Sage CRM Customer Success
Relationships Australia Victoria develops more more efficient business processes with Sage CRM Customer Relationships Australia Victoria (RAV) Industry Not for Profit Location Victoria, Australia Solution Sage CRM and Sage 300 ERP
If there is one organization that understands the value of maintaining good customer and partner contact information, it’s Relationships Australia Victoria (RAV). Originally known as the Marriage Guidance Council, the communitybased, not for profit organization provides a wide range of services that aim to enhance the lives of individuals, couples, families and communities by helping them build strong relationships. These services include relationship counselling, family dispute resolution, family violence prevention, telephone counselling, courses and multicultural programs. RAV employs approximately 200 staff and operates from 12 centres in metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria.
‘We’ve now got a robust, integrated CRM platform in place as a base for future sustainability’ Anthea Tsekrekos, Project Officer, RAV
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Challenge RAV required a new CRM system to replace its legacy database that could align with its financial system, and allow it to manage its business processes effectively.
Government funding requires reporting and good data While clients may pay for some services, many of RAV’s programs are partially or fully funded by the Commonwealth Government’s Family Services Program. In return for the funding, RAV must provide frequent and comprehensive reports detailing information such as the number of clients accessing funded services, attendance rates and of course, how the money is spent. RAV’s financial and CRM (customer relationship management) systems are critical to the process, providing much of the data for these reports. In addition, the CRM system holds a wealth of vital information about clients, from contact data to the services being accessed.
Solution Sage CRM was implemented to streamline the appointments process and reduce demands on administrative time, helping to drive productivity across the business. Results Sage CRM has changed the way RAV do business with significant benefits seen across client record visibility, report-preparation and the reduction in data double-handling. RAV are now able to see a person’s entire history in one easily accessible place.
Sage CRM Customer Success
‘We’re capturing a lot of data and we need it all, so it is certainly very rich in that way. The other system didn’t have anything like this depth.’ Anthea Tsekrekos, Project Officer, RAV
Three years ago RAV was presented with a potential dilemma. The organization’s client database would no longer be supported by the developers. Rather than being concerned by the news however, RAV management embraced the opportunity for beneficial change. Anthea Tsekrekos, RAV Project Officer explains, “The database had had its day. It was antiquated so we took the opportunity to find a system that would comprehensively satisfy our current needs and provide us with options for future business needs.” Aligning financial and customer data One area that Tsekrekos was particularly interested in was aligning the future CRM with RAV’s financial system. “Our financial accounting system was – and is – Sage 300 ERP. With our old CRM we were always doubling up work. Client financial information would be entered then Finance would run different reports, put the information into Excel and then input it into Sage 300 ERP. We thought it would be the ideal situation if the financial information could be captured in our CRM and go straight into Sage 300 ERP.” Support was another major consideration. “We didn’t want a small system. We’d been locked into a two-man show with our old system. It used such specialized coding that there were not many people in Australia that could work on it. We wanted a solution with a reputation; something with a bigger skillset in the market to draw upon.” Tsekrekos started her search with Sage where she was introduced to Sage CRM, a customizable software solution. It not only met her requirements for integration with Sage 300 ERP but provided them with room for growth. With modular features and a familiar environment, the planning for the changeover began immediately.
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Creating more efficient processes “We looked at our business processes and tried to articulate them into the new system processes. It was a big overhaul,” Tsekrekos says. For almost over a year she analysed RAV’s processes, investigated ways of creating more efficient workflows. For example, rather than the old practice of clinicians relying on administrative staff to follow up with clients to arrange future appointments, she recommended clinicians organise appointments on the spot, using the calendar functionality being deployed with Sage CRM. Although a simple change, Tsekrekos realized it could streamline the appointments process and reduce demands on administrative time. On completion of the process review, an external consultant was brought in to help document the recommendations in a technical CRM system specification. Following this, Tsekrekos called upon MicroChannel Services, an awardwinning business solutions and technology provider. “We’d used MicroChannel Services to support Sage 300 ERP for well over a decade, so we took the technical documents to them and they developed our Sage CRM system.” The first of RAV’s 12 sites officially went live with the new system in October 2011. Other sites gradually followed. By the time the last site went live in May 2012, approximately 200 staff – from clinicians to administrators – were using Sage CRM on a regular basis.
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A place for everything Probably the biggest change at RAV has been the ability to attach correspondence and reports to individual client records. “The CRM contains client information such as the programs that person may come in for, their personal information, letters, clinical information and practitioner or clinician notes, the sessions they attend and closure. We can look at a client record and see a person’s entire history with us,” Tsekrekos explains. Reports about government funded programs are automatically generated and uploaded from Sage to the Families Services Program, reducing data double-handling and the amount of time required to prepare reports. It’s a major benefit because, as Tsekrekos observes, “We have to comply with the funders. If we don’t, we won’t receive funding.” Given the importance of RAV’s CRM data, the switch from the old database to Sage CRM was always going to be a big project but Tsekrekos believes the journey has been well worth it. “Sage is looking good. We’re capturing a lot of data and we need it all, so it is certainly very rich in that way. The other system didn’t have anything like this depth. It’s a nice system,” she confirms.
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The success of the project was also greatly helped by the support offered from MicroChannel Services. “The staff there had the knowledge and skill we needed, and I think when we were looking around for someone to develop our CRM, they shone. They could read our technical specs, interpret them and design the solution. That’s very rare. They developed our new diary as an add on to Sage and it is working brilliantly. I love it. Plus they were able to guide me along the way as to what was the best option for each component we were designing.” An optimised future “There will always be future changes to the system,” Tsekrekos says. “There will be opportunities to optimise features or maybe change the way certain things are done. We are an evolving business, always tendering for new work. There will be new programs to implement and this will affect the way we do things and the information we gather. What we’ve achieved so far is just the first stage but by deploying Sage and working with MicroChannel Services, we’ve now got a robust, integrated CRM platform in place as a base for future sustainability.”
About Sage CRM Over 15,000 small and medium sized companies across the globe use Sage CRM every day to accelerate sales, drive business productivity and make every customer interaction count. It is used by enterprising, growing companies seeking new ways to interact with customers, leverage the power of social media and take advantage of the latest mobile developments to further grow their business. When combined with Sage ERP, our customers enjoy better business insight, increased efficiencies and productivity, and gain a single, customer-centric view across their entire business. So whether you’re just starting out or have already grown to several hundred employees, Sage CRM can help accelerate your business success. Accelerate your business success with a free 30-day trial at www.sagecrm.com
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