Challenge
They had the data. Just not in a way that worked for them.
Emerging Minds supports mental health for infants, children and families across Australia, with free online courses, programs and resources. They work with a large and diverse network that includes GPs, researchers, families and organisations.
They weren’t short on data. They had plenty of it – across systems, platforms and programs. But it wasn’t housed or structured in a way that always made it easy to work with.
Making sense of the whole picture.
Over time, data had been spread across multiple platforms. Each built for a specific purpose, but not designed to work as a whole.
Their previous CRM had been heavily customised, making it difficult to navigate and maintain. At the same time, key data from their learning platforms lived outside of it entirely. There was no clear way to bring it into view alongside customer data.
The structure itself added another layer of complexity as the system was built around organisation records rather than individuals. This made it difficult to understand how people were engaging across projects and touch points.
Internally, this created workarounds. Staff logged activity in spreadsheets, then uploaded it later. Naming conventions varied, segmentation was limited, and reporting required pulling data from multiple sources.
Information was being captured, but without a clear sense of how it connected, who it helped, or how it could be used.
Solution
Let the systems do the heavy lifting.
First, we needed to look at how the data was housed, structured and used across the organisation, before the best long-term approach could be decided.
The first step was to map everything. Every platform, every data source and every process was laid out to understand where information lived, how it moved and where it broke down. We could then shift the focus to structure.
Data was standardised and reorganised to create a consistent foundation. Naming conventions were aligned, redundancies removed, and the way information was stored was rethought to support how the organisation actually operates.
Once the data was clear, HubSpot became the natural choice as the central platform. Bringing customer data, marketing activity and learning engagement into one place.
The system moved from an organisation-first structure to one that supports individuals. Making it easier to understand engagement, segment audiences and manage relationships. Learning platforms were integrated with the CRM, making course enrolments, progress and completion visible alongside engagement history for the first time.
With that structure in place, automation followed naturally. Tasks that once relied on manual input could now run based on real activity, reducing effort and improving consistency.
Centralised data. Clearer structure. One place to work from.
“We sought expertise from Outta Spatial to migrate our business to a new CRM system and could not have asked for a better team to work with. From the beginning, the OS team dived right in to understand our ways of working, examine our current problems and provide solutions to help us make sense of our data in a structured way. Throughout the whole process, we were supported, communicated with, and armed with knowledge to take our business to the next level.”
Outcomes
Clear. Structured. Usable.
The biggest shift wasn’t simply introducing HubSpot, it was in how clearly the team can now understand their work, and how much easier that makes everything else.
Instead of piecing together information from different places, everything now sits in one connected view. Each contact carries their full context with them – who they are, how they’re connected, and how they’ve engaged over time. HubSpot associations also make it far easier to understand how individuals move across organisations and projects.
For the first time, thanks to associations, learning activity sits alongside that broader engagement history. Not separate or delayed, but visible in context, giving the team a clearer sense of how people are progressing and where support may be needed.
That clarity flows into the day-to-day as well. What once relied on manual effort now happens naturally within the system. Through integrations with key communication channels including Outlook and Teams, and purpose-built automations, the team can spend more time acting on information rather than chasing it. For practitioners, partners and stakeholders, that creates a far more connected experience, with better access to relevant support, learning and communication.
That shift was felt quickly. Over 50 staff were brought onto the new system within a month, reflecting how practical it is to work with day to day.
What’s now in place is easier to navigate, easier to trust, and built to support the organisation as it grows.
The anticipated outcomes suggest we’re continuing to head in the right direction:
- Less admin, more impact
~80% reduction in manual data entry and ~60% faster reporting through automated capture + dashboards. - Cleaner data you can trust
~70% reduction in duplicate cleanup and formatting fixes via standardisation + deduplication. - Smarter engagement at scale
Behavioural, multi-channel automation with advanced segmentation + automated follow-up/cross-sell journeys (no more manual chasing).
