00:00:00 Introduction

Great, thank you so much. Today, I've just got a couple of slides and then we'll dive right into the software looking at how we can use it. First, we'll look at some use cases for ActivityInfo. Where is it useful? Why is it a beneficial tool for your work? We'll move into the demo and then we'll look at some of the steps involved in moving from paper, spreadsheets, or ODK-based tools to ActivityInfo. Finally, we'll look at some of the onboarding and support that we offer from our team here for your work, as well as the pricing, procurement, and subscriptions.

00:00:52 ActivityInfo use cases and benefits

So what is ActivityInfo? Over the last 15 years, we've been working hard to build a unified platform, an end-to-end solution for data management. That's what we've seen the field has needed. Working with 15 different tools just leads to a loss of time and frustration. By the time that you get all the data together, it's kind of too late to do anything with it. With ActivityInfo, we want to make it simple to go directly from data collection, manage that data, review it, check it, and control it all the way through data analysis, so that you and everybody that you work with has a clear idea of the status of your program and how effectively it's working.

ActivityInfo has been deployed in more than 70 countries. It's used by NGOs, governments, and very heavily by the United Nations, from UNHCR, UNICEF, UN Women, and many others. Even among all of the organizations using ActivityInfo, every single one is slightly different, but you can group them into some general use cases: beneficiary databases, managing programmes with tens of thousands of beneficiaries, case management working one-on-one with vulnerable individuals, monitoring and evaluation tracking indicators and logframes, and multi-partner reporting. It is also used for information management systems for clinics and hospitals, household surveys for data collection from the field, facility assessments, and tracking "who's doing what, where." ActivityInfo is designed as a flexible relational database, able to manage a wide variety of needs in the field.

00:03:31 Demonstration: Training monitoring database

Let's take a look at the software itself. In the template section under support, for many of these use cases, we offer a ready-to-start-with template that includes some dummy data. This gives you a good starting point because ActivityInfo is so flexible. For example, we have templates for "Who's doing what, where," monitoring training, and household surveys.

I see tracking indicators is high on the list of interests, so I want to go through two different ways to track indicators with ActivityInfo. We're going to start with what I think is the best way to do it, which is to use ActivityInfo to capture your raw data and then calculate and track your indicators from that. I'm going to use the "Training monitoring database" template. Let's say that you have a training program where you're working to provide skills to a specific group, and you have a number of indicators that you need to track over time about those trainings: satisfaction, effectiveness, number of people, outputs, outcomes, and maybe some impact indicators like the change over time.

This template brings you to a database in ActivityInfo. A database here is a combination of data collection forms, reports, and the users that are allowed to access that. In this training program, we've got the Training Tracker. You can see that we've done some income generation trainings, tech skills, and English for business activities. For each of those, we've got a participant list. You can customize the form settings if you have different themes or need to know specific details, like the audience type (refugees, IDPs, or host community). You can add that field and save it right away, and your form will be updated.

00:09:55 Mobile data collection

Once you've got your program structure and the information you need to track, ActivityInfo offers you quite a few ways to collect data. One is through the web-based interface where you can add a record to the training, choose a location, trainer's name, and add participants. This is a very user-friendly data entry interface.

You can also use the mobile app. This is really useful if you have people out in the field conducting activities. ActivityInfo has its own mobile app, so you don't have to use a separate mobile data collection tool plus a database. Everything is incorporated into one package. From the field on my mobile, I can open up this training tracker and review any of the existing trainings. ActivityInfo's mobile app is not a one-way sync; you are able to also see the data that's been provided. It works on Android and iOS, and any changes made to form settings get synchronized automatically to everyone's device.

00:12:18 Importing data from spreadsheets

In addition to the mobile data entry and the web-based form, you can also import data. This is a really powerful feature, especially if you're transitioning to ActivityInfo from an Excel spreadsheet or some other system. You can simply copy data from Excel, click on the import button, and paste it in. ActivityInfo will validate this data for you. It checks to see if you've got all the right fields and highlights any data that doesn't match, such as invalid options or missing required fields. It helps you identify errors before importing, avoiding the creation of duplicates.

00:14:26 Tracking indicators and dashboards

The secret of good M&E is that if you have your data in order, tracking indicators becomes quite straightforward. If your indicators are output indicators, like the number of people reached, we can set up a report to give us an overview of those indicators in real time. As they are bringing data in, this report gets updated automatically. You can also have key indicators on post-evaluation surveys to see how participants have scored the training.

