Fay Heatley of Always Thinking Associates presents her session E-Merging: the Way Ahead for the Third Sector at Lasa's Powering Up The Third Sector Technology Conference at IBM Forum London, 14 November 2011
1. E-Merging
The Way Ahead for the Third Sector
Managing a merger successfully
Fay Heatley
A case study: Disability Rights UK
ALWAYS THINKING
Fay Heatley
Project Manager
Telephone 0751 3332839
fay.heatley@alwaysthinkingonline.com
Business and IT Solutions
2. AVAILABLE FUNDING / DEMAND FOR SERVICES
SISTER “NOT FOR PROFIT” ORGS
LITTLE OVERLAP = SHARED SERVICES?
SOME OVERLAP = COOPERATIVE
COMMISSIONING?
SUBSTANTIAL OVERLAP = MERGER!
3. The Scale of the Project
Legal assistance: Taylor Wessing
Due diligence
Interior Designers: Ghost Projects
Consultants (KPMG)
Recruitment (Prospectus)
iT4Communities.org.uk IT4Comunities (me!)
Esmee Fairbairn Foundation
NFP Technology Conference Fidelity Trust
Comic Relief
Dept of Health
3 years, 30 pro bonos, £300,000 funding
4. 2008/2009
RADAR NCIL DISABILITY ALLIANCE SKILL
JOINT WORKING/MERGER EXPLORATION AGREED
PLANNING PROCESS AGREED Ceased Trading
but Functions
AGM Saved
AGM
AGM
FUND RAISING/COMMISSIONING
Very tight
deadlines
TRANSFORMATION PROJECTS
SYNCHRONISED AGMS
APPROVAL
Branding, premises,
Finance, HR, CRM & Web
5. IT Systems Review: What was the brief?
KEY BUSINESS
PROCESSES
should be
interactive and
fully supported
INFRASTRUCTURE INFRASTRUCTURE ELEMENTS – ACCOMMODATION, NEW FINANCE
Accessible, easy SYSTEM, FULL SUPPORT FOR HR
to use and a IT – MUST BE SECURE, REMOTE ACCESS
smaller
proportion of
total budgets
6. Brief criteria
Efficiency: to reach more disabled people, to be able to scale up services
Joined up systems, where customer/funder/corporate name can be linked to all
previous contacts and conversations
Simplicity: Existing systems had very little automation, no integration
Must support modern fundraising
Integrated customer contact system crucial
To ensure effective and simple working for the new charity
Innovation: Innovative ways to reach more disabled people
Market segmentation
Tailoring of responses
EPOS to encourage access to guides
Accessibility: Must be accessible for people with visual impairment
7. The Plan
1. Involve staff: set up panels for evaluation of new systems
(one for Finance and one for CRM)
2. Establish 'long list' of possible systems
3. Agree specification + business processes to be supported
4. Request for Information to suppliers
5. Agree shortlist for testing/prototyping
6. Testing/prototyping
7. Due Diligence (take up references)
8. Procurement decision
9. Contract
Implementation
www.sayervincent.co.uk/
8. Essential Applications Identified
INTERACTIVE CUSTOMER FINANCE
WEB SITE RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
MANAGEMENT
INTERACTIVE CRM FINANCE
DATABASE MANAGEMENT
INTERACTIVE
WEB SITE
9. The Market and The Outcome
There is a wide range of CRM products available/suitable for the
NFP/charity sector
Aim was 'best of breed' off the shelf, for example IRIS Donor Strategy
CRM's are now part of Web 2.0: the days of selecting 'back end
databases' that are not integrated with the web site are over
Particularly for membership, subscriptions, private social
networks, and sales of products.
civicrm.org
The most innovative are Open Source led from America:
CiviCRM and Drupal
Disability Rights UK have gone with CiviCRM
Advantages are low cost of ownership, scalability, massive
international user community
My output was a successful process and the outcome of the process
was a successful procurement. Implementation is the next stage.
11. Next steps: Phase 3 Implementation
Disability Rights UK will start trading in January and be launched in
Spring 2012
• Systems work
• Staff recruitment
• Re-branding
• Accommodation: co-location of RADAR, NCIL and DA in
December 2011
"This stage is actually making it happen“
(Richard Gutch)
12. More mergers predicted in the sector, large
national (group structures or mergers to
form new charities)
Or bigger national charities taking on smaller
local ones (take overs)
Will all mergers be as well resourced?
Are there any shortcuts?
Collaboration/consortia/co-ops?
Shared services? (IT, Finance, HR, shared business
processes)
Questions?
Editor's Notes
This presentation will cover the critical success factors of the growing trend of mergers and unification in the Third Sector.In the current financial climate this can be the answer to sustainability.Organisations can work more closely together and can take the steps to merge.The session will also cover how the merger to create Disability Rights UK has been supported by the selection of new IT systems to allow streamlining and integration of the 3 charities into one new organisation.
Disability Rights UK: October 20113 year projectMerger of 4 organisations:RadarDisability AllianceNational Council forIndependent LivingSkill (folded earlier this year)
An extremely well planned mergerTaking place over 3 yearsI have been one of 30 'pro bonos' and there has been funding of £300,000My role has been IT consultant and project managerWorking with a small team at Disability Rights Funding seen as risky2 stages: 1st tranche at risk2nd confirmed after merger is formalisedEsme FairburnFidelity TrustParticular priority for IT systemsEarmarking funding for merger costsLarger/more progressive fundersMerger seen as important in the sector for sustainability(for orgs that they've given grants to)Otherwise orgs could easily have folded by next yearLeaving no legacy for previous funding
Richard Gutch, will be writing a guideExploration (18 months)Planning (1 year) IT/systems work stream comes in hereImplementation (6 months)ExplorationGood idea?Work more closely?Mainly with 4 trustees and 3 Chief ExecsConducted at trustee level and explained so that staff are awareNearly stalledThen the Chief Exec of Disability Alliance moved on: "it's now or never"Planning, 1 year agoA big hitter, Richard Gutch, appointed as Project Manager for the mergerStaff advisedAll 3 AGM's in Oct/Nov 2010 agree in principle to unificationDetailed PlanningDue diligenceBusiness PlanSystems Plan (This is where ICT review sits)"This was a very intense time.”Leading to 3 AGM's in Oct 2011 for final ratification of merger.
A review of systems and IT needs for Disability Rights Partnership, to become Disability Rights UKStreamline and integrate all 3 charities existing systems to allow for efficient workingAccounting, sales and fulfillmentMembership and adminAdvice recordingContacts and communicationsCorporate relationshipsHR (staff will be part of contacts in CRM)FundraisingPublications
At the scoping stage of the project, the agreed option was to look for a new Finance system and a new CRM system. There had been little investment previously so there were no significant legacy systems worth keeping.This was a systems review, not a web site project, and there are 3 web sites already, one for each organisation.The finance system had to be treated as a priority to secure accounting for the new organisation.The requirement was to ensure some integration between Finance and CRM for sales.And as the Third Sector is rapidly adopting on-line interaction with members, a CRM involves the building of a micro web site, adopting the newest technologies including private social networks.
The challenge for organisations is to align everything behind a public faceAnd align very closely with their membershipAnd this is being driven by the development in web technologies
Project board established3 Chief Executives, Finance Director + Sarah!Established staff groups:Select new IT systemsPolicy and CampaigningAdviceMembership