“We’re getting away from long offline lists that were cumbersome to edit, decentralized and also prone to errors. Now we can filter and search everywhere and there is also a time line for each contact. The effective and continuous cooperation with COSMO CONSULT helped us greatly during implementation."
Thomas Zauner, Event Manager at IST Austria
The Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria) is a multidisciplinary research institute with the right to award doctorates, dedicated to cutting-edge research in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science and life sciences. IST Austria was founded in 2006 by the Austrian federal government and the province of Lower Austria, and in 2009 the campus in Klosterneuburg near Vienna was opened.
IST Austria campus from the sky Video
Campus Tour around IST Austria Video
Good networking is an essential success factor to enable an international orientation, research activities in different fields, and the exploitation of IST Austria’s data. This is why IST Austria is increasingly focusing on communication. This starts with conferences, colloquiums and seminars in the scientific field and extends to events for families in which children are encouraged to do research. The huge amount of contacts have to be maintained and managed and a contact database had been developed in the past especially for IST Austria specifically for this purpose. The rapid growth of the institution meant that a professional CRM solution had to be purchased. The former solution lacked a number of key features such as customer journey tracking. The goal of the system change was to be able to maintain contacts efficiently.
After a lengthy selection process, Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM was determined to be the right solution for managing customer data. COSMO CONSULT was commissioned to carry out the implementation and change process. Implementation started with a workshop to define the specifications. The experts from COSMO CONSULT then imported existing data from the old system and were also available on an ongoing basis as contacts for questions with the aim of building up internal knowledge at IST Austria. A manual for users and administrators has been created on the internal wiki to help all users understand the most important steps easily and quickly. Individual training sessions were also held in small groups.
The teams have already experienced many benefits of the CRM solution with step-by-step learning during the migration. The marketing module helps to achieve more efficiency and qualified leads. On the one hand, this allows events to be handled automatically, and on the other hand, participants can be contacted in a targeted way. Other features include interested parties now being able to subscribe or unsubscribe themselves to the newsletter and event invitations. These features save valuable time for the IST Austria staff and the customer journey can be traced in detail for each step. Data on all contacts is collected centrally in Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM. Employees can easily access it and storage of personal data of contacts is GDPR-compliant.
IST Austria was founded in 2006 by the Austrian federal government and the province of Lower Austria, and in 2009 the campus in Klosterneuburg near Vienna was opened. IST Austria’s goal is to conduct world-class research at a world-class level. By 2026, up to 90 research groups will be conducting research there in an international and state-of-the-art environment.
The IST Austria research institute has grown into a relevant player in the world of science in just a few years. High-quality contacts with research and industry are a key success factor. It became difficult and confusing to maintain contacts due to decentralized lists, so a central CRM system with extensive functions was required.
Implementation began with a workshop to define the specifications. The experts from COSMO CONSULT then imported the data from the old system and were also available as contacts for ongoing questions with the aim of building up internal knowledge at IST Austria. Thomas Zauner, Event Manager at IST Austria, who is also the central technical point of contact for the CRM in-house, explains his approach: “I act as a bridge between what this comprehensive CRM system can do and what we specifically need. I created an internal manual and wiki. Users can easily and quickly find how to set up an event here.” Individual training sessions were also held in small groups.
“Many users were familiar with the old system which—although inefficient—had fewer features and was far less complex. Rediscovering the familiarity factor again was an important factor for acceptance of the new CRM system. We took this into account by first adopting the old data like for like. Users can only give feedback and express new wishes when they see the new system,” says Zauner, describing the procedure for the changeover. This path might sound unorthodox at first sight, but it was successful. It gave the teams time to see what the new solution could do. The learning curve increased gradually, meanwhile contacts were categorized, new data fields were added and those that were no longer needed were removed.
The Event Team uses MS Dynamics for sending out invitations, registrations and reminders for events. The Office of the President primarily manages contacts with stakeholders in academia and government. The Technology Transfer Office cultivates its contacts from industry to implement ideas from basic research. The Academic Affairs team uses this to advertise PhD positions or scientific positions to the appropriate target groups.
The most important benefits are the efficiency and traceability of the processes and the central data storage. The CRM solution is meant not only to save time and costs, but also serve well in establishing and maintaining contacts in order to achieve IST Austria’s growth target.
The effective and continuous cooperation with COSMO CONSULT was very helpful during implementation. COSMO CONSULT’s expertise will also be used for the next expansion stages. For example, it is planned to focus more on lead generation, because the right contacts are needed for technology transfer to industry. IST Austria is growing and expects to break through the 1,000 employee barrier by 2026.