Customer Relationship Management for Economic Development

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Presented at:NYSEDC Conference

January 22, 2014

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) for Economic Development

NYSERDA Case Study 

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Outline

1.NYSERDA’s Economic Development Growth Extension (EDGE) Program

2.How CRM Helps the EDGE Program

3.How CRM Might Benefit Other EDOs

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EDGE Program: A Quick Overview

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What is EDGE?

NYSERDA’s statewide community outreach program:

• Focus on commercial, industrial, institutional energy users– Except very large key accounts

– Utilize EDO Partners

– Target regionally significant projects

• Improve community understanding of NYSERDA incentives

• Encourage energy efficiency / renewable energy investment

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EDGE Organization

• 10 Regions• 27 Regional Outreach Contractor staff (ROCs)• Most regions have 1-2 ROCs; NYC has 6• Promoting all NYSERDA funding opportunities (20+)

– Some Continuous– Others Temporary

• Managed by 5 NYSERDA staff, Program Support Services (Camoin)

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Results to Date

IndicatorCumulative Through

12/31/13

New Partners 510Projects Referred from Partners 948Public Outreach Events 334New Projects (Customer Actively Interested in NYSERDA Programs) 1,495

Projects Referred to a NYSERDA Program 1,199Applications Generated to NYSERDA 333

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How does CRM help the EDGE Program?

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EDGE User Categories

ROCs: data collection, contact management, project tracking– Highly mobile, traveling throughout regions– One license per individual

Camoin: administration, reporting– One administrator (desktop)

NYSERDA: assessing value of program– Four managers overseeing contractors– Access is for convenience, used ad hoc

IT Consultant: design, maintenance, coding– One license

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Why Salesforce for EDGE?

• Report accomplishments, activities to demonstrate program is worth investment

• Help ROCs work more effectively

– Database of account/contact/project info

– Track customer engagement

– Share information with each other

• Help program management understand what outreach strategies work

• Integrate communications, workflow

• Accessible from mobile devices

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User Interface - Home

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User Interface – Data Entry

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User Interface - Reporting

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User Interface – Reporting

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User Interface – Dashboards

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User Interface – Chatter

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Reporting – Program Performance

• Contractor performance– Partner Utilization (Referrals, Meetings/Events)– Closed Sales (Applications to NYSERDA)– Progress on Goals

• Most popular programs• Most useful partners• Most effective lead sources• Where more resources may be needed

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Reporting – Program Management

• Helps PMs understand activity in their territory• Important Projects, Partners• Planned Meetings, Events• Data tells us how the contractors are working,

whether approach is effective– Focus on right customers, partners– Avoid overlap with other outreach contractors’ key

accounts, activities.

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Reporting – ROC Self Monitoring

• Monthly “maintenance” reports to review and correct data

• Review accounts, contacts, projects in the pipeline

• Use dashboards for quick view of most important info

• Organize outreach into Campaigns to help track and evaluate efforts

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Information Sharing

• ROC Collaboration– ROCs can view account / contact / project info

entered by colleagues– Assign tasks / events to colleagues– Ask questions, post announcements in Chatter

• Program management– Post announcements, assignments, other info– Keep communications separate from email– Share files, links, polls

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How might you use CRM systems to enhance your

organization?

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Cost

• Setup: consultant and staff, also survey users• Ongoing: licenses on a per user basis– 501(c)(3) organizations have 10 free licenses, plus

a huge discount on additional licenses beyond 10– Some setups do not require a full license for all

types of interaction (i.e. chatter-only, customer portal, etc.)

• Staff Time: use, monitoring and reporting

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Lessons Learned

Measurement of ED outcomes requires integration with other units of NYSERDA – ROCs don’t have access to award information or data on final project impacts

Learning curve is short but steep – Partly due to level of complexity and customization.

For some organizations, training will be easier. – Need 30 days of continuous use for it to feel totally

natural. Part-time staff take longer to understand proper use.

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Lessons Learned

Need someone at organization to oversee the users and ensure uniform entry of information, fix any confusion. Also, someone who will use the reported information in a systematic way.

Need to understand how mobile/external apps interact, ensure they don’t skip required fields, etc.

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Other Uses for EDOs

Local Level

• Business retention and expansion campaigns• Entrepreneurship and start-up development

(larger urban)• Fundraising campaigns

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Other Uses for EDOs

Regional Level• REDC use for CFA applicant prospecting, data

collection and prioritization• Large EDO use to integrate outreach across multiple

assistance programs – e.g. small business technical assistance & low-interest loan

program & NYSERDA incentives & CFA round & Start-Up NY• Business attraction efforts where

Regional EDO owns the system, local IDAs tie into the regional system.

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Other Uses for EDOs

State Level

• ESDC has a couple of CRM initiatives underway. Could regional/local groups be participants and users?

• How about specific campaigns such as NYLovesBio?

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Thank You

Michael N’dolo, CEcDVice President, Camoin Associatesmichael@camoinassociates.com518-899-2608 x103