BDA's CRM Makeover | A Healthy Serving of Digital Innovation!
Company Overview
The British Dietetic Association (BDA) is a UK-wide membership organisation with 11,200 members representing the whole of the dietetic workforce, including dietitians and the dietetic support workforce.
Based in Birmingham and with members from all four UK nations, it is one of the world's oldest and most experienced dietetic organisations.
As a Trade Union and professional body, it represents its members' professional, educational, public and workplace interests.
I feel strongly that other organisations should benefit from the successful outcome we have enjoyed through our partnership with Bluelight. Ongoing, I hope to work with Bluelight to help broadcast our message of what a good digital change project should look like.
- Louise Pritchard
- Chief Operating Officer
- British Dietetic Association
The Challenge
Significant functionality gaps and system reliability issues caused the BDA to lose faith in their previous CRM solution, both as a tool to manage their membership effectively and as a core component of their technology strategy. Integration between the CRM and the website, event management tool and finance system was business critical for the BDA. Still, a lack of robustness in the previous CRM implementation had undermined trust in the solution and confidence in the accuracy of the data it held. These shortfalls called overall system integrity into question and led to the team being forced to run important processes manually outside their systems.
The existing CMS was well established and highly thought of, and it served as an important platform for website content and member transactions. A fundamental requirement for the new CRM was the ability of the system to integrate and exchange data with the existing CMS and the supplier's experience in doing so. Equally, the existing event management solution would remain in place and needed to integrate and exchange data with the new CRM.
The Approach
BDA’s approach was underpinned by the three pillars they identified for a successful digital transformation project:
- Engage a good Project Manager who understands and can properly advocate for the organisation, translating technical requirements. To rise to this challenge, BDA recruited an external PM with a track record of successfully delivering similar projects in the sector.
- Reduce complexity wherever possible – if in doubt, keep it simple, remembering that just because the solution can do it doesn’t mean it should.
- Beyond senior-level sponsorship is important, senior-level practical engagement and oversight are essential. Get staff engaged from the start and bring them on the journey fully committed – digital transformation requires going above and beyond, and staff are more willing to do the extra if they believe in the end result.
Having been let down by their supplier in a previous digital change project, BDA was keen to put strict legal controls in place to protect them from being burned a second time. Bluelight was empathetic to BDA’s concerns and worked closely with senior management to help ensure the project did not stall whilst the legalese was worked through.
At the start of the project, Bluelight ran a series of workshops for key business areas to capture and verify BDA requirements. Once documented, these requirements were reviewed and refined collaboratively until all parties were comfortable that they had formed the bedrock on which the new CRM could be built.
As is common in many such projects, achieving sign-off of requirements can be complicated and delayed by trying to pre-empt every eventuality and account for unknown possibilities. Bluelight worked closely with the BDA through this period to provide reassurance that there was scope within the proposed implementation timeline and the budget to accommodate reasonable uncertainty. By allocating time and money for solution adjustments, BDA could be sure they wouldn't face a change request (and invoice) every time they changed their mind and the solution moved away from a set of strict acceptance criteria made at the beginning of the project.
With this being understood, BDA signed up, and implementation began.
The stand-out element of the implementation phase was the contributors' expertise and attitude and their level of collaboration. Everyone at BDA was capable and competent in their business areas, with key people having invaluable knowledge of their internal processes and the company as a whole. Everyone’s commitment to the project and its deadlines ensured that the project stayed on track.
BDA staff were equal players in the project team and recognised that success meant transcending the traditional imbalance of a client/supplier relationship. For example, BDA invested many hours in creating robust testing plans, ensuring painstakingly detailed data and solution testing was carried out by people who a) had the expertise and b) cared deeply about getting it right.
Equally, Bluelight’s knowledgeable and approachable consultants ensured they were on hand to answer questions and promptly unblock progress. BDA felt their questions were seriously considered, noted that bespoke support was provided to solve unique problems, and felt they could bring their best game because Bluelight gave them the scaffolding they needed to succeed.
To underpin this progress, the Bluelight Project Management function and BDA’s Project Manager (Equantiis) provided clear communications, helpful documentation and detailed action plans, allowing project members to plan ahead with confidence.
