Testimony of Aurélie Bonneau, Director of Operations, Excelia Alumni

Can you introduce me to the Excelia Alumni association?

Excelia Alumni is the association of graduates of Sup de Co / ESC Tours, Poitiers and La Rochelle but also of ESCEM Tours-Poitiers-Orléans and Excelia, which brings together more than 40,000 graduates worldwide.

The association’s main objectives are to develop links between the graduates of the different classes, to promote the development of services for its members, to support the school’s students and to contribute to the influence of Excelia and all the graduates of the Excelia Group’s programmes.

Why did you choose Netanswer?

Before choosing Netanswer, we were working with a solution offered by one of your competitors. This solution lacked stability and the client/supplier relationship was rather questionable… We did not have a project manager, many of our requests went unanswered and we did not feel that we were supported. We therefore chose a service provider who was willing to enter into a relationship of trust and who offered a reliable solution, capable of responding to the following problems:

• An association that develops :
  Our team of volunteers wants the association to follow the same evolution as the school in the rankings (in 3 or 4 years, the Excelia school has had a strong ascent and it continues to move up). The association’s development depends on offering original and exciting activities to our graduates. The management tool must therefore allow our team to implement this strategy, both in terms of content and form

• A doubling of the community:
  In 2020, Escem was bought by the Excelia group. Our community grew from 20,000 (Excelia graduates) to 40,000 (Excelia and Escem graduates) by the end of 2021. The new service provider had to migrate and integrate the data of the Escem graduates on the one hand, and on the other hand propose systems for automating certain functions to optimise the management of a network of this size.

• A reliable working tool:
  Our team of permanent staff is limited to 3 full-time employees and an apprentice, and the website is our daily working tool for the animation and management of our community. The reliability of the solution is, in fact, essential to consider the implementation of the action plan and to optimise all recurring tasks. We saved precious time, which we reinvested in communication and social networks.

  After having “tried” the three main solutions available on the market (Alumnforce for several years, Hivebrite temporarily and Netanswer for more than a year), we can only validate and justify our choice of Netanswer for what your solution and your team bring us on a daily basis:

• The customer / supplier relationship:

  We did not just buy a solution, your teams are available to support us. The frequency of contact with the project manager or the support team depends on our needs (malfunction or evolution/development) and is never a problem. This is a significant change compared to our previous provider. This difference allows a permanent and evolving adjustment of the solution, synchronous with the needs of the association.

• The evolution of the tool and the numerous modules available:

  In your solution, many features are added regularly to make the tool evolve and meet the needs of your customers. It is nice to see the tool evolve, we have the feeling that the customers’ requests are heard. Moreover, the many optional modules that you offer have met our initial order: to have a single solution that includes all the functionalities used externally. With our previous provider we had a multitude of tools in parallel: mailjet for emails, surveymonkey for surveys, google drive for documents… even if some of these modules exist in their solution, they were not ergonomic enough for users and in the back office and they lacked stability.

• The performance of the tool:

  As I said before, your solution is our daily working tool for the animation and management of the community. Its performance is therefore essential in carrying out the team’s missions and in the links created and maintained with our members. With Netanswer, we have succeeded in combining both a website that is pleasant for users and a comfortable and reliable working tool for the team of permanent staff and volunteers.

  If I had to sum up our choice of the Netanswer solution in a few key words, I would say: Reliability, User-friendliness (both for administrators and users) and Relational.

What has NetAnswer done for you since it was set up in the development of your association?

Time, smiles and therefore peace of mind!

We have been using your solution since October 2020 and, since its implementation, we have :

• A huge and obvious time saving on recurring, non-value added tasks.
• A peace of mind about the reliability of the solution: we know it is stable and we no longer have the fear of server failure both in the back office for the technical aspect and in the front office for what we offer our users.
• A flexible solution and the feeling of being listened to on our different needs and expectations: we have the feeling of co-constructing the solution with Netanswer and we participate in its development.
• A pleasure to be in contact with a friendly team: project manager, technicians and the entire Netanswer support team

What are the biggest advantages of our solution?

Nothing different from what Netanswer has brought us!

• The customer relationship
• The proximity with our project manager
• The responsiveness of the entire team to malfunctions
• Developments in line with our expectations

Do you plan to carry out other projects with Netanswer?

Yes, we have already recommended the apprenticeship tax module to the Excelia school so that the corporate relations teams can collect the apprenticeship tax directly online.

We are also considering developing a mini-site for our “Alumni Sailing Challenge” event: an inter-alumni regatta in La Rochelle dedicated to all business and engineering school graduates that will take place from September 30th to October 2nd 2022.

Finally, we are thinking of taking your CRM module.

Would you recommend our solution to another association?

Yes, of course, 100% and without reservation. In fact, I have had the opportunity to do so on several occasions. I always make it clear to my contacts that I am not a Netanswer employee, that I have no shares and that I am not paid for the number of contracts signed!

Working with Netanswer has been a relief for me, as our previous solution was a real handicap in the development of the association, particularly in terms of the quality of the client/supplier relationship. I want to make my contacts aware that there is an easy solution, supported by a friendly, mobilised and united team, and that it won’t cost them five times as much! They will be able to work more comfortably thanks to the ergonomics of the site and the quality of the relationship with the Netanswer teams. 

Enfin, nous réfléchissons à prendre votre module CRM.

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