Global Lead, Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

The Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy (BERA) is responsible for positioning UNDP as the world’s leading global development agency, promoting its global authority and thought leadership on sustainable development and the interconnected issues of poverty, inequality, and climate change. BERA leads and supports UNDP in building and nurturing strategic relationships and alliances essential to achieving its mission. Creating strong political and financial backing for UNDP by providing partners and supporters with a clear understanding of what UNDP does and how our mission, capabilities and flagship services relate to them. The Bureau leads UNDP’s work on innovative and diversified partnerships and ways of financing the Decade of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. It is also responsible for global campaigns on critical development issues, which aim to inform government policies and build partnerships around high-impact solutions. BERA coordinates and sets corporate standards across the functions of partnerships, marketing and communications within UNDP and leads on internal communications.

The Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy is positioned around three service lines; Public Partnership; Advocacy, Marketing and Communications; and Private and Finance Partners, all working in close collaboration and coordination under the guidance of the Directorate and with the support of the Management Support Unit and Strategic Analysis and Engagement Team.

BERA has a robust network of Representation Offices (Brussels, Copenhagen, Geneva, Tokyo and Washington D.C.) and Regional Teams in five hubs (Africa, Arab States, Asia Pacific, Europe and CIS, and Latin American and the Caribbean) co-led with Regional Bureaux, all of which play a critical role in audience centric communications and management and strengthening of relationships with Public and Private Partners to help build a strong brand for UNDP within the local ecosystem.

In March 2022, as part of UNDP’s Digital Transformation Strategy, BERA launched UNDP’s first ever Partner Relationship Management and Private Sector Risk Assessment solution. This platform has been globally adopted by the organization enabling the organization to effectively predict funding with full visibility on worldwide partnerships and target partnerships. It is a means by which to unite all the partnership work UNDP is doing and scale the partnership activities UNDP is performing. It offers a transparent space where all colleagues can learn and act for coordinated external engagement.  

UNDP adopts a portfolio approach to accommodate changing business needs and leverage linkages across interventions to achieve its strategic goals. This is a recognition of interconnected nature of development risks & crises that the world is facing and that call for assembling of multidisciplinary teams for an integrated & systemic response. Therefore, UNDP personnel are expected to work across issues, units, functions, teams and projects in multidisciplinary teams in order to enhance and enable horizontal collaboration.

Position Purpose:

As we enter the stabilization and evolution phase of the platform, under the guidance and supervision of the Director of the Public Partnerships Group in BERA, the Program Manager will be responsible for the following areas of work:

• Implementation of new functionality to improve user experience and scale the systems capabilities in collaboration with BMS/ITM.
• Digitization and evolution of risk assessment tools
• Modification of partner management policies and procedures and associated organizational change management
• Creation of a comprehensive digital repository of existing agreements
• Monitoring, knowledge management, training, and support of participating departments.
• Stabilization and increase of adoption.
• Implementation of financial agreement and donor reporting
• Guide and supervise the global team of 170+ local change champions worldwide.
• Guide and supervise the global team of 6 worldwide volunteer change champions

Overall Management of the CRM Evolution and Vendor Management

• Review backlog features, prioritize, implement, and deploy.
• Schedule and conduct requirements elicitation sessions.
• Assess compatibility with other digital solutions being implemented at the corporate level by the DGG, BMS, and ExO, as well as central/or regional bureau specific initiatives and identify synergies. Identify and lead integration initiatives.
• In coordination with the BERA Management Support Unit and the Public Partnerships Group, responsible for implementation plans, including procurement, project financial management and effective expenditure of the allocated budget.
• Leverage the CRM champion role of the BERA ASG to ensure continued maximum participation and support to the CRM initiative across the organization.
• Measure and monitor adoption, perform intervention actions where needed to maintain and increase user engagement.
• Manage multiple software development vendors in the design, development, and delivery of new features and marketing materials.

