crm: the critical foundation of your engagement ecosystem · manage your valuable donor/supporters...

CRM: The Critical Foundation of Your Engagement Ecosystem

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CRM: The Critical Foundation of Your

Engagement Ecosystem

By Gregory Dellas, Enterprise Customer Success Leader

Blackbaud Pacific

A conversation in implementing successful Enterprise Level CRM

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VITAL STEPS TO IMPLEMENT AN ENTERPRISE CRM SYSTEM

We’ve become all too familiar with today’s most common

business challenges – vigorous competition, digital disruption

and changing social norms. But, while nearly every business

leader faces these challenges, only a select few are really

thinking and doing things differently than their competitors.

With the rise of social media transforming the way we

communicate, coupled with the influx of charities, and

causes vying for people’s attention, it is vital now more than

ever to create deep personal relationships with your donors

and supporters to increase loyalty and retention. This is why

a powerful supporter engagement and customer experience

strategy is so important.

One of the most important tools at your disposal that enables you to stay engaged with your donors and creates a strong platform for competitive differentiation, is your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System.

Many think that a CRM system is all about technology, but

it is so much more than this - it is a competitive business

strategy designed to increase engagement, effectively

manage your valuable donor/supporters relationships and

retention strategies.

In effect, your CRM system is the doorway to the heart and

soul of your charity, it manages your most critical asset – your

donors/supporters.

Understanding your data and how it can be utilised should be

your top priority, as it allows you to work smarter and create

more meaningful relationships with donors.

If you are upgrading your CRM you have an opportunity for

renewal and it is vital to consider the following steps to ensure

a successful transition.

Gregory Dellas, the Enterprise Client Partner at Blackbaud

Pacific, has led business technology change across global

organisations for the last 20 years, and strongly believes that

non-profit organisations should start with the end in mind.

“For a charity to maximise its investment in both time and

money in larger enterprise CRM systems, they have to start

with knowing what their journey looks like.

Why are they looking at changing or updating their current

system? What are the key business imperatives that are

driving this decision?”

“These questions are really important because they will

determine how much time and money charities have to invest

and what the system requirements will be. People will often

start by looking at the solution but they need to start with the

problem first, and business drivers as the underlying focus,”

adds Dellas.

Dellas believes that one of the things that skews people’s

decision is price. A low price does not necessarily translate

into value for the organisation. “If you show stakeholders

the capabilities, and take the price away, then decisions are

based on solution capabilities, in this way you are better

able to get a truer reflection of the right system,” says Dellas.

“Price can always be negotiated, and at the end of the day

you will make a more informed decision”.

The ultimate purpose of a CRM system is to support the

business strategy. Technology is then enlisted to help realise

this strategy.





MANAGE YOUR DATA

According to Dellas data is key; “You need to understand

what data you have, how that data is used, understand its

value, and how it will facilitate the next stage of your journey.

Data cleanliness and data accuracy is something you can

start well before you have thought about what the end

solution is going to be.”

“What you will find is that over the years, especially if your

system has been in place for some time, the way the data

is captured and used will have evolved, therefore reliability

and accuracy of historical data becomes a challenge.” adds

Dellas. This is especially true when trying to maintain pace

with the evolution of social media and the many ways donors

like to be reached.

“When defining data and how this will integrate with your

new processes, you have to try to anticipate the future as

best as possible, which can be challenging and sometimes

impossible… More importantly you need to look at a

solution that is going to be able to adapt with you as your

business adapts and responds to changes in the market and

environment,” says Dellas.

GET THE BEST PEOPLE ON THE JOB

One of the key challenges often faced when updating a new

CRM System, is the resistance managers have in wanting

to share their best people with the project. But to achieve

an optimal outcome, the best people, who have the deepest

knowledge of the organisation, need to be involved.

Dellas comments, “Whilst it may seem common sense to

engage at all levels of the business, I’m still surprised by

instances where IT or a Project Team will kick off a project

and work really diligently on it, but not include key business

stakeholders in any aspect of the work. This is a clear path to

missed expectations and underwhelming project outcomes.”

“It’s critical that the solution is not developed in isolation by IT

or project teams, but is a collaborative effort engaging all key

business stakeholders and with clear business goals leading

the way. Internally it’s about collaboration and sharing, but it’s

also about getting the right subject matter experts involved

in the project at the right stage, whether that be at project

definition, evaluation, design or delivery,” says Dellas.

Once the best people are selected to work on the project,

backfilling roles also becomes important. Dellas, describes

this as a ‘waterfall’ process where once you identify your

best person for the project, you then select your next best

person and continue down the ranks to junior staff. This is

also important in providing a succession plan and ensuring

that vital knowledge stays in the organisation. Organisational

change management also becomes critical to ensure a

seamless transition.

