Concept Note – Draft

Overview

The Brilliant Club is a small but growing charity that exists to increase access to highly selective universities for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. We recruit, train and employ doctoral and postdoctoral researchers in non-selective state schools to deliver programmes of university-style learning to small groups of high performing pupils. In so doing, we aim to equip those pupils with the knowledge, skills and ambition needed to secure places at highly selective universities.

In 2012/13 we placed 154 PhD tutors in 100 schools to deliver programmes to more than 3,000 pupils, turning over approximately £500,000. This year, we estimate that we will place around 250 PhD tutors in 150 schools to deliver programmes to 4,500 pupils, turning over approximately £800,000. The charity has 10 full-time members of staff, with the majority working out of our London office, which is based in Oasis Academy South Bank, a new free school in central London.

1.File Sharing
Background:
The Brilliant Club currently manage the vast majority of file sharing through a basic, free account on Dropbox. This account has approximately a capacity of 60gb, with backups being made on an external hard drive to prevent exceeding this limit. The vast majority of our data is found on staff password-protected laptops which synchronise with the online Dropbox account. The majority of these laptops have organisational passwords which are not updated regularly.
Current use:
This cost-effective system for file sharing has allowed The Brilliant Club to easily share files within the organisation, whilst having all important documents in a centralised location. It allows programmes to be run effectively (e.g. sharing important documents with PhD tutors) and everyone in the organisation is confident in its use. As the organisation grows, relying on this system is probably unsustainable. The storage space is very limited, there are issues in terms of synchronisation and conflicted copies, and the way files are organised is inconsistent and does not always reflect our delivery cycles. The Brilliant Club also handle pupil and PhD tutor data; our current use of Dropbox to store files and data is limited in terms of security (see record keeping)
Ideal scenario:
A system that retains the benefits outlined above but that will give us more security tools and also overcomes issues such as conflicted copies, limited storage, and issues with versioning. We also need to develop better systems for managing important documents (e.g. delivery-cycle documents); a highly organised, and up to date filing system will allow us to deliver our projects more efficiently. In terms of security, we need a system where pupil information and personal data about our PhDs (e.g. CV information) is always kept secure, this is currently not the case.
2. Record Keeping
Background:
The Brilliant Club collects information from a number of sources such as application forms, bank statements, payroll summaries, placement details, sale processes, customer records etc. are all mainly compiled in Excel spreadsheets. These ‘centralised’ spreadsheets are then used for other activities such as trip planning,
Current Use:
Although the centralised spreadsheets are kept reasonably well, there is a lot of duplication, often resulting in mistakes and loss of accuracy (e.g. out of date contact details, spelling mistakes spreading in the system).
Some of our customer records are kept on Salesforce, particularly school contact details and records of interactions, and we have a basic platform that has been setup for us by a specialist. We have not integrated it into our processes as in practice resulted in a lot of duplication of work (e.g. recording contact information both on spreadsheets and on Salesforce) and our current platform is not intuitive or personalised to our processes (e.g. a school is an ‘organisation’, or a delivery cycle is a ‘campaign’). Our staff surveys show that there is some resistance to the use of a tool like Salesforce unless you were able to effectively perform most of our day-to-day activities on it.
To run our programmes we collect sensitive information about pupils (e.g. FSM data, addresses) and our PhDs (e.g. CVs, contact info); it is not currently felt that this information is stored securely enough as outlined in the file sharing section.
Ideal scenario:
A centralised, up to date, location where most of our records are inputted, information that we need to run our operations; any information in output documents such as reports, temporary spreadsheets (e.g. for trip planning, invoices, letters etc. would originate from this data ‘safe house’ (e.g. a CRM tool like Salesforce). This would ensure that all our documents have up to date information, correct spelling of names and other such considerations. Such a system would have to be completely integrated into our operations (minimising any duplication of work), be personalised to our language and processes, be easy to use for staff, and be highly reliable.
3.VLE
Background
Our virtual learning environment is an online platform for our pupils to interact with their PhD tutors and also to submit their assignments. The virtual learning environment is hosted by another charity, the Brightside Trust, who have adapted their typical one-to-one mentoring platform to meet the sometimes different needs of our small group tutorial programmes. Apart from their established platform and dedicated team, one of the main benefits of working with the Brightside Trust is that they give our pupils access to their ‘Bright Knowledge Bank’, an archive of resources focusing on progression to university and graduate careers. We paid the Brightside Trust £x,xxx for the development of the system and a six-month subscription fee of £x,xxx for an initial pilot period. For this academic year, the cost for development of additional functions and the twelve-month subscription fee is projected to be in the region of £11,000 - £14,000.
Current use:
Most recently, the VLE allowed approximately 1000 pupils at KS3 to submit their assignments to their PhD tutors for assessment. This functionality has allowed us to significantly improve our assignment submission, moderation and reporting processes. As the programme continues to grow; we continue to manage more users; handle more data; seek to improve the quality of our programmes - Programme Officers would like more administrative capacity, in particular in terms of data extraction capabilities (e.g. ability to produce personalised reports easily) and more administrative functionality (e.g. managing user accounts, bulk processes). Furthermore, the interface itself is not fully tailored to our programmes resulting in a lot of time spent by POs on troubleshooting.
Ideal scenario:
A VLE system that is fully tailored to our programmes and processes with strong administrative functionality and a powerful data extraction tool. Our research indicates that this should ideally be open source and malleable (e.g. Moodle) rather than a closed system which might not be adaptable to our needs (e.g. Edmodo). Such as system would make our processes more efficient, reduce time spent on troubleshooting, and make our reporting more accurate. Additionally, it is possible to get VLEs to talk to CRM tools like Salesforce; the benefits of an integrated system, where data from the VLE (e.g. final assignment results, registers) is synchronised with a central database would bring with it extensive benefits in terms of reporting, impact measurement, monitoring, and project management.
