A European Association

About EFFRA

EUROPEAN FACTORIES OF THE FUTURE RESEARCH ASSOCATION

EFFRA is a European industry-driven non-profit association which aims to boost investments in industrial research so as to increase productivity in European manufacturing.  EFFRA’s key objective is to promote pre-competitive research on production technologies within the European Research Area by engaging in a public-private partnership with the European Union entitled 'Factories of the Future'.  The partnership aims to bring together private and public resources to create an industry-led programme in research and innovation with the aim of launching hundreds of market-oriented cross-border projects throughout the European Union.

Requirements

One of the requirements of the Association was to bring together a wide community of industrial manufacturers, research bodies and trade unions.  These organisations covered a wide geographical base that stretched across Europe.  With over 500 member organisations needing to share industry knowledge and best practice in the coming months/years, a website with a secure collaboration area was sought.  EFFRA also wanted a contact management database which held all the members details and provide a way to keep in touch and keep track of activities with each member.

Solution

EFFRA tendered for the work and selected SouthwestCRM’s Web Portal Solution.  The solution comprised three core elements:

• A public-facing website with secure areas for members only
• A Document Management system to store all material securely
• A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) database for internal staff to manage their membership base

Authorised members would log into the website and gain access to relevant projects and documentation.  Once logged in, each member would be able to access research forums and contribute to, and create, discussions.

The document management system needed to be more than a just a series of files that members could download from web pages.  It was important to ensure that all documents were contained in folders which were available to authorised members only.  Each document would need to be indexed so that a simple search on keywords would find relevant documents where keywords were found inside a document.

All member information would need to be controlled from one database which is accessed and maintained by EFFRA staff.  Once in the database, individual member access levels could be controlled and information used for email marketing and general activity logging.

SouthwestCRM implemented three products to support this requirement.  For the website, Joomla! was selected which is a leading Content Management System for website production.  For the document management system, KnowledgeTree was selected and for the CRM system, SugarCRM was selected. Furthermore, SouthwestCRM integrated all three systems in order to create a single Collaboration Engine.

Benefits

From EFFRA’s perspective, it now has a simple to administer website and membership management solution.  Keeping in touch with all members is made much simpler with the CRM system and the website provides a place for members to log in and be (and feel) part of an important research project.

“It’s really great to have a portal for our members to collaborate of key projects” says Frank Knecht, Executive Director. “SouthwestCRM was able to provide EFFRA with a functionally rich solution without any complexity”.

About SouthwestCRM

SouthwestCRM is a software consultancy based in Cornwall, UK providing organisations with sales, marketing and customer service solutions.  It is an authorised partner for SugarCRM and KnowledgeTree.  Further information can be obtained from its website at www.southwestict.com. SouthwestCRM is the trading name for South West ICT Limited.  A company incorporated in England & Wales no. 6059445. For further information please contact the marketing department on 0845 686 2468 or via email on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it