Bluelight had a great attitude to problem-solving. Their experience, responsiveness and empathy meant that they understood the customer perspective and were able to think outside the box, offering pragmatic solutions to keep the forward momentum.
- Louise Pritchard
- Chief Operating Officer
- British Dietetic Association (BDA)
The Outcome
With no in-project chargeable change requests issued, with committed internal resources, and with a realistic (albeit challenging) implementation timeline, BDA was able to go live with the CRM on budget and on the exact date pinpointed nine months before the start of the implementation phase.
The Benefits
BlueCRM enables BDA to deliver an excellent experience to members, volunteers and stakeholders, allowing for membership growth and the value provided to members. Further, BDA can do this easily and confidently, knowing that their data is complete and accurate.
That data is now a valued asset, enabling organisation-wide insight and decision-making ability. It is supported by an easy-to-use, flexible, integrated CRM that helps them achieve more with greater reach, impact, and efficiency.
The BlueCRM aligns with several key principles and delivers the following outcomes:
- BlueCRM is the single source of truth.
BDA can combine all data about members, service users, supporters, volunteers and campaigners and collect new data in a coordinated and consistent way. - BDA members are happy.
BDA are able to increase understanding of what members want and when they want it, elevating their experience with the BDA. There has been a significant shift to members being able to self-serve, reducing the membership administration time commitment, e.g. average membership admin in box reduced from 500 queries to 50. - BDA aim for data to be 100% accurate.
BDA’s stated aim is that all data is always captured correctly and consistently whilst complying with all legislation. - BDA can access data with confidence.
BDA staff understand the data policies and procedures. Data is accurate, up-to-date, secure, and used only for intended purposes. - BlueCRM is futureproof, flexible, and interoperable.
BDA systems easily connect to internal and third-party platforms and adapt and grow to suit the needs and goals of the organisation. - BDA have time to add value and deliver more.
Internal culture is changing in how BDA values data and uses systems, and improving services and how they work becomes easier.
Data | Benefits Realised (5 months on)
Benefit KPIs |
Baseline and measure |
End Feb 2024 |
KPI 1 The increase in member retention rates measured by reduction in member attrition |
Attrition rate 11% |
8.5% |
KP1 2 Increase in customer satisfaction score with our service provision |
Completion of member survey end 2024 |
End 2024 |
KPI 3 Reduction in the time spent on member queries by Accounts Dept. |
75 hours per month |
24 hours average per month |
Benefit KPIs |
Baseline and measure |
End Feb 2024 |
KPI 1 The increase in confidence in our data for use in TU/PA team |
Attrition rate 11% |
8.5% |
KP1 2 The reduction in the number of non-financial reports requested from Accounts dept from BDA membership Team |
9 per month |
2-3 per month |
Benefit KPIs |
Baseline and measure |
End Feb 2024 |
KPI 1 The reduction in the number of customer support emails |
600 queries average per week in |
50-70 |
KP1 2 The reduction in the number of undeliverable DT magazines |
40-50pcm |
28 Feb 2024 |
KPI 3 The reduction in the value of discounts given in compensation |
£700 per month |
£152 |
KPI 4 The reduction in the value of bad debt as a percentage of turnover |
3.6% |
2.3% |
KPI 5 The reduction in the number of invoices manually produced by Accounts |
185 pcm |
74 pcm |
KPI 6 Reduction in the total number of direct debit transaction failures |
Average March 2022-October 2023 - 105 |
February 2024 - |
KPI 7 Reduction in the number of direct debit transaction failures not as a result |
Exc. refer to payer average 57 |
February 2024 - |
Benefit KPIs |
Baseline and measure |
End Feb 2024 |
KPI 1 The reduction in risk rating/score relating to data accuracy in the corporate risk register |
Red RAG rating Strategic Risk Register |
Green RAG rating |
KP1 2 The percentage improvement in address data quality/accuracy |
Number of records count - 2000 |
Benefit KPIs |
Baseline and measure |
End Feb 2024 |
KPI 1 increase in the number of staff using the CRM system |
40 log-ins per month |
TBC |
KP1 2 The increase in all staff confidence rating in using the CRM system and |
20% |
80% |
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