Hart Square supports Mensa International to narrow requirements

Mensa International (MIL) is the international governing body of all National Mensas around the globe. Mensa bodies, both International and National, aim to promote intellectual curiosity and intellectual development for the benefit of all society, regardless of colour, creed, nationality, social status, age, politics or any other such feature.

Seeking a centralised system

Whilst the organisations of Mensa International and the respective national bodies exist in something of a federated structure, in truth, membership of one is membership of all. As Michael Feenan explains, “If you are a member of any national Mensa, you are a member of Mensa.”

Despite this however, each National body has its own database of members. This can require a complex manual process should a member of one National body wish to attend events abroad. The membership officer from the individual’s home country may have to contact their counterparts elsewhere directly to confirm membership.

Mensa International sought a database of databases – a centralised system for all the national bodies under its umbrella. “Having an international database gives individual members a passport to effectively travel the world and go to any event.”

Gathering requirements

Mensa International concluded that it needed a CRM, allowing for the ease of administering the database. However, what that CRM solution would look like and what features would be required, both in the short and long term, was unclear. They decided they needed an external organisation to help structure that discussion. “Hart Square came highly recommended.”

Michael told us that, once the possibility of a technology was introduced, “we realised that what we were in great danger of doing was loading it with so many potential capabilities that we were never going to utilise.” One of the challenges was making predictions about short term needs for the CRM versus its adaptability long term. For those in a similar position, Michael recommended an honest assessment of the lifetime of the CRM the organisation is seeking. If the solution is long term, then the CRMs long term potential is an important factor.

Expert guidance and support

Michael explained that a broad, truly open discussion over requirements was needed before, with guidance from their Hart Square Consultant, a “ruthless” narrowing down to focused conclusions. Michael explained to us that one of the benefits of working with Hart Square was that “you need outside help to get you to make decision based on reality and not a wish list.”

While Mensa International felt like they had all the pieces between them internally to understand what it was they truly needed, having someone to guide the process. What Hart Square did well was to “ask the pertinent question”, meaning that the right issues were considered at the right time.

Michael explained that, with an organisation like Mensa, there is plenty of expertise and opinions on hand. “We can get lots of expert advice from our own members on everything from IT to nuclear physics.  However, sorting through this advice to get to the nub of the issue is a challenge. I think it would have been almost impossible to do it without the help we got from Hart Square.”