Blog

Get the smartimpact team's comment and opinion on everything CRM and beyond.

Time to change your Microsoft Dynamics membership CRM supplier?

05 September 2019 by Steve Sydee

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a great product for all sorts of membership associations. But you need a specialist Dynamics partner to work with you on it. Read more

The Association Apocalypse

03 July 2019 by Steve Sydee

(6 minutes to read) What effect will artificial intelligence, machine learning, and awesome CRM and CMS have on membership associations? And what changes should you start planning for today? Read more

Top things to consider before going through a digital transformation

17 June 2019 by Lauren Smith

So, your organisation is ready for a digital transformation? Perhaps you’ve worked out that your current CRM is no longer catering to your ever-changing needs as an organisation and you need an open, widely supported platform that is flexible and can grow and adapt as you do, such as a CRM Membership system like Microsoft Dynamics 365. Read more

Most Valuable Professional (MVP) title for Microsoft Dynamics CRM renewed

01 April 2019 by Pedro Azevedo

Pedro has had his Most Valuable Professional (MVP) renewed for the fourth time in a row. What does this mean exactly? Read more

How to create an unmissable association conference

18 February 2019 by Lauren Smith

An association's events programme is usually one of the main reasons for members to join. Make sure you maximise the benefits of attending for members. Read more

Up to 75% discount on Microsoft Dynamics 365 for charities

01 February 2019 by Lauren Smith

smartimpact explores the core benefits Microsoft Dynamics 365 brings to charities and membership organisations, and tells you how to get up to 75% discount. Read more

Reasons to choose smartimpact as your digital transformation partner

21 January 2019 by Lauren Smith

What criteria should you look for when choosing a Dynamics partner to work with on your Membership CRM project? Read more

See your data in new ways with Power BI

19 December 2018 by Lauren Smith

There are many software and business platforms on the market that allow you to view and draw insight and business intelligence (BI) from your data. Microsoft’s version is Power BI which allows you to go from data to powerful insights within minutes. Read more

Exploring Dynamics 365 for Talent

13 December 2018 by Naresh Raj

Want to manage your employee recruitment, onboarding, and training processes? Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Talent might be the answer for you. Read more

Risks of not integrating your system

11 December 2018 by Lauren Smith

In our last blog post, Naresh spoke about system integration and why it’s so important. But what are the dangers and risks involved in not integrating? Lack of integration means your data is highly likely to be kept in silos and you may risk the following: Read more

What should a fully integrated system include?

05 December 2018 by Naresh Raj

We hear about ‘system integration’ all the time but what does it mean exactly and what features should a fully integrated system include? Integrated systems can talk to each other and share data for the overall benefit of your organisation and members, whilst still allowing for all of them to be used separately if needed. Read more

The ability to adapt in the face of change is what TechSmart is all about

30 November 2018 by Lauren Smith

We were proud to be Platinum Sponsors of TechSmart on 27th November 2018, with around 350 delegates in attendance – it was certainly a must-attend event for anyone within the membership space who wants to learn and keep abreast of what the technology marketplace has to offer their organisation. Read more

What members want and expect

23 November 2018 by Lauren Smith

Your members now expect more from you than ever thanks to the likes of Amazon, Uber and JustEat to name just a few. Consumers can get goods, taxis and food all at the tip of their fingers and a click of a button – literally. Amazon is renowned for its 1-Click service, Uber can get a taxi to your location in as little as two minutes and JustEat will deliver food to your door just as quick (almost!). Read more

What’s the best CRM system for membership organisations?

05 November 2018 by Charbel Abi-Maroun

According to the Digital Excellence Research Summary Report 2019 from industry thought leaders MemberWise, Dynamics 365 now has 23% of the Association Management Systems (AMS) sector, up from 15% in 2018, when it was already the market leader. But what are the key things to think about to decide the best CRM system for membership? Read more

Grow Membership with Microsoft Dynamics Social Engagement

02 November 2018 by Steve Sydee

How to identify and attract the people, messages and activities which are really important to your organisation from within the social media noise and buzz. Read more

How can organisations measure member engagement?

