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| Data
management dot com |
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| As
recent government data loss fiascos have demonstrated, keeping
your information secure is of the highest priority. David
Adams asks if third party, web-based data management is an
effective way of doing this, or if it carries its own risks |
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Some
of us, it seems, just aren’t very good at looking after
digital information. How many of us have never deleted important
files, or always stick to the very letter of the organisation’s
data security policy (assuming there is one)?
Many were probably not particularly shocked by the various
government data loss revelations of the last few months, or
by a recent survey of UK office workers, carried out by online
backup specialist Databarracks, that revealed 57 per cent
of those questioned had lost a work laptop, BlackBerry or
data stick at least once, and that 63 per cent had accidentally
deleted data.
These problems afflict charities as much as other organisations.
Furthermore, many charities need to pass information quickly
and securely between individuals working within the organisation,
or to public and/or private sector partners. So, if we’re
all too busy with our actual jobs to be anything other than
idiots when it comes to looking after data, then perhaps it
is unsurprising that a growing number of charities and not-for-profit
organisations have started to use online data management services.
These entail delegation of data storage and backup tasks to
a third party, although sometimes the system may be run from
within the organisation with only backup and technical support
provided by the service provider. Either way, the organisation
benefits from the flexibility that a web-based system allows,
with staff within the organisation and partner organisations
able to collaborate and work from any location.
One such service provider is a US company, Community TechKnowledge
(CTK). Its customisable Online Data Manager (ODM) system is
sold in the UK through the Gallery Partnership, a UK IT support
and software company that serves charities and small businesses.
Product features include online tracking of clients, staff,
donors, volunteers, or other groups; case and contract management
functions; reports on outcomes; and the ability to create
different security level access rules for individual users.
Customers include the charity Refugee Action; and the Oxfordshire
Drug and Alcohol Action Team (DAAT), a partnership body that
works alongside local Primary Care Trusts and is responsible
for commissioning specialist interventions and treatment for
problematic drug users. It acts as a local agent for the collection
of data that needs to be passed from the service providers
it commissions to statutory bodies including the Drug Treatment
Monitoring Unit (DTMU).
Using CTK’s ODM solution has vastly improved the visibility
it has of the performance of agencies working in its area
according to Steve Pirrie, data manager at the DAAT. The organisation
has named its system the Oxfordshire Treatment Information
System (OTIS).
“We make OTIS available to service providers in a number
of different ways depending on their needs,” Pirrie
explains. “As we deal with both statutory and non-statutory
providers the IT provision across the service providers varies
greatly, from well-developed IT solutions to no IT solution
at all. We make OTIS available to anyone who wants to use
it as a repository of information or care management system
free of charge.” It also accepts data submissions directly
for import into the system from larger organisations running
their own data solutions, so eliminating any duplication of
data input.
Having implemented the system in 2005, Pirrie and one other
colleague are the only system users within the DAAT itself,
but about 30 individuals working within partner organisations
also use it, and this number is expected to rise.
“We receive a very resilient and highly available case
management system for very little outlay and reasonable operating
costs,” says Pirrie. “The ODM is a very powerful
and highly configurable piece of software, and with training
provides very intuitive applications for developing a data
solution. There are no rollout costs involved when giving
access to new users as all that is needed is a web connection.
Staff costs are low as the ODM is managed by Gallery and CTK.”
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Another UK organisation using ODM is the North Somerset County
Council Community Safety and Drug Action Team (CSDAT), based
in Weston-super-Mare. As with its counterpart in Oxfordshire
it required an online system that would improve the consistency
and quality of records, would allow information to be shared
with other local service providers, and support reporting
to the NDTMS and DIP (Drug Interventions Programme).
The system is also used to produce internal performance reports
for local treatment and rehabilitation services. Between 35
and 40 people working at the DAT and about ten partner agencies
use the system. More than 300 items of required information
on each client can now be shared between agencies without
any need for further data collection. The organisation manages
the system in-house, although it does have 24/7 backup and
unlimited telephone support provided by the Gallery Partnership.
“It has been a lot better for the clients’ treatment
journey, because when they’ve gone from one agency to
another they haven’t had to be completely reassessed,”
says Fiona Dixon, information analyst for the CSDAT. “That
data is available, if permission is granted by the other agency,
because it’s all locked down by agency, and the new
agency can just update as to where the client is now. It has
certainly had a knock-on effect on treatment effectiveness.”
The first of the CSDAT’s partner agencies to use the
system began doing so in December 2006, with more joining
during 2007.
“The reason we went with CTK was that it’s extremely
flexible, you can change it to meet your needs much more easily
than with most other systems,” says Dixon. “It’s
very easy to use. I hadn’t been involved in designing
forms and reports before, and I found it really easy to do.
Everybody has liked it, and provided they’re reasonably
computer literate they have picked it up within about an hour.”
Of course, in a period of heightened concern over the safety
of digital information, one obvious worry some organisations
might have about an online system is security. But Dixon has
no serious concerns. “Alright, you could possibly have
a worry if someone lets slip their password, but even then
everything is locked down at an agency level,” she says.
“It’s really no different from internet banking,
it uses the same type of encryption.”
John Tate, IT advisor to the Charity Finance Directors’
Group (CFDG) and chair of the Charity IT Resource Alliance
(CITRA), agrees that online security concerns are probably
not so big an issue as some might think. He points out that
many organisations are deluding themselves if they think this
is the greatest threat to their data, and should review the
management of internal information management, particularly
of paper-based systems, instead.
He believes a potentially more serious problem may be that
some charities are not actually in a position to benefit from
the sort of analytical capabilities offered by data management
technologies. “In the main software vendors’ tools
and their ability to take the data and slice it and dice it
and produce all sorts of reports are a long way ahead of charities’
ability to make use of them,” he warns.
“You need accurate data, you need it pulled together
from separate systems. You need effective internal processes
for updating information. Many charities struggle to deal
with those issues. I have seen charities invest a lot of money
on analytics services and then actually get very little use
out of them, because they find that actually they need to
do a lot of work to their data, sometimes months or even years’
of work, before they can start using it. You’ve got
to make sure you get the basics right.”
He sees no reason why working with a third party on data management
should not be a good idea for charities, provided they start
by asking basic questions. “If you can get economies
of scale from that, [it] can be a good idea,” he says.
“But as the charity gets bigger you’ve got to
weigh up the costs of doing it internally. You could end up
spending a lot of money on the service, to the point where
you could have spent that money on employing someone to do
the job. You’ve got to be clear why you’re doing
it, what the benefits are and what the costs are. The likes
of Microsoft do now offer a whole range of analytics tools,
and, particularly when they’re being sold to the charity
sector, some of them are really quite cheap.”
He also recommends a trial period. “Piloting is a good
idea, if you get the chance to try before you buy, and can
avoid getting into a long-term contract until you’re
absolutely sure you’re getting the value you expect.”
Those organisations already using the technology, however,
appear satisfied. As Pirrie says: “I know that there
is no way that our organisation could even approach the quality,
availability and resilience that this solution offers.”
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