About Us
We offer objective advice, innovative solutions, and professional support.
There are over 600 relationship database solutions of many different types in the marketplace today and they are all labelled as ‘CRM’ (Customer Relationship Management). Each one is trying to stand out from the crowd and get selected. But, what’s right for you? Uncertainty about what CRM is and how to use it means that many investors in CRM have failed to get the expected benefits; but this is changing. Following a successful selection and implementation, organisations report huge operational benefits.
Our implementers work with customers needing line-of-business CRM solutions. Experienced developers build bespoke modules for new processes to add functionality. Our advice and support helps you achieve success.
Over 30 years oF CRM expertise
What The Right CRM Can DO For You
Build STronger Relationships.
Elevate your communication.
improved customer service.
help automate everyday tasks.
greater efficiency for multiple teams.
improved analytical data and reporting.
Our Mission
Our History
JI Management Consultants began as a practice working on leading-edge IT projects and IT Strategy. Clients then as today, were concerned to focus IT investments on bottom line contribution. The business was set up in 1985 with David Jefferson as Principal Consultant. Previous to this he had been doing management consultancy work in larger organisations like Unilever, Imperial Group, British Aerospace, and BP, and had been involved in a number of pioneering projects introducing IT into the sales function.
In 1990 JIMC acquired the UK rights to distribute the Maximizer system for contact management and sales force automation. JI Software was born! The market was then largely based on personal computers usint the Windows operating system. The Maximizer system was originally developed in Vancouver, Canada. The main competitor was ACT!.
In 1995 Maximizer was consistently in the top 3 contact management systems in the UK (alongside ACT and Goldmine) and regularly rated top contact management system. Ratings in Canada and USA were similar. Most organisations were using the databse for sales teams, but there were also clubs and membership organisations.
1995- Three major banks select Maximizer
In 1998 JI Software joined the Computing Services and Software Association and became active in their industry programmes. David Jefferson became a main board director responsible for promoting the interests of SME members
In 2000 The CRM marketplace was created by Siebel and JI Software was signed as a reseller.
In 2002 JI Software became a founder-member of Intellect, the Association of Information Technology, Telecommunications and Electronics Industries. JI Software’s Managing Director, David Jefferson was a Founder-Director of Intellect and served on the board for 3 years.
In 2002- Universities began using Maximizer for managing services to students with disabilities. Lincoln and Manchester were the first 2.
In 2003 JI Software became involved in Community Work through the IT4Communities.org.uk project, designed to deal with a serious problem of access to affordable IT knowhow in not-for-profit organisations.
JI Software began undertaking Pro-Bono work for charities needing specialist network support. Our first project was with Victim Support in Bedfordshire. Victim Support manages a large team of volenteers who visit people who have been victims of violent or criminal activity.
David Jefferson served on the Victim Support board for 3 years, assisting in a major re-organisation.
In 2004 JI Software expanded the work it had been doing with universities serving the needs of the growing community of students with disabilities. JI’s unique approach to relationship support and service quality has helped increase productivity in Student Services during a period of budgetary constraint. The ‘StudentRelate’ brand was born!
In 2005 JI Software celebrated 15 years with Maximizer!
In 2006 We announced our StudentRelate system for University Student Services and a new release of our Classroom Support Worker Timetabling system was launched.
In 2009 JI became an advisor on deployment strategies for ‘work anywhere’ CRM. We implemented our StudentRelate system in our 14th university.
First stakeholder engagement CRM implementation for offshore wind farms
In 2010 JI Software accepted a challenge to launch a stakeholder relationship management system in the UK with the objective of achieving market leadership as quickly as possible. A system designed for use where large proposed projects are likely to have significant environmental and social impacts and the approval of a regulator is required. This became the leading system for the larest offshore windfarms in the world.
2012 drew to a close with JI Software is completing the implementation work on the StudentRelate system in the 15th and 16th universities. Our longest estblished team has been using the system continuously for over 15 years!
March 2013 JI Software introducing proprietary modules to the StudentRelate package following from the complete rewrite of the classroom support worker management system. Which has enhanced the management of the payment slips and reports on student’s use of budget, payments due to support workers and claims against funding bodies.
April 2013 JI Software released the Maximizer Click-to-Call module for dialing straight off the Maximizer toolbar.
October 2013- JI Software software implements their first HubSpot cloud service for major international hi-tech engineering firm. Hubspot monitors site traffic and assesses liklihood that a visitor is a potential customer based on the pages visited. Details of the prospective customers can then be downloaded for further CRM follow up.
May 2014 JI Software opens new CRM conversation exploring CRM design types. After speaking to many CRM project teams who had been looking for ‘the best CRM’ JI Software published a white paper contrasting 2 major CRM types. This white paper was aimed at the CRM Strategy groups of UK universities. ‘CRM in HE, A new Perspective- Less is more’. Its argument is that for many kinds of work, staff just can’t get on with programmed-process implementations of ‘heavyweight’ CRM’s. Excessively controlling process screens just slow things down. Enabling/empowering CRM frees people up to be more productive. ‘Less is More’
September 2014 JI-MC Consultant David Jefferson prepares CRM overview paper for The National Computing Centre (NCC) ‘Realising the Benefits of CRM’. This is in the NCC Guidlines series, Volume 4- Number 7. It is published by The National Computing Centre. www.NCC.co.uk. Contact us for a free copy of the report.
March 2015 JI Software is the prime installer of StudentRelate CRM projects for universities. The team complete the implementation of a CRM system for City University in London. This brings the total of StudenRelate sites to 20. (Visit www.studentrelate.co.uk for more.)
September 2015 JI Software begins evaluation for ACT-on following excellent Forrester review. The cloud based service locks into web visitor ‘behaviour’ and builds a digital body language profile.
October 2015 JI Software announces arrival of Maximizer CRM 2016.
February 2016 Relocates to new offices, with conference centre and training facilities.
October 2016 Maximizer announces the release of Maximizer CRM 2017 and fully cloud-based Maximizer CRM service as an alternative to on-premise deployment.
October 2017- JI Software announce reseller agreement with BPM’online, offering agile corporate- level CRM solutions
November 2017- JI Software announce the release of Maximizer CRM 2018
May 2018- JI Group attends The Business Show at ExCel. A choice of 3 CRM Producs offered on JI stand: Realtime CRM, Maximizer CRM 2018, and BPM’online ‘Low-code’ corporate CRM. BPM’online now relaunched as Creatio
May 2018- JIMC consultant David Jefferson delivers the CRM lecture at The Business Show, ExCel London. Main points of interest for organisations planning to invest in CRM systems is the confusing array of CRM products now available, uncertainty about what constitutes a CRM product, and the increasingly important need to have a payback plan for all the expected benefits and implementation of CRM features in their project.
June 2018- JI Software announce revised corporate-level assement of BPM’online CRM from Forrester Consulting Inc. BPM’online is now in the top 4 CRM’s world-wide.
January 2019- In a ceremony in Skinners Hall, David Jefferson became a Freeman of the Worshipful Comapany of Management Consultants
October 2019- WCoMC accepts invitation to work with The Mayors Fund for London. This is a pro-bono assignment to
January 2020- Activities of JI Group brought together under one access point. Links to Management consultancy and StudentRelate remain.
