Big Brothers & Big Sisters White Paper

8/9/2019 Big Brothers & Big Sisters White Paper

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Big Brothers and Big Sisters

of Calgary and Area

How Big Brothers & Big Sisters used the internet to streamline

their business processes to match volunteers with kids faster and more cost efficiently

AUTOMATED BUSINESS PROCESSING ISNT MAGIC

BUT THE RESULTS SURE COME CLOSE


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Sharing a Little Magic 3

Whats Wrong with this Picture? 4

The Human Factor 7

The Right Tools for the Right Job 8

Getting The Job Done 9

Conclusion 10

Table of Contents


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In todays highly competitive internet savvy world,

the need for business process automation and

the ability to use the internet to streamline busi-

ness processes is greater than ever before. While

the internet can bring your prospective clients toyou quickly and easily, the true test of an effec-

tive website does not only lie in how many people

visit your site, but whether or not it provides you

with the opportunity to turn those prospects into

real clients.

The Big Brothers & Big Sisters of Calgary recently

faced a similar challenge. They needed to find a

way to use this technology to provide people with

the opportunity to volunteer and help give back

to the community. It wasnt enough to simply

have their organizational information available if it

didnt help produce measurable results. Because

in this case, the outcome doesnt just affect the

organizations bottom line it affects the lives of

our children.

Since 1998, Clarity.ca Inc. (Clarity) has had the

honor of working as a corporate community part-

ner with the Big Brothers & Big Sisters (BBBS) of Cal-

gary and Area to ensure the most time and cost

efficient online services are available to both their

volunteers and program participants. This newproject presented the chance for Clarity to rise to

the challenge once again and help BBBS expand

and enhance the way they serve the community

even more

Sharing A Little MagicMost recently, Clarity has

begun working on provid-

ing BBBS Calgary with an

online application process.

This new functionality will

allow BBBS Calgary to im-

prove customer service and

provide quicker response to

new mentor applicants. Clar-

ity is our internet mentor. Like

our Big Brother and Big Sister

volunteers, they know that

strong health relationships

ultimately benefit both parties,

and build capacity, success

and resiliency. We cannot

repay them for the value of

the work that they do.

Big Brothers & Big Sisters of

Calgary and Area

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At the end of the day, state of the art technol-

ogy and creative genius is of no use to anyone if

you dont know how to use it to produce practi-

cal results. The BBBS project took full advantage

of Claritys team of experienced industry workflowexperts to do just that and together they clearly

defined exactly what their new and unique online

business processing needs were.

As with all of Claritys long-term client relationships,

the project analysis process with BBBS has become

a very intuitive and productive one. This critical

front-end analysis phase of the project resulted in

the identification of the root cause of the difficul-

ties the organization was facing, which rested in

their ability to process and screen potential men-

tors on a timely basis.

Like any workflow processing problem, BBBSs

inability to screen and process potential mentors

on a timely basis had created challenges at the

most fundamental level of their internal day-to-day

operations. Claritys team of experts did what they

do best and got to work to explore the practical

realities of the mentor volunteer workflow process.

Right from the start of this analysis process, Clarity

discovered that prospective mentor volunteers didnot have the basic information they required read-

ily available to them in order to seriously consider

and make an educated decision about whether

or not participating in this program was right for

themselves. This reality then required prospects to

take the initiative and call the organization just to

make a request for the information they needed

to move to the next decision-making step.

Once contacted, the staff then had to create

an information package which incurred notable

administrative costs including photocopying, infor-

mation package collation, postage expenses and

the staffs time to execute all of the tasks associatedwith the initial mentor volunteer screening process.

Responsibility then fell to the staff to track and

follow-up information request calls to potential

mentors that did not respond, and they were

often told that the information sent to them had

never arrived in the mail or the prospect had

lost the single hard copy package sent. In other

words, this antiquated process of information dis-

tribution was simply not working well in the very

busy lives of individuals in todays fast-paced

world. This fact was resulting in the loss of potential

mentor volunteers and was a highly inefficient use

of the BBBS staffs time that had to make multiple

telephone calls just to reach the interview stage of

the application process.

Whats Wrong with this Picture?

