introducing pythagoras & our customers
TRANSCRIPT
INTRODUCING PYTHAGORAS & OUR CUSTOMERS
Introducing Pythagoras
We are proud to be the partner of choice for charities embracing digital change. Using innovative and trusted Microsoft technologies, we help organisations enhance insight, boost supporter and member relationships, and ensure maximum resources are directed to their cause.
Our dedicated Not for Profit and Membership team lives and breathes the sector and has helped over 70 non-profit organisations to realise and maximise the benefits of Microsoft technology.
We have expertise across a wide range of Microsoft solutions:
www.pythagoras.co.uk | 016287 519 000 | info@ pythagoras.co.uk
DEMONSTRATED SUCCESSMICROSOFT EXCELLENCE
300+MICROSOFT
EXAMSPASSED BY OUR TEAM
7MICROSOFT
GOLDCOMPETENCIES
96%OF PROJECTS IN AGREEN RAG STATUS
AT ANY TIME
98%OF SUPPORT SLAS METBY OUR DEDICATED UK TEAM
SUCCESSFULLYDELIVEREDMICROSOFTPROJECTS TO
600+ORGANISATIONS
COMPANY STABILITY SECTOR EXPERTISE
CELEBRATING
20YEARS IN THEINDUSTRYA MICROSOFT GOLD PARTNER SINCE 2006
HELPED
70+NON-PROFIT ORGANISATIONSTO ACHIEVE THEIR STRATEGIC GOALS
80+ MICROSOFT QUALIFIED PROFESSIONALS
ENSURING CONTINUITY AND SCALABILITY
www.pythagoras.co.uk | 016287 519 000 | info@ pythagoras.co.uk
Age UKCase Study
“Since the beginning of our partnership, Pythagoras have always been positive, effective, delivering to schedule and quality.”
Christina RobinsonCRM Programme Delivery Manager | Age UK
Integration with other business applications
Effective platform for donation processing
Commercial transactions and trading functions supported
GDPR compliant data stamping for audit trails
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Age UK Case Study
About Age UKAge UK is the country’s largest charity dedicated to helping everyone make the most of later life.
The charity provides services and support at a national and local level to inspire, enable and support older people. The Age UK network comprises around 150 local Age UKs reaching most of England, and is able to function through the dedication of more than 75,000 volunteers.
The charity helps more than five million older people every year, providing support, companionship and advice.
The business needsAge UK chose to replace their existing CRM solution with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, as they wanted to adopt a solution that would:
Be flexible and configurable, taking advantage of their investment in other Microsoft based functional solutions;
Utilise out-of-the-box capability with minimal customisations;
Provide the capability to open new channels to market and extend their reach to a larger user base;
Support a data schema that holds data more intuitively;
Empower users to make better informed decisions with current data;
Use user-friendly interfaces, customisable by user type.
Why Microsoft Dynamics CRM?Age UK decided that Microsoft Dynamics CRM was the best fit for them, as it offers extensive functionality with minimal customisation; follows a comprehensive upgrade path to ensure the solution remains up to date; and aligns well with existing Microsoft tools in use in the organisation.
Why Pythagoras?Age UK initially engaged Pythagoras to design and implement some enhancements to their online CRM environment, which had a small user base and some specific requirements. Following this successful ‘quick wins’ engagement, we were invited to lead their overall CRM project, which was in the early stages with another Microsoft partner.
Age UK liked our ethos of keeping our solutions as simplistic and out-of-the-box as possible. The work that had been delivered by the previous partner contained a lot of bespoke code, which introduced unnecessary complexity. For this reason, the first phase of our project involved simplifying the environment, to keep support costs down and ensure that the system was able to grow with Age UK and follow a supported upgrade path.
“Pythagoras demonstrated very good knowledge of the CRM product together with excellent business knowledge and business analysis aptitude. This gave our very demanding business users confidence in the proposed solution.”
The SolutionAge UK recognised that in order to give each department the focus they required, they would have to phase the requirements gathering, build and roll-out of the system. The first phase saw us deliver functionality across marketing, managing member details, and donor management. We also completed a data migration from their existing database, so that Age UK could use the tools in Dynamics CRM to carry out comprehensive reporting on their data.
During the second phase of work we extended the solution to become the core technology used in the Age UK contact centre. We also introduced Microsoft Portals, which are used for enquiry management, and by Age UK brand partners to make and track requests.
We continue to work closely with Age UK to support and enhance their CRM environment. Our next task is to upgrade Age UK to Dynamics 365, which will enable them to enjoy additional features and functionality.
