Assembling the Right Team

IT and advancement leveraged their close relationship to successfully purchase and implement Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT. They also established an implementation committee that represented impacted departments across campus. The project plan was agreed upon, and committee members listed their required solution functionality as well as how it would need to scale to meet growing needs. “We wanted a solution that would fit all our needs across campus—from communications to advancement to development—and were diligent in our process to secure users’ buy-in before making our decision,” said Bridget. Gaudreau, senior systems analyst and programmer. “After evaluating
Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT, it was clear this is a cutting-edge solution that would provide our end-users much more than they had before.”

Taking a Collaborative Approach

Like most institutions, Colgate has unique complex data needs, so the team took a collaborative approach and brought in IT leaders to help consultants
map data to the new system for a smooth implementation. The team made the implementation a priority, had the right people involved to ensure data
was mapped accurately, and proactively helped end-users visualize how the database offers deeper insights and will help them achieve their goals.

In addition to sharing data across campus, the team addressed anything that campus partners accessed in the old system before taking it away. People were informed that they would be using a new solution and were given the
chance to provide feedback on what information or access they need. This
helped generate goodwill and trust across campus and departments. “Being strong advocates for our data and taking a partnership approach helped lead to a very successful implementation,” said Gaudreau. “By preventing future issues, we established goodwill and exposed areas where we had opportunities to leverage data sharing even more.”

Culture of Change: Educating and Training Users

Upgrading to a new CRM system doesn’t occur often so it can be hard for
people to adapt to this change. Educating their 100+ users and helping them understand how the new solution would provide them more opportunities was key. The team even removed access to the old system, making it a requirement for users to transition to the new system and ensuring users were accessing accurate and up-to-date information.

To further help transition end-users, the team also leveraged change
management support. A team of specialists coached users through the
journey and explained the present and future value the new CRM solution
would bring them.

Looking Ahead

With the successful implementation behind them, the team at Colgate is looking forward to expanding their use of Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT and seeing the added benefits of reaching new supporters and engaging existing supporters, as well as streamlining data, reporting, and administrative processes.