Hitachi Consulting UK Helps Significantly Improve Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s Key Stakeholder Communication Strategy

Microsoft Dynamics 4.0 Solution Helps Charity Coordinate and Manage Contact with Key Stakeholders

LONDON — December 7, 2009 — Hitachi Consulting United Kingdom today announced that it has completed the successful implementation of a new contact relationship management (CRM) system for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF). Based on Microsoft Dynamics 4.0 the new system enables JRF to coordinate and manage contact with key stakeholders more strategically and professionally, whilst also significantly improving its ability to manage events.



JRF is an endowed foundation that funds a large, UK-wide research and development programme to understand the root causes of social problems, identifying ways of overcoming them and highlighting how social needs can be met in practice.

Julia Lewis, Communications Director, JRF, said, “Hitachi Consulting was awarded the contract based on the professionalism of their presentation. They clearly understood our brief and had prepared an impressive matrix detailing where Microsoft Dynamics CRM would fit and where it wouldn’t. The consultants delivering the presentation were also going to be the same consultants who would be responsible for the implementation. They are very approachable, knowledgeable and gave us every confidence they could deliver.”

JRF had identified the need to have a more systematic means of managing information on its 10,000+ key stakeholder contacts through a CRM system. Prior to the implementation, JRF’s contact data was stored in numerous fragmented sources. It also needed to assist JRF’s event team with the smooth running of event management and reporting.

Hitachi Consulting has a proven track record of delivering complex CRM solutions based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. With a dedicated Dynamics Practice and consultants with experience working in the charitable sector, Hitachi Consulting was well positioned to implement a solution that worked to meet JRF’s requirements, budget and timescale. Hitachi Consulting delivered JRF’s CRM solution using its Consensus Toolset, a comprehensive framework of tools and processes designed to work on increasing certainty, reducing cost, and shortening time to go-live for its Dynamics implementations.

Julia Lewis commented, “Hitachi Consulting’s consultants’ expert knowledge of the Dynamics technology was extremely helpful. Rather than producing solutions that we had to adapt to, they took our processes into consideration and designed an automated solution to meet their needs. In my experience this kind of capability and flexibility is very unusual.” Hitachi Consulting conducted a workshop-led inception phase with staff enabling Hitachi Consulting’s consultants to review whether Dynamics was a high level fit at the strategic level, and gain a full understanding of the key business drivers, time dependencies and any other risks that might affect the project. Following completion of this phase, Hitachi Consulting devised a comprehensive project plan that mitigated the risks and worked to meet the client’s objectives, timelines and budget.

Following completion of the CRM solution, Hitachi Consulting delivered training to JRF’s key users and provided them with support material to assist in the roll-out of training to users going forward. Julia Lewis added, “Staff have now adopted the CRM system and are using it to record notes from meetings with stakeholders and notify colleagues that new information is available using the short cut email function. This was a really quick win for us. We can easily access the history and activity for each stakeholder or their organisation before contacting them which makes us more efficient and professional. We’re extremely happy with the solution Hitachi Consulting has delivered and the relationship we have developed with them.”