Golf Association Migrates from Dynamics & Zendesk into HubSpot
OVERVIEW Golf Association re-platforms to HubSpot CRM and streamlines operations.
This story is about a national golf association that refused to allow its brand name or trademarks to be used in publications. The actual name of the association has been adapted due to this restriction. We'll refer to the client as "NGA" for the sake of anonymity.
While a lot about the association has changed over nearly two centuries of operations, the need to address its CRM and business operations was front of mind when NGA's primary contact first met with Instrumental Group. As Director of Sales and Operations, he was looking to streamline his team's day-to-day activities.
He had goals of consolidating the technology stacks, improving integrated data, and simplifying operations. Our team assisted with scoping, evaluation, and putting together a plan of attack to move the organization forward into a brighter future.
CHALLENGE Cobbled systems creating inefficient operations.
When Instrumental Group began assessment of the infrastructure the Director of Sales and Operations was frustrated by the current state of his technology. He knew the team was struggling to operate within their roles, and felt helpless to make positive change.
- Inefficient operations through a cobbled tech stack including Netsuite, Shopify, Zendesk, Dynamics, Jira and HubSpot.
- MS Dynamics 365 instance was a mess, with field sprawl will making it difficult to manage relationships.
- They had absolutely no control over their data, prohibiting operations and reporting.
- A lack of integration between their software solutions meant nothing talked to each other and data didn't sync.
- Missing visibility required a massive amount of sign-ins and bouncing between systems with a ton of duplicate entry.
- Team members were struggling to be self-sufficient and be more productive.
GOALS Improve efficiencies and develop user self-sufficiency.
The Director was determined to streamline operations, remove obstacles, and free his team to do their jobs. He was looking for help unwinding their complexities and streamlining operations by achieving key objectives.
- Reinvent the sales process in HubSpot CRM+Sales, aborting Microsoft Dynamics
- Replace Zendesk ticket functionality with HubSpot Service and integrate with Jira
- Integrate NetSuite and HubSpot to support fulfillment and financial accuracy
- Migrate critical record data and engagement history from Dynamics and Zendesk
- Integrate HubSpot with Shopify to reflect purchase data and empower automation
- Remain operational throughout the project, while training each team prior to roll-out
An ambitious re-platforming project was approved, with the goal of pulling together all software, teams, and operations in a fully integrated technology stack centered in the HubSpot CRM Platform.
SOLUTIONS HubSpot CRM platform integration strategy
The entire implementation plan would be executed over a 6-month timeline, with 5 critical phases to work through together:
- Discovery & Workflow Mapping
- Whole-System Design
- HubSpot CRM & Service Architecture
- Multi-platform Migration & Integration
- Multi-team Roll Out Training
Discovery
Complex projects require a structured discovery process. We set out through a series of research-focused time blocks and planning calls:
- Prep & Access
- Stakeholder Alignment
- System Audit
- Discovery Sequence
- User Story Development
- Requirements Mapping
System Design
The design phase includes an Architecture Map with swim lanes to organize activities and triggers along the customer journey.
- How prospects experience the customer journey
- How users would manage relationships within the CRM
- Sales process automation to improve visibility into relationship status
- Automated business development activity along the entire journey
- CRM activity, attribution, qualification parameters, and reporting criteria
- All software leveraged by marketing, sales, service, and finance teams
- Lifecycle progression throughout the journey for automation triggers
System Architecture
This phase included implementing HubSpot to specifications for all operators. Here's a high-level recap of inclusions:
- Custom Properties & Objects to organize data and capture critical information related to products, cases, and customer relationships.
- Sales and Ticket pipelines to progress deals and cases.
- Workflows to automate communication, notifications, and internal team tasks.
- Lists for organizing contacts, leads, and other data to facilitate targeted communication and segmentation.
- Reporting dashboards for each team's activity and performance.
Migration & Integration
NGA wouldn't realize the value of a single system until data was flowing in and out of HubSpot CRM. Our team used a combination of migration techniques and native integrations to:
- Migrate record data and engagement history from MS Dynamics into HubSpot.
- Migrate record data and ticket history from Zendesk into HubSpot.
- Integrate Shopify to pass purchase behavior into HubSpot.
- Integrate Jira to sync tickets from HubSpot.
- Integrate NetSuite to automate financial data for accounting.
Team Training
A customized training curriculum was developed to build awareness, create desire, develop knowledge, foster ability, and reinforce change and adoption. The ADKAR Change Management was delivered through the following:
- Change Management Plan to raise awareness, set expectations, and generate a desire for change.
- System Tours so the USGA team understood how HubSpot was configured.
- Role-Based Training including preparation assignments, process review, and resources.
- Software Orientation Training to ensure team members were aware of HubSpot's features & capabilities.
- System Documentation with standard operating procedures (SOP) and a library of training resources for refreshers and new employee onboarding.
TRANSITION Next up, dealing with decades of poor hygiene.
As NGA team reviewed their new home it was clear that they had additional issues. It seemed the Director had underestimated how poorly his team had managed their relationships and data. The data state of their records was in disarray. To further complicate matters, he was unable to get approval for additional technology to automate the data cleansing and hygiene process. He was in a pickle.
Instrumental Group came to the rescue yet again, offering data cleansing and hygiene services with creative workaround and the use of Ops Hub. Our team spent several months following the project supporting the internal team, executing hygiene strategies, and manually updating records to improve the workability and relationship management capabilities.