“The CRM team have been very impressed by the professionalism, commitment and drive to deliver. The project was delivered to time, scope and under the original estimated budget.”
“Pythagoras retained the quality and talent within their consulting and technology teams throughout the project.”
Benefits for the organisation
Increased understanding of dataIn Age UK’s system, data protection preferences are date stamped, and an audit trail of permissions is recorded at an individual level, helping the charity to prepare for the introduction of GDPR.
Reductions in costAutomation of import processes and integrations to other systems across Age UK has enabled them to reduce the head count in these teams, and has facilitated new revenue streams.
Risk mitigationBy investing in this platform, Age UK has mitigated against the risks associated with running a legacy database, from losing data to an inability to process revenue information.
Increased connection with supportersAs their system manages donations more effectively and efficiently, Age UK’s staff are able to spend more time focussing on engaging with their members. They are now able to target their supporters with personalised and relevant content, making them feel more connected to the organisation they support.
“We have found Pythagoras to be very flexible, knowledgeable about the products, and always willing to look for a solution, which is cost effective and rational.”
Christina RobinsonCRM Programme Delivery Manager
Age UK
Benefits for users
Enhanced visibility of supportersAge UK have taken advantage of Dynamics CRM’s native integration with other Microsoft applications such as Outlook, to give full visibility of their interactions with members and donors. They have also integrated with other key systems across the business to surface data in CRM.
Personalised user experienceAge UK’s data schema has been specifically designed to hold their data in an intuitive way, leading to strong user adoption. Users can also personalise their views to display only what is relevant to them, in contrast to their previous ‘one size fits all’ scenario.
“Working with Pythagoras was a breath of fresh air.” Robin James, NSPCC
“Our Member portal has received nothing but positive feedback from our members. Our Membership Coordinator has such confidence in the portal.”
Frank Ashfield, Pool Re
“Our Lead Consultant from Pythagoras has really learnt about the business; he is able to ask the right questions and challenge us to ensure that we are going down the best route for us. We can tell he genuinely cares about what we are trying to
achieve, and he has gone above and beyond to get us there.” Marie Casey, seAp
“Pythagoras demonstrated at the earliest opportunity how Dynamics 365 would be able to deliver all our long-term technical requirements, and more.
The Pythagoras team are proving highly knowledgeable, professional and importantly, really easy to work with.”
Dan Lockeretz, UnLtd
Keep reading for our Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts case study
Sainsbury Family Charitable TrustsDelivering streamlined processes for 17 independent grant-making trusts
“When selecting a partner for this project we chose Pythagoras because we wanted someone who would work alongside us and would spend the time really getting to know our organisation. We also wanted a partner who would allow and enable a skills transfer, so that our internal IT team could own the solution going forward.”
Nicola TaylorChange Management LeadSainsbury Family Charitable Trusts
The Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts is the operating office of 17 different independent grant-making trusts established by members of three generations of the Sainsbury family.
The 17 different trusts share both an office in Victoria, London and back office functions.
The trusts’ support for charitable causes over more than 50 years represents one of the leading examples of sustained philanthropy in Britain.
www.sfct.org.uk
About Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts
Project aims
The initial scope of the project was to improve contact and account management; create a better way of tracking fundraising opportunities and income pipeline; deliver more efficient marketing and events management with improved targeting; and to introduce more time efficient grant making processes and provide grantees with a better customer experience.
Core requirements: Grant making
Fundraising
Contact management
Events and marketing
“We had a wide remit in terms of having lots of different requirements and priorities that needed to be met. It was quite challenging finding the right solution and right partner to carry out what we felt was quite complicated project to deliver.”
Nicola TaylorChange Management LeadSainsbury Family Charitable Trusts
Streamlined grant making process
Tracking of fundraising opportunities
Efficient and targeted marketing activities
360 view of contacts and accounts
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Why Dynamics 365?
FlexibleDynamics 365 is a web-based flexible platform that could meet all core requirements.
FutureproofThe platform is very capable of supporting additional change requirements in the future.
CompetitiveThe Dynamics 365 platform was competitively costed.
MigrationDynamics 365 supported their need to be able to do a complete data and document migration from their existing systems.
SkillsThe platform is complimentary to the skill sets within the IT team at SFCT.
Why Pythagoras?
ExperiencePythagoras have a clear track record and experience of success within the charitable sector.
Range of skillsHad the solution size and range of skills to meet their complex set of requirements.
EnthusiasmHad the patience and motivation to really get to know the individual trusts and understand their processes.
FlexibilityWanted to join the trust on their journey allowing for flexible delivery, with consultants available often.
Skills transferPythagoras allow the transfer of skill so that SFCT could own and maintain the system going forward.
