Case Study

Building a Custom Partnership Management System for Bentley University

Bentley University needed a way to manage, connect, and report on organizational partnerships that their existing HubSpot architecture simply could not represent. HIVE Strategy transformed a loosely defined process into a purpose-built partnership management system built entirely within HubSpot.

20+: automated workflows
1: purpose-built custom object
360°: partnership visibility
Native: HubSpot architecture

About the Project

What we were solving for.

Bentley University had an important business process that effectively did not exist inside its CRM.

The university works with outside organizations through a variety of partnerships and receives different forms of value from those relationships. But there was no structured way to capture those partnerships in HubSpot, connect them to the rest of the organization, or report on their impact.

Bentley knew what it needed HubSpot to accomplish, but translating that vision into a scalable CRM architecture required significant discovery, iteration, and solution design.

Bentley needed a dedicated place in HubSpot to represent partnerships as their own business process rather than forcing them into an existing CRM object that did not fit.

Partnership activity and the value Bentley received from outside organizations lacked consistent structure, making meaningful reporting and analysis extremely difficult.

The solution needed to connect partnership records with Bentley’s existing HubSpot data and processes rather than creating another disconnected system.

Behind the scenes, the system required significant automation and data architecture. For users, however, managing a partnership needed to remain intuitive and repeatable.

Tools & platforms we used

HubSpot

“We worked with HIVE Strategy on a custom HubSpot project that included optimizing our sales pipeline, developing a custom partnership object, and building custom reporting to support our specific business needs. What really stood out was that HIVE helped us work through our processes, sales strategy and HubSpot best practices to make sure we were building the right solution. They brought strong technical expertise and helped us rethink and optimize our sales pipeline and improve our processes. The strategic guidance and process optimization, along with the custom object and reporting, were invaluable to the success of the project. The team was responsive, collaborative, and willing to explain the reasoning behind their recommendations. We would recommend HIVE to organizations looking for more than just a HubSpot implementation partner. They have the technical expertise to build complex solutions, as well as the strategic perspective to help you optimize your processes and get more value from HubSpot.”

Meghan DiGregory

Bentley University

The Engagement

The Challenge

Bentley University was managing organizational partnerships without a CRM architecture capable of representing how those relationships actually worked.

The partnership team needed to capture information about outside organizations, understand the value associated with each relationship, connect partnerships to other CRM records, and report on the program as a whole.

The challenge went beyond configuring a few properties or workflows. Bentley’s requirements were still evolving as the project began, with multiple stakeholders contributing different needs and perspectives.

HIVE needed to simultaneously uncover the business process, define the data architecture, prototype potential solutions, and build the system.

The ask was clear:

Turn an important but largely unstructured partnership process into a scalable, reportable system inside HubSpot.

The Approach

Partnership Architecture & Custom Object

Designed a dedicated Partnership custom object around Bentley’s unique requirements
Defined the properties, associations, and record structure required to represent each relationship
Connected partnership data with the broader HubSpot CRM

Collaborative Solution Design

Worked directly with multiple Bentley stakeholders to translate evolving requirements into technical solutions
Created working examples and prototypes for stakeholder review
Iterated on the architecture as the team clarified how the partnership program needed to operate

Automation & Data Management

Built more than 20 workflows supporting the partnership process
Automated record associations and other repetitive administrative processes
Created recovery automation allowing users to rerun association logic directly from partnership records when needed

Calculations, Rollups & Reporting

Implemented calculated and rollup properties to surface meaningful partnership information
Structured partnership data so Bentley could report on activity and value that previously went largely untracked
Created views tailored to how different users needed to interact with partnership information

Deal Process Optimization

Built a new deal pipeline supporting the partnership process
Restructured Bentley’s deal creation experience
Improved the process for users beyond the partnership team rather than creating an isolated workaround

The Results

20+ Automated Workflows

1 Custom Partnership Object

360° Visibility into partnership activity

Centralized partnership management inside HubSpot
Structured data for previously untracked partnership activity
Automated associations and administrative processes
Reporting capabilities around partnership relationships and value
Improved deal creation and CRM processes beyond the partnership team

Bentley went from having no structured way to represent its partnership program in HubSpot to having one of its most intentionally designed business processes in the CRM.

Rather than bolting customizations onto an existing object, HIVE designed the solution around how Bentley’s partnership program actually operates. The result is a connected system that gives the university a structured way to capture, manage, automate, and report on partnerships while remaining entirely within HubSpot’s native platform capabilities.