New Cloud CRM And Portals Make It Easier To Stay In Touch With Donors And Alumni

As part of their project to move to a cloud CRM and with the help of IS Apps, the Development and Alumni (D&A) team have recently upgraded the Alumni and Donations portals, with positive feedback from users and staff.

The previous CRM for storing alumni and donor data had reached its end-of-life as a system after more than 10 years of being housed on servers on-site at the University. After contracting a supplier for a new cloud-based system, the D&A team worked alongside IS Apps to migrate this existing data to a cloud-based system, Charity CRM, and to deliver the new, user-friendly Donations and Alumni portals, integrating with the CRM’s Web API.

Senior Project Manager, Susan Ridder-Patrick, said that the project had been a truly collaborative effort and praised the in-depth knowledge of the D&A team who had detailed requirements based on what they knew was expected by alumni and donors using the portals. Susan noted that despite never having a face-to-face meeting, the D&A and ISG teams made great use of the Microsoft Teams site set up for the project, a Teams group chat and regular video calls to communicate effectively.

While delighted we have successfully completed the project ..... I am sorry that we won’t all be working as closely together [with IS Apps] going forward. [They’re] an incredibly talented and skilled group of professionals […] we couldn’t have done it without [their] contributions and those of other ISG colleagues.

Making sure it is easy for alumni to update their contact details and preferences with the University is crucial for being able to connect with alumni who are potentially interested in supporting our current students. The new Alumni portal has ensured that amending these details is easy for users to do and is securely stored in the cloud CRM. Usage of the University’s Alumni portal has increased following the successful delivery of the new application, which is now accessed directly from the D&A website.

As part of this project, the Donation portal has also been redeveloped. For potential donors, the simple step-by-step form and payment process have made it easier than ever to make a donation to the University.