Reading, England, 29th July 2014
The British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI), the UK’s leading trade association for the landscape sector, has selected the Workbooks cloud-based CRM solution to provide advanced membership management with website integration to support its strategic growth plans.
Established in 1972, BALI aims to be the trade association of choice for the nation’s landscape professionals by delivering exceptional business, technical and promotional support for its members. BALI membership is reassuringly difficult to achieve and the right to display the BALI logo is bestowed only after contractors, designers and industry-related product and service suppliers have submitted to a rigorous vetting procedure and signed up to the Association’s Code of Conduct.
“Market research indicated that there is growing demand for the services offered by BALI but we weren’t doing a good enough job of communicating this to the industry,” said Wayne Grills, BALI’s Chief Operations Officer. “After an internal review we realised that to address this we had to refresh both our website and the membership system supporting our marketing and member communications.”
Angela Donovan, BALI Project Manager, confirmed, “The bespoke membership system that had served us well for the last 10 years was no longer fit for purpose, and something had to be done. We put together a requirements specification for a solution combining membership management, web integration for self-service, automation and accounts integration for membership renewal processing and support for our training and certification processes.”
Development of the new website was the initial focus of the project and BALI approached a number of website development companies specialising in the not-for-profit sector. The solutions proposed by web developers included CRM systems to provide the membership management ‘back end’ to support the new online presence.
BALI was invited to choose between Workbooks and Microsoft Dynamics. After considering the costs of implementing a membership package on in-house servers, with the initial cost of servers and back-up systems and the on-costs of maintaining this infrastructure, it soon became clear that a cloud or web-based CRM system would provide the most cost-effective solution. Workbooks was asked to partner with website developer Pixl8 Interactive Ltd to provide BALI with an integrated solution.
Ian Moyse, Sales Director at Workbooks, said: “The situation at BALI is very common. Workbooks is being selected by a growing number of trade associations and professional bodies to replace aging membership systems. With a next generation customised cloud CRM solution, integrated with a self-service web-portal, a third-party email marketing tool and a finance system, Workbooks provides an integrated solution for the 21st century. We are pleased to be chosen by such a forward-thinking association and are looking forward to adding Pixl8 to our partner programme.”
Wayne Grills said, “We have been very impressed by the thorough and professional approach of the sales and implementation teams at Workbooks and we’re looking forward to enjoying the benefits of our new solution.”
The British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI) was established in 1972 and is now the UK’s premier trade association for the landscape industry with over 760 members. Through its membership of the European Landscape Contractors Association (ELCA) it is the representative voice of the UK landscape industry in Europe.
BALI’s aim is to be the trade association of choice for the nation’s landscape professionals by delivering exceptional business, technical and promotional support for its members. Member businesses include garden designers, landscapers, grounds maintenance contractors, interior landscapers and suppliers of industry-related products and service.
Employees of BALI member companies must be trained in Health & Safety, and hold the appropriate skills qualifications to carry out their work. To this end, BALI administers the LISS (Land-based Industry Skills Scheme)/CSCS Skills Card and the ROLO (Register of Land-based Operatives) Scheme and ROLO Health, Safety & Environmental Awareness Course. Both schemes provide a means of identification, keep a record of workers who have achieved a recognised level of competence, and raise the standard of Health and Safety to improve quality and reduce accidents throughout the land-based and construction sectors.
The BALI National Landscape Awards, first introduced in 1976, are held annually to recognise BALI members who have demonstrated exceptionally high standards of professionalism and skill in the execution of a wide variety of landscape schemes.
Workbooks.com delivers world-class CRM and business applications to the mid-market, at an affordable price and with functionality that transforms business.
Unlike traditional CRM solutions, Workbooks.com extends beyond sales, marketing and customer support to include order management, order fulfillment, invoicing and supplier management. This business functionality is delivered out-of-the-box at a price which is typically 50-70% less than enterprise solutions such as Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics and Netsuite.
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