CRM at the International Trade Centre Subtitle A presentation to: ELCA Roundtable for Non-profit Organisations By: Paul Kelly, ITC CRM Business Owner Date: 5 May 2015
ITC: who we are The Joint Agency of the World Trade Organization and the United Nations; created in 1964 Main focus is to facilitate the success of SMEs in international business Work directly with SMEs and through intermediary trade support institutions ITC has 378 staff and consultants at its Geneva headquarters
3 Why a CRM for ITC External factors Pressure from donors to improve corporate functioning 2007 Evaluation of ITC Internal factors Corporate data system made up of 30 unlinked datasets Individual databases (spreadsheets, word documents)
ITC s primary goals in acquiring a CRM system 4 Better understanding and response to the needs of our beneficiary countries, strategic partners and donors by creating a 360 degree view of their interactions with ITC Centralize our client contact data into one location Empower staff through technology to provide better and more efficient to our clients Use CRM data to feed corporate reporting databases more efficiently and accurately
CRM centralizing data 5 Centralized database for managing contact data and other information of ITC clients: beneficiary countries, strategic partners, donors, information subscribers. Original contact data storage model CRM data storage model Web-based client touch points ON-LINE ITC TOOLS & PUBLICATIONS ITC WEBSITE Individual databases databases Section databases S database TPO database Subscription Country portal lists Portal Corporate contacts Contact light Contact database Donor portal Subscription lists Data not shared across sections and no data on how client interacted with ITC became difficult to sustain when working on large projects and with long-term staff retiring All data centralized and client interactions with ITC captured. Donors Ministries CRM system Companies UN & WTO Missions Project beneficiaries AUTOMATED DATA ENTRY TSIs & TPOs Newsletter subscribers Country contacts VIA CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (the web) Includes: E-mails Notes for file Events Meetings Projects Corporate reporting data
How we got there the road to launch 6 July-Dec 2009 Needs assessment meetings with ITC staff, draft of technical specifications Jan-Dec 2010 Preparation (CRM survey, in-house discussions, Working Group formed, internal database survey) EOI sent to 35+ vendors 25 responded (Apr) RFP sent to 25 vendors 11 responded (Jun) 7 short-listed vendors participated in day-long on-site presentations (Sep) 5 vendors were technically compliant and Committee on Contracts chose winner (Dec) Jan-Dec 2011 Vendor contract negotiations ELCA selected and contract signed (Jan-May) Phase 1 of system developed (Accounts, Contacts, Countries, Missions, Meetings) (Jun-Oct) User acceptance testing for Phase 1 completed (Nov-Dec) Initial 50,000 contacts across 40 ITC databases standardized, categorized and migrated (Oct-Dec) Feb-Dec 2012 Phase 2 (Events, Donors, Reporting, Corporate reporting), final 30,000 contacts loaded (Feb- Jul) System Pilot for focal points and database owners (Aug-Sep) First round of training for all staff (Oct-Dec) Jan-Jun 2013 Second round of training for all staff (Feb-Mar) System programmed to feed data to ITC benchmarking portal, RBM portal and Events calendar (Feb-Jun) Official system launch staff required to use system to enter all mission reports and events (Jun)
Scope of ITC s CRM system 7 Area Details Client relationship management Organizations, contacts, donors, beneficiaries, e-mail, mission and meeting notes Event management Request management Conferences, seminars, training, fairs Logging client questions, problems and requests
8 Are we using it? Activity Number Mission/meeting notes added since mid-2013 1,100 Events added since mid-2013 1,400 Accounts added/modified since March 2014 1,600 Contacts added/modified since March 2014 3,200 Licenses issued up to end April 2015 247
User adoption challenges 9 Challenge Old data polluting system Ownership of the data must be defined Steps in progress or to be taken Data cleaning is currently taking place to remove old accounts and contacts which are not currently used by ITC Some important data must be owned by certain sections: Donors and UN/WTO missions: National trade promotion organisations Key country contacts Staff need to be comfortable that data is owned by all Ensuring information remains up to date Regular updates by staff Clients update their profiles via ITC website TSIs update profile via Benchmarking app Clean-up of old data on fixed time scale Direct mailings to clients Loading data takes time No easy answer. Deployment of card scanning tools, import tools reduces time required but still requires time Staff need continuous help getting data in/out of the system. Templates for mail merges and letters; report generation; ease of data entry
10 ITC Biggest Challenge Data Cleaning Imported old data (80,000 contacts and accounts) 2012-2014 losing the battle to clean data Jan 2015 30,000 accounts 21,00 companies 6,500 trade support institutions Data cleaning solution, May 2015 Logic is to deactivate any entity with no activity since launch Shocking result 1,100 companies and 1,5000 TSIs remaining Re-educate users CRM is about client interaction not a telephone directory Continue building from zero + 1
Lessons learned 11 Staff input before system development crucial but don t cave in to all customization requests Don t be over ambitious roll out step-by-step/module by module ITC built in features that are not being used due to various factors (progress in organisation on other systems, time constraints) Don t import old, outdated data a polluted system turns users off System flexibility is required to ensure that system can evolve to meet future organizational needs (we are profiting from that now!) Data standardization and ownership is important. must be communicated
Thank You 12