contact management system & crm

8/2/2019 Contact Management System & CRM

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Key software solutions for the VCSWhats available, and how it can be used

to improve operational performance

Contact Management Systems & Customer

Relationship Management


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IntroductionThis report was commissioned by theICT Hub and CITA have developedthese resources in partnership withthe VCS.

What is a database, why do I needone and how can it help improveperformance?

To gather information for a reportfrom paper records can take a longtime. Client information, telephonenumbers, addresses and records ofinteractions with clients can all bestored electronically and hence canbe recalled in an instant. The trick isto store the data in such a way that itis easily recovered in a form thatmakes sense an old IT saying isGarbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO).

Databases can be very simple alist of customer names andtelephone numbers on aspreadsheet (Contact list) easy touse and easy to update. To developa database you need to know yourexact requirements before you start

you need to know exactly what youwant to get out of it. This is thehardest part of the process, oncerequirements are identified keyfeatures are easily identified.

Any organised information forms adatabase, the software that runs thedatabase system on a computer iscalled a development tool or aplatform e.g. Microsoft Access is adatabase development tool. Toproduce detailed reports a moreadvanced kind of a database isrequired, one you can ask questions(query). Access is a part of theMicrosoft Office suite and is onesuch database platform.

To make an Access database userfriendly, reliable and accessibleacross an office is tricky andprobably beyond the skill level of theaverage computer user. Typicallythe office expert or a volunteer willbe behind the development and

maintenance of such systems.Microsoft Excel could also bedeveloped into a more advanceddatabase by such technically mindedpeople. Both systems, however,have their limitations and do relyheavily on internal expertise to keepfunctioning.

The advantage of a home madedatabase is that it will do exactly

what you want it to, the disadvantageis a lack of flexibility and scalability.There are other more complexdatabases and so more complexdevelopment tools are used to formthe database systems, e.g. Oracle,SAP, Microsoft CRM. Internalexpertise in such systems is rare andexternal expertise comes at apremium. Commercial databasedesigners can create bespoke or

tailored systems using any numberof database platforms (Oracle,MySql, PHP, Quark), these are majorundertakings, can take aconsiderable amount of time and canbe expensive.

Open Source offers free licensing(e.g. Sugar, Civi) but in many casesthe expertise to support and developthe systems is not free and the end

package can cost as much as acommercial product.

There is a scale of databases,depending on the functions andfeatures that are required, from asimple list to contacts lists, documentmanagement and on to a full blown


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Customer Relationship Managementsystem (CRM) with many advancedfeatures.

Contact ManagementContact Management (CM) systemsallow groups to keep track ofcontacts, customers and/or clientsand can, typically, be used by morethan one person at a time.

Many people use address bookswithin their mail client software (e.g.Outlook). These can be very usefulbut are tricky to share, normallycannot cope with individuals that areassociated with more than onegroup, and/or documents associatedwith interactions.

CM systems can be useful tools toplan and undertake mail shots. Manysystems exist that extend thefeatures or interact with Outlook toprovide the extra functions andfeatures required. Web based(hosted) CM systems are availablewhich have the added advantage ofbeing accessible away from the

office and hence make homeworking easier.

CM systems can have otheradditional features such as shareddiaries, mail merging and tracking.

Customer RelationshipManagement (CRM)CRM systems allow advanced

manipulation and reporting of data.They can be little more than a CMsystem or have all the featuresrequired to run and operate acomplex and large scale operation(e.g. Progress, ThankQ). Many aremodular and can build up to complexsystems.

CRM systems allow for flexiblerecording of customer interactions.This can improve customer serviceconsiderably and be invaluable inproviding statistics to funders andreport against targets. CRM come in

many flavours, they can leantowards fundraising, membership orcontacts. Some of the commerciallybased systems can be salesorientated, many interact withfinancial packages to assist infinancial management. They can benetwork based or available via theinternet (hosted) or a combination ofboth.

Security of the information is a vitalconsideration, consider this andinsist on robust backing upprocedures when making choices.

Prices vary from free to manythousands. The free systems rely ongroups having the expertise, timeand/or training budget to configureand bend the system to suit theirneeds. Bespoke systems remain the

best choice but are far out of reachfor the average VCO, tailoredsystems offer an interestingpotential.

The commercial concept of cheapseems to fall somewhere between3000 and 5000, with significant oncosts (20% - 30%). Some suppliersoffer discounts or limited freelicences to the VCS but typically

recoup costs by other means. Becareful to ask if training is included inthe price or comes at an additionalcost. There are relatively fewgenuinely low cost solutions.


