thankQ Selected by Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union

April 2007

The last year has seen ESiT implement thankQ for an increasing number of Membership and Association organisations, and this spring they are pleased to announce the implementation of a new Membership Management and CRM System for the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union, based in Welwyn Garden City.

The Union had been aware of the need for a new system for some time, and boosted by funding from the Department of Trade and Industry’s Union Modernisation Fund, they were able to undertake a research project into improving their communications and systems.

The research project commenced in April 2006 and working with The Campaign Company, they had established their database requirements when they first met ESiT at the MEMBERS event held in Islington in September. A detailed selection process followed and having discussed their requirements with a number of suppliers, thankQ was the chosen system.

Adrian Stewart, Finance Controller for the Union, and Project Manager for the implementation of thankQ, picks up the story. “The system will revolutionise the way that we work and the service that we are able to provide to our members. Being able to not only track members individually, but identify and contact specific groups of members is critical to being able to improve our service to them. For example, we increasingly want to focus the service we provide to our members by taking into consideration their needs arising from language or ethnicity.”

The first stage of the project will deliver a replacement to the existing system – Membership Management and Benefits processing, which will be in place this June, in time for the Annual Conference to be held in Bridlington. Hot on its heels, the CRM component of the project will be delivered, providing a wide range of new tools for the Union to contact their members.

A vital part of the project includes migration of existing data from the old system to thankQ. ESiT’s Project Manager, Mark Edwards explains the value of this process. “A database project is an opportunity to not just improve the software you use to manage your information, but look at the quality of the existing data you are holding. The problem for many organisations is that they have struggled to actually get at their existing data in their system. Once the data is in thankQ, BFAWU will now have the tools to cleanse the data and improve the information held – making communication with their members as relevant as possible.”

Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union press release (PDF - 79KB)