Education
California Teachers Association
Learns Lessons as Service Improves for 350,000 Members - with Microsoft Dynamics CRM
The California Teachers Association (CTA) serves 350,000 members. It provides a full range of offerings, including the improvement of teaching conditions, representation in the political arena, insurance and education-oriented publications. The IT environment to support these members is complex and highly integrated. A CRM platform has been an essential building block of that environment, integrating with Microsoft Office SharePoint and Microsoft Office 2007 among other heterogeneous applications.
The California Teachers Association is very large, with 700. These systems include the heavy use of Microsoft SharePoint Server to provide a clearinghouse for electronic documents. Another key platform is the Microsoft Identity Integration Server that stores and integrates membership identity information for the association. As the environment grew, managers decided that it was time to add a CRM solution to better serve its large membership base.
Solution
IT managers broke down their CRM solution alternatives into three groups. The first group consisted of applications specifically built for associations. "There are probably 100 decent membership-tracking applications out there," explains Kral. The second category was to build a platform in house. "We could have built the hooks we wanted and written the integration engines ourselves," says Kral. The third alternative was Microsoft Dynamics CRM. With a list of potential applications in hand, decision makers ran an internal exercise. States Kral, "We asked ourselves, ‘If there was an ideal platform out there, what would it look like?’ That formed the basis for our requirements."
At the top of the criteria list was a highly flexible CRM solution that could integrate well with the CTA’s many existing systems, including Microsoft Office. Also on the list was extensibility so that CTA programmers could easily build upon the system over time to add more functionality that would in turn increase the association’s value to members.
With a list of potential applications in hand, decision makers ran an internal exercise. States Kral, "We asked ourselves, ‘If there was an ideal platform out there, what would it look like?’ That formed the basis for our requirements." At the top of the criteria list was a highly flexible CRM solution that could integrate well with the CTA’s many existing systems, including Microsoft Office. Also on the list was extensibility so that CTA programmers could easily build upon the system over time to add more functionality that would in turn increase the association’s value to members
Benefits
Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a core platform CTA needs to provide a 360-degree view of its 350,000 members.
Member data repository provides a key component of the association’s environment
"When we pull up a member, based on membership status and security, we’re able to see everything about them, whether they’re active on the political side of our association, the claims side or some other area," says Kral. "CRM is a key system contributing data to our single view of the entire system. For an organization where its entire livelihood revolves around members, that’s critical."
A single view of the truth ensures trust, contributes to retention
"It doesn’t matter whether we’re sending information to a PDA or a CRM screen or a membership screen in a different system, the beautiful thing is that they are all displaying the same pieces of information coming from a central location," explains Kral. "We can’t have the application displaying incorrect benefit information because it starts a forest fire. CRM helps us achieve a high level of accuracy that maintains our credibility with members."
The CRM solution delivers productivity-enhancing tools
When employees from different departments update a member’s record, data is recorded to the same spot within Microsoft Dynamics CRM. "We don’t have different people keying in information three times," says Kral. "We’re going to go paperless through integration with SharePoint. Employees will be able to access electronic insurance documents from their desktop, for example, versus having to walk to three different filing cabinets. That will be a time saver and provide a higher level of service."
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