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CRM systems tend to beenvironments that a user workswithin on their PC. E-mail andcalendar functions can be a bit of achange from the Microsoft Outlookenvironment often used.

It is possible to adapt an existingdatabase or use Outlook as anelementary CRM, however they arelimited and probably would not dowhat you want them to in the longerterm.

At the far end of the database scalelies the Management InformationSystem (MIS), these products areindustrial strength tools that are far

beyond the reach of the intendedtarget group for this report.

Case Study The PeaceFactory

The Peace Factory are based in alarge four bed roomed house justoutside Dungannon, NorthernIreland. They offer a holisticapproach to health and well beingincluding a wide range ofcomplementary therapies. They havemoved towards rural outreach andmore recently establishing aConfidential counseling service.They promote individual tailoredtraining by supporting people to lookat their talents and aptitudes in anew/creative way. If people are at astage to access their own desiredtraining they support them toovercome the obstacles, which mightbe; lack of funding, confidence,encouragement, health issues orsimply moral, peer support.They had a requirement to providemonthly, quarterly, and annualreporting on all their participants,programmes/services, activities,

training and outputs to substantiatetheir grants. In addition they wererequired to report on the make up oftheir users, geography, types ofservices accessed and demanded.

These reports whether qualitative

and quantitative, had been difficult tocollate, monitor and score. This hadalways been done manually and waslaborious and arduous to complete.Funders do not have one agreedapproach to this task and there isoften too many disparities existingbetween the various bodies. It is alsothe case that these funding bodiesnon-financial requirements changefrom year to year.

While there are several financialsoftware packages in the market tohelp groups monitor their budgets,there were none we identified toallow them to monitor & evaluate the'non-financial' aspects of their work.With the pressure to deliverprogrammes, seek further funding, fillin timesheets, co-ordinate staffdiaries, evaluate their work - then it

amounted to a lot of time behind thedesk and too much paperwork!

They learnt through one of theirfunders that Cnamh ICT haddeveloped a very unique databasecalled eMonitoring which would takethe hassle out of monitoring &evaluation. It has been piloting thesystem with 10 other CVS groupswhose activities and reporting

requirements were similar.

With funds secured they hadeMonitoring installed and under asupport contract received one-to-onetraining for a year. eMonitoring takesa technology-based approach tocataloguing and monitoring the work,


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thus freeing up more time for actualdelivery of programmes andservices. It gives other officefunctions such as mail wizards,contact\correspondence logs butmost of all provided ALL the fundingbodies with the confidence that their

grant aid packages were being put totheir proper use. It now allows themto record thousands of hard and softindicators on users and activities andproduces customised reports inminutes not 3-4wks trawlingthrough folders, filing cabinets andlever arch file! They found it to beeasy to use and requires littlemaintenance all updates aredownloaded though their website.

They, like a lot of community groups,are constantly reminded by fundingbodies and the statutory andgovernmental departments of theneed for effective monitoring andevaluation. They found thateMonitoring gives the flexibility ofsetting up and measuring their ownorganisational aims & objectives, toimport and evaluate activity

outcomes, and to setup participantfeedback questionnaires. There iseven a section to setup and recordequal opportunities data.

A recent development is SoftMonitoring. Something theyunderstand to be a key part offunders' new non-financialrequirements. They can nowmeasure the stages of a participants

progress with them and can use thisinformation to improve activitiesmaking a case for better investmentinto what they do.They have a tool that provides apaperless environment, allows themto put all their contacts in one placeand generally make all the

monitoring & evaluation aspects oftheir work much, much faster, easierand more enjoyable. One thing isthey now think twice on the impacttheir work has in the community.The only slight issue is that theydidnt earmark sufficient time at their

end to the training, to get the fullbenefit. The main plus has been anincrease in confidence in staff feelingon top of the work. Moreorganised, more time for clients andbelief in what they do based onexperience and underpinned by theefficient collation of facts.

In their opinion for the price now youpay for eMonitoring you more than

make it up on wasted time spentdoing monitoring reports, whilstimproving your own programmes &services. What seemed impossiblebecause of the workload becamesecond nature and will be ourbiggest selling point. Tools likeeMonitoring should be madeavailable to all CVS groups as part oftheir funding. We were lucky toacquire the grant aid for its

purchase/support, but not everyonemay be in that position.

Case Study ChesterfieldLaw Centre

Chesterfield Law Centre offers free,confidential legal help, advice andrepresentation to individuals andgroups in Chesterfield and North

East Derbyshire. They also providesignposting to other agencies, selfhelp information fact sheets andhelpline information.

