CRM

Customer Relations Management (CRM) tools are used by business entities to track their relation with the customers, share information within the company regarding clients and to create new business opportunities. CRM tools ease the process of identifying, contacting, following-up and evaluating customer needs and satisfaction. Such tools improve communication among the different actors and increase productivity and efficiency.

Need of a CRM for EGI

Ibergrid is setting up a [[ http://crm.egi.eu | CRM ]] tool based on vTiger to support the "Community Outreach" activity of the NGIs and EGI.eu in a number of areas: - Recording identified contacts & leads to user communities; associate information with these leads based on interviews, discussions - Gathering intelligence about scientific communities, institutes and projects and about topics of collaboration with them - Monitoring activities and progress in community outreach topics - Helping NILs and EGI.eu staff locate expertise inside NGIs

The CRM system has been tuned according to the needs identified by the "Intelligence Collection & Analysis Process" and "ESFRI Contact List" Virtual Team projects in the last two months. (https://wiki.egi.eu/wiki/Virtual_Team_Projects) The features and configuration of the CRM system were presented to the NILs in a [ https://www.egi.eu/indico/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=818 | webminar celebrated in February the 12th ]. Based on the feedback collected at this event the CRM is being fine tuned and will be opened for the NGIs and EGI.eu.

The EGI CRM is accessible to NILs (https://wiki.egi.eu/wiki/NGI_International_Liaison) and EGI.eu members by using the EGI SSO credentials which are integrated in the Vtiger authentication mechanisms. NILs can include other actors forming a network of trust by requesting the access through egicrm.helpdesk@lip.pt.

This document constitutes a short guide to use the system for different use cases.

Who is the CRM for

The CRM processes can be broken down into the following three categories:

- Operational: Automation of certain business processes. xxxx − Collaborative: Emphasis on client / institutes interactions. This is an important point for EGI. EGI clients and partners are distributed and have conversations among them can happen at different places, contexts and times. There is therefore a need to share information. − Analytical: Process that may lead to strategies or methods changes. Through the use of the CRM it will be possible to identify bottlenecks and new opportunities. A portfolio of prospective clients will be constructed.

• Use Case 1 : Recording ESFRI data. ESFRI projects have an international structure that need to be considered for efficiently contacting and supporting them. The collection of the information (global objectives and contact points, national end points and associated contacts) and the tracking of the interaction of NGIs representatives and ESFRI contacts need to be managed at a global level.

• Use Case 2 : NILs interactions

• Use Case 3 : EGI.eu interactions =

How to use the CRM

This section will explain how to implement the use cases defined in the previous section.

The EGI CRM is based on the Open-Source tool [[ http://www.vtiger.com/crm-on-demand/help/ | VTiger ]]. It is easy to use and free, and can be customized. It provides features to 15 modules covering support, inventory, reports, security management, role provisioning, workflows...

The main concepts around CRM are:

• Account: A record for a “client” endpoint (project, institution, university, …).
• Contact: A record for a person associated under an account, used to record conversations.
• Project: Long term work (tasks, milestones) related to a Contact or to an Account.
• Activity: Short term work (calls, ToDos, events) related to a Contact or to an Account.

- data structures

>>> include figure

- manual: how to fill/define/update/monitor

Use Case 1 : Recording ESFRI data

Three data structures are used to implement this use case: Accounts, Contacts and Groups. Accounts are used to track ESFRI projects and endpoint information, Contacts are used to associate individual persons to institutions and groups enable setting permissions. Next figure shows an interaction schema among these entities XXXXX.

Accounts should have a structure that can deal with all the information relevant for identifying topics, endpoints and contact status. along with the basic CRM account information, other fields are added. The list of fields is the following one:

• Account Name, XXX
• Account Number, XXXX
• Institution, of each ESFRI contact point.
• Website, for the institution or specific group represented.
• Email; Other Email, e-mails from contact points.
• Created Time
• Modified Time
• Type, choosing among entity types, such as Company, International Project, National Project, Non-profit Organization, Other, Research Institute, University.
• Scientific Discipline, choosing from Biological and Medical Sciences, Education, Energy, Environment and Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Materials and Analytical Facilities, Other, Physical Sciences and Engineering, Research Industries, Social Sciences and Humanities.
• Project Membership, choosing between ESFRI and Others.
• Project List, choosing the acronym from an already pre-filled list.
• Assigned to, which can be either an individual user or a group (e.g. specific NGI).
• Status

Values of the list categories will be updated in the tool.

Use Case 3 : EGI.eu interactions

FAQ

• Who should access the EGI CRM?

EGI CRM should be accessed by NILs (https://wiki.egi.eu/wiki/NGI_International_Liaison) to form a network of trust and EGI.eu members to follow-on the process.

• How can I access the EGI CRM?

EGI CRM can be accessed through at http://crm.egi.eu by using the EGI credentials (EGI SSO).

• How can I contact CRM administrators?

Through the egicrm.helpdesk@lip.pt contact list.