Case Study: How We Streamlined Client Intake For A Beloved Mental Health Non-Profit

The Client

Mental Health Recovery Partners (South Island)

The Challenge

Manage client intake & engagements entirely within Microsoft 365 (and without expensive bespoke software)

MHRP, a non-profit that offers peer support, counselling, and educational programs for those recovering from mental health crises, was facing major challenges managing their growing client base efficiently.

They urgently needed a solution that could streamline their intake process, track client progress, and provide easy access to client and case information to their staff.

Like many non-profits, MHRPSI did most of its day-to-day work via Microsoft 365, mainly through Microsoft Word, Excel, and of course Outlook. They also had a team Sharepoint which was used mostly for storing and sharing documents and spreadsheets.

By 2023, the organization was drowning in paper, Word documents, and manually updated Excel files. Gathering accurate, current data for reports, grant proposals, and program planning was difficult, as was keeping important client information updated and accessible to the appropriate staff.

Given their existing workflow and budget, we wondered:

Would it be possible to meet MHRPSI's client intake & management needs WITHOUT tacking additional third-party products (and fees) onto their tech stack?

The answer turned out to be 'yes, absolutely.'

The Solution

Use customized Sharepoint List as a main hub & add features with Power Automate (additional tech cost: zero dollars!)

By leveraging MHRPSI's existing Microsoft 365 and SharePoint infrastructure, we built a lean, easy-to-use client-intake and case management system custom-tailored to support their existing team process.

Our approach was simple: We used Sharepoint Lists as the central repository for intake data and extended its capabilities with readily available Microsoft 365 apps like Microsoft Forms and Power Automate.

By keeping MHRPSI's entire case management process within their existing digital security tenant, we eliminated the common need to pay for "enterprise-tier" security & privacy compliance from new third-party tools.

Not only was this Sharepoint-based system lean, secure, and mapped directly onto the staff's existing workflow, it came with a number of usability perks that made working through client intake and case management much easier for the entire staff, including:

Benefit #1: A single, secure source of truth for client intake data

Hooray! No more confusion over multiple versions of the same data!

Because all client intake data now gets funnelled directly into a protected Sharepoint list (instead of ad-hoc Excel sheets, which inevitably get lost, overwritten, corrupted, or forgotten), the whole team is always on the same page, with accurate info, about every client.

Moreover, whenever client information needs to be updated, the entire staff knows where and how to get it done, and it only needs doing once.

Benefit #2: At-a-glance clarity of the entire client pipeline

Within this new master Sharepoint list, we added the ability to tag each client inquiry with clear, meaningful status labels. Rather than make up these labels ourselves, we sought the expertise of those who knew MHRP's intake process best: their lead program manager and administrator, respectively.

Together, we distilled seven key stages of the client/peer lifecycle, which worked equally well for counselling and peer support clients, as well as workshop participants:

Incorporating these labels into the Sharepoint hub made it much easier for MHRP staff members to coordinate intakes between one another with minimal back and forth, because everyone understood what the next 'to do' was for each inquiry at a glance:

Benefit #3: A spreadsheet-like hub that organizes itself

• We organized the list of client engagements into ordered, tabbed views that were filtered by status

• Segmenting engagements into separate tabs minimized visual clutter and helped staff easily detect and eliminate bottlenecks in their intake pipeline

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Benefit #4: Capturing the right information at the right time

• We leveraged Sharepoint's customizable list forms so that at every stage of the case lifecycle, the form asks for the exact information required for that particular stage

• We were able to fully customize these forms to accept whatever data MHRP staff needed

• Best of all, each of these list forms had collaborative comment fields, so staff members could message each other asking particular questions or leaving important information and get notified via email alert

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Benefit #5: Bird's eye view of the entire active client base

• Last, we set up a simple Kanban-style board view that included all active engagements in MHRP's pipeline, which allowed the team — especially busy managers — to be able to scan the entire pipeline at once

• The intuitive drag and drop interface allows staff to move cards for each engagement from one stage to another without even having to type anything

Another Kantan Success Story!

By leveraging MHRP's existing Microsoft 365 tenant, we were able to implement an easy-to-use, cost-effective, client intake & case management system for an increasingly in-demand grassroots non-profit.

Are you struggling with client intake and case management at your non-profit or agency?

The right solution might be less complicated (and more affordable!) than you think. Contact Kantan Analytics today to book your free consult.