Technology is not enough

But you are a tech company, right? Yes, we are. But at Deedmob we believe that it is not enough to just provide technology.

Most organisations realised long ago that technology could help activate more people to do something for others. However, hundreds of civil society organisations told us that this has not really happened yet, because the big challenge is in the implementation. In other words, there are good tools, but it is very difficult to make sure they are used properly.

At Deedmob, we and our partners are redefining the way social organisations and technology companies work together - all for maximum social impact. In this article, we talk about our vision for technology implementation, risk removal and how we are adding extra manpower to our partner organisations to ensure that more social impact is really made on a large scale.

While working with our partner organisations, we discovered that there are three common views that are based on the outdated practices of traditional technology companies. We go through them one by one to show how things are different at Deedmob.

1: It will take a lot of time to transfer all our activities to a new environment.

Software companies usually promise to save time, but forget that it takes time to master a new tool and migrate existing content. Too many companies see migration as "cut-and-paste". That would work if the tools were basically the same, but if there is a big difference you get a bad result. It is then as if you are furnishing your new villa with furniture from a family home. All the new space and possibilities remain unused. Software works in exactly the same way.

But then who takes care of the new furnishing? We believe that we - and not our partner organisations - should have the capacity to do this. Our aim is to transfer relevant data seamlessly without you having to do anything. You go to sleep in one house and wake up in another, with the furnishings to match. The move - we do it. This process is not automatic and remains human work. Our smart migration API is complemented by the expertise of one of our project managers who guides the migration process and makes sure everything looks perfect.

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2: It's going to take a long time before everyone in our organisation knows how to get the most out of a system.

We think it's time for software companies to stop just delivering technology without taking responsibility for the results achieved. Increasing the digital skills of everyone in a social organisation goes hand in hand with implementing Deedmob. In other words, if you don't know how to use the product, we have failed - not the other way around.

To take away this risk, the partner organisation gets an experienced project manager from Deedmob. Our experienced project managers know what it is like to implement technology at social organisations. This includes regular workshops and training sessions for the employees of the partner organisation so that everyone can get the most out of the system.

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We also believe in proactive support during the implementation process. This means that we do not wait for an employee of one of our partner organisations to contact us with a question, but take action before the question is asked. One of the ways we do this is with weekly data snapshots in which we highlight the results achieved, for example, the number of registrations, users, etc. From these snapshots, concrete, tailor-made steps follow that partner organisations can take to make more impact.

3: There is no manpower within our organisation to manage the implementation project of a new system

As you can see, we also take full responsibility for the implementation project. Our project manager provides a live overview of the project at all times. We do this with an Asana project that is hosted and managed by Deedmob with input from our partner organisation (see picture below). So you always know what you are currently working on and when the next meeting is. We also give our partner organisations a complete to-do list from day one with everything that is needed for the implementation to prevent endless 'back and forth' email.

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Our implementation management includes appropriate assistance with communication, press releases and the possible organisation of a launch event. Where required, we set up a media strategy with our partner organisations, invite (local) politicians such as writing officers and aldermen and work out a communication plan that maintains momentum after the launch.

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Conclusion

Deedmob works on the basis that it is not our partner organisations that should be responsible for the successful implementation of new technology - but us. This is not only custom work, but also people work. Technology is not enough.

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