Salesforce.com Helps Business in the Community Mobilise Business for Good

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Challenge

• Enable close relationships with its members and networks Replace overlapping, fragmented, and diversified membership systems
• Engage existing members more effectively and inspire them to take action on key issues
• Unify all the information concerning members, prospect members, and events

Solution

• Through its unique 1% Product donation model and nonprofit 80% discount, the Salesforce.com Foundation donated and discounted salesforce.com licenses to the nonprofit organization.  Coupled with the deployment of Force.com Platform as a Service (PaaS) solution, UK businesses are improving the positive impact they make in society.
  

Results

• Enabled Business in the Community to communicate more effectively with its members about the issues that matter most
• Provided team with access to the full database of information whenever and wherever they have an internet connection, or even when they are off line

Salesforce.com Helps Business in the Community Mobilise Business for Good
Some of the most effective negotiations take place in the back of a taxi.  They certainly did for Business in the Community, an independent UK nonprofit which inspires companies to improve the positive impact of business in society.  It was in this unorthodox environment that the CEO of Business in the Community was introduced to the Salesforce.com Foundation by the EMEA Chairman of salesforce.com.  Several months on, the organization is capitalizing on the Foundation’s 1% product donation and discount program to provide Business in the Community with a powerful backbone to inspire, engage, support and challenge companies on responsible business.  The Force.com Platform as a Service (PaaS) solution also enabled Business in the Community to quickly design, develop, and deploy the application, on-demand and without using any software. 

Inspiring companies to improve their positive impact in society
Business in the Community is about mobilising business for good. The organisation inspires, engages, supports and challenges companies on responsible business, working through four areas: Marketplace, Workplace, Environment and Community.

With more than 850 companies in membership, Business in the Community represents 1 in 5 of the UK private sector workforce and convenes a network of global partners.

These members commit to integrating responsible business, sharing experience and taking collaborative action.This is achieved through campaigns, programmes, awards, benchmarks and publications.

Business in the Community relies on close relationships with its members and networks.  But that’s not easy when the systems you’re relying on to sustain those relationships are overlapping, fragmented, and diversified.  In fact, Business in the Community was using multiple bespoke systems, spreadsheets, Outlook and other tools to target prospective members, engage existing members and inspire them to take action on key social issues. 

Kay O'Brynne is the IT Director for Business in the Community and in her opinion, the information concerning member organizations, campaigns and other data was out there—it was simply too tricky sometimes to locate it.  “With 13 regional offices around the country, we ended up with 13 versions of the truth,” she says.  “Owing to the dispersed nature of the organization, we wanted an online relationship management system which would unify all the information we have acquired on members, prospect members, and events.”

A single version of the truth
A chance discussion in a London taxi between the CEO of Business in the Community and the Chairman of salesforce.com EMEA introduced O'Brynne and her colleagues to the Salesforce.com Foundation.  O'Brynne takes up the story.  “That discussion in the taxi about the value of using Salesforce led us to undertake a trial—and we liked what we saw,” she says.  “We saw the opportunity to introduce a single version of the truth, based on a relatively cost-effective, online solution.  Our approach led to a donation of product and purchases at the Foundation’s 80% discount that allows us to focus more time on our social mission and increase efficiency.”

Today, Business in the Community has 350 users in the UK, all connected through the Internet to one common, shared view of members, prospect members, and events.  Following a three hour training session, each of the 13 UK branches went live.  “They were each given a defined time in which to begin using the system, highlight any changes they wanted made, and then we began using the system productively.  We adopted a ‘no dumb answers’ philosophy, which meant users could ask any dumb question they wanted about using Salesforce, but they were guaranteed to get a good answer,” she adds.

The generosity of The Salesforce.com Foundation (Business in the Community is currently the largest Salesforce.com Foundation nonprofit user in the U.K.) means that the team now has access to the full database of information whenever and wherever they have an Internet connection, or even when they are offline.  They can easily coordinate meetings and calls geared to inspiring membership through a system of shared personal and public calendars; they share meeting notes, organizational documents, and keep abreast of one another’s meetings and the progress of all member organizations and their constituents—in real time, wherever they are located. “The solution is steadily becoming a critical tool for managing nearly every aspect of Business in the Community’s operations and program activities,” according to O'Brynne.

The Force.com Platform as a Service (PaaS) solution is also enabling Business in the Community to quickly develop, and deploy the application, on-demand and without using any software.  Requiring no programming whatsoever, the Force.com point-and-click configuration tools enable the team to build custom interfaces, workflow, and tabs in a fraction of the time required by traditional platforms.  Changes can be made quickly and easily, while being rolled out simultaneously to everyone in the nonprofit.

Improve the positive impact business makes in society
The Salesforce.com Foundation’s purpose in donating the application to nonprofits is to support the impact those organizations have on key social issues.  “The single view means we can communicate more effectively with our members about the issues that matter most: whether it’s strategic advice on how to integrate responsible business practice, promoting national campaigns such as employee volunteering, or targeting members to join events such as the May Day Summit —the largest gathering of companies committed to taking positive action on climate change,” says O’B rynne.

Part of the reason for the successful use of Salesforce has been the ease with which it can be adapted to meet Business in the Community’s needs.  O’Brynne explains, “It’s important for us to have strict governance in place which ensures any process change is aligned with the business.  We have a dedicated business resource for Salesforce and they have responsibility for process change management in Salesforce.  The adaptive, easy to customize nature of the system means we focus on the processes we need to change—not the underlying technology.”

O’Brynne concludes, “Salesforce helps us to inspire membership and manage the campaigns that do so much to tackle Britain's most pressing social issues, in some of its most deprived inner city and rural areas.  We are extremely grateful that—through Salesforce technology—we can make an impact on key social issues through collaborative action in areas of greatest need.”
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