Johannesburg, 13 Apr 2015
MAD (Make A Difference), a non-profit organisation founded by former Springbok captain Francois Pienaar, is implementing the Sage ERP X3 and Sage CRM business solutions to streamline its business processes, enhance relationships with stakeholders, and improve its access to reporting information. Parity Software is the Sage ERP business partner overseeing the implementation.
Pienaar and a group of like-minded individuals shared a vision to develop talented scholars into leaders by financially assisting and supporting them to obtain an exceptional education. In 2003, to realise this significant ambition, they formed MAD - Make A Difference. Twelve years later, MAD holds true to the shared vision of the founding members to make a difference in the lives of talented young South Africans with leadership potential.
The primary focus of MAD is to identify and offer bursaries to academically talented young leaders, from Grade 8 until completion of tertiary education, covering all academic fees, mentoring, work experience, an annual leadership summit, and more, through the individual education programme.
MAD has developed a comprehensive, meticulously-crafted and holistic programme, offering mentorship, leadership development, life skills development, career counselling, internship opportunities and access to technology. All MAD scholars are monitored, mentored, supported and encouraged to help them reach their full potential as South Africa's future leaders.
MAD has enjoyed exponential growth over the past few years, prompting the need for more sophisticated and integrated systems to manage its increasingly complex business.
Sage ERP X3 will enable MAD to streamline administrative and reporting processes in such a way that it can continue to grow without having to add overhead costs in terms of administrative staff and IT costs. Sage CRM, meanwhile, will give the organisation the ability to more efficiently and effectively track and manage relationships with scholars, donors, corporate partners and other stakeholders.
The tight integration between the solutions will empower MAD with a single, customer-centric view across the organisation, offering greater insights and more opportunities for growth. It will enable MAD's financial, events, marketing and education teams to have a single consistent view into their stakeholder relationships, so they can deliver a great experience to the individuals that matter.
MAD currently has 110 scholars on its individual education programme, as well as numerous sponsors, donors, and supporters attending its golf days and participating in sporting events to raise funds and awareness for MAD. "We realised that we could benefit from a solution that would allow us to integrate our financial data with information on our scholars, donors, supporters, and partners," says Pienaar. "An integrated system will help us automate a lot of the reporting work we currently have to do manually."
As one example, MAD needs to report quarterly and annually to corporate partners on its use of the bursary funding as well as the academic, sporting and other achievements of scholars on its Individual Education Programme. The organisation currently uses Excel-spreadsheets to compile the information, which brings with it potential risks such as poor version control and inaccuracies caused by incorrect entry of formulas and data. Report compilation is currently time-consuming, since figures and information have to be double-checked to ensure accuracy.
"It is our responsibility to mobilise as many resources as possible to support the future leaders on our programme. To do so, we need to be able to manage all our data in such a way that we can report to our partners in a prompt and accurate manner on their investment and the impact it has," says Pienaar.
"Sage ERP X3 will help us to instil an even deeper trust among existing and potential corporate partners as they allocate corporate social investment funding towards our organisation. By being able to deliver timely and accurate information about the results we achieve with our donors' money, we will be able to attract more funding and support even more scholars on our individual education programme."
"We're excited to be working with MAD to implement a solution that will help it reduce risk, become more efficient, and increase the confidence donors and sponsors have in the organisation," says Ken Fargher, chairman at Parity Software. "Sage ERP X3 will ensure that MAD has a single version of the truth, helping to reduce spreadsheet chaos and improving collaboration within its business and with its partners. With the Sage CRM system as the customer-facing interface to the core ERP platform, MAD will be able to serve the needs of its stakeholders."
"Sage ERP X3, combined with Sage CRM, is an ideal ERP solution for non-profit organisations that receive grants or awards and donations, and who must show corporate donors how they are achieving impact with their money," says Keith Fenner, Senior Vice-President of sales for Sage ERP X3 AAMEA. "It helps them focus on productivity, reduce costs and improve relationships with their stakeholders. We are glad that our software will help such a worthy organisation to drive even more return out of the money it is investing in South Africa's future."
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