Structuring member management and automating operations with the Zoho ecosystem
The Association des Parents d’Enfants Handicapés de Drummond (APEHD) is a non-profit community organization that supports parents of children with disabilities in the Centre-du-Québec region by providing support, information, and peer services. Members also have access to a lending library offering leisure materials such as books and games.
With a small team and several administrative processes still relying on manual intervention, APEHD wanted to optimize its digital tools to better manage its members, volunteers, and activities. The organization turned to Tooly to centralize its operations within the Zoho ecosystem, with the goal of automating recurring tasks and improving data reliability, among other objectives.
“Tooly’s support was professional, clear, and well structured. The team was able to explain the features in plain language, answer our questions, and guide us in implementing more efficient processes that quickly helped us become more autonomous. A competent, people-focused team that is a pleasure to work with. The Zoho implementation changed the way we work and improved our service to clients.”
Julie Desgranges
Executive Director, APEHD
The challenge
Modernizing a community organization’s digital tools
Before Tooly’s intervention, APEHD already had some Zoho tools, including Zoho CRM and Zoho Forms, but they were underused and had several configuration issues. The organization also had to deal with multiple standalone tools, which increased the daily administrative workload.
Several essential processes still required manual intervention, limiting the team’s ability to focus on its core mission. The main issues identified were:
An online membership and renewal form that no longer functioned correctly, preventing the team from accessing data submitted by members.
The creation of duplicate contacts during membership renewals, forcing the team to perform manual merges.
Faulty synchronization between Outlook and Zoho CRM, resulting in double data entry and scheduling conflicts.
Unreliable annual reports due to poor data credibility.
Paper contracts (volunteers, drivers) with no automation or centralized archiving.
Limited tracking of equipment loans, making it difficult to obtain a usage history.
A lack of structured documentation to facilitate the onboarding of new team members.
The solution
A Zoho ecosystem tailored to a community organization’s needs
Tooly supported APEHD in restructuring its existing Zoho environment and adding new applications to create an ecosystem better suited to its operations. The approach was to resolve the top-priority pain points, automate administrative processes, and give the team tools that are simple to maintain day to day. The main modules implemented or optimized are:
- Zoho CRM: Advanced CRM reconfiguration to centralize the management of members, volunteers, contacts, activities, and partners. Custom modules were also created, specifically for tracking the lending library and equipment loans.
- Zoho Forms: Redesign of membership, renewal, volunteer, and loan-request forms so they are directly connected to the CRM and automatically create or update the correct records.
- Zoho Campaigns: Implementation of a tool to automate member communications and newsletters.
- Zoho Sign: Digitization of volunteer contracts through e-signature, with automatic archiving in the appropriate folders.
- Zoho Bookings: Automation of appointment scheduling, especially for new members, with calendar synchronization.
- Zoho Learn: Centralization of documentation and internal training to facilitate the onboarding of new staff and collaborators.
Initially, the mandate also included implementing Zoho Social, but during the project, the organization’s actual needs led to replacing that module with training on Zoho Bookings and Zoho Learn in order to maximize the ecosystem’s value.
After the integration
Results and benefits
Tooly’s support enabled APEHD to transform several previously manual administrative processes into automated, reliable processes better suited to the needs of a small team.
Significant reduction in manual work
- Membership renewals no longer create duplicates thanks to the redesign of forms connected to the CRM;
- Requests from forms are automatically routed to the right people, eliminating information loss in email inboxes;
- Repetitive administrative tasks are reduced, allowing the team to devote more time to members and value-added activities.
Better data quality and reliability
- Information on members, volunteers, and activities is now centralized in a uniform structure;
- Annual reports can be produced from more reliable and better-organized data;
- The team benefits from better visibility into its operations and history.
Automated communications and follow-ups
- Member communications can now be carried out more efficiently thanks to Zoho Campaigns;
- Contracts are fully digitized with Zoho Sign, eliminating paper processes;
- Renewals and document-related follow-ups are better managed thanks to automated archiving.
Improved management of materials and activities
- The custom loan module now allows for clear tracking of the lending library history;
- The team can consult information by item, category, or usage period;
- The management of loan requests is better structured and easier to analyze.
Easier internal collaboration
- Zoho Learn now offers a structured space for training and internal documentation;
- New team members can more quickly access the resources necessary for their onboarding.
Conclusion
With Tooly’s support and the Zoho suite, APEHD transformed its fragmented digital environment into a structured, automated ecosystem tailored to the realities of a community organization.
Data centralization, administrative process automation, and tool simplification now enable the team to work more efficiently while dedicating more time to its primary mission: supporting families and strengthening the community.