Description
Ossi tool lightens up and digitalizes the process around reporting and managing positions of trust and rule-based annual meetings. It also allows sections to view their membership lists and order signing agreements.
Context
All four hundred sections in Finnish Red Cross have several annual meetings that are set in the rules of Finnish Red Cross. In each of these meetings they may choose persons for positions of trust. They also hold minutes of the meeting from each meeting. Previously these selections and minutes were reported for official register via separate paper forms by post.
Ossi tool digitalized this process so section volunteers or employees now have to spent less time upholding this paperwork and also the register is much more up to date. This then leaves more time to focus on other forms of volunteering. The data in register is also in better form when it goes through the validation process in Ossi. Ossis functionalities are not very fancy, but very much needed: it saves time and improves data quality in more than 80% of sections in FRC.
Ossi also allows sections to view the list of their own members, which gives sections autonomy and also cuts down from paper or file traffic between system users and volunteers. Membership lists are also safer in Ossi than they would be in, for example, Excel-form in someones email.
There are other things sections volunteer also can do in Ossi: they can order the signing agreement that is needed to set up the administrative structure for section. Signing agreement is needed when for example when new chair takes office and needs access to banking details or some registers. Earlier this agreement was done on paper and process involved emails, printing, scanning, file saving and more sending.
In addition volunteers can start and upload preparedness plan for section from Ossi.
Operations & technical details
Ossi was built from a scratch for FRC and it fills very specific needs. Thus no pre-existing products was used when creating Ossi. Basic functionalities in Ossi are not very fancy, but they were developed to fill a need on the field.
To access Ossi, you must first create profile to volunteer tool Oma Punainen Risti. Ossi and Oma use same credentials. You must also be an active state member of FRC. This validation process ensures that data in membership register is up to date and also that only relevant people are able to view information that Ossi offers.
Ossi also has a technical integration to CRM system, data flows two ways. Building this integration was significant work in Ossis development.
In Ossi volunteers in certain positions are able to access their section data. There they then can start a new meeting and inform, who were chosen to which positions of trust. Then they send that data for employees. Employees are then able to verify and also update their own records based on this data. Data is then sent to CRM, where this new data is updated to. When CRM approves of data, then it returns valid data back to Ossi and the volunteers in Ossi are able to see the validation.
Only people with validation are able to access Ossi so visiting website URL might not give much knowledge about the solution.
Deployment & Impact
One clear sign of Ossis benefits is the fact that after second year from launch, the usage is Ossi has gone up to over 80% of sections using Ossi themselves. If we also count the sections that are helped to use Ossi by districts, then the usage level is 94%.
The social impact of Ossi is two-fold: each sections saves time in administrative work while also the data received is more up to date and valid. Third benefit is the fact that sections (and districts) are able to view their own data, e.g. membership lists in real-time. This adds to their autonomy.
It was estimated that each section may save time from fifteen to sixty minutes for each meeting, when they now have a lot of pre-filled templates to use and also the membership data is already filled. Almost all the sections hold several meetings each year. There are four hundred sections. This can save hundreds of hours of time previously spent on administrative work.
For employees the administrative work is also easier, because they can access the person of trust and membership register and trust that the data they see is up to date. For example contacting people in positions of trust is easier, when you can trust that their email is correct.
