Customer Relationship Management and Case Management Systems

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems help you:

• manage the data you have about your users, such as contact details
• record your service’s contact histories with your users
• analyse your user data, including looking at the segmentation of your users or reporting your user data in dashboards

A Case Management System (CMS) helps you manage specific cases you raise about your users — these include things users apply for, such as a benefit, or as part of a complaints handling process. 

A CRM will be the correct choice for your project if you need:

• a complete record of your service’s interactions with your users 
• inbound and outbound management of contact with your users

A CMS will be the best choice if you need:

• case creation and assignment
• structured workflows with defined steps
• decision-making pathways, including complex decision logic
• audit trails
• escalation and reviews
• integration with document management, payment systems or identity services
• multiple teams handling the same case
• compliance and auditability

Key differences between CRM and CMS

Feature	CRM	Case Management System
Primary purpose	Manage relationships and interactions	Manage structured cases and decisions
Data model	People + interactions	Cases + workflows
Complexity	Low to medium	Medium to high
Process type	Flexible, relationship-led	Defined, rule-based
Key users	Engagement, communications, customer service teams	Caseworkers, inspectors, assessors, regulators
Audit requirements	Usually lighter	Usually stricter
Examples	Contact centres, support teams, engagement programmes	Licensing, complaints, assessments,

Integrated CRM and CMS 

If you need all the things that a CRM and CMS can provide, integrated CRM and CMS systems are also available.

Delivering a CRM or CMS as part of a service

To deliver a CRM or CMS, you’ll need to know your requirements. You can get to a good set of requirements by:

• knowing who your users are - user research will help with this
• writing a business case, which will need to include the outcomes your project must deliver
• service design and blueprinting of your service
• any statutory or policy obligations
• the volume and types of interactions you’ll be having with your users

• legislative requirements
• security and data requirements
• making sure your project is meeting digital standards
• how integration will work with existing systems

Data protection and cyber security

If you’re delivering a CRM or CMS, this delivery must meet:

• UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018
• NCSC Cyber Security guidance
• Cyber Security and Data criteria of the Digital Scotland Service Standard

To meet data protection standards, you should:

• conduct a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA)
• document your lawful basis for processing
• ensure data minimisation
• define retention and deletion policies
• ensure users know how their data is used by developing consent and privacy notices
• plan for Subject Access Requests (SARs) by users

Get an introduction to what you need to do with data or have a look at a data management plan template.

To meet cyber security standards you should:

• implement multi-factor authentication
• enforce role-based access controls
• encrypt data at rest and in transit
• conduct penetration testing
• plan for incident response
• review supplier security documentation and certifications (for example, ISO 27001)
• ensure the product meets your organisation’s security policy

To get specific help with cyber security, you can contact the Scottish Government Cyber Security Unit for advice.

Planning delivery of your CRM or CMS

A range of full-time digital roles will be needed, as well as a range of support from other roles.

You’ll need these roles full-time:

• Product Manager
• Delivery Manager
• Technical Architect – they will design the technical approach, integrations and data flows, while ensuring your CRM or CMS is secure, scalable and aligned to organisational architecture.

You’ll likely also need support from a:

• Service Designer
• User Researcher – to conduct user interviews, usability testing and contextual research, while ensuring decisions are based on evidence and user needs.
• Business Analyst
• Content Designer, but only if the CRM or CMS is part of a complex service, and you’re considering something like intranet guidance to support staff in using the CRM or CMS and adhering to a wider service process

Once you have these roles in place, and have developed a set of requirements based on things like User Research and your organisational needs, you can move to procuring your CRM or CMS. A robust set of requirements will make the procurement process easier, faster and therefore more cost effective.

You should always procure a CRM or CMS rather than build unless you’ve identified a robust set of requirements requiring custom development.

Sample delivery plan

This is an example and should be adapted to your needs.

Phase 1: Discovery (6–10 weeks)

• kick-off and stakeholder mapping
• user research (minimum 5–8 users per segment)
• process mapping
• technology landscape review
• options assessment (CRM vs CMS)
• early benefits identification – you can use a benefits framework to help you identify benefits, such as a CRM or CMS delivering speedier processing or reduce complaints, and use these to help shape what you deliver
• discovery report and planning for alpha

Phase 2: Alpha (8–12 weeks)

• select 2–3 product options
• prototype workflows
• test with users and caseworkers
• technical feasibility tests
• architecture review
• security review
• refined business case
• procurement plan

Phase 3: Beta (12–28 weeks)

• procure (or build, if you have strong custom elements) the solution
• configure workflows
• build integrations
• set up reporting and dashboards
• data migration planning
• staff training
• private beta testing
• iterate
• public beta rollout

Phase 4: Live (ongoing)

• monitor KPIs
• benefits tracking
• ongoing training
• continuous improvement
• quarterly security reviews

Differences between a product and a project

A CRM or CMS is a product. A product is:

• long-term
• continuously improved
• based on evolving user needs
• owned by a product team
• managed through ongoing funding
• never really finished

A project is the process and team that delivers the product. A project is:

• time-bound
• aimed at delivering a specific outcome
• funded with a start and end point
• typically hands over to a product team