Inland Northwest Council, Boy Scouts of America Benefits from
PlanPlus™ Online by FranklinCovey with Outstanding Results
Overview
The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) was organized nearly 100 years ago and has become the largest non-profit organization in the United States. The mission of BSA is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices during their lifetime by teaching them timeless values through services, teamwork and other dynamic methods.
Successfully instilling values such as honesty, integrity, frugality and loyalty into the lives of our nation's young people requires competent and engaged executives. In order for the BSA to fulfill its mission, it is imperative that BSA administration excel in the areas of time, priority and relationship management.
Challenge
Steven Yackel, Director of Field Services for the Inland Northwest Council of BSA, on any given day can find himself in need of tracking anything from new unit prospect development, to how many cases of popcorn were sold at a local scouting fundraiser. With nine executives managing the growth and progress of over 13,000 scouts, Yackel and his staff have their work cut out for them.
Last year when Yackel set out to find a better way to enable his staff to reach their goals, he knew that no ordinary program would fit his needs. He needed a combination of easily accessible technology with proven methodology that would not only allow managers and leaders to track information and generate more business, but help his staff to better prioritize their daily and weekly tasks and improve their overall time and relationship management.
Solution
As Yackel examined his options he came across PlanPlus™ Online by FranklinCovey, which was developed jointly with COMPLETExRM, an Enterprise 2.0 CRM provider for small and medium businesses.
Yackel integrated PlanPlus™ Online into his daily business in early 2007. PlanPlus™ Online is built on COMPLETExRM's xRM Foundation, which is Java-based, service oriented application delivered through the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model.
PlanPlus™ Online easily integrates customizable CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solutions, such as contact management, marketing automation and sales automation with the FranklinCovey planning methodology of task management, daily and weekly planning, among others for individuals and organizations to utilize virtually anytime, anywhere via the Internet.
"I chose to implement PlanPlus™ Online in my council because it provides a great CRM platform, combined with the methodology of FranklinCovey's prioritization and task management, " Yackel said. "PlanPlus™ Online allows me to spend less time gathering data and more time coaching and mentoring my staff on the issues that really matter. Microsoft Outlook® alone was not satisfactory; PlanPlus™ Online met our needs in an organized online format."
Results
"The staff at COMPLETExRM has been very helpful in customizing PlanPlus™ Online to fit our specific business needs. They have been very helpful in training me and my staff. They have been able to present PlanPlus™ Online to us in incremental steps, ultimately allowing us to implement the programs full strength into our organization."
By using PlanPlus™ Online, Yackel and his staff were able to help increase the council's membership by the largest margin to date. The council received an increase of 3.5 percent membership growth during their Fall Round-Up Campaign compared to a loss of members the year prior. They were able to use CRM, business processes and planning services of PlanPlus™ Online to manage every aspect of each individual recruiting event by keeping track of all the people and resources involved.
At any given time, Yackel is able to check the progress of his staff and their projects, with minimal effort. This allows him to spend less time on the clerical side of the reporting and management process and more time working with the people on the projects that really matter.
Yackel realizes that they are only using PlanPlus™ Online at about 50 percent of its total capability and looks forward to receiving more training in what it can do to fill his growing business needs.
"Even though PlanPlus™ Online is a Web-based system, its speed and reliability is comparable to having the software directly on your machine."
