GUIDEBOOK MICROSOFT DYNAMICS CRM FOR GOVERNMENT

Transcription

1 GUIDEBOOK MICROSOFT DYNAMICS CRM FOR GOVERNMENT September 2013

2 July 2013 THE BOTTOM LINE Document NX Although government agencies have the goal of providing cost-effective and efficient services and high levels of accountability, many are still challenged by limited resources and aging technology. Nucleus found government organizations adopting Microsoft Dynamics CRM were able to take advantage of the configurable nature of the application, cloud delivery options, and prebuilt industry functionality to drive greater productivity, reduced administrative and IT overhead, increased visibility and accountability, and improved citizen and constituent services. THE SITUATION Government organizations are increasingly challenged to do more with fewer resources while being more accountable to their constituents. Agencies and other groups have to manage relationships and tasks, track communications across multiple channels, share and provide up-to-date information as required by the Freedom of Information and Public Records Acts, and provide elected officials with rapid access to insights for decision making. THE SOLUTION Microsoft Dynamics CRM provides the contact database structure, workflow management tools, and reporting and analytics capabilities to support standard customer relationship management needs. In addition, Microsoft has developed specific capabilities for Dynamics CRM to support the needs of government organizations in areas including: Contact centers. The 311 Service Center Accelerator is a framework designed to accelerate the development of CRM-based contact centers to service citizen requests, provide information through self-service portals, manage back office processing, and allocate resources. Case management. Case management capabilities enable agencies to track interactions with constituents. Additionally, dashboard capabilities provide visibility into service delivery, constituent satisfaction, and public opinion. Licensing and permits. Governmental organizations can use the capabilities within Dynamics CRM to provide self-service access to license and permit request forms, automate review and approval processes, and distribute and track licenses and permits. Grants management. The grants management framework provides agencies with a common platform to craft solicitations, receive submissions, evaluate proposals, make awards, track performance, and monitor budgets. Page 2

3 To assess the benefits of Dynamics CRM in federal, state, and local government, Nucleus analyzed the experiences of a number of Dynamics CRM government customers. WHY DYNAMICS CRM Nucleus found there were a number of reasons why government agencies chose Dynamics CRM, including: The configurable nature of the CRM platform and its XRM capabilities. The availability of Dynamics CRM in the cloud or on premise. The vertical-specific capabilities provided by Microsoft and its partners. XRM Nucleus found that the ability to rapidly configure Dynamics CRM to meet their needs and make changes over time without coding was an important aspect of Dynamics CRM for many government users. In looking at Dynamics CRM s XRM capabilities, government customers found: CRM had the constituent relationship management component but it also had the flexibility to do other things for us. And it was easily configurable, so we didn t have to have developers doing everything for us. We looked at a data warehouse, document management, and other applications but decided to go down the XRM path. We looked at a number of other CRM systems but others were boilerplate and restrictive in terms of what we needed and very rigid. The configurable nature of Dynamics CRM also enabled government agencies with limited resources to be more agile and respond to changing needs over time. CLOUD OPTIONS The ability to deploy Microsoft Dynamics CRM in the cloud was an attractive option for many government users as well, because it enabled them to more easily scale the application, provide external access, and ensure reliability despite limited internal IT resources. Customers said: We originally started with an on-premise plan, but several red flags were raised about resources and we knew service-level agreements would be a challenge. We knew the state didn t have the technology resources to operationalize the application, so it made sense to move it to full cloud services with CRM Online. We wanted to take advantage of the economies of the cloud, the ability to rapidly scale, the usage-based model, and the ability to empower the business user while letting the IT experts focus on keeping the system running smoothly. With the cloud we re able to securely extend access to other agencies and parties that we need to complete workflows. Government customers also noted that Microsoft s ability to support public, private, and hybrid cloud deployments enabled them to balance legal, security, and data privacy Page 3

4 requirements while taking advantage of the economies of scale and elasticity of the cloud when possible. DYNAMICS CRM FOR GOVERNMENT For many Dynamics CRM users in government, the availability of industry-specific capabilities either from Microsoft or from a Microsoft partner and the ability to see another customer with similar needs who had already successfully adopted Dynamics CRM was a key factor in their decision making process. KEY BENEFIT AREAS Nucleus found key benefits Microsoft Dynamics CRM customers in government experienced included increased productivity, increased visibility, reduced administrative and IT overhead, improved constituent service, and increased accountability. INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY The ability to automate previously manual processes and reduce the dependence on spreadsheets and paper reports drove significant productivity increases for Dynamics CRM customers in government. Users said: The dramatic nature of the way the workflows changed made it obvious you didn t need the hands you did before. In one office we ve reduced staff by 30 percent; in another office, it was a 50 percent reduction. Before they had to either write us or call us and ask us to mail them a paper license, and it was not unusual for people to wait two to four months for their licenses. Now it can be instantaneous. It s created tremendous efficiencies for us and shortened the time between when they submit and when it s completed. A lot of data wasn t available in our old system. Now we reduced processing time from seven hours to two, and all the data is in one place so we have cut out redundancies. It s reduced the time it takes us to review [files]. It used to take four hours for people to see the paper file and complete the review and approval process and now it takes 20 minutes. Nucleus found government agencies could increase productivity by an average of 40 to 60 percent by automating processes; some agencies saw even greater returns. INCREASED VISIBILITY Increased visibility was a benefit experienced by Dynamics CRM government customers, over their own internal processes, the impact of constituent services, and their interactions with other agencies and departments. Users said: There s a wealth of information that s needed to identify a particular individual, and that process goes from corrections counselors to warden to final decision maker. Before you d get a stack of paper to review and we had 29 PC-based applications with some of the data. Now it s all in one place. Page 4