19 October 2018 by Ahmed Eltohamy

Every organisation, whether it realises it or not, sets its culture through the actions of its people and those it comes into contact with. So how do you make sure your culture embraces your membership base and keeps them fully engaged? Meet the smartengagement Index. Read more

Artificial Intelligence for Membership bodies

12 October 2018 by Naresh Raj

We’ve covered a lot about CRM basics in membership recently, so we thought we’d look at some more advanced technology. One term you would have heard everywhere over the past few years is Artificial Intelligence (AI). So let's explore that... Read more

Building on ‘engagement moments’

28 September 2018 by Steve Sydee

We’ve recently been talking about membership engagement and how focusing on improving member engagement is the key to success for membership organisations. Read more

Back to basics: tips on working with your Membership CRM supplier

13 September 2018 by Steve Sydee

As part of our ‘back to basics’ series, we’ve looked at what good Membership CRM systems can do for your organisation, and some of the things you can do to drive internal adoption through good planning and management. Today, we’ll have a look at effective working with suppliers, so you can get a productive and long-term relationship from which everyone benefits. Read more

Back to basics: overcoming the challenges of investing in CRM

21 August 2018 by Becky Reid

Part 1 of our ‘back to basics’ series looked at what CRM is and how it can help membership organisations, associations and professional bodies attract more members, raise retention rates, and provide better and more cost-effective services. Now we’ll take that thinking one step further and look at the issues around investing in CRM and how to overcome them. Read more

Back to basics: Membership CRM

09 August 2018 by Lauren Smith

We’ve recently been engaged in conversations with a number of membership associations where it became clear they didn’t have a clear idea about what a modern, integrated CRM system could do for them. Read more

Are you stuck on a legacy CRM system?

02 August 2018 by Lauren Smith

Unless you’ve been living in a vacuum recently, you’ll know that audiences expect you to be aware of their wants and needs and communicate with them accordingly. However, many membership bodies are still struggling to meet expectations because their traditional legacy systems have fallen behind. Read more

Why you should upgrade your Dynamics CRM to Dynamics 365

26 July 2018 by Naresh Raj

Microsoft Dynamics is the leading membership CRM among membership associations, with over 15% market share and rising. So, like many other membership organisations, you might be using Microsoft Dynamics CRM but are you getting all you can from it? Read more

6 common membership CRM system misconceptions

19 July 2018 by Steve Sydee

At smartimpact, we are often called in by organisations who have become disappointed with their current CRM partner, to do our project ‘rescue & relaunch’ service. Read more

5 questions for your membership CRM supplier pt1

05 July 2018 by Steve Sydee

At smartimpact we are often called in by organisations who, for a wide range of reasons, have become disappointed with their current membership solution and are looking for someone to rescue the project. This means we have a good insight into what often goes wrong, and what is needed to make a successful system. Read more

5 questions for your membership CRM supplier pt2

05 July 2018 by Steve Sydee

Last week I gave you two of the five key questions you should be asking your current or potential CRM supplier. This post covers the final three questions so, without further ado, let’s find out what they are... Read more

5 ways to transform your email marketing effectiveness

28 June 2018 by Becky Reid

How to get your email messages in front of your audiences. Read more

7 key member engagement statistics

25 June 2018 by Steve Sydee

On June 20th, smartimpact and MemberWise ran a Select CRM seminar in London, with around 30 membership associations attending, ranging from large to very small. The session was aimed at helping organisations identify how to find and select suppliers to help migrate them from old or no-longer-fit for purpose systems. Read more

Legacy membership database v CRM: what’s the difference?

19 June 2018 by Steve Sydee

Are you still stuck on a legacy membership database, or feel you aren’t getting the best out of your CRM? Then read on... Read more

Countdown to GDPR: 5 practical things to do before 25th May

16 April 2018 by Becky Reid

It’s only a matter of weeks to go now until GDPR comes into force. Rather than talk about the principles of the regulation, which hopefully you are up to speed with now, I thought I could provide a checklist to help you focus on some practical actions you should make sure are implemented prior to 25th May. Read more

The holy grail of system integration

26 March 2018 by Naresh Raj

What does proper systems integration mean to Charities and Membership Associations in practical terms and why should you focus on getting this right? Read more

Trade association v professional body: spot the difference

13 February 2018 by Naresh Raj

I was at an event recently and a fellow attendee questioned why speakers often assume that, when referring to a professional body, it is about individual membership as opposed to a corporate membership. People as opposed to companies. Read more

If you always do what you’ve always done...

04 January 2018 by Naresh Raj

If you’ve been organising your events the same way you’ve always done it, it’s time for a change. I’m not talking about the type of events you run, necessarily, or the content or style of them. I’m referring to how you organise them - what systems and processes you have in place and where you invest most of your time and effort. Read more

Automated profiling and GDPR

22 November 2017 by smartimpact team

With the fine detail still being worked out by the EU and the Information Commissioner’s Office, it’s important to keep up to date with developments around the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Read more

GDPR - what you need to know

25 October 2017 by Ahmed Eltohamy

How does GDPR affect membership management you and how your members engage with you? What changes should put in place within your Membership CRM database? Here are five things you should know. Read more

Benchmarking - how do you compare?

