CASE STUDYGMCC

GREATER MANCHESTER CHAMBER OFCOMMERCE MANAGES MEMBERS WITHTHE FLEXIBILITY OF CRM IN THE CLOUD

Christian Spence, Head of Research & Business Intelligence

MEETING THE NEEDS OFMEMBERSAs an organisation that works closely with all sectors as well assenior officials from both the government and businesscommunity, it is vital for GMCC to have a thoroughunderstanding of its membership base in order to coordinate itsservice to members effectively, including arrangingappointments and storing member details.

When it was asked to deliver the government’s EOS pilotscheme, the performance of the Customer RelationshipManagement (CRM) solution GMCC had in place was evaluatedto see if it was fit for purpose and could meet the demands ofthe growth in membership processes. GMCC had been using anin-house CRM solution for many years and it was determinedthat for this new project it could no longer provide the speedand flexibility needed. GMCC consequently decided it was timeto reconsider its in-house IT.

OVERVIEW• Independent, not-for-profit privateorganisation

• Largest Chamber of Commerce in the UK• Business-led employer engagement body • Holds 4,500 members across the North West• Benefitted from a Microsoft Dynamics CRMsolution from Outsourcery

www.gmchamber.co.uk

Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce (GMCC) is anindependent, not-for-profit private organisation and thelargest Chamber of Commerce in the UK, with approximately4,500 members. GMCC provides first-class business supportto companies of all shapes and sizes across GreaterManchester, through a range of sector-based membershipservices. The Chamber supports and influences keygovernment decision-makers and is regularly consulted forfeedback from the business community when governmentpolicy is being developed, both locally and nationally.

GMCC is the leading business-led employer engagement bodyin Greater Manchester and is delivering the most successfulEmployer Ownership of Skills (EOS) scheme in the UK tosupport Greater Manchester employers to invest in theircurrent and future workforce through skills and developmenttraining. With the EOS scheme, employers in sectors includingconstruction, technology, engineering, finance and healthcare,are able to develop proposals to raise new skills, create jobsand drive enterprise growth.

There is quite a lot of information which we build up andstore on each of our members, including informationabout the different contacts and services within eachorganisation. Scalability and speed to market are twocrucial aspects of the day-to-day running of ourorganisation. With greater business activity and memberengagement than ever before, and consequently morestrain on in-house CRM resources due to the introductionof EOS, we required a faster, more sophisticated solutionwhich the previous platform simply could not deliver.Integrating our skills team with the rest of the companywas a key priority to optimise processes, and we needed asolution that could provide that.

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knowledge of both cloud and widely used-applications in themarket. This was all invaluable experience it was able to bringwhilst implementing the right solution for GMCC.

MIGRATION AND SUPPORT Spence explained: “Since the initial implementation, we havereceived ongoing support from Outsourcery, in particularassistance with migration and integration challenges in the leadup to the product launch, as well as getting GMCC employeesfamiliarised with the system – something the whole team foundvery beneficial. Outsourcery has given us an assigned, dedicatedaccount manager for this purpose and we have built up a greatrelationship with our counterparts over at Outsourcery. Thenature of our organisation and the fact that we are alwayslooking to improve on our membership scheme, means that acertain degree of flexibility and ongoing assistance will alwaysbe needed and Outsourcery understands this, offering us thesupport we need, when we need it.”

Spence continues, saying “we’ve also found the new CRMsystem incredibly intuitive and easy to use and whenever wehave had an issue, there has been somebody there supportingus all the way through it, from the development and trainingstage through to everyday use. As GMCC is continually improvingits EOS scheme, with skills and development services, we have aclose relationship with Outsourcery to help whenever changestake place, in order to strengthen this part of our business."

FLEXIBILITY OF ARCHITECTURE AND SUPPORT Spence adds: “Through the implementation of Outsourcery’scloud-based Dynamics CRM we are now able to arrangeappointments and process member information moreefficiently than we could with our previous in-house CRM tool.The key advantage of CRM from Outsourcery is in its scalablearchitecture, which gives us the flexibility we need to adjust toa constantly changing membership database. CRM has playedan integral role in the management of the EOS scheme and theadded increase in member operations, enabling GMCC topropel business processes more efficiently.

“Having been introduced to the wider capabilities of the cloud,GMCC is now keen to maximise its potential and expand on itacross the business in the future. Alongside our EOS scheme,we have a core focus to begin creating a bespoke service formembers and as a result of this, GMCC will continue to rely onOutsourcery’s guidance with enhancing the CRM solution toadjust to changes going forward.

“We’ve already seen some immediate cost benefits in terms ofbeing able to deploy cloud-based CRM quickly and economically.The Dynamic CRM system provides flexible, top quality servicelevels, enabling us to increase efficiency of processes better thanwe could have ever imagined”, Spence concludes.

Since the delivery of the original project in April 2013, GMCChas recently contracted Outsourcery to deliver an upgrade to itscloud-based CRM system, combining the additional benefits ofMicrosoft’s latest CRM 2015 solution alongside Outsourcery’sown dedicated cloud server infrastructure and looks forward tothe successful delivery of this latest development in theOutsourcery and Chamber partnership in spring 2015.

0843 366 6000www.outsourcery.co.uk @outsourcery

CloudAgilePartner

THE OUTSOURCERYSOLUTION: INFRASTRUCTURE ANALYSIS AND CONSULTATIONAfter a competitive tender process, GMCC approachedOutsourcery looking for a reliable cloud-based CRM systemthat could be implemented efficiently, with the scalability andfunctionality required to cope with the increase in operationsand a growing membership structure. GMCC decided thatOutsourcery’s offering was the most suitable for the migrationto a cloud-based solution, due to its reputation as a cloudexpert, the fact that it is a highly respected Manchester-basedcompany and Outsourcery’s capability for providing a moreproductive CRM solution.

Spence explained: “With clear expertise in providing cloud-based solutions, Outsourcery was the obvious choice topartner with on this project, with its ability to migrate oursystem to a scalable solution as quickly as possible, effectivelyenhancing and improving our business operations ready todeal with the integration of the EOS scheme into theChamber’s core business. The first phase of the project wasintegrated in January 2013 and subsequently the final partcame together to complete the project in April.”

THE CLOUD-BASED OFFERING AND EASE OFIMPLEMENTATIONOutsourcery implemented a CRM system built on DynamicsCRM, a Microsoft solution, hosted on Outsourcery’s O-Cloudplatform and delivered on best-of-breed HP technology. Thecloud-based solution enables faster delivery of informationbetween employees and customers working across multiplelocations. It also offers an assessment of customer behaviorthrough a 360-degree view of all business interactions,providing users with all the information needed to improvefuture service and performance.

In addition to Dynamics CRM, Outsourcery offers a broad rangeof other hosted solutions built on the Microsoft cloud platform,including Unified Lync, Cloud Mail and Office 365. As a MicrosoftGold CRM Partner and a member of Microsoft’s Cloud OSnetwork, Outsourcery is able to bring resilient, secure andflexible cloud services to end-users, with the combined expert

Outsourcery demonstrated that it could deliver aneffective and viable solution within a small time frame,which aided us immensely considering our tightdeadlines to get the new system up and running.

Christian Spence, Head of Research &Business Intelligence

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