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As a nonprofit, it is important not only to know who your members are, who your supporters are, who your event attendees are, and who you serve, but you also need to be able to get at that information in a meaningful way. This means having the information you need, in a way you can use it, for the right people, in the right place.

CRM is Contact Relationship Management, or Customer Relationship Management, or Constituent Relationship Management, but any way you slice it, CRM is a way to manage all of the companies and individuals that come in contact with your business or organization.

In their simplest forms, CRMs are digital address books. In their grandest forms, CRM systems tie your organization together, giving the right people access to the right information about the players in any given situation. CRM in some ways is like looking at the players on the field and the play book while figuring out what the next move will be.

The goal of this article is not to evaluate CRM systems: that is something that needs to be done with the specifics about any given organization. Rather, here are 10 things to think about when starting that evaluation process.

1. Who needs the information?

   Asking who needs the information is important. If you are a one man show then you are the only person in the organization that needs the information. However, as soon as you grow this changes rapidly. The question becomes not only who needs the information but also who needs what information. Often this means assigning different security groups and levels of permissions. Make sure the system you are evaluating has the right security and delegation infrastructure to meet your needs.

   Sometimes you may want your members to be able to edit their own information or maybe to be able to register for events. Some CRMs can be publicly facing, meaning that secure access to this information can be made available.

2. On what types of systems do you need the information?

   Do you only use a computer at work or do you want to be able to get to the information at home too? Do you need your data on your Blackberry, iPhone or other device? If you have a Mac you may have different options than if you have a PC.

3. With what software applications do you need to share the information?

   Are there specific applications, like QuickBooks or other accounting software, that you need to share information with? Double entry is a waste of time and with the right CRM you should be able to avoid it.

4. What types of information do you need to store?

   CRMs in their most basic forms store names and addresses and phone numbers. The more advanced the CRM, the more transactional and communication history data they can generally store. Some CRM products also incorporate document management, shared workspaces for document collaboration, tasks, tickets, etc.

5. Do you want an online solution or a software based solution?

   It used to be that, for any application you wanted, you were required to install it on your computer and network if you were sharing the information with others. This meant the IT guy came out when you got a new computer, the server was not working, the database had problems, and any number of other reasons. Internet based CRM solutions take the burden off of your computers and put the data online in a secure (be sure to check on this) way so that you can get to your data from anywhere.

   At this point neither of these solution types is perfect. For organizations with large IT infrastructures, running CRM themselves may not be not an issue. For organizations that have strong regulations and security needs, online might not be an option (see question 6).

   Another option is a bit of a hybrid. You can have a web developer configure CiviCRM or another open source application on a server and then host it remotely. Your IT overhead is reduced because the server is remotely managed and you still have almost all the benefits of the local database. This is not without trade-offs, and security is a big concern that needs to be addressed in consideration of your specific needs.

6. Do you have any regulatory or legal obligations that influence your CRM options?

   Some organizations will be bound to regulations like HIPPA that influence how they can store data. If you have regulations or legal reasons to secure data with greater-than-standard security make sure to check with your vendor and, if possible, verify with a 3rd-party source that your vendor meets these requirements.

7. Can you customize the information, your fields, and your workflows?

   Ideally, CRM applications will meet your needs rather than you customizing your needs to the CRM (which is all too often the case). Make sure you can add data fields and even manipulate forms and workflows to meet your needs. Some of these features may come with large enough price tags to make changes on your end worthwhile, but make sure you take it all into account.

8. Will the system grow with your organization?

   As your organization grows so too will the amount of data that your organization stores. Make sure the vendor you pick has a solution that will scale with you.

9. How portable is the information?

   Ensure the information is not only portable to transfer from one device to another, but also make sure that if your needs change you can grab all your data and either go somewhere else or at least make a backup for piece of mind.

10. How healthy is the solution provider?

    You want your CRM to last. This means finding a vendor that is healthy. It is up to you how far you want to go, but I would suggest more than just a thumbs up from a sales guy.