Hello! I’m Malcolm McAuley, Microsoft Dynamics Systems Manager at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada and enthusiast of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. I’m attending this week’s Convergence Conference and wanted to share how Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online has made a difference at our organization by empowering users to focus their time on helping children thrive and achieve success.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada (BBBSC) is the leading child and youth service organization providing mentoring programs across the country. We make meaningful, monitored matches between adult volunteers and children ages 6-18 and foster positive relationships that have a direct and lasting effect on the lives of young people.
The ability to realize our goals and deliver on our mission depends entirely on the success of our mentoring relationships. Currently, over 33,500 children are involved in our programs. Our present challenge is providing matches for the thousands of children on our waiting list. Our Service Delivery Staff face many steps and complexities when creating a match: they must determine whether the volunteer is qualified to be a mentor, and then evaluate him or her based on interests, background and personality to find a strong match for a Little Brother or Little Sister, and finally, the case manager helps the pair cultivate their relationship.
Our partner, Altus Dynamics, interpreted these specific steps and requirements and built a “matching engine” to support us. As a result, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is now a critical component in helping us find the right mentors for thousands of children across Canada.
We’ve been using Microsoft Dynamic CRM Online for almost two years now and have seen a big change from day one. The time saved by recording, accessing and reviewing information in Microsoft Dynamics CRM (from any location), instead of paper files means that our Service Delivery Staff are spending more time providing professional development for mentors, strengthening positive youth development, and increasing the satisfaction of our volunteers to ensure the sustainability of our matches.
The integration with Microsoft Outlook is incredible! Email messages are automatically documented and filed in case notes, calendars are automatically synchronized between online data and Outlook. This alleviates the potential for human error. We’re currently working with over 33,500 young people as well as thousands of volunteer mentors. Microsoft Dynamics ensures the quality and productivity of our staff.
With Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, we’re able to incorporate activity tasks within each different client contact. When a Service Delivery Staff is working to arrange a match, they are able to quickly analyze the potential participants based on data in the system. Before Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, we tracked information with Excel or Word and had to create a separate desktop calendar to ensure we met deadlines. Now, instead of being stuck at our desks writing up case notes, we can spend time in the community working to strengthen mentoring relationships.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online also allows us to track results. Previously, we tracked and measured outcomes, but we weren’t able to do this in an efficient way. As many Big Brothers Big Sisters agencies in Canada are using Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, we can pull the data together and see what demographics we’re reaching and create a holistic picture in a matter of minutes. We can also track the length of time it takes to coordinate matches to ensure our processes are efficient. Having insight into this data has completely changed the way we work as an organization.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online has truly increased our productivity and allows me and my team to focus on our passion-ensuring that every child who needs a mentor has a mentor. We make a difference in over a thousand different communities and Microsoft Dynamics unites us.