Create a comprehensive digital repository of existing agreements

• Continue leveraging UNDP’S new Client Relationship Management system to convert the CRM into a comprehensive digital repository of existing agreements. Identify additional disparate agreement repositories and perform the training and  lead the migration effort needed to encapsulate them into the CRM solution.
• Continue Migrating all financial agreements to the CRM solution. Identify migration solution for the inactive financial agreements.
• Enable analysis of all existing reporting obligations
• Implement ability to report to donors through the CRM with standard templates
• Generate Donor reporting reminder dates.

Training, Guidance, Policy Redesign and Development

• Enhance the in-house training materials and design and develop ongoing training initiatives for all departments that have adopted the CRM and expand the CRM reach to all remaining Headquarters departments.
• Design, convene, and guide inter-bureau working groups for the CRM system, which will jointly identify and agree on parameters to be adjusted on the existing partner management policy and on new policy guidance.
• Develop and deliver on demand training as necessary from country offices and other business units as may be required.

Lead the Digitization of UNDP’s risk assessment tools

• In collaboration with BMS/ITM Continue the evolution of the Private Sector Due Diligence module, develop new functionality and roll out globally for an effective, inter-operable risk assessment system accessible across the organization, with a seamless transition from current systems to Quantum + and digital escalation capacity. 
• Help BPPS digitize the PCAT and Project QA assessment tools.
• Help integrate the risk register with the CRM risk assessment tools.

Integration with Quantum / Data Cleanup and synchronization

• In collaboration with BMS/ITM Perform feasibility study, design, and development on automatic project triggers form the CRM to the ERP solution.
• In collaboration with BMS/ITM Perform feasibility study, design, and development on requesting and generating donor code ids form the CRM solution to the ERP.
• In collaboration with BMS/ITM Perform feasibility study, design, and implementation of data interoperability with the ERP solution.
• Explore making UNITY the single-entry point of partner creation and/or enable data synch with Quantum for donor ids/implementing agents)

Core    CoreBehaviouralCompetencies.pdf (undp.org)

Achieve Results

• LEVEL 3:  Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impact.

Think Innovatively

• LEVEL 3: Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems.   

Learn Continuously

• LEVEL 3: Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences.

Adapt with Agility

•    LEVEL 3: Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demands.

 Act with Determination

• LEVEL 3: Think beyond immediate task/barriers and take action to achieve greater results.    

Engage and Partner

• LEVEL 3: Political savvy, navigate complex landscape, champion inter-agency collaboration.  

Enable Diversity and Inclusion

• LEVEL 3: Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivity.

People Management:

UNDP People: Management Competencies can be found on the dedicated site.

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies

Business Direction & Strategy - Strategic Thinking          

• Ability to develop effective strategies and prioritized plans in line with UNDP’s objectives, based on the systemic analysis of challenges, potential risks and opportunities; linking the vision to reality on the ground, and creating tangible solutions
• Ability to leverage learning from a variety of sources to anticipate and respond to future trends; to demonstrate foresight in order to model what future developments and possible ways forward look like for UNDP

Digital & Innovation - Facilitation of digital innovation

• Ability to facilitate groups and individuals through a digital innovation process

Business Direction & Strategy - Negotiation and Influence          

• Ability to reach an understanding, persuade others, resolve points of difference, gain advantage in the outcome of dialogue, negotiates mutually acceptable solutions through compromise and creates win-win situations

Digital & Innovation - Data analysis        

• Ability to extract, analyse and visualize data (including Real-Time Data) to form meaningful insights and aid effective decision making

Business Management - Project Management   

• Ability to plan, organize, prioritize and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals

Business Management - Change Management  

• Ability to prepare, support, and help individuals and teams in designing and implementing organizational change

Business Management - Communication

• Ability to communicate in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience
• Ability to manage communications internally and externally, through media, social media and other appropriate channels

• Master’s degree in software engineering, Project Management, or other relevant field.

• A minimum of seven (7) years of professional work experience in either public sector (national or multilateral, including UN), private (academia, non-governmental sector, corporate), with increasing level of responsibility.
• Experience in managing and supervising projects aimed at change management and internal communication;
• Expertise and experience in adopting and managing platforms for information/knowledge management, e.g. customer relationship management strongly preferred;

Language Requirement:

• Fluency in English;
• Knowledge of French or Spanish is an asset.