Case Study - Triathlon New Zealand

A customer since January 2009, Triathlon New Zealand went through a rigorous selection process looking at six potential vendors.

triNZ Carl Jackson, Commercial Director, talks to us about why Triathlon New Zealand chose to partner with MHA.

Why were you looking for an alternative to your previous system?

We wanted a database system that could host members' data and track information both internally and from members. We were disengaging from our existing IT provider, which supplied us with a website combined with a database.

The database wasn't ideal. It was cost prohibitive to make small changes as the architecture was a shared infrastructure with other sports - proprietary software. We also had issues with the availability of our website and outages.

We contracted an IT professional who looked at our business needs and wants. They then produced a robust Request for Proposal (RFP) which identified what needed to be captured from a member point of view to maximise communications between Tri NZ and our members.

This process involved inviting 5 to 6 suppliers referred to us by people in the IT and sports sectors to deliver in-depth presentations and due diligence. These suppliers were then reference checked.

Why did you choose MHA?

MHA was our preferred choice because:

They are Auckland based.
They talked in laymen's terms that we understood.
They made us feel very comfortable that their Microsoft based product would be easy for our non IT focussed staff to use. Our team were already familiar with most Microsoft software.
MHA offered a stand-alone hosted CRM solution, customisable to our requirements.
The fact that it was a Microsoft product was also a key advantage as they are always bringing out new initiatives.

How is the solution MHA provided working now?

Even though still in early stages of development, early signs are:

We no longer need to work with Excel spreadsheets of data. The existing spreadsheets have been transferred into CRM.
We can now identify subsets of people, ie: coaches, high performance athletes and sponsors.
Sending communications to groups of people is much simpler, and we can track the communication flow which is excellent.
Dramatic improvement in the availability of our website. No outages.
CRM integrates with our Outlook which makes things easier, as there is no need to open separate applications.
We can now instantaneously view members of specific groups.
We have mailing lists.
We can track communication between a Tri NZ Staff member and a contact. Prior to MHA's solution I would have to have been copied in on the email.
With CRM our email communication can now target specific groups. It gives us the ability to track the number of people opening emails or the article click-through's. We can now see which articles are being read more than others, which tells us what our members are interested in.
Our existing web forms are linked to update and export information from CRM.

Any other comments about working with MHA?

We are not a stock standard organisation, ie: 9.00 am to 5.30 pm, selling xyz. We are unique and it was a challenge, as it would have been for any IT company, to understand our business and what we needed.

At the same time it was difficult for us to explain our requirements. However the open and frank discussions with MHA have been excellent to establish Tri NZ's requirements.

triNZ_boys MHA worked tirelessly to implement the solution. Any issues were responded to quickly and resolution was fast. Communication with MHA is excellent, we are always kept fully informed of progress, and they are constantly educating us on how to better use and take advantage of the system.

MHA are very customer focussed, and we have always felt that we are a very valued customer. Overall it has been a very good experience and we are an extremely satisfied customer.