Sage CRM I Case Study

Transcription

1 I Case Study Relationships Australia Victoria Ushers in Business Process Efficiencies

2 If there is one organisation that understands the value of maintaining good customer and partner contact information, it's Relationships Australia Victoria (RAV). Originally known as the Marriage Guidance Council, the community-based, not for profit organisation provides a wide range of services that aim to enhance the lives of individuals, couples, families and communities by helping them build strong relationships. These services include relationship counselling, family dispute resolution, family violence prevention, telephone counselling, courses and multicultural programs. RAV employs approximately 200 staff and operates from 12 centres in metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria. The database had reached the end of its life so we took the opportunity to find a system that would comprehensively satisfy our current needs and provide us with options for future business needs Government funding requires reporting and good data While clients may pay for some services, many of RAV's programs are partially or fully funded by the Commonwealth Government's Family Support Program. In return for the funding, RAV must provide frequent and comprehensive reports detailing information such as the number of clients accessing funded services, attendance rates and of course, how the money is spent. RAV's financial and CRM (customer relationship management) systems are critical to the process, providing much of the data for these reports. In addition, the CRM system holds a wealth of vital information about clients, from contact data to the services being accessed. Three years ago RAV was presented with a potential dilemma. The organisation's client database would no longer be supported by the developers. Rather than being concerned by the news however, RAV management embraced the opportunity for beneficial change. Anthea Tsekrekos, RAV Project Officer explains, The database had reached the end of its life so we took the opportunity to find a system that would comprehensively satisfy our current needs and provide us with options for future business needs. Ushers in Business Process Efficiencies at Relationships Australia Victoria

3 Aligning financial and Customer data One area that the organisation was particularly interested in was aligning the future CRM with RAV's financial system. Our financial accounting system was and is Sage Accpac. With our old CRM we were always doubling up work. Client financial information would be entered into the database, then Finance would need to extract that information, enter the information into Excel and then input it into Accpac. We thought it would be the ideal situation if the financial information could be captured in our CRM and go straight into Accpac. Support was another major consideration. We didn't want a small system which would naturally come with limited support. Our previous system used such specialised coding that there were not many people in Australia that could work on it. We wanted a solution with a reputation; something with a bigger skillset in the market to draw upon. The Organisation started the search with Sage where it was introduced to, a customisable software solution. It not only met the organisations requirements for integration with Sage ERP Accpac but provided them with room for growth. With modular features and a familiar environment, the planning for the changeover began immediately. Our financial accounting system was and is Sage Accpac. With our old CRM we were always doubling up work. Client financial information would be entered into the database, then Finance would need to extract that information, enter the information into Excel and then input it into Accpac. We thought it would be the ideal situation if the financial information could be captured in our CRM and go straight into Accpac Creating more efficient processes We looked at our business processes and tried to articulate them into the new system processes. It was a big overhaul, Tsekrekos says. For almost over a year RAV's processes were analysed, investigating ways of creating more efficient workflows. For example, rather than the old practice of clinicians relying on administrative staff to follow up with clients to arrange future appointments, it was recommended that clinicians organise appointments on the spot, using the calendar functionality being deployed with. Although a simple change, the organisation realised it could streamline the appointments process and reduce demands on administrative time. On completion of the process review, an external consultant was brought in to help document the recommendations in a technical CRM system specification. Following this, the organisation called upon MicroChannel Services, an award-winning business solutions and technology provider. We'd used MicroChannel Services to support Accpac for well over a decade, so we took the technical documents to them and they developed our system. Ushers in Business Process Efficiencies at Relationships Australia Victoria

4 The first of RAV's 12 sites officially went live with the new system in October Other sites gradually followed. By the time the last site went live in May 2012, approximately 200 staff from clinicians to administrators - were using on a regular basis. A place for everything Probably the biggest change at RAV has been the ability to attach correspondence and reports to individual client records. The CRM contains client information such as the different programs that clients accessed, letters, clinical information and practitioner or clinician notes, the sessions they attended and closure of case details. We can look at a client record and see a person's entire history, Tsekrekos explains, all within a controlled and secure environment allowing RAV to fully comply with client confidentiality and privacy. Data required by FSP (Family Support Program-) Govt funding Body- is automatically uploaded from to the FSP web services it s a major benefit because, We have to comply with the funders requirements. If we don't, we won't receive funding. The CRM contains client information such as the different programs that clients accessed, letters, clinical information and practitioner or clinician notes, the sessions they attended and closure of case details. We can look at a client record and see a person's entire history Given the importance of RAV's CRM data, the switch from the old database to was always going to be a big project but RAV believes the journey has been well worth it. is looking good. It s a more complex database, we are now able to capture a lot more data and the system is easily customisable so that we can add more fields. It is a system that we designed with our processes in mind. It's a nice system, Tsekrekos confirms. The success of the project was also greatly helped by the support offered from MicroChannel Services. The staff there had the knowledge and skill we needed, and I think when we were looking around for someone to develop our CRM, they shone. They could read our technical specs, interpret them and design the solution. That's very rare. They proactively developed our new diary as an add-on to and it is working well. Plus they were able to guide me along the way as to what was the best option for each component we were designing. An optimised future There will always be future changes to the system, Tsekrekos says. There will be opportunities to optimise features or maybe change the way certain things are done. We are an evolving business, always tendering for new work. There will be new programs to implement and this will affect the way we do things and the information we gather. What we've achieved so far is just the first stage but by deploying and working with MicroChannel Services, we ve now got a robust, integrated CRM platform in place as a base for future sustainability. End Ushers in Business Process Efficiencies at Relationships Australia Victoria

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