Learn how Withum helped a health-focused international consultancy firm simplify and secure their CRM system with Power Apps and Dataverse and provided valuable whole-company training.
Executive Summary
The global consultancy firm engaged Withum’s Digital Workplace Solutions team to help them build out a lightweight yet secure CRM system to manage and become a single source of truth for company contacts. The firm’s legacy CRM system had grown too bulky and was unable to support role-based security – an important detail for their sensitive client database – and future scaling needs. Withum and the firm worked together to launch and implement a streamlined and simplified CRM system using model-driven Power Apps and Dataverse and create a standard operating procedures manual that aligned with the organization’s accepted practices and culture.
The Client
Based in the Northeast United States, the consultancy firm specializes in advocacy communications consultancy for global health concerns. The firm works with several global government organizations, with a focus on healthcare, and uses its resources to help create and optimize events and communications for the requesting organization with a small international team of under 120 employees.
The Challenge
The company knew that its legacy CRM system would not be able to grow securely with them as it continued its reach and impact.
The goals for the new CRM system were:
- Serve as a single source of truth for contacts and their information
- Lightweight and streamlined but able to scale up as the needs of the firm evolve and expand
- Support a streamlined and attractive user experience to promote adoption and interest
- Allow role-based security guardrails to prevent data loss
- Integrate into Outlook so contacts and events can be managed through Microsoft Outlook
- Seamlessly accessible with the existing Microsoft 365 single sign-on (SSO)
Getting a clean data import was critical and time-consuming but well worth the time spent upfront. Withum would step in to provide facilitation, guidance, support and data architecture creation, but the firm wanted to play the primary role in data cleanup and import. In addition to the data import process, it was important to the firm to create its own standard operating procedure manual for the new solution based on accepted cultural norms and practices.
Perhaps the most vital aspect of the project is to ensure that all team members are invested in the new CRM and its processes to keep the platform current. The firm’s team stressed that easy-to-update contacts were important to ensure company-wide compliance and adherence.
The Approach And Solution
Withum began with a comprehensive discovery engagement to evaluate the firm’s readiness for the redesigned CRM. While Withum has extensive experience implementing CRMs for companies of all sizes, the consultants did not go into the assessment with pre-conceived notions or biases – Withum wanted to make a perfect fit for exactly what the firm was looking for. With the substantial pain points and the desired outcome that the firm provided, a model-driven Power Apps and Dataverse solution allowing a Withum-architected backend and simplified UX were agreed on.
The firm’s leading stakeholder was extremely invested in the project and its outcome and was an important driving force behind the firm’s commitment. She ensured a full buy-in from other leaders and staff members, helped facilitate meeting attendance and participation and the completion of the internal data cleanup project.
Withum developed a lightweight CRM that was the right size for the firm but will allow them to expand it on their terms as they are ready.
The Results, ROI
All core company data has been input, launched globally and utilized as a single source of truth for company contacts. Due to the flexibility and capabilities of Dataverse, role-based security was baked into the program to ensure data protection and validity. The CRM is integrated into Outlook via the native capabilities of Power Platform.
Because the CRM was built on the low code/no code Power Platform, even non-technical users have the ability to make future customizations, allowing for growth and scalability down the line while keeping robust guardrails and governance. The new custom-coded homepage is aesthetically pleasing, inviting and simple to navigate, providing extra UX support and ease of access. And, of course, the login is integrated into the firm’s existing Microsoft 365 SSO, creating secure and reliable access.
Contact Us
For more information, please contact a member of our team.