Enquiry Management in the 21st Century
A case study of how RNID are using First Point to provide advice and support via the Web
RNID (The Royal National Institute for Deaf People) is the largest charity representing the 8.7 million deaf and hard of hearing people in the UK. RNID's vision is a world where deafness and hearing loss are not barriers to opportunity and fulfilment, and to achieve this they not only provide services directly to their members, but also actively campaign and lobby for change in legislation and attitudes towards deaf people.
They have a website that enables visitors to search for organisations that provide help or specialised products, as well as an interactive link to encourage a two-way information flow between the users and RNID.
The data is input and managed using their First Point database application. A web-developer has created an interface that enables visitors to retrieve contact details and information by entering relevant keywords. This is a brief case history of how the organisation has been using First Point, their information strategy and what has been learned from their experiences.
The Background
RNID is the largest organisation both of and for deaf and hard of hearing people, with more than 1,000 staff members. The Head Office, based in London, is linked by a local area network (LAN). It is connected to 6 regional offices using a wide area network (WAN) and remote sites have dial-in access. First Point is accessible over the WAN using a technology called Metaframe.
First Point was first purchased in 1997 primarily as an information resource, but was later extended to use as a contact management system that could handle enquiries, subscriptions, directories and bookings. First Point holds information on more than 130,000 people, 22,000 organisations and deals with over 50,000 enquiries per annum through their Helpline.
Over the years the volume of data going through the database increased rapidly with an increasing number of processes being performed through First Point. With more than 50 users the performance began to decline, and a year ago the back-end was migrated from Access v2.0 to SQL 7.0, with the front-end upgraded to First Point v3.2.
At the same time as upgrading the technical infrastructure RNID pursued an information strategy to consolidate all their data in First Point. The aim was to make information from the same source (First Point) accessible in multiple formats: Personal callers to the RNID Helpline get free access to information directly from First Point; the Directory of Services on the RNID Website allows personal callers and professionals free access to information; finally a printed version of the Directory of Services is available as a priced publication mainly targeted at professionals.
The Strategy
With this in mind, the Directory of Services on the RNID website was designed to display information from First Point in order to increase external access to information at the lowest cost. The result was a successful first attempt at web publishing from First Point, although Mark Pountney (Applications Manager at RNID) stresses it is important to be aware of how many clients have access to the Internet and to leave other channels of information in place.
The next step in extending use of the Web to disseminate information was driven by an IT strategy review. The aim was to increase access for internal as well as external users at the lowest possible cost. An intranet was installed to extend access to First Point information across the organisation. This increased the user base whilst minimising administrative overhead and maintaining data quality. The design of the Intranet version of First Point was again put out to an external design agency, with the remit to design pages that were as simple and clear as possible to use.
Mark does not underestimate the technical complexity of this project . security issues were just one aspect to be addressed . but if these can be successfully tackled the final outcome is potentially of huge benefit.
If you would like further information re-
garding this work, you can contact Mark at mark.pountney@rnid.org.uk.
Visit RNID's web site at www.rnid.org.uk.
Mark's Conclusions
Be clear about what you want to achieve
integrate development with your business strategy
Technical issues:
address these at an early stage
Who do you want to access your data?
secuity issues are a concern
Adding data to First Point via the Web
data quality/integrity needs to be addressed
Low cost of ownership
business and administration benefits
RNID believe that Web enabled databases are the future