Customer Background

The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) is the UK’s professional body for librarians, knowledge managers and information specialists. Formed in 2002 through the merger of the historic Library Association (founded 1877) and the Institute of Information Scientists (1958), it operates from the British Library in London and is a registered charity with 9,500+ knowledge and expertise community members as of 2019.

Its remit is to raise professional standards, champion the sector and accredit learning programmes across more than 20 industries.

The Challenge

By 2024, CILIP’s operating model was under strain.

A process and technology review showed staff spending most of their time firefighting manual queries generated by disconnected systems; very little capacity remained for proactive member engagement or revenue generation,” – Duncan Anthony, Chief Commercial Offcer, CILIP

Internal research underlined the problem: an individual-member survey revealed many
respondents either could not articulate the value they received or felt services were
delivered inconsistently.

Every new member cost CILIP about £1,209 to recruit and serve, so growth threatened its
financial sustainability.

The Solution

Intercloud9 conducted a wide-ranging, evidence-led discovery on engagement and ran member workshops, surveyed both organisational and individual audiences and mapped every core business process.

The findings confirmed deep fragmentation: more than a dozen “satellite” applications, a
proliferation of engagement roles without shared data, and support teams handling near-total “waste demand” rather than added-value activity.

The resulting Executive Report (September 2024), prepared by Intercloud9, distilled the issues into three themes:

1. Unclear value proposition
2. Technology sprawl
3. A cost base that rose in direct proportion to membership volume

In November 2024, Intercloud9 modelled two futures for CILIP’s Finance and Risk Committee. The first was “status quo” and the second was “digital transformation”. The digital transformation investment scenario required circa £1 million capital but returned £618,000 in new annual income by the end of Year four. It protected a further £991,000 a year in staffing costs once the solution was fully embedded, yielding payback within four years.

Intercloud9 designed CILIP’s target state, placing Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM at the centre, surrounded by a consolidated Umbraco website and self-service portal that would give members single sign-on, personalised content and automated renewals, integrated with CILIP’s Learning Management System (LMS) and finance system.

Automated data flows and common reporting standards would eliminate spreadsheets and give managers real-time insight. Crucially, automation and template-driven follow-ups were expected to support the re-purposing of staff towards value-adding member engagement and income-generation activities.

To select the right partner for CILIP, Intercloud9 ran a targeted vendor selection that considered four UK Microsoft Dynamics specialists and, after discounting two for price and capacity, shortlisted two potential partners representing the best cultural and technical fit for CILIP, one of which was selected to deliver the Dynamics CRM platform and work with CILIP’s digital partner to deliver enhanced online experiences for members, colleagues and customers.

Intercloud9’s evaluation weighed not only licence and implementation cost but the supplier’s record in business process automation, AI readiness, systems integration, member personalisation and analytics ‒ the areas that drive return on investment.

Intercloud9’s fully costed road-map, complete with phased milestones, risk register and benefits-tracking framework, gave our trustees the confidence to release capital. Because Intercloud9’s advice is vendor–agnostic, CILIP knows that platform, partner and price were chosen solely for strategic fit,” said Duncan.

Expected Business Benefits

Once live, the programme is forecast to cut customer acquisition costs by almost 80% by Year three and grow annual income by 40% by year five. Staff freed from repetitive tasks will focus on targeted member acquisition and retention campaigns supported by marketing automation, a discipline shown to lift revenue by at least 22% when fully integrated with CRM. Members, meanwhile, will gain a cleaner user journey: frictionless joining, a clear view of benefits and personalised learning and career content surfaced through the portal.

Looking Ahead

The digital transformation programme sets CILIP on a path to sustainable growth, enabling it to serve a wider community of information professionals whilst ensuring operational sustainability.

As it moves from discovery into delivery, Intercloud9 remains its strategic partner, running the vendor discovery project, stress-testing technical designs and ensuring the promised benefits are realised on schedule and on budget.