MS Society of Canada
“It’s rare for IT projects to come in on budget and on time but that’s just what Barker & Scott delivered in a recent engagement for the MS Society of Canada. Their professionalism, scope of knowledge and access to industry 'insiders' were invaluable to our project team. I look forward to future opportunities to work with their team again.”
— David Arbuthnot, VP, Information Technology, National Office
The Story:
For over 60 years the MS Society of Canada has been focused on promoting MS research, services for people with MS and their families, MS clinics, social action, and public education and awareness in order to find a cure for multiple sclerosis and enable people affected by MS to enhance their quality of life. The organization was managing its significant online presence with a custom system built several years ago. A recently completed IT Strategic Review identified replacement of this system as a key initiative for enhancing the Society’s relationships with its donors and increasing fundraising effectiveness. Barker & Scott was engaged to lead phase 1 of this initiative, the requirements analysis and selection of new commercial solution.
The Solution: Requirements Analysis and e-CRM selection
Barker & Scott assembled a cross-functional team of representatives from all business areas of the organization to document and prioritize current and future business requirements, taking into account the following goals: accommodate peak transaction volumes and beyond, enable the migration of traditional donors to an online platform for increased cost savings, implement new functionality to generate new streams of online revenue, and introduce new ways to leverage website visitors for greater engagement in fundraising and advocacy. Using these requirements we then performed a detailed evaluation of the identified 3 leading software solutions to enable the Society to select the best solution for achieving its goals.
The Impact
By completing the project in record time, the organization was able to quickly move into implementation and have key components of the new system up and running to support its signature bike tour events.