In addition, you can add a nice dashboard. If we're interested in helping our program manager track the progress of our reach, we can set up a dashboard from this training tracker. It is drag-and-drop to create. We can add a chart that shows the number of trainings by month, or a pie chart showing the gender breakdown to ensure we are reaching an equitable audience. When the program manager logs in, they will see exactly how we're doing week by week and where we need to take corrective action.

00:18:19 Global M&E and portfolio management

Another scenario for indicator tracking might be managing a large group of projects. Maybe you're managing M&E for an NGO with 50 or 100 projects. You might consider using our Global M&E template. This takes a step back and helps you manage data and indicators across many different programs. You start with your basic data at the project level to ensure reliable numbers, but aggregate those together in the M&E database template.

In this case, I've created a database with a list of projects, and each project has its own logical framework. For example, a reforestation project in Congo has its own set of outcomes and indicators. All of this is customizable in ActivityInfo. You can add meta-information about these indicators, such as the type (count, percentage) or disaggregation needs (gender, geography). You can give people access to report their indicator results on a monthly or quarterly basis along with a narrative update. This allows you to track indicator progress at a portfolio level rather than just at the project level.

00:23:11 Mapping and integrations

Regarding dashboards, you can also add geography to do some basic mapping within ActivityInfo. If I want to see where my training institutions are located, I can add that to my dashboard and use basic symbology. We use the OCHA icon set, which is quite comprehensive.

If you're interested in connecting to external tools that you're already using for specialized analysis, we have a great API. You can export via the API to get a link that you can copy and paste into Power BI, ArcGIS, QGIS, Tableau, and more. This ensures that if you need to go to a more specialized analysis tool, you can do that while keeping the data linked.

00:27:47 Case management demonstration

Let's talk about case management. This varies from organization to organization, but generally involves working with individuals to help them with a specific problem or skill and tracking their progress over time. We have a database template from the protection sector for working with individuals whose human rights are at risk. This allows you to assign each case to one of your caseworkers. You can set up supervisors who can see and manage others, while caseworkers can only see their own cases. This ensures you are not overexposing personal and sensitive information.

You can divide your caseload by geography, so only certain people can view specific regions. You can add subforms for confidential biodata, which is further restricted. You can attach and upload documents like passports and record details about the case status. This works really well on mobile apps, allowing caseworkers to see their cases in the field, make updates, and record details during interviews.

A key element that sets ActivityInfo apart is the reference field. You can link forms together. For example, I can add a reference field that looks up a list of supervisors, positions, or geography. This makes a real difference when tracking people over time. If cases get closed and you want to do a follow-up survey, you can link that survey back to the original case. This allows you to analyze outcomes, such as what percentage of people with specific incidents found a solution.

00:38:38 Q&A session

Question regarding alerts: Is it possible to manage alerts, for instance, alerting a manager for sign-off? Answer: One of the nice things you can do in ActivityInfo is set permission levels by field. We can set "reviewer-only" fields. For example, a caseworker might suggest a case plan, and we can add a field for "Case plan approved" that only a supervisor can modify. Regarding email alerts, that is on our roadmap for next year. Currently, setting up a dashboard for supervisors to see pressing cases or backlogs works quite well.

Question regarding word limits: Does ActivityInfo have a word limit for word-based responses? Answer: There is a limit, but it is quite high at 65,000 characters. If you need more than that, you can use an attachment field.

Question regarding mobile simulation: How can I simulate the use of forms in ActivityInfo mobile device format in a Windows environment? Answer: You can do this in a browser like Chrome using Developer Tools. You can choose what your device looks like (e.g., Samsung Galaxy, iPad) to see the mobile interface on your computer.

00:45:38 Pricing, subscriptions, and support

To keep the software developing and sustainable, we offer a subscription model, mostly on an annual basis. You can choose a package based on the number of users you have. For example, up to 75 users is 4,800 euros a year. This includes everything: weekly updates, 24/7 server monitoring, security, and external audits. It also includes access to our help desk.

We have a rich set of documentation online, including tutorials and video training courses. We also offer onboarding packages for organizations that want more support during the initial phase. This involves a kickoff meeting to define goals, a design phase with one-on-one support to configure your database and reports, and support through the launch and adoption stages. We are there to ensure technical issues are resolved and to help migrate data if needed.

If this seems useful for you and could help your program deliver a better outcome and impact for your beneficiaries, please get in touch. Thank you for joining us.