5 Dynamics CRM will enable me to link to other systems which will be very important because many grants have equipment that s purchased that we have to track. We manage $15 million in grants and 20 other agencies are involved. We can see at any one time how many grants are open, what is our workload, what grants we ve submitted that weren t approved. Before it was huge spreadsheets, and keeping that up to date and [managing] version control was a huge issue. There were a number of capabilities within Dynamics CRM that drove increased visibility including: The ability to provide users with an easy to use and intuitive environment integrated with common tools such as Microsoft Office and Outlook. Alerts and dashboards that provide rapid insight into key processes and interactions and enable decision makers to pinpoint and address issues. Constituent management capabilities that are integrated with Bing Maps capabilities to understand how service delivery, constituent satisfaction, and public sentiment is distributed across different districts. The ability to link multiple agencies and departments with a common underlying data and workflow structure for greater end-to-end visibility and reporting when a process or request impacts multiple agencies. REDUCED ADMINISTRATIVE AND IT OVERHEAD Nucleus found that many agencies moving to Dynamics CRM either had aging mainframe applications, disconnected PC-based applications and databases, paper files, or a combination of all three to manage their data and processes. Dynamics CRM enabled them to move data to a common repository and automate much of the manual entry and review of data. For agencies moving off legacy systems, the IT cost savings alone by retiring mainframes delivered a payback on CRM in less than a year. Users said: At one time we had 14 administrative staff in the office; now it s dropped to 9. It s really been an amazing savings of space, supplies, postage, printing, and special paper. We ve saved at least $60,000 to $70,000 a year in printing and postage alone. Before with our old system we were spending close to $2 million a year just to keep our application running, and it was well past its usefulness. IMPROVED CITIZEN AND CONSTITUENT SERVICE Constituent expectations for responsiveness and transparency are higher than ever, and Dynamics CRM customers cited improved services as an important qualitative (and, in some cases, quantitative) benefit of CRM: In community relations alone, we ve been able to reduce staff by reducing the processing time by 45 percent. We can also create metrics and analysis for the Governor on trending topics and hot issues and ensure that his staff has the data and tools to respond to citizens. We needed to have a much more holistic view of our inmates with prison overpopulation issues, and being able to report on things such as GED, work-related Page 5

6 training, anger management counseling, and mental health issues to provide appropriate services. It s no longer cost-effective or sustainable to just throw away the key, and it has a huge impact on public safety. INCREASED ACCOUNTABILITY The centralization of data within Dynamics CRM and the ability to have up-to-date reporting for audits was a key factor that helped government users increase their accountability. Other capabilities within the CRM government functionality, such as the public records tracker capability that organizes and automates the process of complying with Freedom of Information Act and Public Records Act requests, helped agencies increase accountability despite fewer staff resources. BEST PRACTICES Government customers who maximized their returns from Dynamics CRM followed a number of common best practices including: Providing role-based views. Providing users and teams with an intuitive user interface that exposed the data they needed to complete their work without overwhelming them drove lower training requirements, faster adoption, and greater productivity. Extending CRM with self service. Agencies responsible for services such as licensing and permitting were able to accelerate processing time and increase constituent satisfaction by providing constituents with self-service access to applications that could then be automatically routed through CRM. Leveraging Microsoft s other technology investments. Many agencies found they could take advantage of Microsoft Office and Outlook, Microsoft SharePoint, and Web services such as Bing Maps to increase the usability of their CRM applications and make them more specific to particular needs of a particular department. Re-evaluating processes on an ongoing basis. Most of the agencies Nucleus analyzed were taking advantage of the configurable nature of Dynamics CRM to phase in additional processes and workflows over time to wring more return out of their initial Dynamics CRM license investment. Often when technology is introduced into a previously manual process, users discover new opportunities for improvement once they start to use the application, so ongoing re-evaluation can deliver greater incremental returns over time with limited disruption. CONCLUSION Governments are increasing challenged to do more with fewer resources, and citizen and watchdog scrutiny has never been higher. For many organizations choosing Dynamics CRM, the cloud was an important part of the equation, not just because of the lower initial cost but because of the ability to entrust day-to-day application performance to Microsoft so business users could focus on getting more value from the application. The possibility Page 6

7 to extend and scale cloud applications over time with limited disruption was also key, be it by providing secure self service or linking different agencies together. In looking at Microsoft Dynamics CRM customers in the government sector, Nucleus found that they were not just automating tasks. They were taking advantage of CRM s capabilities to drive innovation in the way they managed and processed constituent requests, extend collaboration across agencies and departments, and gain a more complete and up-to-date understanding of the impact of their programs and their effectiveness. As government agencies seek to do more with less and be more accountable to citizens and constituents, technology can play an important role. Nucleus found Dynamics CRM customers were able to cost-effectively improve the delivery of services while increasing productivity, visibility, and accountability. Page 7