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Joining the sheepCRM community
Joining the sheepCRM community

A high level overview of what to expect and what will be required from you in order to set-up sheepCRM for your organisation.

Joe Jeffries avatar
Written by Joe Jeffries
Updated over a week ago

Contents

  1. Before we begin

  2. Initial payment and license fee

  3. Getting started

  4. Agreed roles and responsibilities

  5. Activation of your sheepCRM, access to shared tools

  6. sheepCRM settings and configuration

  7. Data Migration

  8. Training and Support

  9. Going live with your community


Before we begin

Once you've decided that sheepCRM is right for your organisation and arranged for us to set-up your flock in sheepCRM, we'll need the following to be completed before we can begin the process:

  • Sign up to sheepCRM - this involves the signing of our contract, our Data Protection Addendum (GDPR) and registering with sheepCRM online.

  • Completing our Direct Debit Mandate request.

Initial payment and license fee

Payments will be taken by sheepCRM when:

  • Set-up fees will be invoiced at the start of the on-boarding process, this is when we get in touch to confirm we are setting up your project.

  • The sheepCRM licence fees will apply when your system is activated. Please note this may be before you have user access to enable technical set up to commence. If you have decided to pay license fees for a period of one year or greater in advance, the full amount for the period is applicable.

The stages for getting you up and running on sheepCRM

Getting yourselves and sheepCRM ready for your flock is made up of 3 stages:

  1. Preparation - The first step is for you to complete our on-boarding form, we will send you instructions as soon as the steps above are complete.

    Once this form is received with the required information, together we’ll go through your organisations needs and outline how features and modules will need to set up for your flock. We’ll also advise on how best to prepare your existing data for migration, discuss technical details and plan for your staff training needs.

    This step will lead to a number of additional preparation actions for you to complete before we can do your technical set up, such as providing communications copy.

  2. Set-up - Once all your preparation has been received, we will complete the technical set up required so sheepCRM is ready for you to use.

    This will be demonstrated to you to identify any final amendments so we can state your set up is ready for launch.

  3. Launch - This is when we migrate your data, connect your integrations and activate everything! This can be before or after you connect sheepCRM to other tools such as your website.

During this process we'll hold a number of video call meetings to cover specific topics and tasks involved in these stages. To keep everything moving smoothly, we ask that you pre-allocate sufficient time to attend these meetings and ensure the right people from your staff participate.

For effectiveness we implement this process in a PLAN > DO > CHECK approach. This means we PLAN what is needed, assign tasks to DO what is required, then CHECK it is completed. We apply this to each step within the three stages above, so it is important to understand that to move on to the next step, the current step actions must be completed and checked before we move onto planning and scheduling the next step.

We are happy to have a set of target dates for each step to be completed but we do not schedule future step sessions in our normal approach. This is because we operate a set up on demand approach, which means you request and we allocate our resources when you are ready to utilise them effectively.

Agreed roles and responsibilities

During the set-up process, we'll provide detailed articles to support you along the way. In these articles we'll make it clear who needs to do what, but there are also high level expectations in key areas which we've highlighted below:

The general approach

  • Our aim is to make sheepCRM a simple and highly effective system which operates and evolves in line with best practice across all of our customers. One of the core functions of sheepCRM is that it enables your self-service, which is most effective for your time and cost effective for all customers.

  • Therefore, it is important to understand that sheepCRM expects self-service and self management of its customers - we're always available to help when is not possible or you need some assistance, for example, training your initial staff - but you will be expected to provide support, training and materials (using our articles where needed) to your team from that point, and we ask you to check our articles for support before you ask us for help directly.

  • There is always ongoing work in some areas of the system, hence it is important to understand that in the settings of sheepCRM there are many things you can configure yourself without our involvement, but there will be some things that we need to do for you. These are made clear throughout the on-boarding process, our articles and explained at a high level below. Rest assured, we will always be here if you need to change something which requires our involvement.

Activation of your sheepCRM, access to shared tools

  • We will activate your sheepCRM system (we call this your 'Flock'), including all the modules you have licensed. We will invite your main system administrator to become a user. From this point your system administrator is responsible for adding users and managing their permissions to ensure data access is based in your decisions, not ours, to reduce any risk to data privacy.

  • To support the on-boarding process we may also invite your core team to be users of our project management system where it is deemed necessary, which is used to organise tasks into the stages discussed above, assign them to the members of both teams so we have a centralised view and record of progress and notes.

  • We may also provide access to a shared Google Drive folder with access limited to both teams so we can share information as required in a secure way.

sheepCRM settings and configuration

  • There are two main types of settings and configuration: ones you have direct access to and ones which require our involvement.

  • During the set-up stage we will train you on the settings you can access and guide you through the set-up to ensure your flock meets your organisation's needs.

  • Some of the configuration that will require our involvement are enabling specific data packs, setting customisable assets such as branded HTML email templates and mandatory field settings.

  • We're always on hand to support you with the more 'technical' areas of your settings. For example we will help you set up data merging logic in your email templates - such as 'IF statements' to show different information to different member types. NB: This only applies to certain licence types, others are OOTB.

  • When we release new features or updates we may not release all configuration options into settings immediately, so we may also be needed to start using new or updated features.

  • If you encounter any settings or wish to make changes that you can not find in self-service, we are available to point you in the right direction or make the change if you are unable to do so.

Data Migration

  • We have a number of options for importing your data, the choice will be made based on what is the best for you, where it is currently stored, its cleanse level and your schedule.

  • We will review your data with you and collaboratively reach this decision and agree a plan.

  • You are expected to provide and prepare data where required which may include adding it to our import templates.

  • We will load the data for you.

  • You are expected to check the imported data and formally confirm successful import. After this point any re-import may require additional costs - for example if you find more data to load, or original data was incorrect.

⚠️ Please note: Do not send any data samples or data exports to us via email. We will provide Google Sheets templates or a secure transfer mechanism.

Integrations

  • You will need to create accounts with any approved third-party systems or services you would like sheepCRM to integrate with.

  • You will also need to obtain the necessary API keys and information to be entered into sheepCRM settings to connect. Articles are provided to support.

⚠️ Please note: Do not send any API keys through email. We ask you to enter any keys directly into the sheepCRM settings.

Training and Support

  • You will receive system administrator training as explained above, we will also provide user (staff) training as a train the trainer approach (the amount of training is specified in your set up costs).

  • You are welcome to rely on sheepCRM articles as your training materials, however please note these are always being refined and improved. They are also general for all customers so may not always cover 'how' your organisation is using sheepCRM or its features.

  • You are expected to create your own training materials based on 'how' you are using sheepCRM if they are required to bring your internal business process together with how to use the system.

  • We will identify your specific training needs during the preparation and set-up phases of on-boarding to tailor training delivery to your specific needs if necessary.

  • Training is delivered via a video call and you are welcome to record it for future use if you provide your own meeting platform.

Going live with your community

  • We need to activate your automatic communications from sheepCRM, which we will do upon your request.

  • We will provide you with the necessary links (URLs) to all the landing pages you need for directing your users, contacts and members to areas and access to our features, such as member self-service.

  • You will need to arrange for these to be set up on your internal and external systems, such as your website.

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