This client initially approached our team following a challenging financial period, looking to review their operating procedures, cross departmental communications. This medically focused charity operated across the UK, with headquarters in central London. Its membership consisted of medical professionals, with as shared commitment to improving the lives of those with the condition.
The initial investigation reviewed communication, workload management, task delegation and automation. The organisation consisted of several individual, specialist departments, all performing well, but struggling to coordinate when tasks required cross departmental support. Projects struggled to get traction due to a lack of uniform approach to design and delivery, resulting in the need for ‘heroic’ feats of effort when deadlines approached.
The company operated a centralised, Microsoft Dynamics based Membership Management System, critical to the operation of all departments. The system was their contact point to their beneficiaries, receiving payments and planning external communications. This system was no longer supported, contained many errors and provided incomplete data for analysis and use.
Our team conducted several process mapping sessions with each individual team. Each team was asked to explain the process for passing tasks and running projects with other teams. This provided a baseline for improvement and identified any differences in understanding of how tasks and information passed between departments.
Interdependencies were mapped, and processes reviewed to identify efficiencies. Following rigorous testing, and bringing departments together to agree a unified approach, we documented processes to be incorporated into their ISO9001 quality management system. Checks were implemented to test the effectiveness of the changes, including non-conformance reporting and time tracking for common tasks.
A project management programme was implemented for all non-standard activities. Defining the stages and procedure to be followed, which could be scaled depending on the complexity. Training was rolled out, identifying project champions from each team that would be responsible for overseeing their departments project portfolio.
Following a user requirements investigation, and detailed discussions with the existing CRM provider, it was clear that the existing system could not be recovered to an acceptable state for the organisations current size. A systems design and procurement process was started as a result.
Valence’s team worked across all departments to gather systems requirements, mapping a detailed scope and evaluation procedure to go to market. Following a two stage tender process, a preferred supplier was identified and testing solution developed under a restricted budget. This was deemed necessary to ensure all features complied with the charities policies and requirements ahead of signing off the larger purchase. It was negotiated that the cost of the testing solution would be recovered over the contract lifetime to make the implementation affordable.
Valence supported the implementation stages, data transfer and training period to ensure all new processes worked without issue.