00:00:00 Introduction

Hello everyone and welcome to today's webinar, "How different types of M&E software fit together and where is ActivityInfo useful." My name is Fay Candiliari and together with Mr. Alex Bertram, we will be hosting this webinar broadcasting from The Hague in The Netherlands. We're excited to see such a big interest in this topic from all over the world, so thank you very much for joining us.

Before we start, I would like to share some housekeeping rules. Your microphone is muted, but you should all be able to see the shared screen. The webinar is being recorded, and you will receive the recording after the session. The recording will also be available on our website in a few days, where you can also find recordings of previous webinars. During the webinar, you can send your questions via the Q&A feature. If needed, we'll keep the webinar going for another 30 minutes to try to cover as many questions as possible.

I would like to introduce Mr. Alexander Bertram, Technical Director of BeDataDriven and founder of ActivityInfo. He is a graduate of the American University School of International Service and started his career in international assistance 15 years ago working with IOM in Kunduz, Afghanistan, and later with Altai Consulting in Kabul. He later worked as an Information Management Officer with UNICEF in DR Congo. Frustrated with the time required to build data collection systems for each new program, he worked on the team that developed ActivityInfo. In 2010, he left UNICEF to start BeDataDriven and develop ActivityInfo full-time. Since then, he has worked with organizations in more than 50 countries to deploy ActivityInfo for monitoring and evaluation.

00:03:15 Understanding M&E software roles

Today we're going to be talking about M&E software in general and ActivityInfo specifically. I've heard the phrase "M&E software," but I think that the role of monitoring and evaluation is so broad that there probably isn't a single tool that encompasses it all. However, there are different kinds of software that are certainly very important and helpful in the process of monitoring, evaluating, learning, and accountability. Not only does M&E have many responsibilities, but it can also have very different needs depending on the level or where you are sitting in an organization. To untangle that, I want to look specifically at three different roles for M&E: project level, coordinating, and portfolio level.

Since I'm going to be talking a lot about ActivityInfo throughout this presentation, I want to spend a minute introducing exactly what it is. ActivityInfo started over 12 years ago when I was working for UNICEF in DR Congo. I was building my third or fourth Access database in a row and thought there had to be a better way. We decided it was worth making an investment to start a tool that could be reused so that as new projects came along, we didn't have to reinvent the wheel every time. Over the last 12 years, ActivityInfo has grown into a platform that makes it easy to create databases for M&E, case management, and humanitarian coordination. We've worked to make it flexible enough to accommodate the specific needs, processes, and constraints of different development and humanitarian programs.

00:05:45 Project level M&E

The first role we will talk about is what I call project-level M&E. By project level, I mean that you are working with the team that is doing the activities, working directly with beneficiaries, and delivering services. Your responsibilities might include defining logical frameworks, collecting baseline data, monitoring activity execution, registering and tracking beneficiaries, measuring outcomes, and supporting project evaluation.

At this level, an M&E specialist has a very interesting but potentially chaotic role because you have to manage information coming in from everywhere. You have the logical framework as your blueprint, and you are bringing in data from activity reports, beneficiary information, mobile data collection software, statistical software like SPSS or R for quantitative data, and qualitative analysis tools like NVivo. Ultimately, you need to calculate indicator results.

Broadly speaking, at this level, you need software for data collection, data storage, and data analysis. For statistical analysis, options include R, SPSS, and Stata. For visualization, you might use Power BI, Tableau, or Google Data Studio. This can be so overwhelming that many programs develop their own custom systems or rely on Excel spreadsheets. This is where ActivityInfo can come in as a database solution. It helps you bring in data from many different sources, such as online activity reports, bulk spreadsheet imports, or our mobile app for data collection. You can then do analysis with built-in tools or connect to external analysis software.

ActivityInfo is really a collection of forms and their relationships to each other. For example, in our IDP assessment and response template, you have a list of sites or settlements that have been assessed. You can view these sites on a map, drill down into specific ones, and track the status of activities. A relational database like ActivityInfo allows you to link things together. If you collect a list of settlements and later do a voucher fair, you can keep these activities connected. This structure helps prevent duplicates and allows you to follow up on information throughout the project lifecycle, from assessment to post-distribution monitoring.

00:14:30 Coordinating M&E

The next case is what I call coordinating M&E. It is often the case that a program becomes so big that you don't have a single organization implementing it. It is common to have a consortium or a group of NGOs working together on a common set of goals. You have the same indicators and goals, but partners might be working in different provinces or sectors. As an M&E specialist, you are still defining the logical framework for the overall program, but you are now aggregating results from different implementing partners.

Each partner will likely have their own information system, whether that is ActivityInfo, a custom database, or Excel. It becomes necessary to bring everything together into one picture to monitor progress against targets. There are two strategies for this. One is to calculate indicators directly from the systems by connecting them via API. The second, and often more common strategy, is dealing with periodic reporting. Partners might not be ready to share all their raw data due to privacy concerns, so they report aggregated totals on a monthly or quarterly basis.

