# Presentation: 906687

## Fermilab’s Envoy CRM System 

- Kevin Munday, Xeno Media
- October 26, 2006

## Why the Fermilab Envoy Program?

- Strengthen relationships between Fermilab and the Community

## Why?

- Strong community relationships
- 	are essential to Fermilab’s future
- On a scale we’ve never seen before
- Especially with hopes of bringing the ILC to Fermilab
- It takes a laboratory

## Why now?

- Start now, building relationships
- Relationships will be in place when needed
- To establish the ILC Task Force, successor to the Fermilab Community Task Force

## Envoy program

- ~30 communication-savvy Fermilab employees asked to serve
- ~60 “Tier 1” community stakeholders identified
- Each envoy paired with the most appropriate stakeholders

## Not a sales force

- Building Relationships
- One-on-one, rather than institutional
- Dealing with someone you know and trust
- Not just for the ILC

## How?

- Envoys call and/or email to arrange first meetings
- Visit, introduce themselves and discuss Fermilab
- Make contact ~4x/year
- Serve as point of contact for Fermilab-related questions or issues

## Support and supplies

- One-time training
- Folders with brochures, fact sheets, etc.
- Fact sheets, other info posted to the Web

## And...  The CRM... 	

- In this case...
**C**ommunity
**R**elationship
**M**anagement

## Capabilities

- Based on the “Customer Relationship Management” model
- Centralized, Web-based database with stakeholder information and history of all contacts
- Scheduling tools
- Document database
- Searchable

## How the CRM will help the program

- Central source for updated contact information
- Allows scheduling of meetings, calls, tasks, etc.
- Individual and group calendars
- Central document database with the latest, best information for use and distribution
- Request assistance, suggest and schedule tasks, etc.

## Critical to the envoy program

- Over the long-term, the CRM will:
- Create a full history of communications with all stakeholders
- Allow access to the latest, most accurate information related to stakeholders
- Allow the envoy system to scale as needed
- Allow us to recognize patterns and adapt materials and messages

## Selection

- Began evaluating CRM Market Leaders
- Salesforce.com
- 		~$30,000/year for our use + 	customization
- Netsuite
- 		~$20,000+/year for our use 	and too feature-rich
- Act
- 		~$8,000+ for license, plus 	new server, implementation, 	customization

## Solution 

- SugarCRM
- Open source (free!)
- Supported by commercial firm
- Highly rated
- Feature-rich
- Vibrant developer community
- Runs on existing server
- Utilizes technologies Xeno Media favors

## Our implementation – Core Concepts

**Users**
- Envoys
- Managers
- Admin
**Contacts**
- Community stakeholders
- 	Users have access to the records for all stakeholders assigned to them, plus all notes related to all stakeholders.  Managers have access to all.

## User’s home page

- Shows upcoming
- 	scheduled activities
- Shows open tasks

## Our implementation – Calendar

- View scheduled activities
- View shared
- 	calendar

## Activities

- Calls
- Meetings
- Tasks
- Notes
- Emails

## Contacts

- List
- Search
- Edit
- Email
- History

## Documents

- Download files
- Send files

## Email

- Send emails to contacts and users
- Emails are archived as related to the contacts
- Attach documents from the online document archive

## Features we do not use

- Inbound email
- Bugtracker
- Accounts/Leads
- Project management features

## What we ask of envoys

- Use the system as central source for:
- Scheduling stakeholder contacts.
- Providing feedback (notes) on stakeholder contacts to build an accurate and thorough history.
- Scheduling and assigning action items resulting from stakeholder contacts.
- Emailing stakeholder
- Keeping stakeholder contact information current and accurate.

## Training/Documentation

- One-time group training
- Individual training sessions (~15 minutes) for envoys who missed group training
- 15 page primer distributed
- 	at training and posted to site

## Support

- Reset passwords (~75% of support needed to-date)
- Other minor issues
- Correcting some un-associated tasks/meetings/notes

## Lessons learned (so far...)

- (These?) Physicists are very willing to learn and adapt to new systems when there is a compelling case that it is necessary.
- Err on the side of simplicity.
- Bear the burden at the front end.
- Show usage progress (positive “peer pressure”).
- Rich, Web-based software feels slow when compared to similar desktop software

## To learn more

- _[http://www.sugarcrm.com](http://www.sugarcrm.com/)_
- Call/Email me:
- 	_[Munday](mailto:Munday@xenomedia.com)__[@xenomedia.com](mailto:Munday@xenomedia.com)_
- 	630/794-9560