Qualitative research into attitudes towards CRM* systems in school development offices Prepared by Davina Fairweather Martin Horrox graycell consulting limited May 2014 CRM* Customer Relationship Management
The market is constantly changing, costs vary, budgets vary etc. Each has their merits; they are all OK, none is perfect. I think a good approach might be to talk through the things to consider before purchasing a system rather than necessarily evaluating individual systems. Go and talk to other users. Don t just go on what the companies say.
Objectives To investigate usage of and attitudes towards CRM systems used in schools these days To establish what is new in terms of building alumni and wider community relations To develop a check-list of questions to confirm with suppliers when setting up and/or changing or adding systems
Methodology 21 in-depth interviews of up to an hour, over the telephone or face-to-face, with experienced development professionals A range of schools: size, age range, gender and size of department Each supplier was invited to contribute to the research A unique opportunity for some leading development directors to share their experiences
A note of caution Not planned as a representative study The scope of the research excluded hands-on testing of each system This research is not a substitute for inviting a presentation by suppliers or talking to other experienced users graycell is not promoting any one system over and above another
Suppliers invited to participate Raiser s Edge/Raiser s Edge i (Blackbaud) Donor Strategy (Advanced NFP) ThankQ WCBS/Web Alumnus Donorflex InTouch (part of the Access Group) Alumni Solutions Potentiality PelicanConnect (Purple Vision consultants)
Baines Cutler benchmarking study 2012 Raiser s Edge 39% Donor Strategy 18% InTouch 14% WebALUMNUS 14% Other 15%
Our findings Speed of technological change, new suppliers and new ways of approaching CRM Independent schools falling behind other sectors Schools need help with specifying their requirements even for experienced professionals Development professionals may no longer see one system for life Customer service is a differentiating factor On-line communities are the way forward
Choice of system Size of school and community tend not to determine the choice of CRM system Budget and requirements are the main drivers Also important are background of personnel and department size Where do you start?
Raiser s Edge - strengths Remote hosting enables access from anywhere Net community makes it easy to manage bulk emails Recording, manipulating and reporting data well regarded Data exporting very straightforward Easy to track Appeals and calculate % responding, gifts etc. Logical and intuitive system Help desk is very good
Raiser s Edge - limitations Links to social media Can do too much for a small department. It can be too complicated for its purpose and hard to find solutions. Its on-line community is not as developed as it could be. It was very complicated I always needed help from dedicated database officers. My previous university development office was moving to another system.
Raiser s Edge - limitations Now charging for remote hosting when it should be free. Importing data is not easy The import facility is not very good and without a dedicated data manager it is difficult for me. I have purchased Importomatic for 3000. This is a plug-in which makes it very easy to import complex information. We can easily get all the parent information, job information and relationships.
Raiser s Edge They have not kept up with social media. Their interface looks like an old Windows system. Now I would not put them on such a high pedestal. It might be a sledgehammer to crack a nut and seemed a [too] big, powerful system for a lot of money. Blackbaud don t seem to understand small teams.
Raiser s Edge Don t buy the market leader unless you are sure of your team s capabilities. I could get more out of [Raiser s Edge] if I had a qualified information manager but that presumes a bigger operation than I have at present. We did not need the whole functionality and it was the more expensive to set up but [compared to the others we looked at] over 5 years it worked out the cheaper option. We were surprised, but we are in it for the long haul.
Donor Strategy - strengths Information about contacts presents well and it is easy to pick out the right person Flexibility to create new fields Mapping tool means can readily see where alumni are and their density There are events management and careers modules and you can buy them as you need them, to spread the cost Intuitive more so than any other system we looked at.
Donor Strategy - strengths Customer service was good at the set up but can be slow now They don t have the facility to take over your computer. It can be frustrating as they will ask is it urgent before responding. Once the helpdesk takes on your problem, it is well handled The events module is smoother than in ThankQ
Donor Strategy - limitations Not as strong as Raiser s Edge for querying It s not quite as easy to extract the information. With Donor Strategy you need SQL knowledge. Importing It is clunky in terms of importing from SIMS We have purchased a widget so that our school system will talk to Donor Strategy. The major gifts module would not connect easily to the donors records on the main database
Donor Strategy - limitations It does not (it was asserted) automatically calculate GiftAid at the time of entry, only when GiftAid is actually claimed We toyed with the idea of having the finance package and invited the finance office to sit in on the training but we did not take the package because we wanted responsibility for GiftAid to be clear with the finance office.
Donor Strategy - limitations Filtering is not straightforward you have to keep redefining the filters If you don t have a background in these systems you will need a lot of training and support and that will be at a cost. The account manager changed in 3 times in 12 months and at this stage this is a weakness. At the end of the phone they are pretty good but it costs to have them visit and can take several weeks.
ThankQ - strengths It looks very easy to use and the interface is fantastic. The customer support looked great and they have a very good history of helping organisations. Agile and web based it feels like it is tailored for the UK. ThankQ is good for a small start-up office. [Raiser s Edge chosen, yet] we could have gone with ThankQ but they did not have the track record. They are Cloud based and were attractive. It looks very easy to use and they have a very good history of helping organisations.
ThankQ - strengths We went through a tender process with four systems. ThankQ does everything a school wants. Their implementation was strong, training and support are good, they stuck to the budget and they were open about what ThankQ can and cannot do. Unlike Raiser s Edge, they do not use their own emailing system; they can also link to the Sage accounting system. WebALUMNUS can be good for alumni, less so for fundraising. Raiser s Edge is first-off for fundraising; alumni is the add-on. ThankQ is based on relationships.