PatienceWilling to take time with delivery and not rush the trust through the process.
“With Dynamics it is quite possible to find fairly dry Microsoft documentation for a lot of things you want to do, but one of the best things about our Pythagoras consultants was they were able to use their vast experience and knowledge to point out ahead of time the gotchas and slips ups that you sometimes can get with Dynamics, before they became issues.”
Paul ChapmanWeb and Intranet ManagerSainsbury Family Charitable Trusts
Critical friend approach
Throughout the project, Pythagoras took a ‘critical friend’ approach in which our experts worked as an extension of SFCT’s in-house project team. The aim of this approach is to upskill their internal IT team so that they can largely take over the ownership and management of the system. This was carried out via various training sessions, for example members of the IT team would often shadow our consultants as they were working on deployments.
The project team
The Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts Team:
Project Manager
Lead Developer
Project ‘Salesman’
Superusers from each Trust
The Pythagoras Team:
Project Manager
Dynamics 365 Consultants
“I can’t emphasise enough how important it is to have a ‘salesman’ within your project team. This contributed greatly to the positive reception the solution had and to winning the hearts and minds of our users.”
David MartindaleDigital Solutions Manager Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts
Events and marketing:Manages marketing activities and events, in particular The Ashden Awards ceremony (an international awards programme).
Fundraising:Manages income pipeline and fundraising opportunities, helping each trust to forecast income and increase likelihood of receiving funding.
Grant making:Manages the end-to-end process of the trusts’ online grant enquiries through to disbursement of grants to beneficiaries.
Dynamics 365 solution overview
“We replaced all existing systems for grant management, marketing and fundraising which meant for a significant change of the working methods of a lot of people within the organisation. We were really pleased with the positive reception the system received upon go-live.”
David MartindaleDigital Solutions Manager Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts
Go-live
SFCT went live with their Dynamics 365 solution in April 2020, during the Covid-19 lockdown in the UK, meaning both teams from SFCT and Pythagoras were working remotely during this time and go-live happened from various homes across the UK.
“We had to do a little bit of convincing to our board members to still go ahead with go-live during lockdown. We figured that because the system was remote there was nothing stopping us, and the remote go-live was a success.”
Nicola TaylorChange Management LeadSainsbury Family Charitable Trusts
Watch the Video Case Study
Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts: Dynamics 365 Case Study with Pythagoras
https://youtu.be/a9VQqFXlQdA
Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts: Dynamics 365 Case Study with Pythagoras (Full length video)
https://youtu.be/QpiVsD3IAgI
Having a motivated internal project ‘salesman’ helps to win hearts and minds of users and create a ‘hype’ around the organisation
It’s vital to have technical support on-hand from your implementation partner
Recruit champions from each team to help answer questions and create a buzz
Create a dedicated Yammer channel where colleagues can share their experiences and showcase any dashboards or views, they have created.
Remote workshops often lead to a more focused audience and can get better attendance
SFCT’s 5 tips for go-live success:
“The fact that people are coming forward and asking if one of their processes could also work in Dynamics rather than relying on their spreadsheets, is a real sign of a project that has gone well.”
Paul ChapmanWeb and Intranet ManagerSainsbury Family Charitable Trusts
SharePoint Bug Tracker SFCT have created a bug and request change tracker within SharePoint in which individuals can log their requests for bug fixes or changes on a central SharePoint list. The system owners then get together regularly to review the submissions and schedule when the changes will be made.
Azure DevOps Pythagoras introduced SFCT to Azure DevOps during the main thrust of the project. SFCT decided to continue using DevOps to sort change requests into piles of work internally after seeing the benefits in action.
Pythagoras Support Team SFCT also have a support contract with Pythagoras, they use this as a safety net when they need any extra support from professional developers who know their system back to front.
Key benefits of SFCT’s Dynamics 365 solution
Quicker turnaround time to review grant applications
Ability to have easy access to important organisational data
A clearer understanding of current grant submissions, for example follow-up deadlines and late submissions
Application forms are now online which were previously paper based, giving a better experience for grantees and a more efficient process for staff
Fundraising teams can better identify fundraising opportunities and forecast income pipeline
Applications for the Ashden Awards are reviewed and managed efficiently through the Dynamics Portal
Less fragmentation throughout the different trusts, all now using one platform which is managed centrally by the IT team
Saving money on external web agencies and third-party tools
Maintaining the system going forward
View more case studies and find out about our work in the non-profit and membership sector on our website
www.pythagoras.co.uk
Get in touch: 01628 519 000
www.linkedin.com/company/pythagoras