May you live in interesting times

These are certainly challenging economic times for charities, for  nonprofits; indeed for-profit as well.  Now, more than ever, at the end of each day, you must be questioning whether your internal system are fit for purpose:

• that those monthly all too critical reports are all too time consuming to produce
• that essential data is still only available on paper!
• that even timely metrics are taking too much time to produce! That you’re unable to track even the most basic of activities
• that all tasks appear to be totally dependent on a proliferation of spreadsheets, all in different folders, with nobody following a consistent naming convention …
• that the details of the last contact with that very generous donor, that’s just called you for an impromptu meeting, are in the fund managers head – and they’re off ill …

Familiar experience?

You’re not alone.  Essentially, it’s time you must consider implementing that CRM (Contact or Client Relationship Management) system you know you need; or, at the least, schedule a review of your existing CRM implementation.

Still unsure as to why you need a CRM?   Well with a CRM configured to your needs you’ll most certainly:

• be enabled to automate a variety of processes and procedures, and in doing so become more efficiently at train new staff, or enabling existing staff to adapt
• have better coordination within your organisation
• have a detailed overview of communication with all your clients, and have better connect with your constituants
• have a comprehensive overview of all contacts; have better contact sharing and management as all contact details (e-mail, phones, address, …, last contact details, …) are all stored in one single place
• be able to share personal calendars and tasks; monitor and forecast performance to focus efforts and work to produce reports: internal and external

But be warned:

It’s never straight forward implementing a CRM system – be they peaceful times, or chaotic.  But, be reassured:

• there’s no perfect CRM solution out there – and they’ll never will be one
• CRM implementations mostly fail because of lack of buy-in
• the CRM itself is often a fraction of the overall total cost (for charities some CRMs subscriptions may even be free!  See my earlier post about Salesforce.com’s philanthropic 1:1:1 model)
• don’t forget the network, and access to the web; annual ongoing support, implementation and configuring additional modules, …, conversion costs: pooling, tidying, and re-structuring all the existing data in your unsupported database and spreadsheet ready for importing …
• that CRMs are for the long-term … so expect that after several weeks, or months, to find that some operation,  functions or processes could be addressed better, and that you would like to modify your present solution …

Where to start?

The trick?  Don’t procrastinate!

• start small!
• you’ll need a team – but don’t let the techies make the decision alone
• identify needs and priorities - what are the deal breakers
• what do you really need?  The classic: Must have, Like to have, …
• ensure that the implementation partner fits your culture, staff, and budget

Require the CRM to support:

• Mass Emails & Mail Merge
• Calendar, Email & Contact Management
• Marketing and Campaign Management
• Lead Management
• Customer Service Management
• Reporting and Analytics
• Interactive Marketing
• Document and Content Management
• and,
• if it’s the current best of breed, as in Salesforce.com, an social media application like Chatter …

May you live in …

Apparently there is no Chinese language equivalent of the curse “May you live in interesting times.” The nearest authentic Chinese proverb, according to Wikipedia, is “It’s better to be a dog in a peaceful time than be a man in a chaotic period.”

Cartoon: Non Sequitor © Wiley Ink INC

Gartner Group top 10 trends for 2010

Last month the Gartner Group analysts highlighted the top 10 technologies and trends for 2010. Number one is Cloud Computing – up from third position last year.

So for a small to medium sized charities what are the benefits of Cloud Computing?

Firstly, there is an acronyms you’ve most likely heard in connection with Cloud Computing: SAAS.

SAAS (Software-as-a-Service) is where a service provider gives access to their software via the Internet. All you need is a PC, a browser, and Internet access. All the back end hardware and software is managed for you.  So let us consider the SaaS aspect of Cloud Computing – what are the opportunities of SaaS for small to medium sized charities:

• No support costs – though there may be an annual license
• No need for in-house IT support staff – all installations, upgrades, back-ups, and on-going maintenance are handled for you
• No server – so no purchase, maintenance, or support issues. You don’t need to worry about installing the latest patch, replacing ailing hard-drives, the replacement funding strategy.  They’ll be no annual license, or support contract
• Access: staff, and volunteers, can access your application from almost anywhere. Just a PC, web browser, and Internet access
• No urgency to upgrade in-house computers – less powerful PCs will do fine

But there are risks:

• You are dependent on Internet access – but you could always access the system from home, a library, or even the local coffee shop …
• The up time and response time – see for example the System Status page at trust.salesforce.com
• Backups – you still must take back-up copies of your data!
• And maybe, depending on the size and nature of your charity, Security and Regulatory compliance issues

Garner Group Hype Cycle 2008

In the Gartner Group’s Hype Cycle special report of 2008 Cloud Computing was highlighted as “the latest super-hyped concept in IT”, with 2 to 5 years before main steam adoption.  It’s already main stream!

For small to medium sized charities, then, with limited capital, limited space, limited access to technical staff, do consider choosing SaaS and reduce your dependence on hardware.

Salesforce.com is the poster child of SaaS. It can be used for SFA (Sales Force Automation), or as a CRM (Contact Relationship Management) tool.

Consider fund raising as an example.  Salesforce.com has created a special configuration of it’s SaaS for non-profit organisations, and charities.  This Non-profit edition of Salesforce.com provides:

• Tighter communication with your donors
• Stratification of donors
• Collaboration between staff – fully manageable by Salesforce.com.  Merge all those disparate spreadsheets, databases, and notes into one easily accessible system …
• Creating and managing a donor development pipe line
• Manage contacts, accounts, and communication sequence: you can also richly manage the relationships between contacts and accounts such as affiliation, board member, reporting relationship, …
• And, with Salesforce.com you can always add new screens, adjust the layouts, add extra fields, include relationships between records, install new applications from AppExchange (“… the complete marketplace for cloud computing“, many of which are free for non-profit/charities) – essentially fully adapt their software to your organisational needs

Obviously, much of this can be handled by a custom built database – but the long-run costs of developing and maintaining such an application can become prohibitive.  Using a SaaS CRM like Salesforce.com to deploy a streamlined application is almost always going to be faster, and more flexible.

Finally, keeping the theme of fund raising, using Salesforce.com is about gaining and retaining donors; not about “managing” them – it’s more about managing the increasingly rich information you gather about them.  But ultimately it’s not about “donor” strategy, process, or the technology.  It’s people – and this includes your staff.