Earlier in this article, we saw how ASK had multiple database systems, all hardware dependent, all offline, and none of them able to talk directly to each other. This all meant that the IT was getting in the way of their primary goal, which is to help improve the lives of homeless children.
Clean Data
Effective fundraising depends on clean data. By ensuring that ASK’s data is clean and free of duplicate donor records, the ASK team are able to gather meaningful insights through reports, and query their data with confidence that the data represents a true picture of their base of supporters.
Accessible Data
The ASK team can now manage their supporter database directly and securely, from anywhere in the world, as long as they have a web browser and an internet connection. As Action for Street Kids works with many partners, their managing director, David Beck, is often required to travel to meetings. In the past that meant he either had to take the database with him, offline on a laptop, or leave it behind so other members of his team could access it.
Now, David can work with his data while on the train, while his team work with the same database at the office or at home, all securely. When discussing Boardroom with David in the early discussions, one of his questions was, can I use it on my iPad? The answer was of course yes, Boardroom is specifically built to be platform agnostic and so will work on any device with a modern web browser.
In the interest of client confidentiality, the screenshot to the right is not from the ASK configuration, but from our generic Demo account. It is included just to show some of the visualisation options available in all Boardroom configurations.
For ASK, or indeed any charity client, Boardroom enables new donation data to be input from anywhere.
The donation input page used in the ASK configuration is based on our standard charitable donation input page in our charity base configuration, but tailored to suit the specific needs and working practices of ASK. Built in validation and cross checking reduces the risk of input errors and duplication.
At any time, the ASK team can look up supporters based on a range of search criteria. They can of course also edit supporter details, view donation history, and view or set flags such as mailing preferences.
These are just a few examples to illustrate how Boardroom enables ASK to work directly with their data, from anywhere, safe in the knowledge that it is secure, regularly backed up, and fully supported right here in our UK premises.
Action for Street Kids has been helped greatly through the development of the Boardroom database with DDS. They have understood our needs as a little charity and have developed a database that meets all our requirements. We are now able to send targeted appeals to donors tailored to our donors wishes while maximising income for our charity. – David Beck, ASK Managing Director
Technical Support by Real People
At the Dynamic Data Services, we are proud to have no help desk system. We don’t have an online forum or knowledge base. There are no support scripts to follow here.
We recognise that the best way to ensure the products and services we offer are the best they can be, is to listen to the people that use them. That’s why all our clients get the name and direct phone number of our managing director, as well as that of the individual team member that handles the work for the client. As ASK’s package involves software development and maintenance, they have been given direct contact details to our senior developer, on the basis that the person best placed to understand any concerns or queries about the system in use is the person that headed the development of that system.
Whether it’s a simple question about how something works, a request for some ad-hoc data processing, or development of a new feature in their Boardroom configuration, David and his team know they need only drop us an email or pick up the phone.
Single Tailored Solution
Part of the reason ASK chose to do business with Jacqui and her team is that we were and are already serving numerous charity clients with various data processing services to help them manage supporter and donation data, with data cleansing, de-duplication and suppressions, analyses and reporting, and a range of other services.
To enhance our database hosting service, we built our Boardroom platform, entirely in-house, working directly with clients who would use it. By the time ASK came to us, our Boardroom platform was well established, and we already had off-the shelf configurations for a number of client types, including charities. However, as we’d envisaged, while the basic configuration contained many generic features for charity clients, it did not quite meet the specific needs of ASK. At DDS, we never expect our clients to simply take it or leave it, which is why we will always speak with the client at the start of and throughout our working relationship to ensure that the solution we offer is tailored specifically to meet their needs.
With our well established capabilities in terms of database hosting, data cleansing, analyses and other services, as well as our ability to provide a secure online platform for the ASK team to work day to day with their own data, we are able to provide an ongoing solution to ASK that enables them to focus on their primary task, which is to help homeless kids throughout the world, while saving time and money by letting DDS look after their IT.
Can we do the same for you?
Action for Street Kids is just one of the charities we work with. Each of our clients has different data processing requirements. Why not take a look at our Products and Services section to see what else we do, or contact us for an informal chat.
Screenshots from Boardroom demo account.
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We also prepare house/prospect mailing files for clients, offering a comprehensive data preparation service.
