Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Government

Louise Alderton, 30 April 2011

Government organisations are constantly in the public eye and face high expectations. While you want to improve your delivery of service and engagement with people there is also the challenge to be more efficient and accountable. All this faced at the same time as shrinking budgets and demand for increased transparency – you may feel like you can’t win. Without the right systems in place to collect and share information, coordination of functions and monitoring it is difficult for government agencies to fulfil all of these expectations.

 

These challenges can be solved with a tailored government solution based on the platform of Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft SharePoint.  This solution is designed to capture information and store it in a way that allows for swift retrieval and reliable follow-through, helping reduce redundant efforts and creating huge efficiencies.  It can even result in faster, more consistent customer service, while satisfying obligations for regulatory compliance.

Here are some of the features and benefits of a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Government solution:

Business Intelligence

With access to real-time information, comprehensive analysis and easy reporting tools, government agencies can use Dynamics CRM to identify trends, evaluate public interactions with the organisation and create strategies to enhance service and reduce costs. These tools can also capture and track data for compliance with regulations and requirements.

Case Management

Social service and similar organisations are faced with growing caseloads and dwindling budgets. Microsoft Dynamics CRM case management tools help your agency increase its efficiency and reduce costs with streamlined processes and easier access to critical data – all in one central place.

People Management

Managing your citizens’ interactions with your organisation is critical to your effectiveness. With Microsoft Dynamics CRM’s tight integration with Outlook your staff will find it familiar and easy-to-use so communications will be swift and effective. A Dynamics CRM solution is also useful for personnel or staff management from recruitment right through to training.

Administration Management

In our current economic environment the management of government operations is more complex than ever. A Microsoft Dynamics CRM Government solution gives you the ability to manage diverse tasks with fewer resources in less time. You have the ability to automate manual processes – getting things off paper and creating efficiency. You will also maintain an easy to follow audit trail that demonstrates accountability from beginning to end ensuring you are compliant with all regulations.

Let’s take a look at a couple of real-world examples of a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Government solution in action:

US Air Force

The Department of the Air Force has roughly 500,000 forces, civilian and military. This important government agency turned to Microsoft Dynamics CRM to improve its Request for Forces (RFF) process. The RFF process is used when a combatant commandment has insufficient forces to accomplish the mission that he’s been assigned, so he has to come back to the joint staff to request more forces. The RFF Tracker was built with Microsoft to provide a collaborative workspace to ensure that everybody’s got the information they need, so the organizations on multiple air force bases, multiple functional area managers, and multiple management nodes along the whole joint force providing process can all access that knowledge and make sure they all stay on the same sheet of music.

Email was fundamental to all staff involved in using the RFF process; they’re used to working with outlook on a daily basis. Microsoft Dynamics CRM’s strong integration with Outlook was one of the primary reasons the solution was so appealing. This familiarity meant that this solution was able to become that system, the one version of truth, which everyone would work with. Being able to have multiple organisations draw from the exact same workspace keeps everyone in sync and knowing where we are at and overall meeting that force requirement.  

Watch the full video

 

Welsh Assembly Government, Department for the Economy and Transport

The Welsh Assembly Government, Department for the Economy and Transport, has approximately 6500 employees and delivers more than 200 business-related products and services to its citizenry. A survey conducted by the Department for the Economy and Transport identified areas where it could improve upon its service delivery.

With 29 internal customers requiring their own instance of the application, managers needed a solution with cost-saving multi-tenancy capabilities. With Microsoft Dynamics CRM managers sought to consolidate its eight CRM systems and related databases onto a single, standard CRM platform with a superior workflow engine. A unified system.

The solution has proven to be a cost-reduction tool that simultaneously allows the Welsh Assembly Government, Department for the Economy and Transport, to deliver faster, better service to its Wales business community.

Read the full case study

Image 1 from: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0408/S00171.htm
Image 2 from: http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2006/06/30/us_air_force_discovers_blogs
Image 3 from: http://www3.breezegroup.net/bridgendBusinessDirectory/UI/Pages/NewsItem.aspx?id=111