Two more great technology resources for Nonprofits

As a follow up to the last blog post, I have two further great resources for Nonprofit organizations, 

Community Computer Connection

From their website, 

Community Computer Connection exists to provide quality computer equipment to nonprofits and educational institutions for a reasonable cost so that they have the necessary tools to accomplish their own missions. We collect working computer equipment that might otherwise be discarded or recycled and return them to the community. It is our desire to provide needed equipment to any qualified organization that request it. Our mission is to connect schools and non-profit organizations with computer equipment donated by companies and people in the community.

TechSoup

From their website,

TechSoup is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a clear focus: connecting your nonprofit, charity, or public library with technology products, plus the learning resources you need to make informed decisions about technology and operate at your full potential. Our free resources, including articles, blogs, webinars, and forums led by expert hosts, are available to all users. Once registered and qualified with TechSoup, nonprofits and libraries can access donated and discounted products and services, including high-quality refurbished hardware, and software from partners.

I apply a lot of the resources available from both of these providers, they compliment my services, such as,

- Nonprofit Customer Relationship Management software assessment, development, and implementation

- Nonprofit Enterprise Resource Planning software assessment, development, and implementation

- Nonprofit Network installation, updating and integration

- Nonprofit Information Technology and Information Systems assessment, planning and project implementation

- Nonprofit Website development, training, integration, and planning

Check them out and if you have any questions, feel free to contact me

How we help nonprofits

One of the most important things that we value is the benefit that nonprofit organizations provide to our community.  With this in mind we provide a diversity of tools to help nonprofits succeed in their missions,

-          A discount on our hourly service and contract service rates.

-          Provide access to low and no cost software and services available only to nonprofits

-          Design, develop, implement and train individuals and organizations on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) / Operations Management Systems (OMS/ERP).

-          IT support from simple desktop support to local and external network support.

Some examples of nonprofit support that we have provided are,

-          Setting up a nonprofit association and membership website for a 250 member organization.   This system allows a full featured website with private member area, social media integration, and automated membership processing.  This includes payment processing; QuickBooks file output, and training materials with video tutorials. Volunteers now spend only 2 hours a month administering the system, rather than the previous 12 hours.

-          Development of a Salesforce.com system to track organizational Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s), client record tracking with a full history of all client interactions incorporating audit features, and the ability to expand the database capabilities as the organization grows. The system resulted in a reduction of 32 hours of processing on a quarterly basis and allows the organization to meet their grant reporting requirements in a matter of minutes through automated reporting.

-          An IT audit that resulted in the rationalization of a current organizations infrastructure.  This included implementation of a virtual PBX phone system, remote access system, and automated backup.   Software was updated using nonprofit discounted licenses.  This saved the nonprofit in excess of $750 a month.

If you want to find out more about how we help nonprofits in metro Denver, contact up today at 303-997-2719.

CRM today Part 3 of 3 The unrealized benefits of CRM software

As discussed in the previous blog posting there can be significant challenges in utilizing CRM software.  To assess the true value of CRM software you need to examine the benefits as well. 

When looking at CRM software, are you getting the full view of the benefits?  Some of the traditional benefits assigned to CRM software are,

-          Shared Information

-          Improved Customer Service

-          Better marketing

-          Better communications

-          Easier administration

When you look deeper into the benefits of CRM software, it becomes apparent that the benefits vary based on level of implementation, integration and utilization.  More often than not, some of the benefits of CRM systems remain unrealized, for example,

-          Reduction in infrastructure requirements.  Digitize your customer files and documentation, less file cabinets and office space.  If you have integrated communications, file sharing, and information sharing with your CRM system, do you even need a office?

-          Social Media integration.  With systems like Batchbook, Chatter and other CRM social media integration tools, your customer profiling can take on a whole new dimension.   With updates and workflows triggered through social media updates, your ability to tailor your sales and operations process takes on a whole new dimension.

-          Adaptive sales processes.   With data from the CRM software you can establish your most attractive vertical markets.   After these are identified you can quickly tailor a sales process to exploit the market and combine it with semi customized marketing campaigns, and then tailor your CRM system to report the outcome. You might ask “What is the big deal, I do this every year.” With a well implemented CRM system you can shift your marketing efforts and structure in a period of days, not months or years.

CRM today Part 2 of 3 The challenges of CRM Software

With the brief overview of CRM software provided in the prior blog post in mind, lets move on with the next series installment,  the challenges of CRM software.  With the broad scope of this article series, the challenges that with will view are equally as broad, but to the same extent common amongst all most all CRM software systems.  

Here are the challenges most common with CRM software, 

1) Cost / Benefit or Return On Investment on the CRM software.   With all software implementations there typically is a evaluation process to determine the Cost  / Benefit and ROI, usually able to utilize solid tangible figures.   With CRM software there is the challenge of quantifying the value of the intangible improvements in customer relationships, customer acquisition, and customer retention prior to the implementation of the software.  Surveying and other tools can be used post implementation to quantify these aspects, unfortunately it's too late to add this to the implementation evaluation. 

2) Current technology infrastructure.   While this is becoming less of an issue, there are still challenges with integrating CRM software into existing software and hardware infrastructure.  Some examples of this are legacy or proprietary systems, such as accounting or inventory management not having the appropriate interface to integrate into a CRM system.   This can result in reduction in the the effectiveness of the CRM software as there is a limited sharing of information between.  CRM Software thrives on having the ability to fulfill all of the customer needs, and access to all customer data is imperative to addressing this.

3) Stakeholder adoption.  This is by far the greatest challenge with CRM Software today.   With even the best planned, supported, and implemented CRM, stakeholder adoption can be a challenge.   Time and time again the best designed and implemented CRM system fails to live up to expectations due to a failure in the stakeholders adopting the habits, tools, and business processes that CRM systems require.  There are many ways to better engender stakeholder adoption, some examples are,

a) Change is hard, accept that it will take longer that you think to get the results that you hope for.  Plan for a supplementary adoption plan.

b) Provide appropriate incentives to aid in adoption.   Building incentives in to the adoption plan are great, but if you fail to forecast the outcomes, even the best planned incentive will result in failing to meeting adoption expectations.

c) You might want to adopt a phased implementation model that allows you to implement the most prepared stakeholders first.   With a successful first step implementation this allow you to leverage this success to other stakeholder groups. 

Do not let these challenges cloud your view of CRM software.  In the next installment of the blog series I will review some of the emerging advantages of CRM software. 

CRM today Part 1 of 3 What is Customer Relationship Management software?

It seems like a simple question, but what is Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software?   A strict definition is,

"Software that is used for managing a company’s interactions with current and future customers. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize sales, marketing, customer service, and technical support." Wikipedia

Sounds pretty broad, lets put it in perspective.   Here are some examples of CRM software I have implemented.

- A newsletter / mass emailing system that integrates emails capture from the client's website, social media interaction and daily email communications with little or no user intervention.   This saves that client 10 hours a month in administration and now allows them to reach their entire stakeholder base with clear, consistent communications.

- A client website and management back end.  The client has a system that allows membership applications, payment and accounting all automated and all online, a website that has a private members area that is customizable base on a specific members interests, and a built in training and support system that includes videos, FAQ's and trouble ticket management.

- Discount membership website that provides membership management for all stakeholders, payment processing, accounting functionality and the capability to allow member to tailor their discounts and offers on a 24/7 basis. 

CRM software encompasses a broad range of interactions, processes, and customer interaction / relationship tools.  In the next 2 posts we will investigate CRM Software in further depth and discuss further the state of CRM today.