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The final analysis of the workflow process revealed

the key issues that needed to be resolved to enable

BBBS to serve their community at the highest level

as being:

1.

2.

3.

When considering internal operational changes,

we are the first ones to advise our clients that

there is a great deal more to finding an effective

solution than simply purchasing some new techni-

cal tool or program. The typical project analysisprocess for this type of project considers a variety

of relevant issues and factors with just a few of

them including:

Analysis of existing business processes

In order to know what you need to change or

add, you need to know what you have. This pro-

cess includes review of the primary methodologies

being used to collect, analyze, share and process

information and carefully mapping out how each

associated business process is implemented to

achieve a successful result.

This part of the analysis process gives you a clear

picture of the material, administrative and pro-

cessing costs you are incurring with your current

non-automated business processing system. The

relevant business processes include any process

that involves the movement and processing of

paper, multiple authorizations and versioning con-

trol over multiple geographic regions.

Eliminating the lengthily lag time in processing

mentor applications which sent the wrong mes-

sage to potential mentors and often resulted in

the loss of prospective volunteers,

The need to take advantage of their existing

technology to provide prompt and easily ac-

cessible information dissemination services to

provide the best customer service possible to

prospective volunteers, and

Creating a workflow system that utilized the

BBBSs staff time and administrative budget in a

much more cost and time efficient manner.

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Defining the needs of your target market

By accurately defining the needs of your target

market/users, you can make changes to your

existing business processing system that are de-

signed to better meet the practical needs of your

prospective/existing clients and your organization.

A few of these requirements might include:

Addressing these user needs will greatly enhance

the measurable online sales and marketing results

that your new automated business processes can

achieve.

Technical/System Assessment

Integrating new business development tools and

applications must be selected and customizedto work seamlessly with your existing hardware

system and software applications. Claritys im-

pressive team of technical experts works closely

with your IT division to ensure your newly designed

business processing applications are successfully

implemented in a way that not only meets but

compliments your current system requirements.

Understanding how much time users spend

on a web site when looking for your services,

What kind of information they are typically

seeking, and

What information they are most comfortable

sharing and how to make it as easy and time

efficient as possible for prospects to do so.

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Over the last decade alone, there has been an

immeasurable advancement in the development

of and the way technology is used within the

business world. Consequently, many businesses

have had to go through a trial by fire learningprocess to discover what actually works for their

organization and their clients, relative to what

they were promised by the producers of the latest

and greatest technological business tool. Unfor-

tunately, this path of discovery can often end up

costing an organization a great deal of money

and even the loss of personnel in the process.

Clarity has always understood that no one knows

their business, their people and their customer

needs better than their clients do. Claritys business

objective is to tap into that unique expertise to

The Human Factor

identify and design custom business processing

tools and applications that will meet the require-

ments of their clients on all relevant organization-

al, operational and customer service levels. All of

Claritys business processing tools and applicationsare designed with one thing in mind the people

using them.

Claritys resolve couldnt have been more evident

than with the latest BBBS project. When this project

began, the backlog of unprocessed mentor ap-

plications already encompassed a six-week time

period. This problem created frustration to not

only potential mentors and the families of children

waiting to be matched with their mentors, but

with the dedicated and caring staff of BBBS who

wanted nothing more than to have the ability to

do what they had joined BBBS to do in the first

place, help make the lives of countless children

happier and more rewarding.

This same goal holds true for all of Claritys clientele

no matter what field or industry they serve. An or-

ganization succeeds in todays globally competi-

tive marketplace by being able to anticipate and

meet the needs of customers efficiently and cost

effectively. The employees of any organization

succeed by ensuring their roles help successfully fillthis critical need and in doing so their prospects

become customers. In order to turn these prospects

into customers, the organization must provide their

people with the right tools for the right job.

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While the value of a content management

system (CMS) has grown evident over the past

few years, what has become equally evident is

the need to have content management tools

that are specifically designed to meet the exact-ing requirements of each organization. There is

no such thing as a cookie cutter organization

and consequently, trying to implement and use

a cookie cutter content management system

simply does not work.

