Barnardos goes to the cloud for client support

Three years ago the welfare agency Barnardos Australia realised it had a significant problem. Its systems were splintered, much of the processes and forms still on paper, and electronic forms were not network-ware.

The agency, which looks after disadvantaged kids and families, began a conversation with specialist Microsoft professional services agency Readify, which has 100 consultants and is predominantly based on the East coast.

“It’s quite a complex service delivery project,” noted Tatham Oddie, a principal consultant for Readify. “Complicating matters was the fact that it was in the middle of the GFC, and so a lot of Barnardo’s funding dried up.”

Funding is critical for Barnardos, as it is for any welfare agency. Some funding comes from individuals and companies, but a significant proportion comes from the government. Without proper reporting mechanisms, the agency wasn’t able to claim the full amounts of government funding it was eligible for. 

Over the course of twelve months, after a scoping and project planning period, Barnados and Readify developed a cloud-based solution called MyStory, hosted by Microsoft Azure.

“It is end to end client and case management,” said Oddie. Naturally mobility is a core part of the deployment, with case workers able to access and modify client records on the road.

Barnardos has a small development team, but all processes are managed in the cloud. Readify is gradually stepping back from the day to day running of MyStory, instead retaining a consulting role.

A further benefit of running on Azure is Barnardos ability to offer MyStory as a service to smaller agencies unable to afford to develop their own client management system. The Azure solution is multi-tenanted, and smaller agencies can access the system, which is branded with their own name.

Oddie said the feedback from users had been positive, with most discussions now around how to add extra functionality and how to take the system forward.

The contract between Readify and Barnardos was a commercial arrangement, however Oddie commented the agency received a better deal than they would have had they been a bank.