A Decade of Digital Transformation for Global Mission
Background
TEAM (The Evangelical Alliance Mission) was founded in 1890 with a bold vision to send missionaries around the world. By 2014, TEAM leadership recognized that fulfilling that same vision in the modern era would require something just as bold: a complete systems overhaul.
Legacy systems were holding the organization back—from outdated on-prem servers and aging CRMs to disconnected contribution platforms and limited visibility across global operations. TEAM needed more than an IT upgrade—it needed a reimagined, scalable systems architecture aligned with its mission to mobilize workers across the globe.
Challenge: Old Systems, High Risk, and Growing Complexity
At the time, TEAM was navigating:
- On-premise CRM and contribution processing systems
- Fragmented financial software
- Manual workflows with limited transparency
- High IT overhead and increasing technical debt
The challenge wasn’t just technological—it was strategic. TEAM needed a platform that could scale globally, empower its field and headquarters teams, and sustain the next generation of sending.
The Solution: New Tools — New IT Model
TEAM began its digital transformation in 2014 with the early adoption of Salesforce—well before Salesforce’s nonprofit ecosystem matured into what it is today. Over the next several years, TEAM’s internal IT department took on ambitious modernization initiatives that laid the groundwork for an organization-wide transformation.
By 2020, this team’s work had grown beyond TEAM itself. With board support, the internal IT department officially spun out to form Solertiae, a systems integrator built to serve TEAM and other mission-driven organizations with the same level of excellence.
Solertiae became TEAM’s strategic partner—first from within, then from alongside.
Transformation Highlights: What Changed and How
CRM Modernization
- Replaced Apex-heavy customizations with modern Salesforce Flow solutions
- Built custom GAU (General Accounting Unit) automation
- Implemented scalable receipting and missionary reporting tools
Contribution Processing + Finance
- Integrated giving platforms across global entities
- Implemented a middleware layer to sync Salesforce and NetSuite.
- Automated lockbox processing with Solertiae’s donation ingestion engine
- Enabled efficient soft credit tracking for DAFs and match gifts
IT Infrastructure + Security
- Supported a shift from on-prem systems to cloud-based SaaS solutions
- Migrated from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365
- Implemented device management, backups, and compliance-focused cloud security in collaboration with Enterprise Solutions Consulting
Strategic Outcomes: Lower Costs, Higher Impact
Through this long-term transformation effort, TEAM achieved measurable, mission-aligned results:
- Achieving 25% annual overhead reductions, on pace to cut total IT overhead by 75% per year by 2026 (based on historical Solertiae billing).
- Full consolidation of CRM as the central operating system for donor and missionary engagement
- Streamlined receipting, reporting, and contribution processing across the organization
- Fully cloud-based infrastructure with real-time access to data and automation
- Mission Essentials launched—Solertiae’s reimagined Salesforce-based suite inspired by the best of TEAM’s model and enhanced to serve the wider mission community
A Model for the Future of Missions Tech
Solertiae’s partnership with TEAM is not just a story of technical success—it’s a blueprint for the global mission community. By modernizing within the Salesforce ecosystem, avoiding code-heavy customization, and centering the user experience, TEAM built a resilient, scalable, and cost-effective digital infrastructure.
Solertiae remains a trusted innovation partner—continuing to iterate alongside TEAM as the organization evolves its systems, platforms, and processes to better serve the mission.
Technology should serve the mission—not get in its way. TEAM and Solertiae have proven what’s possible when that’s the goal.