Non-Profit - Planned Parenthood

Vertical Industry: Non-Profit - Education

Customer: Planned Parenthood

Customer Website: www.pplm.org

Customer Profile:

Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts (PPLM) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that is focused on delivering reproductive healthcare, education, advocacy and information to thousands of women, men and young people throughout Massachusetts. PPLM is working to normalize sexual health through education programs and public awareness campaigns designed to create an environment and culture in which it is normal for parents to talk with their kids about healthy behaviors around sex and sexuality; to encourage young people to seek regular preventative care, and create an environment in which people regard sexual health as important to them, and to society at large.

Organization Situation:

PPLM’s Education Department works collaboratively with a broad coalition of schools, organizations, professionals, parents and families in Massachusetts to provide school-based education, community education, and professional education across the state. Three Programs are the focal points for PPLM’s Education Department; Get Real, a comprehensive sex education program designed specifically for middle aged youth; Let’s Be Honest, a program designed to provide parents of children in middle school with useful skills, information and educational resources; and Professional Training, a program designed for teachers, nurses, social workers, and other professionals who work with youth.

Delivering educational classes on various topics across multiple Programs; each focused on different audiences, requires a tremendous amount of coordination, consistency in operational processes, and organization of fact and information captured throughout the process.

To accomplish this, PPLM used a variety of spreadsheets and a custom tailored Microsoft Access database to manage information around the relationships most important to them. This proved to be difficult and challenging in terms of flexibility and ease of use. More importantly, it was very difficult to measure the impact and success each Program being delivered was having. The current system was meeting their most basic needs, but at the same time it was hampering their ability to consistently manage and aggregate information, streamline current and future operational processes, and gain real insight into the impact they were having on audiences their information was ultimately reaching.

Solution:

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
http://crm.dynamics.com/

Partner:

AbleBridge, Inc.
http://www.ablebridge.com

Benefits:

  • Flexible, web-based CRM platform, configured to PPLM’s requirements.
  • Seamless Integration with Microsoft Outlook, Excel and Word.
  • Easy Access from a web browser or right from within Microsoft Outlook.
  • Ability to track inbound and outbound email messages against CRM records.
  • Ability to track and schedule activities in CRM right from the Outlook Calendar.
  • Familiar, intuitive interface makes for high end user adoption.

Solution Overview:

PPLM organized a steering committee led by their SVP of Strategic Initiatives and Growth, to identify the best strategy and CRM solution that PPLM could grow with into the future. The research led PPLM to consider Salesforce.com, Sage SalesLogix, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. After seeing demonstrations and analyzing the solutions, the steering committee organized their findings and selected Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. The top key features and capabilities that resulted in selecting Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 was its flexible platform architecture, customization capabilities, Microsoft Office integration, and Microsoft’s commitment to the strategic growth of its Dynamics CRM product.

"Since Microsoft Dynamics CRM is built on a flexible architecture AbleBridge was able to mold the solution to our specific needs. It’s very intuitive and user friendly and the integration with Microsoft Outlook, especially Outlook, allows us to track incoming and outgoing email correspondence as well as manage our Education Calendar from one central location, “ explains Jen Slonaker, Director of Education, Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 has centralized information for PPLM’s Education Department and the collaboration within the department has resulted in efficiencies and consistency across their organization. Also, there is now an opportunity to deploy the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform across other functional areas of the organization.

Additional Benefits:

  • Logically segment and classify different types of Accounts, Contacts, Classes, Topics, etc. for greater data consistency.
  • Class Selector functionality allows the Education team to quickly search past or scheduled Training Courses or Programs by a variety of filters allowing them to easily filter the information they are looking for.
  • Manage Training Class information including Topics, Class Schedules, Course Catalogs, Class Registrants, Demographics, Training Resources and Speaker Information.
  • Track daily attendance for each Class Registrant
  • Track both Contact and the aggregate Impact Demographics based on the Contact Registrants associated to a Class.
  • Dynamic Class forms and functionality based on tracking needs for Get Real and Let’s Be Honest Programs
  • Easily capture and aggregate the number of hours for a Class, and more specifically, the number hours per Class Topic / Section taught.
  • Workflow integration between scheduled Classes and the Education Outlook shared Calendar. 
    Console for Class Resources and Resource Inventory management
  • Generate Invoices and Manage Invoice payment status for Class Registrants
  • Manage Get Real , Let’s Be Honest and Professional Training Opportunity Pipeline and track the various stages for each Program Opportunity.

The Value of Partnership:

Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts knew they needed guidance from a Microsoft Partner to assist them through this project and ensure a successful outcome.

AbleBridge, a Microsoft Gold Partner headquartered in Massachusetts, was a great fit to help them through their migration process. AbleBridge had deep expertise implementing Microsoft Dynamics CRM. It was their core focus and they had a long track record of successful implementations. AbleBridge guided Planned Parenthood through their implementation process which included milestones for business requirements, functional requirements, customization, data migration, installation and post implementation training.

“AbleBridge was a big factor in our success. Their knowledge of Microsoft Dynamics CRM and their logical approach to our challenging requirements yielded a fantastic result and the solution has already had a significant impact for our Education Department.”

Jane Maine, Education Product Manager, Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts

About AbleBridge

AbleBridge specializes in helping companies streamline their business operations and improve business results by leveraging the features and capabilities of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform. AbleBridge’s consultants have more than 30 years combined experience in the CRM industry. This expertise, in conjunction with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, helps them affordably tailor a solution resulting in increased sales, improved customer connections, enhanced productivity and greater business agility.

AbleBridge's Core Competencies include: Needs Analysis, Business Process Management, Installation and Configuration, Data Migration, Customization, .NET Development and Training Services.

About Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Microsoft Dynamics CRM gives every customer-facing employee the information they need to truly impress customers. With Microsoft CRM, you can create a centralized repository of customer data that sits neatly alongside Microsoft Office and Microsoft Office Outlook—the applications your employees probably use every day. From Outlook, employees access Microsoft CRM sales, marketing, and customer service modules to make sales decisions, market products, solve problems, and get strategic views of the business. It’s CRM that works - because it works the way your users already do, works the way your business already does, and works the way technology should.