If you are doing this via email and Excel, it can be a nightmare dealing with different versions of templates and validation errors. Using a system like ActivityInfo allows you to set up a reporting form where each partner can log in, enter their indicators directly, and face data validation rules immediately. This ensures you get the right data the first time and provides a full history of the data entered. You can then aggregate these reports into a live dashboard, cutting down on the time and effort required to manage multiple partners.

00:20:15 Portfolio M&E

The last role is what I call portfolio M&E. This applies when you are responsible for a large number of different programs with their own indicators and logical frameworks. This could be a country office with many ongoing projects, an international NGO with many country programs, or a donor with a large portfolio. Each project will have its own information management system, and your goal is to collect key indicators to see which projects are on track and to create a repository of evidence of impact.

We have a "Global M&E template" that serves as a good starting point. The idea is to have a list of projects and track their status, location, and themes. For each project, you track the logical framework, including outcomes and indicators. A helpful feature is the ability to map project-specific indicators to global strategic indicators. This allows you to roll up data from different projects—even if they use different languages or specific metrics—to a global level.

It is important not to lose track of the fact that behind each aggregated number, there needs to be a functioning system at the project level to collect and validate that data. A shallow information system at the top that just asks for numbers relies on the quality of the systems beneath it.

00:25:00 Qualitative data and media

I also want to touch on the idea of bringing together not just quantitative information but also qualitative media. You can use ActivityInfo forms to bring together photos, short videos, and stories of change into one searchable repository. You can link each of these pieces of information to different themes, geography, or countries. These assets don't disappear once the project finishes, providing a place for the organization to find information for reports, communication, or fundraising.

00:27:30 ActivityInfo subscription model

ActivityInfo operates on a Software as a Service (SaaS) model. We develop the software and provide it as a service to our users via annual subscription plans. This model allows us to sustain the project, pay our developers and support team, and ensure the system's performance and security. We don't do anything else except make sure ActivityInfo works as best as possible for our users.

Subscriptions include full support and one-on-one onboarding to ensure the system works for your team. We also offer a 30-day free trial because we know that adopting a new system takes time and involves change management within an organization. If you need longer than 30 days to convince stakeholders, we are happy to extend that time. We also encourage you to check if your organization already has an active subscription that you can utilize.

00:30:45 Q&A session

Question: How can ActivityInfo deal with data collection in the context of identical surveys being administered to different groups? For example, in Google Forms, I can create pre-filled links. Answer: In ActivityInfo, you can invite people based on a role. You can link a user to a specific field office or partner so that when they log in, they only see and answer the form linked to that specific entity. We don't yet have the feature for pre-filled links for anonymous collection, but it is a good suggestion.

Question: Does ActivityInfo facilitate the use of multiple languages? Answer: Yes, the interface is available in about 11 languages. You can use any language for designing your forms. We have put a lot of effort into supporting right-to-left formats to ensure languages like Arabic work correctly, including data input.

Question: How many years has this platform been in use, and how many clients do you have? Answer: ActivityInfo has been in use since 2009. The latest version, 4.0, was released in 2018. We have about 25,000 users in total. You can find case studies on our website detailing how various organizations use the system.

Question: How do other software like SPSS or Epi Info fit into ActivityInfo? Answer: You can always export data from ActivityInfo to open in SPSS. We also have an importer, so if you have data in Excel or Epi Info, you can paste it into ActivityInfo, and the system will help you match the structure and validate the import.

Question: When information is coming from multiple partners, how can data be protected so partners do not manipulate existing data? Answer: We have a feature called time locks. You can lock a database or form for a specific period (e.g., locking Q1 2021 after reporting is done). This prevents changes without administrator permission. Additionally, permissions allow you to restrict partners so they can only edit data related to their own organization.

Question: Can you explain the strategy of calculating directly versus reporting? Answer: If you have many projects, they likely need their own flexible systems. If you impose a rigid system from the top down, people often create parallel systems in Excel. You can give each project its own ActivityInfo database and then create a report that pulls data from all those separate databases automatically. Alternatively, some organizations use scripts (Python or R) to push data from project databases to a global database periodically.

Question: What does a "user" mean in ActivityInfo? Would a partner reporting once a year be considered a user? Answer: Anyone given login access to a database is considered a user. If they only report once a year, you might prefer using a collection link, which allows anonymous data entry without requiring a user license. However, this means you can't track exactly who entered the data.

Question: Can we use it individually and for free? Answer: We focus on organizations using ActivityInfo for real programs, so we do not offer free accounts. We do have an individual evaluation account for about 35 Euros a month, but our primary focus is supporting organizations.

Question: Where is the data stored, and can it be used offline? Answer: We use three data centers located in Belgium, The Netherlands, and Germany. Data is synchronously replicated, meaning there are multiple backups across different zones. Regarding offline usage, yes, you can download a database for offline use on a browser, tablet, or phone. You can view existing data and make updates offline, and it synchronizes automatically when you reconnect.