Background
Peabody is one of the oldest and largest not-for-profit housing associations in the UK. Following a merger with Catalyst in April 2022, the Peabody Group is responsible for over 104,000 homes and 220,000 customers across London and the Home Counties, as well as 20,000 care and support customers.
Created 160 years ago to alleviate poverty in London through quality affordable housing, Peabody’s purpose is helping people flourish by providing great homes and services, and by making a positive difference to communities. Peabody and Catalyst have joined together to form a new organisation that will be fully integrated by April 2023.
Problem
Prior to the merger in April 2022, Crimson had implemented Dynamics 365 Sales and Marketing at Catalyst. In order to achieve a stable position for the new organisation Peabody are aiming to integrate systems quickly and safely. Decisions were made early in process to determine the right mix of single systems allowing them to move quickly to have training and access for system adoption across the new organisation. One of these decisions was to mirror the Catalyst implementation of Dynamics 365 Sales and Marketing, with Crimson.
The updated CRM sales system was already part of their new strategy as their previous system was no longer fit for purpose. The previous system had less than half of the capability of Microsoft’s Dynamics 365, so the platform was chosen to suit their customer-first vision, as well as drive the organisation towards reactivity and self-sufficiency with modern technologies.
However, changing CRM system was made more difficult for Peabody due to a very tight deadline. The legacy system was to be decommissioned by the end of September 2022, giving them just a few months to make the transition to Dynamics 365 Sales and Marketing. They had to work quickly, and so Peabody chose Crimson as their Microsoft Partner, given the successful engagement Catalyst had had with Crimson. Crimson could take the lessons learnt from the Catalyst project and use across the Peabody implementation.
Solution
The work Crimson had previously completed with Catalyst helped to get the Peabody project moving quickly, as it gave the team a solid base to work on. This coupled with Crimson’s Housing Accelerator meant that the tight deadline was much more achievable due to the sprint-based approach.
Crimson’s Housing Accelerator ensures your team sees results sooner so that you can move your programme forward with confidence. It is based on our vast experience within the sector and is one of the main reasons why Crimson could help Peabody meet their three-month deadline.
Peabody had an in-house team that were aligned to the project. This meant that the Crimson team could seamlessly collaborate with the specific employees and integrate to form one team – a true partnership. This enabled the project to be run with agility, so the tight deadline could be met. The project began in June, and thanks to this collaboration, was completed by the end of September deadline.
Outcome
Following the dedication and commitment shown by the Peabody team when defining and the requirements and during testing, the project was able to go-live within three months, meeting the deadline. With the average Dynamics 365 implementation taking between six months and a year (depending on the scale of the project), this is a significant achievement for both teams.
Conversations regarding phase two are already underway, with hopes to provide Peabody with a further understanding of the technology and the value that it can bring to them as a business. Dynamics 365 Sales and Marketing was the ideal fit for Peabody and has given them the foundation to move forward as a growing organisation that continues to meet their corporate plan around developing their systems to provide a better experience for customers.
“We know that we were faced with an incredibly tight timeframe for this initial phase release and looking back I can see how much we have achieved together in such a short time, I am incredibly proud of what we have been able to do and therefore wanted to thank the Crimson team for all their hard work.” – David Slade, Head of Digital Marketing at Peabody Group.
