Stakeholder engagement professionals are switching to stakeholder relationship management software

Most of us have experienced spreadsheet madness at one point or another. Insanity ensues when we use spreadsheets beyond their intended design, which can be downright painful. 

Maybe you're lucky. Perhaps you don't feel the pain. (If so, how? Asking for a friend.) 

But suppose you're like most who manage stakeholder engagement. Maybe you're juggling too many spreadsheets, too much disorganized information, too little tracked information, too much inaccessible information, and ultimately, too much risk for your organization. 

Have you ever thought, "How we use spreadsheets is so frustrating and unsustainable. But what's the alternative?" 

If so, you're not alone.

The good news? Stakeholder engagement pros have found a way to stop the madness. They've discovered a better way to track and manage their stakeholders' information and simplify their engagement efforts. 

Chapter 1: Why spreadsheets aren't just painful; they're problematic

Stakeholder engagement has many moving parts. The list goes on: deadlines to manage, commitments to remember, issues to resolve.

On the surface, spreadsheets may seem like a good tool. But industry pros have learned (sometimes the hard way) that spreadsheets are more than meets the eye.

The spreadsheet pain is real, and stakeholder engagement pros have had enough. They're moving to Stakeholder Relationship Management (SRM) software to alleviate that pain.

The top 10 problems with spreadsheets:

1. Data gets disorganized

Chances are, you're juggling several different spreadsheets on any given day. A phone number here, a project update there. With information spread across many spreadsheets, it's no wonder that data gets disorganized easily.

2. Data entry gets messy

People enter information into spreadsheets differently. What's intuitive to someone may not be intuitive to another. This creates too many inconsistencies, especially when sharing data, running reports, and gleaning insights across your engagement history.

3. Mistakes happen

Imagine spelling a stakeholder's name wrong in an email or using the wrong name because it was misentered into your spreadsheet. Something like this could jeopardize a relationship you've worked hard to build.

4. Information is insufficiently tracked

Insufficiently tracked information prevents you from proving that something occurred during an engagement. People also switch projects, change teams, or leave organizations. If so, they leave you with knowledge gaps around your stakeholder engagement history.

5. Work becomes inefficient

With spreadsheets, teams often do double work. Someone tracks information here, another tracks it there. This creates duplicate sources that need to be maintained. That's unlikely to happen so that those resources could be allocated better.

6. Commitments fall through the cracks/h5>

You could use spreadsheets to manage deadlines or deliverables. But spreadsheets don't remind you to do the work. What happens if someone becomes ill and can't complete or communicate where things stand?

7. Messages get mixed

Say you had a conversation with a stakeholder. Then, another colleague says something completely different. This creates unnecessary confusion and possibly distrust, which could risk your reputation, relationship, and organization.

8. Data isn't easily accessible

Too often, teams endlessly search for information. At best, time's wasted. At worst, team members are ill-equipped to meet with a stakeholder, which could negatively impact their perception of your organization.

9. Reporting is inefficient or impossible

Too often, people search through spreadsheets for information but wonder whether it's accurate or complete. Spreadsheets offer no clear way of knowing this, which means your reporting may be lacklustre or full of errors.

10. Information goes missing

Images or audio recordings are essential for stakeholder engagement history, but you can't store them in a spreadsheet. They could then be lost, leaving you with incomplete insights to support your work.

Want to move away from spreadsheets? Here are 10 questions you should ask yourself.

 

Chapter 2: What is stakeholder relationship management (SRM) software?

Managing the details of complex stakeholder engagements and meaningful relationships using a spreadsheet is fast becoming an outmoded way of doing business.

Organizations worldwide continue rapidly adopting software for all day-to-day business functions because it streamlines business operations.

You may be familiar with  Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, but it's built for businesses that manage customer relationships, not organizations that manage stakeholder relationships. Anyone working in stakeholder engagement knows that customers and stakeholders are different.

Stakeholder relationship management software, like Jambo, is purpose-built. It's specifically designed to help you manage all the complexities of managing stakeholder engagement, like:

• Securely tracking and organizing information in one place.
• Understanding stakeholder relationships and your full engagement history.
• Reporting on stakeholder engagement activities.
• Staying on top of issues and commitments.

