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The challenge
Under the bonnet of an industry advocate
Siloed data and unlinked systems meant that the ‘old ways’ of operating were limiting the IMIs success.
Manual workarounds were the go-to solution. But with that approach came duplicated efforts and multiple inefficiencies – not to mention a heightened risk of errors creeping into systems, which directly impacted the experience members had when interacting with the institute.
With membership skyrocketing from 12,000 to 90,000 over just five years, the need to improve the quality of member engagement had become the single greatest challenge the IMI faced.
“If you don’t have data, you act without insight. You cannot manage what you do not understand – it’s just an impossibility.”
Ric Sheldon CTO
“We chose Sempre because they clearly knew Informatica back to front. And more importantly, they brought a business- focused, problem-solving perspective.”
Ric Sheldon Fractional CEO
“Having compared Sempre’s offer to others, it was a much better fit and approach for us. Sempre provided really relevant and relatable examples to us as an organisation, and showed us a realistic path to start solving the issues we faced.”
Dave Baldwin Digital solutions architect
The process | Engineering systems success
We began by mapping out the IMI’s systems and data. Then we listed pain points, and identified the areas in
which could make the biggest difference. Only then did we set to work.
Alongside installing Informatica, a deep review and realignment of the IMI’s data architecture was carried out. This meant sorting, cleansing, and reorganising all data to best meet the IMI’s needs – both operational and strategic.
On top of that, Sempre was behind…
• The building of an operational data store (ODS) to hold the newly cleansed and sorted data
• The consolidation and coupling of systems to streamline workflows
• The setting up of automated data synchronisation and sharing capabilities
Next, we built a powerful API that allows the IMI’s partners to sell its online courses directly, with virtually
zero human effort. Now, the automated booking process takes mere seconds, and means no more manual phone calls or fiddling about with access codes.
To improve internal reporting, a data warehouse was set up, which included Microsoft Power BI for data analytics. This allows IMI staff to easily run reports on its membership data, which can be filtered in multiple ways to analyse changes, spot trends, and create data-driven projections.
Sempre is also helping the IMI to simplify and consolidate its system. This vital work includes switching to Dynamics 365 to manage all customer engagement, which will generate cost savings – by replacing three separate applications with one.
The solution | A system built for comfort and speed
This exciting digital transformation programme is ongoing. But, already, the process of booking courses is a swift, frictionless, minimal-effort experience for partner organisations. As Dave Baldwin explains:
“Instantly, it’s allowed us to win new business, and win back business from other organisations. It’s a massive success. Delivery has been seamless since it went live. It’s been fantastic for the confidence of the business – a great example of how we’ve bought something in, changed our approach, and made it work.”
Delivering clean, well-formatted data into Dynamics 365 has thrown open a dazzling array of new possibilities for the IMI to significantly improve their member experience and engagement.
Now they can effectively target and deliver marketing activities for different customer segments, and use automation to work more efficiently. Dave explains:
“The real benefit in terms of our ability to market effectively is the breadth of data that is now packed into Dynamics 365 for us to use. Now our communications team have the tools and the data to be much more dynamic and proactive in keeping in touch with our members, in ways that just weren’t achievable before.”
From improving the quality of the organisation’s data, to consolidating systems and streamlining processes, we’re already helping the IMI see the benefits of enhanced data management. In fact, revenue has increased as a direct result of the minimal effort course buying process we specially created and built.
As the IMI continues to plan more effectively and report more accurately, it’s delivering an ever-better experience for its members – and an ever-brighter road ahead for itself.
What keeps me up at night? Data quality, data availability and the trust of my business colleagues as an IT director. What gets me up in the morning? Working with Sempre to fix all that stuff. Sempre bring a straightforward, human, problem-solving approach, and that’s made a huge difference.”
"The organisational transformation programme as a whole could not have been as successful as it has been without Sempre. They’ve been absolutely lynchpin, because of their commitment to problem solving. Not focusing on the tech, but focusing on where the data comes from and what you’re trying to do with it, and what you want as the end goal. So it’s not a tech conversation. We don’t talk about Power BI
and Informatica. We talk about: how can I get reports on a standardised dashboard to predict membership dips, or to show me how many MOT sales I’ve got during January?”
"With Sempre, there’s a real depth of collaboration which has been great. They’re not just looking to tick a box, to install tech for tech’s sake. We discuss problems and see how we can best tackle them. I can’t think of anything Sempre have done that hasn’t exceeded expectations in terms of quality or timeframe as well.”
"We’ve met so many targets and achieved so much, but it’s all been done by putting the right foundations in and getting the data set up right. Each conversation with Sempre is about how we can reuse parts of systems, to get extra benefit from them. And that’s often led to us being able to achieve one thing and then very quickly roll out other parts we hadn’t even intended to pick up, as the business has pivoted and we’ve managed to keep pace. That really shows the benefit of the work we’ve done.”
“The foundations that we’ve put in place through the work we’ve done with Sempre – it’s built a confidence.
It’s changed the ways of working. It’s changed the conversation. It’s changed the culture to some degree, which is unheard of from an IT perspective. Now we talk about the business benefits and outcomes rather than the tech. We’re more proactive, less reactive.”
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