kind of profile, it s not surprising that the Legion is also the first port of call for many Serving and ex-service men and women, and their families, who seek help. We get over 100,000 new requests for assistance a year, says Rob Ryan, Application Development and IT Projects Manager for The Royal British Legion. It was a major task to process all these requests. Traditionally these enquiries were channelled through telephone calls to, or personal appointments at, the Legion s many local offices.. However, whilst providing a personal touch, the process was also time consuming and often resulted in backlogs and long waiting times. To help to solve this problem, the Legion recently took an important step forward by opening its first contact centre. The new contact centre is very important because it provides a much more effective and efficient service for those who are seeking our help, says Ryan. 3

4 People now have one national number to call, and the advisors that work at the centre can effectively triage the enquiry before it goes any further. It makes life much easier for our beneficiaries, reduces the load on our case officers and caseworkers, and let s everyone know where they stand earlier. The contact centre was an immediate success, removing a lot of the process bottlenecks at the local offices and allowing them to focus on the needs of those requiring support. Yet there was still one problem to solve. To operate as efficiently and accurately as possible and not add unnecessary steps to its application process the Legion now needed to find a way to integrate its casework management system with the CRM system. The Solution Having originally developed the casework management system that the Legion uses, MSM software was in the perfect position to help. The system we use is licensed from Cobseo, the Confederation of Service Charities, and was originally commissioned from MSM Software in 2007, Ryan explains. We were one of the earliest adopters of the Cobseo system, so we ve known what MSM is capable of for some time. We also know MSM through the excellent ongoing support role that they provide. We appointed MSM, to work with the development team at the Contact Centre, for this new integration project with every confidence that we would be in safe hands. MSM s task was to help resolve a potential disconnect between the contact centre s Oracle RightNow CRM software package and the casework system. The worry was that this lack of integration would lead to the potential of enquiries not being linked to existing cases, says Ryan. We also didn t want data to have to be entered twice. To solve the problem, MSM set to work on developing an API that links the two systems. According to Ryan, the project was carried out with the professionalism and efficiency that he s come to expect. The project required co-operation between three parties; MSM, Connect Assist, 4

5 who run the Contact Centre,and ourselves, says Ryan. MSM played a key part in making the partnership and the integration work, with the result that the whole project was completed from end-to-end in just six weeks. The Impact The impact of the integration project was keenly observed by Jim Keeley, an independent consultant who has been the project manager for the Cobseo casework management system from the outset. From my perspective the Legion has been able to realise a number of major benefits following the contact centre integration project, says Keeley. Most obviously, enquiries can now be assigned to case officers or caseworkers more quickly, which speeds up results for the applicant. Case Officers and caseworkers can also see instantly whether new enquiries being entered into the CRM relate to any of their existing cases. As a result they can avoid duplication of work. They re also able to provide a more joined-up service for the person seeking help. There are two big upsides to this, says Keeley. On the one hand we re saving time, but on the other and this is crucial the Legion is now providing an even better service for the people that need it most. Another benefit is that there is no need to re-key data from the CRM into the casework management system. This improves accuracy, and it also makes the system and process much more intuitive and workable for the Legion s Case Officers, caseworkers and contact centre advisors. The integration has been a win-win for everybody for the Legion s IT team, for the staff in the local offices, for our volunteer caseworkers and most importantly for the serving and ex-service men and women and their families that are applying for support, says Ryan. I would say that the Legion has set an example that would be of great interest to other UK Service charities that use the Cobseo casework system. 5

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