SRM software is explicitly designed to help you manage stakeholder engagement, and that's why so many organizations are saying goodbye to their spreadsheets for good.

See why organizations are switching from spreadsheets to SRMs.

Chapter 3: Why are stakeholder engagement professionals switching to SRM software?

Stakeholder engagement professionals are engagement specialists, not data specialists.

However, too often, team members deal with the administrative burden of data and tracking information in spreadsheets, which weren't designed for the complexities of stakeholder engagement.

Data management shouldn't take much time or be a barrier to doing your job well. But this happens constantly, according to Ward Ferguson, VP of Product & Operations at Jambo. And it has a ripple effect.

"When you look at the complexity of stakeholder engagement, spreadsheets just don't scale. There are typically multiple spreadsheets that aren't interconnected—one for contacts, another for communications, and another for issues. It complicates the process, and your success rate of keeping them up-to-date with the accurate and complete information you need to manage engagements successfully decreases. This introduces more risk to your project and organization, compounding over time."

Organizations are increasingly realizing not only the power of SRM software but also its practicality and the opportunity cost of not implementing it sooner.

• Why put an engagement project at risk unnecessarily?
• Why create avoidable confusion with incomplete or incorrect data?
• Why create double work because of inefficient team collaboration?
• Why put your relationships and reputation at risk because of outdated business tools? 

Forward-thinking organizations know that spreadsheets are unsustainable, so they've switched to SRM software and discovered how to transform their business processes to manage stakeholder engagement sustainably.

"Jambo has proved very useful in managing our increasing consultation requirements. The system tracks every call, email and meeting and helps us be transparent in our regulatory reporting."Gordon Whitmore, Land Management Superintendent, Mercer International

 

Are you wondering how to choose the right SRM? Download this ultimate buyer's checklist to learn what to consider.

 

Chapter 4: How to say goodbye to spreadsheets, step-by-step

Transforming how you manage day-to-day stakeholder engagement activities may seem daunting, but it doesn't have to be. Switching from spreadsheets to SRM software, like Jambo, can be simpler than you think.

1. Select your SRM software partner

Select a platform that's fast to learn and easy to use. If not, people won't use it, and you'll waste money.

Beware of bells and whistles, however. They can be overwhelming, unnecessary, and unused. The most robust software doesn't always best meet your needs.

And beware of industry-low prices. Manage your budget, but select a platform that will grow with you as your usage increases. Then, you won't have to switch systems unnecessarily.

2. Find your executive champion

Executive champions can help you communicate the problems you're trying to solve and explain the rationale for change. They can also share how the change will impact your organization, stakeholders, and team members.

Securing leadership-level support and educating people early will help you allay confusion and concerns and engage team members before training starts.

3. Prepare your team

Change can be scary. Overcommunicate and answer your team's questions frequently. 

• Discuss the timelines involved. Explain when the changeover from spreadsheets will happen and when the new software will be available.
• Introduce your SRM and build excitement. Share why you chose your SRM, how easy the software will be to learn and use, and the support they'll receive.
• Explain the implementation and training process. Share how it will work, how much time it will take, and how they'll handle it alongside their regular responsibilities.

These steps can help you create peer-to-peer champions who will reiterate and reinforce your message to fellow team members.

4. Evaluate your workflows

Consider your engagements. Where do you struggle? What workflows are inefficient? What would be a win if you could improve it?

Then, examine how they're structured.

• What would you like to do differently?
• What do you want to track but don't currently?
• What reports do you need to run?

Your SRM partner should guide you through this while optimally setting up your platform for your organization's needs.

5. Prioritize your projects

Consider which engagement project you'd like to use as a starting point for your SRM software. Your SRM partner should guide you on how best to utilize the software, keeping these real use cases in mind.

6. Collect your contact data

With multiple spreadsheets, information lives in disparate places, and the source of truth is blurry.

Before implementation, gather the data you want to keep in one place. Then, decide if it needs to be cleaned up first. The more accessible and clean your data is, the easier and faster it will be to start using your SRM.