OFSTED engaged Veronica in June to deliver changes to the organisation’s CRM system. Timeframes were extremely tight as the changes needed to be delivered ahead of the new academic year in September.
The CRM changes were part of a wider suite of changes arising from a review of the organisation. The review recommended changes to the way OFSTED captured and shared information, and these had to be carried out in parallel with a major restructuring of the organisation.
Veronica’s first task was to quickly navigate what the strategy was and pin down the exact requirements despite the rapidly changing environment. OFSTED’s overriding informatics imperative was to upgrade and integrate existing systems in order to optimise information received from internal and external stakeholders such as schools, colleges, parents, local authorities, social care, and inspectors, so that it could be used in a more proactive, joined up way.
The assignment proved more complex and demanding than the original engagement brief suggested. It saw Veronica joining up the dots relating to contacts management across the organisation; enabling Parliamentarians to access information about OFSTED activities and reports in their constituency; and ensuring that all changes took into account the strict information security rules that govern the work of OFSTED, amongst other things.
In time for the beginning of the school year though, she had delivered to budget and quality a number of key outcomes. Parliamentarians could access key information, OFSTED inspectors had improved access to information on the system to better support their work in the field, and new, auditable processes were enabled on the system to help internal teams deal with a wider variety of calls made to OFSTED and tracking the actions that followed on from them.
Perhaps Veronica’s lasting legacy though was establishing a clear foundation upon which to further develop CRM as a key component for achieving the vision of a fully integrated information and intelligence platform.
It was no surprise that Veronica’s sponsors parting words were, “It’s been a real pleasure to work with Veronica - she is so diligent and professional.”