To answer the call for specialized, user friendly

and time and cost efficient content management

tools, Clarity has created the Clarity Content Man-

ager (CCM 5). CCM 5 is an easy to use Web-based

application that allows content owners to collabo-

rate on the ongoing content creation, manage-

ment and publication of all types of content. This

highly intuitive system is designed to ensure that

the unique automated business processing needs

of each organization are identified, incorporated

and implemented seamlessly into your existing

business processing system.

The power and flexibility of the CCM 5 was un-

mistakable throughout this latest project with

BBBS. Using the CCM 5 and one of Claritys many

custom form builder tools, an automated systemto manage and process BBBS online applications

was created and implemented. The user feedback

and the results achieved, by both the prospective

mentor volunteers and the dedicated staff of BBBS

is remarkable.

When former potential mentor volunteers discov-

ered the new online application process was in

place, many of them opted to go ahead and

become mentors because the entire application

process had been simplified and now worked withtheir schedules. Since launching the online mentor

application form, every new mentor volunteer has

indicated that they used this online service to apply,

where previously, many potential volunteers stated

disappointment when they were told that the online

application service was not available. Additionally,

volunteers have stated that they thoroughly enjoy

having the online program reference information

available to them at any time and have indicated

to BBBS staff that this information has been instru-

mental in helping them realize that this was the

right program for them to participate in.

From an administrative standpoint, the staff now

only has to call each volunteer once after they

eceived the completed online application with

the administrative cost of creating and sending

information packages becoming almost com-

pletely a thing of the past. Since BBBS can now

immediately respond to applications being

emailed, Intake staff are directing their time and

energy only to those persons that are genuinely

interested in participating in the program. Trueexcellence in customer service can now be given

to the serious volunteer that is choosing to make

such a positive difference in our community.

The Right Tools for the Right Job

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Having online application forms enabled the

BBBS administrative staff to successfully process

and eliminate the backlog of mentor application

forms and has resulted in a significant reduction of

the time it now takes for application forms to beprocessed. Applicants who visit the Big Brothers

and Big Sisters of Calgary and Area website find

a simple and convenient way of filling out an ap-

plication form which can also be easily filled out

at any other time via a login area, with a secure

username and password.

Finally, all mentor application forms are validated,

submitted and saved in a database for review

by the BBBS administration and then notified via

automated email. Saving time and resources by

simplifying complex tasks such as sending out

reference forms to email addresses that were

provided by the applicant, can be carried out

once the application has been reviewed and

approved. Without this new automated business

process tool, this procedure required time being

spent contacting references and entering data

from paper forms instead of enabling the prompt

and appropriate pairing of BBBS volunteers to the

children waiting for a mentor.

Statistically, using the online mentor applicationservice has shown that the completed applica-

tion numbers have increased by approximately

30% while the work load required by the BBBS staff

to complete the application process has been

reduced by about 30%.

In this case the results are not only measurable

theyre obvious just by looking in the faces

of the children when they meet their new friend

and mentor.

Getting the Job Done

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The real test of the success or failure of any new

business tool must be based upon measurable

results. Clarity knows that the most critical phase

of any project is the initial analysis process to

accurately determine what our client needs reallyare and equally importantly what they are not.

If it isnt broken we dont fix it.

Whether its providing expert consulting, applica-

tion development, application integration, cre-

ative design, employee training and/or intranet

development services our impressive team of ex-

perienced multi-disciplined professionals enables

us to ensure that our clients are presented with

only the most effective and cost efficient solutions

available to support and achieve their unique

organizational and customer service goals.

To explore what innovative solutions Clarity can

provide your organization with or to request more

information, please call: (403) 705-5900 or select

Clarity.ca.

ConclusionBig Brothers & Big Sisters of

Canada embraces the vision

that every child in Canada

who needs a mentor has a

mentor. We recognize that

we can not do this alone and

know that only in joining with

our community partners will

we be able to make a mean-

ingful difference in the lives of

more children and youth.

Please accept our gratitude

for the commitment you dis-

play in your community to

help us realize our shared

vision and to make a differ-

ence in the lives of Canadian

Children.

Bruce MacDonald

President & CEO

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http://www.clarity.ca/http://www.clarity.ca/

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Big Brothers & Big Sisters White Paper