Simon Community Scotland Customer Success Story

Growing Scottish Nonprofit Supports People Affected by Homelessness With a More Accessible, Data-Driven Business System

For more than 50 years, Simon Community Scotland has helped improve the lives of those affected by homelessness in the west of Scotland with shelter, nourishment and support. After merging with Edinburgh’s Streetwork, it now provides people across the central belt of Scotland with both emergency and longer-term housing, life skills counseling and more. A software donation from NetSuite Social Impact is helping to deliver the insight the expanded organisation needs to scale.

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Company

Simon Community Scotland

Location

Glasgow, Scotland

Industry

Nonprofit

REVENUE

£7.5 million

EMPLOYEES

300, including volunteers

SYSTEMS REPLACED

Excel, Salesforce.com

NETSUITE PRODUCT IMPLEMENTED

CRM

IMPLEMENTATION PARTNER

Cofficient

Location

Glasgow, United Kingdom

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“NetSuite fundamentally helps us provide better service to the people we support through intelligence that we didn’t have before.” Hugh Hill, Director of Services and Development, Simon Community Scotland

Accessible System Meets Demand

Unified data will support larger footprint: Previously, Simon Community managed data about the people it supports in Excel, which meant laborious work and fragmented data. Simon Community implemented NetSuite CRM and is in the process of moving Streetwork to NetSuite from its previous Salesforce.com system.

Accessibility sustains mission: The remote accessibility of NetSuite helped Simon Community continue its work, even amid COVID-19 office closures. Support workers, for example, continue their outreach using Chromebooks, where documents and details about the people they support are stored in NetSuite. “It made us very fleet of foot,” said Simon Community’s Hugh Hill.

A more responsive resource: The expanded Simon Community also now has the insight needed to improve services, such as being able to increase support in “rough sleeping” locations. It is also finding that the ability to track the health and history of the people they support is leading to better decisions and improved outcomes. For instance, the nonprofit learned that 75% of its community smokes, prompting new smoking cessation initiatives.

One step further: In the near future, Simon Community hopes to use NetSuite Inventory Management for its nascent warehouse operation, which includes distribution of goods like clothes and toiletries. Then it's on to replacing Sage, its financial system. Hill is also considering using NetSuite for human resources. Doing so will further expand the nonprofit, which was recognised as Scottish Charity of the Year 2020 at the Scottish Charity Awards and received the Excellence Award 2020 at the European Social Services Awards.