Business Challenge
Transforming Solutions, Inc. (TSI) was engaged by a top 10 public research university with a medical center to assist with technology transformation efforts for University Advancement to develop a comprehensive understanding of the current state of the technology infrastructure and use this information as a basis to inform the evaluation and selection of a new CRM system. As a foundation for this work, TSI was asked to spearhead a CRM software selection effort. These efforts were managed by the Assistant Vice President for Strategy and Operations for the Foundation. TSI has served as a transformation partner throughout the project lifecycle, including the execution of an IT needs assessment, change readiness assessment, business case development, organizational change management, requirements gathering, development of an RFP, system identification and selection, and business processes improvement training and execution.
TSI has frequently engaged in similar software evaluation and selection projects, and we aim to gather data to capture answers to the following questions:
- What technology is in place and used (and by whom) to perform various activities?
- How effective is this technology?
- What gaps or opportunities exist to streamline processes and increase ROI?
- Are there areas where the existing applications or resources can provide more value by being upgraded or by investing additional resources in training efforts?
- Are there risks that are apparent in the current inventory of technology?
- What is the “customer experience” or “constituent experience” as a function of the current processes?
- What future state options should be considered moving forward?
- What platforms may be feasible alternatives to meet the defined functional and technical requirements?
TSI’s Approach and Role
Approach
Process Improvement Sessions
The software selection project provided a relevant platform for which to conduct business process improvement sessions with the cohort of practitioners. This cohort of documentors and facilitators conducted business process improvement sessions in functional areas related to Advancement including Gift Processing, Prospect Management and Research, Annual Giving and Membership, Finance and Accounting, Donor Relations, among many others. The facilitation teams actively engaged with stakeholders by asking reflective questions, identifying opportunities for improvement and areas of risk, and developing recommended action plans based on current and future state maps.
An integral part of any software evaluation and selection project is the identification of functional requirements for a new CRM system. BPI sessions provide a platform to collect requirements.
Constituent Experience and Voice of the Customer Sessions
The University requested that TSI conduct a series of constituent experience sessions to assess change readiness and capture the unique needs of the employees and stakeholders to inform the evaluation and selection of a new CRM system. In order to assess readiness for change and capture the unique needs of the constituents and their needs and desires for a new CRM system, TSI team members partnered with the stakeholders to document and facilitate Constituent Experience and Voice of the Customer Sessions. The cohort of practitioners were trained in the facilitation and documentation of these sessions, whereby they collected points of pride, pain points, areas of opportunity, envisioned the future state, and gathered requirements for a new software system.
Requirements Gathering
TSI facilitated and documented requirements gathering sessions as a part of the Constituent Experience and Voice of the Customer sessions by answering the following prompt: “In the desired future state, I need the ability to…”. Throughout the requirements gathering process, it became clear that while functional areas had requirements that were unique to their job responsibilities, there were also requirements that transcended throughout all areas. Some of these included flexible reporting functionality, customizable homepage dashboards, and in-system notifications. These requirements gathering sessions resulted in 1,215 unique requirements for desired functionality that were then divided amongst the project’s eight Lots:
- Lot 1 Core CRM
- Lot 2 Integrations
- Lot 3 Communities & Portals
- Lot 4 Online Giving
- Lot 5 Event Management
- Lot 6 Digital Marketing
- Lot 7 Data Catalog
- Lot 8 Implementation Services
Role
TSI facilitated all sessions during this engagement, including requirements gathering sessions, constituent experience, business process mapping, vendor demonstrations and training sessions, stakeholder training, reference checking calls, among many others. TSI also led the analysis of various scoring and evaluation factors, including:
- Functional and User Experience Scoring
- Technical Scoring
- Vendor Viability
- Reference Checking
- Total Cost of Ownership, Transition, and Support
- Cultural fit
At the end of the selection process, TSI developed a set of pre-final recommendations and analysis in collaboration with the project team. This iterative process culminated in a comprehensive final report that incorporated stakeholder feedback and data from the entire project.
Results
The project team and TSI were intentional about collecting metrics to track progress toward goals in learning, process, and strategy. Some of this data included:
- 13 practitioners received in-depth training on business requirements and requirements gathering methods
- 56 processes were mapped and analyzed (current state, analysis, and future state) with TSI, practitioners, and stakeholders
- 176 total processes have been mapped as a result of BPI training efforts
- 40 current state, analysis, and future state process sessions held to capture existing and forward thinking processes and define requirements
- 20 requirements gathering, constituent experience, and voice of the customer sessions with functional area stakeholders
- 1,215 requirements were gathered as a result of BPI and Constituent Experience sessions, which will inform the selection of a new CRM system
- Metric tracking was established to monitor total numbers of: pain points, opportunities for improvement, technical and functional requirements, participating stakeholders, processes, and sessions held