The Returning Veterans Success Story

The Returning Veterans Project (RVP) provides free, confidential mental and physical health services to post-9/11 war zone veterans, service members, and their families in Oregon and Southwest Washington.  Their mission is supported by a network of licensed, independent mental and physical health Providers who are willing to contribute their services free of cost to veterans, service members, and their families.

RVP was looking to exponentially grow in revenue, and also wanted to expand the number of individuals and families they serve.  To do this however, a provider network that was operating at near capacity needed to be expanded.

RVP’s legacy CRM was not meeting their needs for growth and they were heavily reliant upon a contractor for all necessary changes and updates to the system.  In addition, they were looking to improve upon the aesthetics of the solution and ease of use for the Providers.

In consultation with RVP, thedatabank identified the following challenges and problems, that, if solved for, would positively impact the ultimate success of their work.

Challenge 1 – Efficiencies

The Providers in the network interact with the CRM system directly.  Because of varying levels of technical aptitude on the part of the Providers, and the relative complexity of their required interactions with that system, many Providers did not correctly enter important data.  In fact, many Providers simply relied upon RVP to enter data and perform system tasks for them. This was burdensome for the organization to maintain and was duplicative work. Equally problematic was the fact that it was difficult to know if all of the data was being received from the Providers.

Challenge 2 – Facilitation of Work

Existing processes – while detailed and for the most part successful – demanded too much attention and staff resources and time, and was tenuously dependent upon the development support provided by a local contractor.

Challenge 3 – A Growth-oriented CRM

The limits of their legacy CRM do not accommodate future growth plans. The legacy method of managing programmatic data in particular was not suited to the growth expectations of the organization.

The Databank Solution

RVP’s customized Databank CRM, along with training and consulting services provided by thedatabank, helped RVP to effectively manage their volunteer Providers, who in turn help the service members, veterans and their families. This was accomplished through the development of an online provider portal that allows service Providers to interact with the system directly in a manner that removes any undue impediments or barriers to its usage, and that significantly improved upon RVP’s legacy system in terms of both ease of use and general appearance.

The new Databank provider portal includes all of the functionality of their legacy system plus the ability for Providers to see and report using client names (instead of random ID’s) that are obfuscated to RVP, the capability to upload a Provider photo, and certification and license documents for RVP’s internal use.

The portal also includes a Provider Hours Report that provides visibility into which Providers are reporting, the hours they’ve reported, and classifications of patients seen, both on individual and aggregated levels.

In addition, the RVP Databank CRM includes functionality for donor profiles, donations, event registration, volunteer signup, sophisticated search and segmenting capabilities, and built-in, multi-channel (email, text, direct mail, voice, web, social media) communications.

The Result

Since implementing their new customized Databank CRM platform, RVP has seen significant increases in Providers, clients, and other resources as they continue to provide needed resources and services to veterans and their families.