Success Story | Hamilton College’s Journey to ascend by Kindsight: A Case Study in Successful CRM Implementation

Your organization has selected a new CRM. Exciting times ahead! How will you prepare your teams and organizations for the journey of CRM transition?

The key to a successful transition lies in ongoing staff engagement and involvement that fosters trust in the new system. This provides a solid foundation for your organization’s growth and strategic goals.

As we’ll explore with Hamilton College below, a strategic approach, effective project management, and trusted advocates are essential in guiding you through the journey of CRM transition.

Hamilton College

Hamilton College is a private liberal arts college in New York State that features a need-blind admission policy and an open curriculum. The college was established as the Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and received its charter as Hamilton College in 1812 in honor of Alexander Hamilton, one of its inaugural trustees. Alexander Hamilton, was a U.S. statesman, first secretary of the U.S. Treasury, and inspiration for the Broadway musical Hamilton.

After using the same fundraising and engagement system for over three decades, Hamilton College was eager to embrace a new solution and selected ascend by Kindsight (built on Salesforce) as its new system.

Recognizing the complexity of implementing the new CRM, Hamilton’s Advancement Information Services team sought external support from JCA in the areas of project management and policy and procedure documentation to complement their internal resources. Although the college had staff with management skills, their existing workload and time constraints made it difficult to fully oversee the CRM implementation.

For 15 months, Hamilton’s Advancement Information Services and Library Information Technology Services teams worked in conjunction with Huron Consulting’s Implementation Specialist Team and JCA to implement the CRM. The college formed teams to handle configuration and design, data mapping, testing, reporting, and system integrations. The project involved thousands of intricate details and interconnected decisions that required continuous focus.

Project Management for a Successful Implementation

Hamilton and JCA formed a collaborative project management partnership that included two team members from each organization.

Hamilton’s team members brought deep process knowledge, strong team connections, and valuable logistics and scheduling support. JCA provided essential project management expertise and ensured continuity throughout the project, allowing the dedicated Hamilton teams to focus on their tasks.

JCA maintained a forward-thinking perspective, considering the upcoming week, month, and months ahead.

Project Planning and Execution

To lay the groundwork, Hamilton College and JCA collaborated on project planning efforts both before the project started and throughout its duration, as needed to reevaluate and refresh the plan.

Key planning activities included:

• Defining success: Hamilton College’s goals and criteria for success were incorporated into the project charter that launched the project, providing a clear vision for the project.

• Identifying and Mitigating Risks: Potential risks were identified, assessed, and strategies were developed to mitigate them. This helped to pinpoint the highest-priority risks that needed to be monitored throughout the project.

• Optimizing Team Roles: Hamilton College and JCA collaborated to match staff expertise and skills with appropriate project roles. As the project progressed, roles evolved and were reassessed. JCA documented the project roles and responsibilities to serve as a reference when onboarding new team members.

• Defining the Minimum Viable Product (MVP): A shared understanding of the MVP and its critical criteria was established. This focused the Hamilton team’s efforts during user acceptance testing on crucial project work leading up to the go-live date. The Project Sponsor used this information to introduce the MVP concepts to the Hamilton Leadership team and key stakeholders. The MVP approach helped to build consensus and support for the most critical items across teams and leadership levels.

Advocating for Success

Implementation projects can be demanding and stressful, often leading to feelings of pressure and fatigue. Having a trusted partner who has been through the process can make a significant difference. During discussions, whether one-on-one or in group settings, JCA offered tailored guidance and feedback that included sharing ideas, recommendations, validation, and alternative perspectives.

Strategic Guidance

JCA provided guidance on essential areas like effective communication, project roles, user acceptance testing preparation, and go-live criteria.

This guidance allowed Hamilton to make better decisions, solve problems efficiently, and resolve conflicts effectively.

Bridging the Communication Gap

The abundance of acronyms and technical jargon used in projects can be confusing and overwhelming. JCA actively listened to identify what information was being shared, what was missing, and when and where people seemed to understand or misunderstand the information.

Hamilton and JCA collaborated during project meetings and discussions to bridge potential understanding gaps. This helped to mitigate the risk of inconsistent understanding, differing next steps, and ultimately wasted time and rework.

Streamlining Information Flow

Hamilton needed to effectively manage information flow to ensure the right people received the right information at the right time. The core team at Hamilton met with JCA weekly to review current and upcoming priorities, identify challenges, and address questions and issues.

This helped the team stay focused and organized by clarifying who was responsible for which tasks, with whom they were collaborating, and when the tasks were due.

These meetings were particularly important when the team needed to take immediate action to address an issue or risk. They also helped streamline communication for next steps by clarifying what information needed to be shared, clarified, confirmed, addressed, or escalated. Hamilton also identified the lead communicator and the appropriate timing for these communications.

Connecting the Dots

Hamilton participated in different types of project meetings with focused objectives, such as learning, discussing, making decisions, problem-solving, or completing tasks.

Hamilton and JCA worked together to connect the interrelated web of information that emerged from the various meetings. For example:

• There was a cross-section of teams and organizations who attended the system Integrations meetings.
• Hamilton, JCA and Huron Consulting met to confirm that the scheduled meetings aligned with the project deliverables and deadlines and to determine if any changes were necessary.
• The Hamilton College Project Sponsor met with JCA to discuss the highest-priority items, challenges, risks, and next steps.
• Hamilton and JCA met to plan or discuss specific topics such as user acceptance testing or defining criteria for critical go-live.

These efforts helped to mitigate the risks of information silos and ensure that relevant information was considered during discussions and decision-making.

Going Live

Focused planning followed by months of dedicated effort and thoughtful decision-making laid the critical foundation for the CRM go-live. The process is as important as the outcome.

“Hamilton pursued an aggressive timeline and transformative Salesforce implementation,” said John Nannas, Executive Director of Advancement Information Systems and Business Intelligence at Hamilton College. “Often project reassessment and realignment was necessary and JCA was key in helping keep us on track. JCA’s project management and industry guidance efforts helped keep us grounded, focused, and even provided an empathetic ear from time to time.”

Hamilton successfully went live with ascend in February 2024, marking a significant milestone. As the college adapts to this transformative change, it’s embracing the new possibilities that the system brings.

Your CRM Partner

JCA can help you navigate the complexities of CRM implementation. Our team draws from decades of experience to provide expert project management, strategic guidance, and ongoing support to ensure your project’s success.

“It was a pleasure working with JCA during Hamilton College’s Salesforce implementation,” said Stacy Chambers, Senior Assistant, Project Management & Development at Hamilton College. “They were great partners throughout the process, aiding in communicating our needs and concerns with our Huron partners and keeping the project moving to meet our goals.”