At Economic Change CIC, we regularly implement Salesforce CRM (Client Relationship Management System) for organisations who want to measure the impact of their work, whether they are working with disadvantaged or vulnerable groups or other third sector organisations.

We chose Salesforce CRM as our preferred CRM due to the large discounts they offer non-profits via Salesforce.org, the flexibility to customise to suit the client’s needs, the extensive capabilities available on the platform, as well integration with third party solutions.

Our clients’ rationale for implementing Salesforce CRM, is often to move away from the disparate collection of data in spreadsheets or inflexible databases that don’t collect the data they need. Instead they want to collect and analyse data real-time in an efficient, affordable and sustainable way, whilst also getting an in-depth picture of their beneficiary’s progress to evaluate quality of care and customer service. It’s about client relationships, not just about data collection, which is why a CRM is the way forward.

We’ve highlighted some of the benefits of using Salesforce and third party apps below.

Empower staff to work remotely who need to input data – Enable frontline staff to input data on the move straight into your CRM – you can provide access directly to your Salesforce CRM on smart phone, tablet or computer. For example, it’s being used by volunteers, youth workers and care workers in the community to make their life more efficient and admin-friendly.

When people fill in forms or surveys send the data straight into your CRM – Empower multiple stakeholders to input data straight into your CRM by using integrated survey tools that sync with Salesforce. This immediately enables you to create one place to collate and analyse all of your data related to individuals or organisations in real-time. This tool is regularly used for application forms, diagnostic forms, feedback forms, monitoring forms, competition entries etc.

Access to quick and flexible reporting – A flexible reporting tool empowers users to set up custom reports and graphs to analyse any data contained within the system real-time. You can use the standard reports and dashboards tool in Salesforce CRM or upgrade to the new Wave Analytics tool for even greater analysis.

Provide secure access to partners or an extended team of volunteers or freelancers – Extended team members can be given secure access to Salesforce CRM by using community partner or customer licenses to edit or view the data only relevant to them.

Analyse differences in demographics and impact – By collecting all of your data in one place about your clients, including demographic details and outcome data, you can easily set up graphs to enable you analyse any differences in impact across age, gender, location, ethnicity etc.

Measure distance travelled – If you collect consistent data at different stages of a beneficiary’s journey you can collate this data in one record, and set up formulas to analyse the unique and collective average change of beneficiaries at different stages of the intervention.