The ideal information system is a single shared secure information system. Large organisations pay hundreds of thousands to get such solutions custom built.
For charities, on more limited budgets, it is possible to create a virtual single shared solution by integrating a small number of applications together.
The client relationship management [database]. This is the centre of a shared information system. It contains all client data, all donors, all stakeholders, all referrals, assessments, care plans and actions.
A key criteria for selecting an accounting system is one that integrates with other systems electronically. An example of a financial accounting system with intetgrates well with CRM systems, while providing charities with what they need to meet their best practice in reporting requirements is AccountsIQ.
Often, the Contact Us page of a website only sends an email to a staff person. It is much more logical for the Contact Us form to send the person’s details into the CRM, add the person’s record to the CRM if they do not already exist and then send an email to the relevant staff with a link to the record in the CRM. Even better, if someone makes a donation on the website, the person, donation information and payment confirmation are sent to the CRM, the person added and the donation recorded against that person and an automatic thank you email sent. Then, the magic happens, the transaction is passed from the CRM into the financial accounting system ready for bank reconciliation. All without a staff person lifting a finger.
We have got used to sending email from a separate email client, e.g. MS Outlook or Gmail, and receiving the emails into an Inbox. It is much more logical that all communication records be associated with the person on the CRM. Therefore any staff who communicates with a client, by any means, is recorded on the client record.
These separate systems can talk to each other using an API. Application Programming Interface. This is a library of languages and two applications e.g. Salesforce CRM and AccountsIQ – both with APIs – agree a common language, share a security key and pass data from one to another in agreed format.
An integrated system puts the people charities engage with at the centre. It is client centric, and supports both much better relationships with all client and donors as well as much easier reporting. Client-centric information was the way we organised before PC – a single file for each client with all information in that file. An integrated system recovers this logical way to organise our information