Information Velocity
I was listening to a tech podcast the other day when they made reference to a story about Information Velocity. In this specific story, a CEO of an established tech company was transitioning to a new rising star tech company that was born in the Internet Boom. At the CEO’s first meeting he witnessed the senior staff arrive at the meeting with their laptops. At first, he was frustrated at the distracted focus in the meeting. Eventually he warmed to the idea that “Velocity” was so important in their business that laptops were sometimes necessary in meetings.
I often go to meet nonprofit executives to tout the values of a CRM solution. The value proposition that most often resonates with this group revolves around centralized information, information accuracy, flexibility, ease of use and reporting. We are not often asked about “Information Velocity”, however, that may be implicit in the requests and expectations of nonprofit executives.
In marketing, “information velocity” is a term used to discuss how quickly information about a new product disseminates through a target market. In the nonprofit context, “information velocity” can take on any of the following meanings:
- How quickly we act to reach out and convert a prospective donor once they indicate some interest about our organization or mission
- How quickly we identify and react to a distress indicator of a participant in our program
- How quickly we react to changes in our funding and operating environment
Nonprofit executives often tell us at the outset of a CRM Project that they hope the project will yield:
- Improved Productivity: Ability to serve more people or raise more money
- Improved Quality: Ability to serve people better or build more strategic relationships
- Reduced Cost: Doing both of the above while holding cost constant or reducing it
Information Velocity is implicit in all three of the aforementioned goals. The ability to more quickly transact information allows nonprofits to serve more people. NPO’s can also vastly improve their outcomes (both fundraising and programmatic) by more quickly identifying causal factors and acting on them. Information Velocity also saves money by reducing the time lag in responding to problems which are already in motion.
How can we achieve “Information Velocity” using CRM?
All the tools are available in CRM technology. It really is more a question of how the CRM is used.
In closing, consider Newton’s First Law of Motion which states the following:
Every object in a state of uniform motion (i.e. a steady state velocity) tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.
Your CRM Project represents an opportunity to apply a positive external force on your organization’s current state of Information Velocity. The end goal of which is hopefully a paradigm shift in your organization which allows it to operate at a much higher velocity.