“A new system will solve a lot of problems, but it can also create a whole lot more,” says Dellas, “because you are bringing in functionality that you have never had to think about before.”

“Therefore, the organisational change process needs to start

early, and people need to understand why you are making

this change. This always comes back to the business case,

checking and revalidating and asking, ‘are we still on track, is

the change going where we need it to go?” says Dellas.

If there is no senior management buy-in or the best people

aren’t on the project, then it could turn out to be a very costly

exercise. Dellas, recalls a time when a major corporation he

was working with didn’t follow these basic steps and the

project blew out by millions of dollars. Which is something

all organisations should avoid, and particularly important for

NGO’s as stewards of donor’s trust and goodwill.





PRACTICE CARE

Because of their size and complexity in implementing

enterprise scale CRM projects they tend to create a mix of

emotions in the organisation from, excitement to fear, and

anxiety. Which is why great care and empathy should be

exercised across the organisation during implementation.

Some key areas to consider include:

• The project must be a strategic decision from the

top of the organisation and have broad executive

support to be a success.

• The projects need a proper governance structure.

Whether that be a steering committee or project

control board, so the project is successfully

managed and delivered.

• Consider the impact of staff who have been

seconded to the project.

•

“One of the things you need to think about,” says Dellas, “is

how do you re-integrate staff in the organisation or transition

them after the project has finished.” Not having an approach or

plan increases the risk that you may lose staff once the project

is over. These people have gained a lot of valuable knowledge

and are important to the bedding in of the solution post ‘go-live’.

FACTORS TO CONSIDER THROUGHOUT THE CHANGE

Because of the tremendous change that is needed to

implement a new CRM system, Dellas, is quick to remind us

that we must celebrate a lot during this herculean journey.

“We must celebrate often and have fun so we don’t burn our

key people out,” he says.

While taking the time to pay tribute to your hard efforts is

important, so too is the ongoing management of organisational

change. It’s also important employees still feel secure in their

roles and you work to minimise resistance to change. People

who have worked on the project also need to feel valued and

the transition managed effectively.

“You really need to know how people are feeling and manage

that change. You need to stop them from falling into this pit

of uncertainty and how it will affect their jobs,” says Dellas,

“you don’t want people to think, I have been here for 20 years

and now things are going to change and I don’t know what is

going to happen in three weeks.”

THE CHANGE CURVE

During implementation, it is important that managers are

aware of the various stages of change that people impacted

by the project may pass through. A good model that can

help with this is the Kubler Ross Change Curve.





This can help guide your organisation through the upheaval

and disruption initially caused. Each emotion can be

considered in four key stages:

STAGE 1: (shock / denial) When change is first

introduced, people’s initial reaction may be shock

or denial as they react to the change.

Even if the change is well planned staff still need time

to adjust. This is a critical stage of communication,

people need information, need to understand what

is happening, and need to know how to get help.

STAGE 2: (frustration / depression) Once the reality

of the change starts to hit, some people may feel

frustration, concern, anger, resentment, or fear.

They may feel the need to express their feelings

and concerns and vent these negative emotions. In

extreme cases depression can also be an outcome

of significant change.

As a result, the organisation experiences a

disruption which, if not carefully manged can quickly

spiral into chaos. The project team need to prepare

for this stage by offering clear communication and

support and by acting to minimise and mitigate

the problems.

As the reaction to change is very personal and

can be emotional, it is often impossible to pre-

empt everything, so it’s vital that the project tracks

these issues or escalate through the appropriate

governance group and that supports are in place

for those who may need them.

STAGE 3: (experiment / decision) This is the turning

point for people and the organisation. People stop

focussing on what they have lost. They start to let

go and accept the changes. They begin testing

and exploring what the changes mean and start to

adapt and see the benefits.

STAGE 4: (integration) This is the final stage where

people not only accept the changes, but also start

to embrace them and start rebuilding their ways of

working. Only when people get to this stage can

the organisation really start to reap the benefits

of change and gain incremental value from their

investment. An indicator of true success is when a

majority of the organisation make it to this stage.

“Usually the first-time people see the system is when they

are asked to test it, often they panic. Familiarity with the

tools and concepts are important and one way to ease

people into the system, especially with out of the box

solutions, is to introduce them to components as you

complete each module; bring people into a hands-on lab

and let them play with the tool and use cases so they

become familiar with the system long before UAT,” Dellas

says.

“The good thing about this process is you get to deal with

the anxiety and you get them to touch and feel and that sort

of stuff. But you are also building knowledge and experience

as they go through the process,” he says.

Another important consideration is keeping the knowledge

embedded in the organisation as staff turn-over.

“Departments and managers need to revisit the reasons

why the solution was implemented in the first place, and

ensure the appropriate contextual induction when new

people come on,” says Dellas, “you have to give them the

background so they understand, and you continually need

to renew that knowledge and embed that knowledge,

through practice, training, and documentation into the

organisation over the long term.”





