Kenya and Uganda and developing countries which entirely depend on donations from well-wishers for their citizens’ well-being. However, these donors demand to see accountability for their funds — sometimes, in real-time. However, many NGOs in Kenya and Uganda rely on outdated systems to manage and monitor their operations. Such legacy systems are known to hinder the success of these NGOs as they negatively affect productivity.

To paint a clear picture of how NGOs in Kenya and Uganda can use modern NGO software and systems to manage their operations, we will illustrate with a case study of ActionAid.

ActionAid is an international NGO founded in 1972 to eradicate poverty and fight injustice worldwide. With its headquarters in South Africa, ActionAid has branch offices in over 45 countries operating in communities, often via local partner organizations, on a range of development issues. The charity works in rural and urban communities across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, every day, all year round, as well as responding to emergency situations arising from disasters or conflict.

In 2017, ActionAid commenced a digital transformation program designed to drive best practices across its financials, increase transparency to its
stakeholders, and maximize efficiency.

The team concluded that a modern, cloud-based platform was required, which could underpin global consolidation of all of its financials across the organisation including the general secretariat, fundraising, and implementation countries using a global financial system (GFS).

Crucially, the system needed to standardise processes and data for consistency and to reduce training needs, provide multi-currency capabilities, and have the capacity to be configured to support local regulatory and taxation requirements and nuances.

The NGO software chosen by ActionAid

Prior to this upgrade, ActionAid had been using Infor and was witness to their systems which they had tested and proven to be robust and efficient. Following the review, ActionAid selected Infor® SunSystems Cloud Edition, including Infor OS (Operating Service), which provides a standard technology framework for workflow, document management, and more—all delivered via the cloud. A cloud model was identified as key to facilitating consistency and speed across every territory, minimising overheads, and instilling the scale to support future change.

Challenges that called for a modern NGO software upgrade

• Disparate accounting systems: Outdated systems make it hard for companies to perform as planned. The data collected cannot be efficiently used to enhance good decision-making. There are delays. Accountability also suffers.
• Inefficient paper-based processes for many regions: Relying on old methods of record keeping in this fast-paced world can get complicated for an organization with many operational sites like ActionAid. This also frustrates communication and thus proper planning.
• Lack of consistency across the territory: If the various branches cannot communicate effectively, then they cannot work in harmony. This means the entire organization has inconsistencies in its operations and is bound to break.
• Need to improve data management and reporting time: In this data era, data plays a very big role in helping NGOs and all organizations achieve their goals and vision. If an NGO is using legacy systems that are not built with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning capabilities
• High costs: All the above factors lead to high costs of operations as losses are incurred by the organization from every angle.

Benefits ActionAid achieved with Sunsystems NGO software system upgrade

Although these benefits were realized by ActionAid, NGOs in Kenya and Uganda can expect the same and even more by upgrading their NGO systems.

• Streamlined and harmonised processes
• Support for local regulatory and taxation requirements and nuances
• Transparency amongst stakeholders who can track results from their donations
• Lower support costs
• A modern, cloud-based platform to facilitate future change
• Reducing operational costs,  empowering business partners, better ways of working, reduced reporting time, and increased funding.

The core data model established in the design phase has enabled consistency of information in the GFS, while Infor’s cloud model has established a platform from which to enable finance staff to step-up to business partnering roles.

“The costs savings we anticipate as a result of the deployment are important, but more important is enabling our finance teams to become business partners and add value across the organisation. We are also in a stronger position to implement a shared financial services model with our cloud platform and common data model processes as a foundation,” comments John Brophy, Head of Finance Transformation at ActionAid.
Through lowering support costs, the potential exists to invest a higher proportion of investment or donations into programmes and campaigns.

“As well as maximising funds, being accountable to and demonstrating transparency amongst our stakeholders is a fundamental principle for ActionAid. Infor SunSystems facilitates this transparency, and the ease at which financial data can be processed and viewed allows us to quickly collate reports and providing robust communications to our community,” he continues.

One aspect in particular, which has proved pivotal to this end, is the funding source code. Created in the design phase of the project, this code enables income to be tracked in real time within the GFS, allowing ActionAid to identify spending against donor budget lines, and report back to donors on how their monies have been used. For example, Government and EU grants need to be coded in a different way than the Disasters
and Emergencies Commission (DEC), and separated from non-profit organisations and Trusts, such as The National Lottery.

This granular insight means that trustees can demonstrate the ways in which funds from a donor have been spent following a major event, or the extent to which regular appeal funds have supported success against a particular project.

“In any charity activity, trust is imperative, and this means being completely transparent about how and where every penny is spent, in a clear, concise manner,” comments Jason Hier, GFS Project Manager, ActionAid. “Through establishing this trusted relationship with our stakeholders, our supporters can see the positive impact resulting from their donations and helps us to make more informed decisions on future activity.”

“As well as more streamlined, standardised, and available data, we are now able to generate our management accounts in less than half the time it took previously,” he adds. “The system is easy to use, reports are straightforward to create, and we’ve seen a real boost in both confidence within the finance function, as well as improved communications across the organisation as a whole.

The ability to provide fast insights which support decision-making outside of the finance function has resulted in an improved perception of what finance represents and started to carve out a reputation for delivering business insights and value-add information, rather than number crunching.

John Brophy concludes: “Infor really has worked as a close partner and trusted advisor throughout our transformation to this point. The team’s professionalism and expertise, as well as empathy and creativity in solving some of our unique challenges, has propelled the success of this deployment, giving us a huge amount of confidence as we move forward.”

That was the ActionAid case study, your organization too can achieve its goals and reach its vision with proficient NGO software. At Flaxem, we support over 20 organizations in Kenya and Uganda with business software. We are a Gold partner of Infor in East Africa — the world’s leading Business software developers.

Give us a call today to discuss your business or NGO software needs.