Volunteers run the reception, forphone and drop-in enquiries. Thisprovides work experience, which


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helps volunteers move into paid workor further learning opportunities.

Information had been heldindividually by case workers, andgiven out to clients on an individualbasis. There was no central pool of

information and so no standardisedapproach to information provision.

It was decided that a centraliseddatabase could provide information,so that the volunteers could offerclients a first level of response,freeing case workers to work directlywith clients.

Anne Frazer, the administrator, was

given the role to research what wasneeded. With the help of High PeakCVS, contactLINK was identified.She downloaded a demo version totrial.

Anne spent over 6 months makingsure it covered everything, regularlycontacting the supplier, ITsorted,with questions, and finding manymore things that theyd need. I

realised I didnt know exactly whatwe wanted until I really started toexperiment with it.The supplier imported names andbasic contact details from Worddocuments, and training wasprovided to key staff includingdiscussions on how best to set upand use the features for theirorganisation and processes, as wellas a plan for rolling it out over the

whole organisation.The volunteers were trained in theuse of the system by the staff overthe following weeks.

The benefits are that; volunteers nowprovide initial level support andsignposting to clients. Case workersspend more time providing advice intheir specialist areas, staff generallyhave more time, more clients can be

seen and served, faster and moreefficiently, all paid staff now sharetheir contact information.

They are very happy with servicesprovided by ITsorted, and note thatthe installation was easy and thesystem works well. Having datatransferred for them was a greathelp.

It did, however, take the Law Centremuch longer than expected to enterthe remaining data from papersources. Their advice is to, Allowtwice the amount of time you thinkits going to take, have a strategy toget people on board and engagedwith the system and to stay engagedwith it. Work out ways ofencouraging staff to use thedatabase and store information they

collect on it. In the words of one ofthe managers, if you dont use it,youll lose it!.

Training is essential both initiallyand regular refreshers, to keep skillsup-to-date as well as simplyencouraging the effective use of thedatabase.

www.chesterfieldlawcentre.org.uk
http://www.chesterfieldlawcentre.org.uk/http://www.chesterfieldlawcentre.org.uk/


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Comparison Table Cost Easeof use

Set up

ACT Half way house to full CRM, diaries,document management, trackingand configurable reportingwww.act.com

** ***

CharityLog Hosted volunteer based CRMwww.charitylog.co.uk/index.php

** *Contact Link Low cost Access based network CM

system www.itsorted.org.uk ** *

eMonitoring Access based, peer to peer, fullyfunctional networked CRM -www.emonitoring.org

** **

eVol Fully featured hosted CRM/MISdeveloped for WVCO. www.e-vol.co.uk a good bench mark.

** *

Kiss Network based CM plus

membership & donationswww.kissoftwaresolutions.com

*** ***Lamplight Hosted CM service, can be

customised. Can log details ofinteractions and reportwww.lamplightdb.co.uk

*** ***

Myoffice.net Low cost hosted system, a range ofservices to full CRMhttp://www.myoffice.net/

*** ****

OfficeZilla Free web based CM system, can beused to share diaries -

www.officezilla.com

**** ****

Zoho Free web based systems, manyfeatures www.zoho.com

**** ****

Salesforce 10 free licences for charities salesorientated needs extensive setupwww.salesforce.com

** *

Sugar CRM Open source (free licence) salesorientated but needs extensive setupwww.sugarcrm.com/crm

** *

volbase Access based, network CRMwww.volbase.co.uk

** *

Cost Free Under 100 up to 500 thousand plus

Ease of use* Extensive training needed** Some training required*** Requires use of a manual**** Easy no training required

Set up* Specialist setup required** Expert user setup only*** Setup for experienced users

and/or practitioners**** Very easy
http://www.act.com/http://www.charitylog.co.uk/index.phphttp://www.itsorted.org.uk/http://www.emonitoring.org/http://www.kissoftwaresolutions.com/http://www.lamplightdb.co.uk/http://www.myoffice.net/http://www.officezilla.com/http://www.zoho.com/http://www.salesforce.com/http://www.sugarcrm.com/crmhttp://www.volbase.co.uk/http://www.volbase.co.uk/http://www.sugarcrm.com/crmhttp://www.salesforce.com/http://www.zoho.com/http://www.officezilla.com/http://www.myoffice.net/http://www.lamplightdb.co.uk/http://www.kissoftwaresolutions.com/http://www.emonitoring.org/http://www.itsorted.org.uk/http://www.charitylog.co.uk/index.phphttp://www.act.com/

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