ThankQ limitations The import facility did not look very good.
InTouch InTouch have consistently provided us with excellent service and a great product which they have upgraded several times [since 2005]. They are also great value for money compared to some of the other systems on the market. The online aspect of the system works seamlessly with the main database. There are no limitations with regard to the needs of the [alumni association] but, on occasion, one of my colleagues in the Development Office has wanted something new (like a special report) which the team at InTouch have always been able to provide after a bit of consultation.
WCBS - strengths Good for a small department where do not have a lot of time to manage the database Easy and simplistic to use so can pick up easily if have not used some aspects for a while Can do things very quickly Data easily exports into Excel Mail merges straightforward
WCBS - strengths Current pupil systems easily transferred Customer service is good when I have phoned they have always been able to help. User group meetings very responsive to needs and will update
WCBS - limitations Incompatibility with other software When we carried out our Telethon we could not integrate all the data. A bulk upload would have over-written all of our data. There is an inability to import or synchronise data e.g. from LinkedIn. It is difficult to run queries and get information out of it as you can with other systems.
WCBS - limitations WCBS do not seem to have much appetite to update. There does not seem to be the follow up and there has been no development in the last two years despite suggestions. The development module is not given priority over the accounting packages. Unable to record legacies we have to keep a separate record
WCBS - limitations You cannot manipulate data easily (e.g. search by postcode); there is no HTML facility on email, so communications cannot be branded; service is appalling. It is clunky to add attendance at events. It is clunky to change addresses. It is clunky to add free-text comments. WebALUMNUS tried and failed to link to social media. Customising reports is hard. There are thousands of problems. Even importing student records from PASS is not easy. But it is simple, and it is cheap.
Setting budgets Costs should take into account Resources Contingency Discounts Timeframe Income Savings on current activities Set up Annual fee Licences Training Extra widgets & modules
Requirements: a checklist for choosing the best system It is very difficult when spec ing a new system at start up. They will blind you with promises and science.
Considerations (a full checklist is available in the report) Matching with needs Import and export of data Intuitive use Supporting your brand Querying Innovation/future-proofing Customer service
Your online community 68% of recent school leavers (aged 18-24) said they would be happy to be contacted by students from their old school/college for careers advice 50% said they had never thought about donating to their old school or college Most often given reasons for never having donated to their school/college: I ve never thought about it I didn t think they needed the money YouGov survey commissioned by PelicanConnect 2013
An on-line community Creates a personalised, branded on-line experience for your supporters Allows your community to Connect and communicate with you and each other Set up groups Take control of their profile Benefit from the experiences of others Connect with Facebook and LinkedIn Involves your current pupils
Potentiality We have looked at Potentiality and felt it was more flexible, usable and effective. For example spiders go out through Facebook and if they are on our profile they will be automatically emailed. Donor Strategy need to keep up with Potentiality. We are talking about the imminent acquisition of Potentiality and have been very impressed [as front end for WCBS PASS]. They have responded well to all our questions and it fits very well with PASS.
Potentiality They are fresh, motivated, well presented, open to suggestion and user-friendly we were very impressed and the techies are very impressive. The analytics function is good you can see all the pages accessed and it presents a graph of connectivity through events etc. and it will compare contacts with the Zoopla database to show data on the value of houses to give a crude estimate of wealth and enthusiasm. We have not yet used the [virtual] games but we will try out some of the sports which we think will appeal to some of the community.
PelicanConnect They came to the school having done a lot of research [unlike the sales person from Raiser s Edge]. They had done a mock-up site of the school and had really looked at the school. PelicanConnect were prepared to be flexible over the price [which Raiser s Edge were not].
In our experience independent schools [compared to higher education and charities] are behind the most and seem to be the most impressionable when it comes to what the suppliers tell them. With all of the out of the box solutions like Raiser s Edge (and nobody is buying that now), ThankQ and InTouch, and to some extent Potentiality you can t really configure what you want. Technology is no longer nice to have but a need to have. As your older alumni are replaced by younger your online look and feel is critical. What schools should be asking is which platform should I be using and will my database integrate with that platform such as Sales Force, Microsoft Dynamics? Hayden Thomas, Purple Vision
Can independent schools start to lead the way by being less at the mercy of suppliers and more in the driving seat?
www.graycellconsulting.co.uk Davina Fairweather 07854 074830 davinafairweather@graycellconsulting.co.uk Martin Horrox 07794 678566 martinhorrox@graycellconsulting.co.uk Office 01823 491407
Suppliers contact details Alumni Solutions; www.alumnisolutions.co.uk; Chris Acton; 0207 7361211 Donorflex; www.donorflex.com; mark.higgitt@donorflex.com Donor Strategy (Advanced NFP); www.advancednfp.com/products/donor-strategy.aspx james.whitney@advancedcomputersoftware.com Importomatic; www.omaticsoftware.com/solutions/theraisersedge/importomatic.aspx InTouch; www.intouchsoftware.co.uk; Chris Aucken; chris@intouchsoftware.co.uk PelicanConnect; www.pelicanconnect.com; Sian Morley-Smith; sian@pelicanconnect.com Potentiality; www.ptly.com; Brad Phillips; brad@ptly.com Purple Vision; www.purple-vision.com; Keith Collins; 0845 458 0250 Raiser s Edge/Raiser s Edge i and Net Community (Blackbaud); www.blackbaud.co.uk; Christopher.Cipirski@blackbaud.co.uk ThankQ; www.thankq.co.uk; joel.trotman@theaccessgroup.com WCBS WebALUMNUS; www.wcbs.co.uk/products/webalumnus; Ian.Halpin@wcbs.co.uk