Girlguiding UK

Girlguiding UK has transformed its systems for membership administration. The changes have reached across the whole organisation and have involved more than 50,000 adult members helping girls and young women to develop their potential and to make a difference to the world. The change programme has taken four years to complete and Sayer Vincent were there helping at every stage.

It started in 2005 with a series of workshops around the UK to establish the business case for change. Consultants from Sayer Vincent helped plan and deliver the workshops where volunteers and staff explored and analysed better ways of working together. Our approach focused on the people in the organisation, on their roles and responsibilities and on the key benefits that any investment in new systems would have to deliver.

In 2006 the business case was approved by Girlguiding UK’s Executive Committee, but with the stipulation that the implementation must be complete before the centenary celebrations started in 2010. Sayer Vincent helped plan the programme of activities to achieve that and, by January 2007 the organisation had completed the first stage by choosing a new membership database and supplier.

Sayer Vincent managed the selection process, retaining the active engagement of volunteers to the end.  Girlguiding UK wanted to be confident that, as well as providing the best technology, the chosen supplier would bring the right approach and style for the organisation. To help discern that, Sayer Vincent designed a selection process which included the development of prototype systems by each of the two short-listed suppliers, based on meetings with the volunteers and staff at Girlguiding UK. This customised approach allowed Girlguiding UK not only to test the technology being proposed but also to get a sense of what it might be like to work with either supplier.
The subsequent process redesign and database implementation took a further two years to complete but, by the Autumn of 2009, Girlguiding UK had rolled out the new technology and had introduced the changes to every country, region and unit in the UK.

As Girlguiding UK celebrates its centenary, Sayer Vincent are proud to have been associated with a major programme of change for a leading organisation in the sector.

 

 

Denise King, Chief Executive