Critical Tools for Relationship Management

Ottawa Police Team Gain Insights from Stakeholder Software

To create a clear, easy-to-maintain repository of information about all important relationships for their team that would help them build understanding and consensus, Ottawa Police Service invested in Simply Stakeholders’ stakeholder engagement software.

Challenge

The Ottawa Police Service Force (OPS) lacked a centrally managed data repository that could be universally accessed and used to manage relationships and meet their CSWB (Community Safety and Well-Being) Framework commitments. This need became increasingly apparent as the region went through a period of significant civil unrest following COVID-19.

At the time, they only had spreadsheets to record their data, and this limitation was hampering their efforts. Adding to the challenge, they had numerous staff in lockdown and were experiencing some staff turnover, which meant that their (often sensitive) stakeholder data and relationship histories were becoming fragmented and inaccessible.

The OPS needed an always-available, single source of truth that their staff could maintain using only their cell phones and home-office computers. They needed a solution that would be quick to set up, and that they could build on over time.

Solution

After evaluating a number of options, Ottawa Police Service chose Simply Stakeholders as their relationship management solution. They determined the platform was the best fit due to its focus on creating a single source of truth, functioning as an IT system that would help them manage their central repository with all information and relationship profiles, including detailed stakeholder interactions, management, and analysis capabilities. Plus, the individual and role-based privileges would allow them to control who sees what data.

Other important features and capabilities initially implemented included:

• Task Boards – Each team could have its own task board, allowing them to create workflows from interactions and complaints and maintain to-do lists within the team
• Notifications – Users could receive push notifications when tasks are due

OPS’ implementation of Simply Stakeholders is still ongoing. The customer success team is supporting them to discover and implement additional features that will help them achieve their ultimate goal of creating a Relationship Portal for the entire OPS. This includes:

• Alerts – Setting these to pop up when opening relationship records to highlight key info for Senior Command and/or any major concerns to be aware of
• Keyword Search – Easily finding relationships or events via the search bar
• Tags – Using tags to quickly assign key stakeholder info, like associated OPS strategies and partnership opportunities
• Custom Fields – Adding any type of information to stakeholder profiles, such as lead contact, lead OPS unit, cultural sensitivities, or financial implications
• Timeline – Viewing a history of events, interactions, and follow up items for each stakeholder
• Analysis – Seeing insights into stakeholders using analysis, charts, and relationship health scores
• Files – Attaching minutes, MOUs, pictures, and other files to stakeholder records
• Feedback – Gathering stakeholder feedback via forms
• Dashboard – Seeing a quick overview of valuable information on stakeholders and the engagement

Outcome

Simply Stakeholders’ tools helped Ottawa Police Service quickly gain a clearer picture of who their key stakeholders are, while supporting key team members with visibility into stakeholder interactions, relationships, and what actions needed to be taken. Plus, it enabled an auditable data trail that showed what was said by who and when, allowing the team to evaluate and report on their stakeholder management activities, and apply their learnings to future events.

But there’s still so much more to come as the OPS continues to bring more data into Simply Stakeholders and implement its advanced features. This will unlock more efficiencies and insights for the team, and transform Simply Stakeholders into their go-to relationship data portal. 

Over the coming months, they plan to work through processes like information gathering, relationship mapping, and profile development. This will enable the team to analyze relationship-specific issues, identify causes of mistrust, map relationships for prioritization, and much more.

Simply Stakeholders are glad to have played a role in supporting Ottawa Police Service during a critical period. We’ll continue to provide them with guidance as they implement new features and gain new insights into their stakeholder relationships.