GO LIVE IS JUST THE BEGINNING

There is sometimes a perception that once you go live with

the new system all your issues are solved, but to maintain a

dynamic culture you always need to stay open to learning

and continuous improvement.

“As the business changes, your demographics change, your

market changes, and your strategic approach over time, will

change. There will be disruptors that enter the market and

you will need to pivot and adjust. To successfully respond

to this, you need to build an organisational culture that can

adapt as things change,” says Dellas.

“Then you have your benefits framework, ensuring that you

review your business case and understand whether the

expected benefits that justified the investment are being

achieved. These need to be validated and communicated.”

says Dellas.

“Often what happens after go live, we move onto the next

important or urgent piece of work and the original rationale

for the project is relegated to the memories of those who

were there at the beginning.”

“As we are the stewards of community generosity, we owe it to our donors, beneficiaries, and stakeholders to ensure that any CRM investment has achieved the outcomes that were originally envisioned and capture what have we learnt from the process. This intelligence can then be fed into our ongoing project learning cycle.”

FIND A BALANCE BETWEEN TECHNOLOGY AND BUSINESS

In his article, ‘IT doesn’t matter’, Nicholas Carr stirred

up controversy around IT’s role as a strategic business

differentiator. He argues that it follows a pattern very similar

to telephones and electricity, where once they provided a

competitive advantage, but as they became more available

they turned into a ‘common commodity’ and lost their

differentiation.

Dellas is also quick to remind us that technology only plays

a supporting role to business strategy. “In our cloud based

environment today the technology is less important than the

business drivers,” he says.

“Investments should be made that will provide

value early and for the long term as well as

support your sustainable competitive advantage.”

“If you are investing in customised processes that don’t

give you a sustainable competitive investment you have to

ask yourself ‘is this the best allocation of my beneficiaries’

resources and donors generosity? It’s important to have your

technology behind you but it has to be business led”

“IT needs to evolve to be a strategic business partner that

facilitates successful system outcomes and not just a solution

provider; CIOs, traditionally used to being solution providers,

need to evolve to this paradigm,” says Dellas.



https://hbr.org/2003/05/it-doesnt-matter



FINAL TIPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL CRM IMPLEMENTATION

Strategic – have a strong business case that is led

by senior management

Organisation – put robust project governance

procedures in place to create a structured

approach to success and manage changes to the

organisation.

Operations – create procedures for effective

knowledge management so that the change is

translated into everyday working practices.

Data – ensure you clean your data. It is important

not to migrate old problems into the new system.

Resources – have the right people involved who will

lead the project to ensure systems meet the needs

of the organisation.

The project – have clear success criteria,

effective change management, governance, and

management of expectations.

The most crucial step is to stay guided by your organisation’s

business goals and accept that change is inevitable.

The implementation of a successful CRM system is not simply

a case of going out and buying technology that will magically

transform your business. The foundation for any effective CRM

strategy begins with the end in mind, and the consideration of the

range of capabilities your organisation already has. This should

include every step of the process, from your organisation’s busi-

ness processes through to your technology, the people you bring

on board, your data and how you effectively manage change.

Strategy focused on allocating resources to create competitive

advantage and effective engagement at all touchpoints becomes

critical.

Above all, your donor/supporter should be at the heart of the

strategy. This may mean a complete change in thinking, but an

important shift and one that the entire organisation needs to un-

derstand from the start. The best way to avoid the pitfalls is by

taking the time to define your donor and supporter strategies

upfront and align your business processes before implementing

the technology. It’s only then you can start to maximise your re-

turn on investment on any enterprise-wide CRM implementation.

ABOUT GREGORY DELLAS

Gregory Dellas

Enterprise Client Partner

Blackbaud Pacific

Passionate about the NFP sector and long term, deep value

for every dollar invested in business and technology solutions.

Gregory has over 30 years’ experience across corporate

and the not for profit world, and has participated and been a

leader across the technological changes and evolution that

has occurred over the last three decades. With a strong

foundation in banking, finance and professional services,

Gregory has built a toolkit of skills and history of successfully

delivered projects we don’t often see. In particular he has

spent the last 12 years committed to the delivery of value

in the NGO space. Of course, this type of background does

not happen in isolation and he is proud to have achieved this

through collaborative partnerships with his teams, colleagues,

customers and vendors alike by bringing technology and

social good together.

Over the last 6 years Gregory has become one of the leading

INGO subject matter experts on Blackbaud CRM and is now

a valued part of the Blackbaud team. He has contributed

extensively to the body of knowledge around best practice

for BBCRM and knows what it takes to embed systems, tools

and change into an organisation to achieve success.and

knows what it takes to embed systems, tools and change

into an organisation to achieve success.



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