One source of truth: How a single customer relationship management system supports collaboration
This month, we are focussing on our Customer Engagement team, who provide support to colleagues in our member organisations and to the NHS and wider public sector.
Our team uses a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, Microsoft Dynamics, as a database to keep track of our contacts, keep their details up to date, which frameworks they are contracting under and track the progress of opportunities.
Helen Pendlebury, Head of Customer Engagement, gives us an overview of why we use this system and how it supports both us and our colleagues across the NHS and public sector.
“Recently we have been working hard to improve how we use our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, Microsoft Dynamics. This is where we store information on colleagues, from across the NHS and beyond, who are using our frameworks – providing us with up-to-date information on how we can contact them, what frameworks they have used or are using, and why they have contacted us in the past.
“Using this system gives you one source of truth. It has a lot of benefits, not just internally, but for our customers, too. By having all our customer information in one place, it allows our communications and marketing team to send important updates and the latest information to the right people. And when somebody in our team is on leave, one of the account managers has got easy access to who the up-to-date contacts are at an organisation.
“We have got contract information in there, but we also include opportunities for new framework usage. This enables us to discuss it as a category, as we can filter it by, for example, our Digital and Technology Solutions category, and highlight customers that are planning to go out for a Mini Competition, or planning to call-off, and any support that's required. We can also filter it by customer so during a customer meeting we can discuss the opportunities we are aware of, checking progress updates and whether they need any support. We can add any missing items from their workplan highlighted during the meeting. It ensures that we have got all the information in one place, so that any team can access it and support a customer when they contact us.
“It’s a work in progress – the system is there, and it's a great system, but as we use it more, we are continuously identifying ways we can develop and update its functionality, working closely with our Technical Services team.
“The real benefit comes when everybody is using it in the same way and making sure information is kept up to date. In a commercial organisation, that’s really important because it means we’re not relying on individual knowledge sitting in people’s inboxes or notebooks. If a colleague needs to pick something up, respond to a customer, or understand where an opportunity is up to, they can go into Dynamics and see the latest position. It gives the business much better visibility of what’s happening, where support might be needed, and where there are opportunities to have more joined-up conversations with customers. The more complete the information is, and the more consistently we all use it, the more valuable it becomes for everyone.