29 August 2017 by Ahmed Eltohamy

This year’s membership benchmarking report by Sue Froggatt has now been published and it contains some really interesting insights. Read more

Make the right CRM choices Pt 2

31 July 2017 by Charbel Abi-Maroun

In last month’s blog I gave a couple of tips for finding the right membership CRM solution. Now that you’ve done that (and I’m sure decided upon Microsoft Dynamics 365 - the top membership CRM) it’s time to find the right membership CRM provider. Read more

Make the right CRM choices pt 1

27 June 2017 by Charbel Abi-Maroun

It might sound like a sales pitch when a membership software provider writes or presents about choosing the best membership CRM provider & system for you, and sometimes it is. But not this time. It’s important that the supplier and membership organisation work closely together building on the right platform. Read more

Spreading the engagement word

03 May 2017 by Ahmed Eltohamy

We’re all about engagement at the moment. Not the ‘hearts & flowers’ sort but the ‘connecting with your members’ sort. Read more

Takeaways, buzzwords and chatbots

13 March 2017 by Becky Reid

Also known as ‘what happened at the dotmailer summit 2017’. One of the highlights of March this year was our attendance at the inaugural dotmailer summit. Read more

New Year New Opportunity for Association Leaders

18 January 2017 by Ahmed Eltohamy

The start of a new calendar year is a time when people make change. Some want to and some are actively encouraged to but whichever way it happens there is always change. Read more

Putting the ‘R’ into CRM

08 December 2016 by Naresh Raj

Like many people nowadays, the nature of our jobs at smartimpact means we spend a fair amount of time sat at our desks hunched over a laptop. But it’s always good to get out and about, meet people to talk about association management software, and share best practice - putting the ‘R’ into CRM, if you like. Read more

Letting your CRM take the heat out of events

11 April 2016 by Naresh Raj

Have you ever considered getting your CRM to manage more than just contact data? Ever wondered if it could manage your events? And I’m not talking about it just recording bookings or attendance fed in from a third party-system or your website CMS. Read more

Helping those who help others

26 February 2016 by Naresh Raj

One of our recent CRM implementations neatly showcases two key areas that we often talk about - system integration and data consolidation. Read more

Up in the G-Cloud

02 February 2016 by Ahmed Eltohamy

It is with great pride that we can announce that smartimpact has been awarded a position as a Crown Commercial Service (CCS) supplier for the second year running. Put simply we are now included on the G-Cloud 7 agreement. Read more

Love Your Data

10 January 2016 by Naresh Raj

According to a number of organisations (Gartner, IBM etc.) who have researched the CRM industry, only 20% of CRM implementations succeed in meeting their original objectives (thanks Pareto). Read more

Integration: the key to CRM implementation

03 January 2016 by Naresh Raj

The problem with a lack of integration When I refer to ‘integration’ I don’t just mean integration with your website or email platform; I am referring to all your business systems that process contact data, such as finance, purchase and sales. Read more

What’s so good about Microsoft Dynamics 2016?

06 December 2015 by Naresh Raj

Microsoft has announced the next update of Dynamics is due out soon but just what’s so good about this major release and what does it mean for membership organisations? Read more

Is your organisation getting any (CRM) satisfaction?

24 November 2015 by Naresh Raj

Membership organisations are adopting digital systems to better service members, but there’s a long way to go says the Memberwise Harnessing the Web survey Read more

Personalising for a Better Member Experience

05 February 2015 by Ahmed Eltohamy

I recently did a joint presentation at the Memberwise ‘Harnessing the Web’ Conference with web agency Pixl8 Interactive. Our focus was how to provide members and/or customers with a personalised web service that goes beyond simple self-service. Read more

How good is your CRM supplier at integrating systems?

11 November 2014 by smartimpact team

This blog is part of an ongoing series where I’ll look at various aspects of successful CRM projects and focus on some key areas that often lead to project failure or under performance. Today, I’m thinking about integration and hope to cover some insights and some of the questions you can ask to make sure you get this right in your organisation. Read more

New Social Insights in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013

11 December 2013 by smartimpact team

In all the Dynamics CRM 2013 hubbub about the new look and feel, extra functionality, ease of use, business process tracking, and so on, one announcement that we at smartimpact think is really interesting has gone rather unnoticed. Read more

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 new look and feel

11 November 2013 by smartimpact team

At last, to great excitement, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 has been released, and it is a big change to move things forwards. There are lots of functional changes, some technical differences, but the immediate impression is of the new look and feel which we’ll discuss in this smartimpact CRM article. Read more