4.PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Background
Most of our activities such as sales, PhD recruitment and training, placements in schools, planning of trips, and impact reporting have strong interdependencies and these are also tied heavily to the school calendar. With these dependencies strong project management tools become an essential focus for The Brilliant Club.
Current use
Most of our project management is done using Excel spreadsheets. The key spreadsheets that we use regularly are: sales to schools, applications from PhD tutors, details of PhD tutors on our books and placement spreadsheets that track programmes in schools from planning to completion, and moderation spreadsheets that are used for impact reporting purposes.
When managing projects, we extract information from our ‘central’ spreadsheets to produce other smaller, more selective spreadsheets. These spreadsheets have no integration to timelines or calendars, and are thus produced on an ongoing basis. Our staff survey shows that duplication of information like this is perceived as being time consuming, and somewhat unreliable. For example, if a PhD tutor changes their availability, this would impact a number of working documents; placement spreadsheets, school placement forms, PhD placement forms and so on.
We also use Google Calendar where we record key activities such as trips, meetings, and some organisational deadlines. This is mostly up to date and is generally perceived by staff as a very useful tool. However, this works completely independently to other planning documents such as the ‘schools delivery cycle’ and the ‘PhD delivery cycle’; all three project management tools acting in isolation, when they are heavily linked to each other.
Overall, we seem to have a number of very useful tools and documents that are currently operating in quite a fractured way, which might not be necessary.
Ideal scenario:
A dynamic project management tool that takes into account the dependencies of our work, synchronised to a calendar (e.g. email reminders, visual up-to-date overview of project, staff responsibility for projects, etc) or at least a more integrated approach to how we manage projects such as the delivery cycle. There are tools like MS project and Google Apps which facilitate this; whichever system is adopted would need to result in minimal disruption and be intuitive for staff. See ‘record keeping’ for ideal scenario for the management of information.
5.WEBSITE
Background
Our website uses the domain and is hosted by xxx, a service for which we pay yyy. The website has been created as an adapted version of a Wordpress template. The website largely consists of information about The Brilliant Club, split up into basic categories according to potential users. Most information is presented as text, static images, embedded PDFs, social media plugins, and a video. The website has about X number of users per month/day (data from Google Analytics seems unreliable??).
Current use
Our recent survey indicates that staff sometimes refer stakeholders to the website for key information. However, much of the content is out of date and in this respect is not the most reliable tool for this purpose. Although the website is simple and effective as an information tool, a large proportion of downloadable content was found to be out of date in a recent analysis (e.g. VLE guide for pupils has old deadlines). A simple Page Speed test shows that a lot of work can be done to optimize the site in its current form e.g. image compression, scaling images and many more solutions to improve user experience.
Ideal scenario:
An up to date website that allows users to complete important functions relating to their TBC experience; e.g. apply to TBC and book assessment centre slots, login to their own portal, look up information/calendars about placements, integrated VLE, online contact forms, forums for tutors, download resources and much more (see ideal user profiles document). There is a wide range of functionality that could be developed, and this should be integrated to our other processes. Optimisation, keeping the site up to date, and developing all this functionality would require a member of staff to maintain it.
6.EMAIL
Background
All email accounts at The Brilliant Club carry our website domain and are hosted on Gmail. We currently have accounts for all our members of staff () as well as more general organisational accounts (finance/hello/). Email is the main way in which we correspond with schools, PhD tutors, and universities for the delivery of our main activities.
Current use
Our survey shows that people feel confident with Gmail and there is no demand for change. Some members of staff prefer Outlook as their interface and use that instead. Our email accounts are also linked to our Google calendars and is thus a system that is well integrated. As part of our delivery cycles we send out very similar emails drafted in Word, and then modified manually according to the recipient. This sometimes results in loss of formatting, and is time consuming if a very similar email has to be sent to a large number of people. Mail merging is used by some members of staff for these purposes but is not something that is well integrated into the organisation’s activities.
Ideal scenario:
Full integration of delivery cycle emails (e.g. do we need to draft emails in Word first?) and develop systems to save time when having to email in large quantities (e.g. better templates, powerful mail merging tools). Some organisations use CRM tools for correspondence resulting in better monitoring of communication with important customers e.g. schools. Some of us also correspond with the same tutors or schools at the same time, and a system which provides a better log of correspondence, all in one place would also be useful.
7.SOCIAL MEDIA
Backround
The Brilliant Club has a Facebook and Twitter account.
Current use
The Facebook account last had activity in December 2013 and has 544 likes. It is currently not maintained and is not regularly accessed by members of staff. Our Twitter account is regularly used and has 1624 followers. The Brilliant Club gets regular mentions by other users and has proven effective in forming new contacts with other people in our sector. Staff feel that we could do even more in this respect (e.g. a tweet per trip)
Ideal scenario:
Develop a formal social media plan as part of our project management with more consistent output and clearer delegation of social media responsibilities amongst members of staff. Develop strategies to increase the profile of our social media tools at important events (e.g. PhD training weekends).
8.DOCUMENTS AND DESIGN
Background
We do all of our branding and design work in house and use basic software packages such as Microsoft Office, particularly Publisher and Word.
Current use
We use Microsoft Word extensively for the production of all documents. We have design templates to ensure that our branding is consistent across all documents, but there is still a feeling that formatting is an issue across the organisation. For documents that require more specialised formatting, we use Publisher and have not explored any other alternatives.
Ideal scenario:
More formalised systems in place to ensure formatting across the organisation is consistent (this may involve staff training for the use of templates). Alternatives to Publisher for the production of documents with more attractive formatting e.g. Adobe InDesign. As we develop, we may also want to invest in other