Kardinia Park Stadium Trust

The Kardinia Park Stadium Trust (KPST) is a statutory authority established under the Kardinia Park Stadium Act, 2016. The Trust has been established to administer, promote and manage the Kardinia Park Stadium Trust Land, with an overarching objective of contributing to the economic, community and liveability benefits to Geelong, that arise from the use of GMHBA Stadium. The State Government created the Kardinia Park Stadium Trust, with former Victorian Premier Steve Bracks as the first Chair.

Why was your existing CRM solution not meeting your business needs?
Our existing CRM was simply Microsoft Excel and it didn’t meet the business needs because of the following limitations:

• It wasn’t being managed securely
• Duplications and errors were common
• It didn’t serve the purpose for all staff – only a small number
• It didn’t have the ability to track conversations, opportunities, notes and activities
• Staff have varied knowledge and ability in Excel – therefore the data wasn’t being managed efficiently
• Challenges that come with not being cloud-based such as inability to view on a phone easily

What challenges and objectives led KPST to look for a new solution? How did these challenges manifest themselves into pain points/issues?
Our organisation faces a number of challenges because we are a relatively young/new entity and have grown quickly in a sometimes very complex environment. As our workforce and breadth of business grow, we are facing more challenges related to IT systems and procedures. Many of our systems are now in review for their effectiveness, efficiency and accuracy which, due to the following factors, sometimes falls short:

• The transition from previous Stadium Management Group (local Government) to the Trust included a transfer of historical data and systems – but not everything
• The Trust was formed from the ground up so there were gaps in the data and information from the transition
• With new staff and a new organisation came the creation of new data and connections
• Often data had to be created and managed quickly and re-actively, without a systematic or future-proofed approach
• Software systems were often implemented quickly and re-actively, without a systematic or future-proofed approach

In regards to stakeholder and contact management, what were the main issues that KPST have experienced?

• Data duplication
• Lack of visibility/transparency of company-wide data
• Data classifications or ‘fields’ that were only relevant to a few users and not company wide
• Currently, marketing lists aren’t being maximised and they aren’t growing and thriving
• Lack of system integration

What were the most challenging aspects of the project and how did FiveP help?

• Staff adoption – FiveP provided realistic advice and terrific plain-English templates around change management. Although we are a small team it is often a challenge to get all the key staff members together to have input into the project build. By using templates from the start, our staff were able to have input even if they couldn’t make it to the meetings physically. The email templates that step the staff through the process were also very useful for me.
• Data input – There is a lot of work in getting the data ready for input and ‘go live’. I was pushed to work with the data and gather it from multiple places in the organisation. However, FiveP were patient, encouraging and always available for me to reach out for help.

What was the solution that was implemented at KPST?
We have implemented Dynamics 365 in a Quick Start roll out as our CRM. We are in the early stages of consolidating our data and improving the way we do business. We wanted to create a single source of truth where all contacts lived no matter which department or business area they belonged to.

We engage with a lot of Government contacts and other complex stakeholders, and will use Dynamics 365 to help navigate the relationships between our contacts. For example, FiveP have enabled easy identification of the contact relationship within our organisation (committees, group membership) as well as external connections (chair, board member, volunteer) so we can easily see linkages.

The other important element of our solution is around Marketing. We are configuring Dynamics 365 to integrate with our web presence and provide the opportunity to grow our lists.

What difference has this made for KPST’s team and their ability to meet their CRM needs?
The solution has meant that the KPST team have had a chance to stop and review current practices and it has highlighted the need to have one single approach – that we have CRM needs at all. It has given the team insight into how our data is currently maintained and what we need as a business to grow into the future. There are also KPST team members for whom this project has been empowering. They have had their chance to input into the design of the CRM and have their workflows considered when discussing business-wide needs.

What are the benefits that you are experiencing?
Dynamics 365 is already providing a single platform – a single source of truth. For our early adopters such as our Business Development Manager, the data is now informative. It is providing further depth into our daily management of stakeholders because of the activity tracking. The data is also now managed in a transparent manner which is unifying for our business. One of the outcomes of the solution is the breakdown of silos and consideration of business-wide data rather than department-only data.

What’s next? Where do you see your Dynamics 365 platform taking you?
I look forward to a more efficient way to communicate with our stakeholders, manage relationships, and streamline our outcomes such as marketing. Dynamics 365 will ensure we manage our data in a professional and secure manner. In the future, I hope to see further integration of Dynamics 365 into workflow (Forms) as well as creating customer service processes and templates. As Event Management is a large part of our core business, we look forward to exploring the total capabilities of Dynamics 365 to see if it will be suitable for that type of project management also.