Three Organizations Sharing One CiviCRM?

[Inspired10]

Hello,

In the past few days, I've came across CiviCRM, and I believe this may be a potential fit for my upcoming project. I like the structure of the client-based system. However, I would appreciate it if this community can provide some feedback about  my intentions. I am hoping that I could build CiviCRM in Drupal that will be used by 3 separate organizations. The reason is, it's possible that the clients can move from one agency to another.

*** Is this possible? To prevent duplicates records, there should only be one unique client record. Additionally, Agency A shouldn't be able to see the client records in Agency B.
*** Is it possible to create my own agency identifier?

For each client, the following would have to be completed: A referral form, contacts, activities/case notes, and additional data collection forms. What's unique about this project is that some clients may leave the agency and later come back. A "Return" indicator (e.g., 0, 1, 2) will be created in the referral form, but referenced in all case notes, and data collection forms accordingly. This way, I know that the activities completed with a Return "2" indicator means that the client has returned a second time and those activities are specific to a service period. Generally in Drupal, this could be accomplished by prepopulating the URL, I'm wondering if there's a similar flexibility?

*** Can I add additional tabs (e.g., section for referral forms, data collection forms) to each client record?
*** Would data collection forms/new forms be created in regular content types, and say, attached to a CiviCRM record?
*** Can fields be prepopulated through the URL?

I would really extremely grateful for any advice! The other platform I'm looking at is Open Atrium, which has a good framework for designating spaces, but still, I am exploring the best way possible to accomplish this.

[Upperholme]

Hi
Welcome to CiviCRM.
Overall the answer is yes.

*** Is this possible? To prevent duplicates records, there should only be one unique client record. Additionally, Agency A shouldn't be able to see the client records in Agency B.
*** Is it possible to create my own agency identifier?

Yes. You could probably just use the Groups functionality as an agency identifier, and use Civi's powerful ACL (Access Control Lists) system to manage who gets to see what. Then when a client moves from agency A to Agency B, it is simply a case of removing them from group A and adding them to group B (no doubt you would have some sort of handover process alongside).

For each client, the following would have to be completed: A referral form, contacts, activities/case notes, and additional data collection forms. What's unique about this project is that some clients may leave the agency and later come back. A "Return" indicator (e.g., 0, 1, 2) will be created in the referral form, but referenced in all case notes, and data collection forms accordingly. This way, I know that the activities completed with a Return "2" indicator means that the client has returned a second time and those activities are specific to a service period. Generally in Drupal, this could be accomplished by prepopulating the URL, I'm wondering if there's a similar flexibility?

Not 100% sure on this. All activity records will be dated any so you'll see when things are happening. Maybe if a client returns after a break it might be appropriate to create a new case for them, which may also help in delineating service periods. Others here may well be able to offer more on this.

*** Can I add additional tabs (e.g., section for referral forms, data collection forms) to each client record?

Yes. When you create a new group of custom data fields for a contact you can specify that group to appear as a tab.

*** Would data collection forms/new forms be created in regular content types, and say, attached to a CiviCRM record?

Using Drupal's Webform module and the Webform CiviCRM integration module you can create webforms anywhere on our Drupal site that are tightly integrated into CiviCRM.

*** Can fields be prepopulated through the URL?

In some cases yes. Not sure how comprehensive this is - others may be able to advise.

Hope this helps.
Graham

[joanne]

Just wanting to clarify, you have said "clients can move from one agency to another". 

Will there ever be any circumstances under which a client could have an active association with two agencies at the same time, or will they only be able to have an active association with one agency at any given time? 

[petednz]

Hi inspired - here are some thoughts on the approach. We have done similar for client where in their case 'troubled' students are assigned to alternative education providers, and then may go back to their old school, and then later on my get assigned to another alt.ed provider.

In our case we make a new Case for each occasion as this more clearly maps with the actual process.

All our ACLs are run via Relationships. So eg a student is allocated to an alt.ed provider via a permissioned relationship and therefore the staff who are related (permissioned) to the alt.ed provider then get access to the students

You can read about this extended relationships approach here: https://civicrm.org/extensions/relationship-permissions-acls.

But I agree with Graeme that Groups ACL could provide what you want as well.

the other thing to note is that the webform-civicrm integration provides great tools for complex relationship management eg on the one form
- update details
- attach a client to a provider with a relationship
- create a case
- add an activity

Hope that helps

[Inspired10]

Hey everyone, thanks so much for the feedback! I didn't expect the response to occur so quickly. You convinced me, which prompted me to move out of Godaddy and pursued another hosting. It looks like I could achieve what I need, just some digging around to understand the system. Thank you very much!

And joanne, I'm not sure about whether two agency will can serve the client. That is an important point that I will raise when my meeting occurs.