Outsourcing for flexible direct debit management
Moving their in-house Direct Debit processing to Woods Valldata delivers efficient and scalable management giving teams more time to focus on strategic activities.
Goal
RNIB found Direct Debit management in-house to be a manual, time-consuming process. The Fundraising Operations team went looking for a partner who could deliver a more flexible and efficient service freeing their team up from the day-to-day requirements. Woods Valldata came out on top.
Success
- Migration achieved within 5 months of the project launch, including two months of parallel running.
- More claim dates enabled reducing lead times for set-ups and lowering attrition rates.
- One point of contact as an extension of the RNIB team means increased efficiency across all outsourced income processing streams:
– Cash payment processing
– Raffle print and production
– Weekly lottery services
– Full direct debit services.
Our Approach
Audit
RNIB were looking for:
- Woods Valldata to act as a DD management hub Management of new
- Direct Debit setups from multiple sources including:
- Phone
- Third-party imports (F2F, D2D, web, telemarketing agencies etc
- Online sign-ups
- RNIB Supporter Care input direct into the Woods Valldata web portal
Our Business Analytics team assessed the requirements for the Direct Debit migration working alongside RNIB and proposed a workable action plan.
Recommendations
Woods Valldata recommended the use of the following project tools to keep the project on track and achieve the desired migration dates:
- Milestone plan
- RAID (Risks, Actions, Issues, Decisions) log
- DD cut-over plan
Implementation
Close management including weekly stakeholder meetings made sure everyone knew what they needed to do by when. Migration was achieved within 5 months of the project starting including phased changeovers based on DD claim dates without any loss of income or missed payment rounds.
Continuous Improvement
Working with Woods Valldata means RNIB offer more flexible regular giving options to their supporters and enable the Individual Giving team to be more innovative in their fundraising products. Since the initial migration, we have been able to support RNIB through:
- Scaleablility: Woods Valldata’s extensive DD experience means RNIB can be confident about growing their regular giving programmes – with no additional effort required.
- Flexibility: Being able to offer additional claim dates easily with no extra processing costs.
- Speed: Being a single data touchpoint has vastly shortened lead-times (and increased data security) significantly reducing acquisition attrition.
- Reduced risk: Processing the Direct Debits on behalf of RNIB, Woods Valldata have taken on the submission risk and business continuity requirements.
- Submission certainty: Data verification on import and tried and tested automated systems mitigate the risk of human error. Every Bacs submission is made quickly and efficiently, and administrative communications are released timely and appropriate to the supporters’ needs.
- Online access: RNIB have instant online control of their supporters’ details. Online reports for reconciliation are easily accessed and ready whenever needed.
Whatever your requirements we are sure to be able to help
What our client had to say
“The benefits of this transition means that RNIB can now offer our donors more than just the two claim dates we originally had. We also have the benefit of Woods Valldata’s Direct Debit expertise and a solid platform in which our Direct Debits are being managed.”
Stel Kyriacou
Senior Operations Manager, RNIB
