Digital Transformation at Save the Children UK
The challenge:
Expectations of an excellent digital experience were growing by the day. With more and more people engaging with charities via social and the shift to online giving gathering pace. However, Save the Children UK was still operating in a largely traditional, off-line way and disconnected way. With extremely limited digital capabilities, and teams working in silos, the quality of technologies and the external audience experience was suffering, whilst existing resources were being under-utilised.
What we did:
- Strategy and Leadership: Working with the leadership team, we supported the strategy and business case development
- Organisational design: Design design and implementation of new, digital and tech teams, a cross-functional delivery model and agile ways of working.
- Change Consultancy: Supported the processes design and implementation of new ways of working, coaching and supporting individuals and teams through change
The outcome / results:
Increased organisational capabilities in content strategy and SEO, UX design and analytics, digital marketing and digital development, an improved support model and effective team dynamics meant that SCUK were able to better meet supporter needs and improve their visibility, campaign performance and online conversion. Digital got air-time at Exec and Trustee level, with the introduction of a new amazing Director of Digital, and the team we embedded were the first step in the longer term transformation which SCUK is progressing. By building capabilities and proving the benefits of a more agile way of working, we set the organisation up for wholesale agile transformation.
Save the Children: New enterprise digital solution
The challenge:
The SCUK online platforms were suffering from historic under investment, leading to multiple disjointed technologies, confusing user journeys, poor quality infrastructure and lost income. In addition to this, through neglect of platforms and reliance on multiple third parties, they were vulnerable to cyber attacks. A lack of expertise alongside the instability and complexities within the current technologies had led to significant challenges in resolving urgent issues as they arise.
What we did:
- Strategy & Leadership: We supported the Director of Digital and Director of Technology in developing the strategy and roadmap for change. Engaging with the SLT and Board of Trustees to ensure leadership support, dedicated resources and budget.
- Transformation consultancy: we led on delivery of the significant transformation programme to equip Save the Children with the people, processes and technologies to maintain performance and grow within the increasingly digital landscape, and deliver the Cause of Millions 2016-2018 strategy.
- Agile Delivery: Working with agency partners and technology partner Adobe we transformed digital platforms and developed the infrastructure to build great user experiences, increase agility and better respond in emergency situations, to maximise impact for children.
The outcome / results:
- Enabled the successful delivery of the Cause of Millions 2016-18 strategy.
- Increased online income by driving up SCUK website traffic and improved user experience with better forms leading to improved conversion across cash, regular and emergency giving.
- Enabled cost savings with better focused spend on paid search.
- Reduced reliance on third parties doing web development by bringing more capability in-house, increasing agility efficiency and ability to respond to opportunities and innovations, and increasing speed to market.
- Improved relevance and quality of digital content.
- Empowered SCUK to use live data to understand the performance of design and content and build the capability to respond urgently, ahead of the competition.
- Aligned website strategy across Save the Children UK and US, building in cost savings and a successful global partnership
Kelly and the Kivo Team have played a crucial role in the defining phases of our digital transformation. Providing programme management, project management and business analysis support, they have helped build the case for change, achieve board approval for investment and have successfully delivered the first phase.
They continue to play a leading role in our programme delivery. Kelly and the team not only share our ethos, they appreciate and understand our unique challenges, and have built a collaborative team across Save the Children, Kivo and our systems integrator, working hard to overcome constraints and maintain focus on delivery.
They have been considered part of the team at Save the Children, leading across organisational, technology and process change, whilst ensuring the internal team has the capability and capacity to take further phases of the transformation forward.
Karl Hoods
Chief Information Officer, Save the ChildrenKelly is a change and technology expert with huge amounts of energy and determination. She is always solution-orientated and pro-active.
As programme lead for our Digital Transformation, Kelly supported in shaping the business case, getting buy in at Board and ELT level and she went on to effectively deliver the programme of work including recruitment of new roles, delivery of new technology, training and implementation of new processes.
Kelly was a step ahead across the programmes, intuitively identifying risk and quickly outlining solutions, ensuring that even if we did hit bumps in the road there were always clear options available to keep the programme moving.
Kelly is a great communicator, comfortable in discussions on business benefits through to technical requirements. This gives her the ability to communicate with a variety of stakeholders, gaining trust and buy in.