NDNA
Preparing and planning for new database systems
National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) is a national charity which aims to enhance the development and education of children in their early years, through the provision of support services to members. Like many organisations, NDNA had built up a collection of separate contact databases and they asked Sayer Vincent to help them plan the move to a single, integrated system. Sayer Vincent designed a one-day workshop for the 30 staff who would need to be involved. We facilitated the workshop and drew out the key requirements for the new system. We went on to identify the issues NDNA would need to address during the implementation and to outline a plan for moving forward.
NDNA wanted the database project to get off to the best possible start. Sayer Vincent's approach focused on the staff involved and the workshop gave everyone an opportunity to explore the challenge of selecting and implementing a new system. By the end of the day, NDNA had worked through the practical steps for taking the project forward, confidence was high and staff were clear about the real costs of change as well as about the importance of planning and good project management.
"Sayer Vincent advised us to get all staff involved at the start and it was a really worthwhile exercise. Although the primary objective of doing this was to facilitate staff's acceptance of a new system further down the road, we got a lot more out of the day. The design of the workshop really made sure that everyone contributed - even those staff who rarely have a voice but will be frontline users."
Janet Wilson, Membership Manager