Case Study: The Greater Des Moines Partnership
Background
The Greater Des Moines Partnership (GDMP) is the economic and community development organization serving the metro area and surrounding three-county region. The Partnership serves 22 Chambers of Commerce and business organizations with a combined membership of over 4,400 businesses. The Partnership works regionally, nationally and internationally to recruit new businesses to the area and assist local businesses to expand and grow. Their services include community marketing and promotion, research, public policy, workforce development, assistance with site selection and connecting prospects to financing. Through regional business development, the Partnership contributes to the vitality of member businesses. There is also a strong emphasis on sustaining a vibrant downtown core through development, events and promotion.
Challenge
The Greater Des Moines Partnership was running on outmoded technology: Access and Great Plains were used to track membership and payment of dues; Business Development relied on ACT!; and spread sheets were the tool of choice for maintaining multiple independent lists for events, boards and committees. The Partnership’s affiliate Chambers also had a variety of separate systems which had duplicate data and functionality. In addition, each group had to be protective of its information. A new CRM system, where information could be shared and secured, was critical to the success of the consolidation. And, of course, it needed to be affordable.
CRM Solution
The Partnership issued an RFP and evaluated multiple options. Sage CRM SalesLogix was chosen due to ease of use, robust functionality, business partner support, and reasonable price tag. The system was to be hosted and accessible via the Web using Scion. The Development effort had several stages. First, the multiple sources of data had to be de-duped, merged and imported. The security model had to be built so confidential information could be viewed only by "owners" of any given data. From a functionality standpoint, the design of the system included: account and contact management; activity reporting; business opportunity identification and tracking; and business profiling to provide information about the company/prospect. A single CRM solution was developed to serve multiple purposes: attracting new business/expansion; recruiting new Partnership members; tracking dues and financial commitments; communicating events via fax, letter and e-mail; and publishing the consolidated membership directory.
Results
Over sixty Partnership/Chamber personnel are regularly using Sage CRM SalesLogix in their daily tasks and the system has successfully supported the consolidation. Some of the highlights:
- The Partnership now has a single record for all businesses and their key personnel. The information is "clean,” allowing for easy production of the annual directory. What was once a month long, labor intensive project, is now fully automated.
- Company and individual metrics are captured and tracked. Meeting notes are now in a single database and available to others who are authorized. Key executive corporate and community roles are recorded and available. Financial commitments for a five-year period are recorded and tracked with integration into the accounting system.
- Business development manages new company recruitment and growth in the Opportunity section. Information regarding expansion of facilities and workforce is provided in pipeline reports. Even details such as square footage of construction and number of new employees are captured and used for forecasts and reporting. Marketing materials to support the business development efforts are stored in the CRM Library.
- All spreadsheets have been replaced by using CRM to manage invitations to events and track attendance. Considering the many facets of the organization, this has been a huge productivity boost. For example, the annual trip to Washington, D.C. once had its own list of participants and invitees. This has been replaced by a simply building a group in CRM and then communicating to the members via any media — e-mail, letter or fax.
The various functions combine to provide a centralized view of a business and/or individual in an easy and accessible way. Communication with membership is facilitated through a single vehicle. The efficiency of eliminating manual processes and out of date systems alone has paid for the CRM system! The CRM system has also enabled a smooth consolidation of the organization and affiliate Chambers, enabling them to access, update and use their own member information.
