Leading UK software provider, The Access Group, is helping the vital work of two local community groups that are part of a global Covid-19 support movement by providing, at no cost, its newly-launched, agile customer relationship management (CRM) system, Access NFP CRM, designed for smaller charities and not-for-profit organisations.
The two groups that have so far benefitted from the free software are LoughboroughAgainstCorona and OxfordAgainstCorona. Both are local divisions of the global StudentsAgainstCorona movement. The movement sees students and other community volunteers working together to help those adversely affected by Covid-19, through actions such as delivering food parcels and prescriptions to vulnerable and self-isolating persons.
With both CRM systems up and running in just a matter of days, The Access Group is now exploring ways to provide the CRM to the other 21 #againstcorona community groups throughout the UK. Using the CRM in this capacity would mean that scalable tools could be created centrally, and then deployed to local hubs at a regional and national level.
The LoughboroughAgainstCorona group currently has over 800 volunteers and the OxfordAgainstCorona group has over 300 volunteers. Between them, both groups have carried out nearly 1,000 requests, including collecting prescriptions and delivering shopping, making referrals to the correct services and working with care homes and hospitals, providing them with their amazing volunteers.
Prior to The Access Group’s assistance, both groups were manually creating multiple excel spreadsheets to track the details of volunteers, requests for help and available resources. This process was not only time-consuming, but unreliable in terms of ensuring all volunteers were working from the latest information.
Now, LoughboroughAgainstCorona and OxfordAgainstCorona are able to host all of this information in Access NFP CRM, a simple cloud-based CRM system. This means that the groups each benefit from one central database with CRM functionality that enables them to store, match and allocate requests for help against their volunteers and available resources quickly and easily. The CRM also enables both groups to track and manage vital operational tasks, such as safeguarding protocols.
Kokulan Mahendiran, head of the OxfordAgainstCorona branch, comments: “The Access Group’s CRM has made a real difference in our day-to-day work by substantially streamlining operations and allowing us to dedicate more of our time to helping out vulnerable and isolated individuals in our community. Even allowing our volunteers to spend a few more minutes speaking to isolated individuals coping with loneliness makes a very real difference in their lives.”
Craig Brown, co-head of the StudentsAgainstCorona movement, adds: “The Access Group has innovated our entire operations process and, thanks to their generosity and support, we now have a safe and efficient way to ensure that we can grow to meet the increasing demand for help, and utilise the overwhelming willingness to help that has been displayed by all facets of the Loughborough community.”
Simon Baines, Managing Director, Not for Profit and Education at The Access Group, concludes: “We first started working with LoughboroughAgainstCorona as the group is based on the same campus as our HQ, and we wanted to provide support to our local community. We’re thrilled that this support is now expanding to include other branches of the movement.
“These groups are perfect example of volunteers working together to provide frontline support and help to those in need during the challenges presented by Covid-19. We’re really pleased to support their valuable work with the free use of our Access NFP CRM, meaning that both groups can now harness modern, cutting-edge technology to streamline and simplify their crucial operations.”
