Delivering a global online field reporting platform

Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church (CSPC) is an American based organisation in Knoxville, Tennessee that provides financial support in the form of sponsorship to missionaries who do voluntary work in various organisations across the world. CSPC is also a financial sponsor to many NGOs that provide logistical support for missionaries.

CSPC and the NGO’s wanted a common reporting system for the missionaries that would result in a consistent level of  accountability of finances and outcomes. Originally, all member reporting was a manual paper based process which was labour intensive and cumbersome.

To replace this the organisation needed an annual reporting system for workers positioned across the world. CSPC needed to gain control over volunteer operations and reliably report and make better decisions for global impact.

The Solution

Saratoga believed the best way to enable this global community with a reporting system was to:

– Develop a central application that captures users (Workers, Organisation Supervisors and Sponsor
Supervisors).

– Create a real-time system that manages the reporting process of their workers in a more
transparent way.

Saratoga built a custom-made platform making use of cloud and web service infrastructures allowing CSPC users to create, modify and submit project updates through a secure web access portal at any given time. The platform enabled CSPC head office to have a single point for its reporting needs.

The Results

– Progress reports are now automatically stored in a data warehouse that is available for user query
and reporting.

– The platform allows for pre-loaded questionnaires to users, enabling sponsors to study missionary
activity, behaviour, interests and concerns.

– The organisation is able to manage its resources and have a clear view of each community location.

Business Benefits

– Better controls in terms of access to data and communication to users in the field.
– Improved team-based care – first view of missionary behaviour and trends in the field.
– Centralised online tool – positioned for reporting activities across the user network reducing the risk of overdue statistics and incorrect financial projections.
– Reduction in reporting errors – each report created is unambiguous and standardised.
– Increased Sponsor Management Information capabilities.
– The platform streamlined the productivity of the reporting process and personnel.
– Reduction in operational costs such as paper and posting of reports sent from field workers.
– CSPC and sponsor relations improved due to standardized, timeous, and accurate reports, leading to better sponsorship opportunities and funding initiatives.

Client Testimonial

“This project is a joint project across a number of organisations that have a worldwide footprint. In selecting a development partner we wanted to make sure we had a robust development methodology, using industry standards from an organisation with a good track record. At the same time our budget was tight. This required a disciplined approach to project scope and execution.

Many members of the Saratoga team excelled in keeping us all on track. The initial business requirements we gave to Saratoga lacked an important function (through our oversight) that surfaced on live implementation. Despite having reallocated the development team to other customers and projects, Saratoga was flexible in coming up with resources to rectify our oversight in a timely manner.”

– Director of IT, CSPC