We’ve talked before about governmental agencies big and small turning to Microsoft Dynamics CRM, not for customer relationship management per se, but for what we might call constituent relationship management. Recently, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom deployed Microsoft Dynamics CRM to handle its critical case management systems.
The UK Supreme Court separated from the Ministry of Justice network, and it was the job of IT chief Paul Brigland and his small IT team to find and deploy the best case management solution. They were replacing an aging case management system that was part of the Ministry of Justice’s infrastructure, and was not an ideal solution for the Supreme Court. Brigland says of the old system, “It wasn’t easy to adapt, or to get statistical reports written without a lot of trouble or a lot of expense. It wasn’t easy to adapt to changing needs.”
A cloud deployment of Microsoft Dynamics CRM was the solution for them. Brigland says, “We identified fairly early on that we were going to stick with Microsoft because we wanted to keep things fairly familiar and still be able to use Outlook, Excel and all the stuff end users were using, and Dynamics allowed that.” All users were able to join in the effort of customizing the solution to be a perfect fit for them, which had not been true of the previous system.
Brigland says Microsoft Dynamics CRM has had a big positive impact since its deployment two years ago, adding that justices are “now increasingly taking their laptops into the court with them. And that cuts down our storage of paper, which is very expensive.” And now they are looking at enabling the filing of cases online. That way, people don’t have to come to the court to submit paperwork and pay fees, but can do so from anywhere. “Anything that makes it easier to use the court and get access to justice is a huge advantage,” Brigland says.
