Lowitja Institute
I investigated the current state of systems, cleaned up a lot of data, and created new, streamlined processes that saved staff time and resulted in a better experience for the organisation's members.
Getting the most out of a system
The Lowitja Institute is Australia’s only national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled health research institute, named in honour of its late patron, Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue AC CBE DSG. They support the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through high-impact quality research, knowledge exchange, and by supporting a new generation of health researchers.
Belinda knew of my tech prowess through our days together at Climate for Change. She came to me with a problem the Lowitja Institute needed solving – to make it easier for their members to access their services, and to record members’ involvement in the organisation.
I set about investigating the many platforms and uncovered a story I’ve heard far too often: where an organisation migrates to a particular system, one person champions that system (even if it’s not part of their official job description) for a length of time… and then leaves. The organisation adapts; however, knowledge has been lost, and the system becomes burdensome and confusing. New staff members join the team and, without an opportunity to develop a deep understanding of the system, it is not utilised to its maximum value. Meanwhile, the system itself has new features added regularly.
And that’s where I come in. I can help you get the most out of the digital systems your organisation is using, even if it’s a new system to me. My brain is really well-suited to tackling these kinds of systems, figuring out the current practices, and determining what could be improved to make data flow better.
Although it wasn’t in the initial scope of the project, I identified and implemented a dozen improvements to the digital systems and processes that the Lowitja Institute was using.
Once we had organised and deduplicated the data (as well as implemented automatic clean-up rules), I was able to fairly swiftly investigate and implement solutions for enabling Lowitja members to access discounts, as well as for the team to record member activity – all in one spot.
This project caused some excitement within the team – they were finally able to take control of their data and bypass some of the headaches. What’s more, they’re now bringing me back to help with other aspects of their digital ecosystem.
I offer a 10% solidarity discount for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, or Indigenous-focused organisations.
In Belinda's words...
It was a delight to work with Ajaya. He delivered exactly what we were hoping for and more. As a result of working with Ajaya, we have improved the way we use digital platforms to make resources more easily available to our Members. Additionally, our team now better understands how we can get the most value out of the digital platforms we are using.
Ajaya’s communication with us was excellent throughout the project – via WhatsApp, Teams, regular detailed reports and even training videos. Ajaya took the time to understand our needs and has helped us deliver better services for our Members, as well as building our own digital capabilities. We loved working with Ajaya and would highly recommend his services.
A final word from Ajaya...
It was fun to learn a new CRM platform, discover the features that could be utilised more, and then train the team in how to get the most out of it. I also really enjoyed all the journey mapping we did, prioritising members' experience!