The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) supports more than 35 countries to transition to a model of economic growth that is environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive. They work closely with member and partner governments to deliver green growth projects and programs.
Established in 2012, within a few years GGGI was expanding rapidly. Its existing business systems couldn’t provide the kind of flexible oversight and reporting they needed.
“Our number of projects grew by four or five times within a couple of years. And we recognized that managing project information in a decentralized way wasn’t sustainable, because it was making monitoring, reporting, and general oversight of those programs very challenging,” says Stephan Gill, GGGI’s Africa region portfolio officer.
While GGGI had strong financial and partnerships information systems in their ERP and CRM, project information wasn’t being systematically captured and stored. Instead, data was kept in silos, across individual desktops and paper records.
This made it harder for staff to find, store, consolidate and analyze project data. It also made knowledge sharing and cross-organizational learning more difficult. GGGI’s country teams were frustrated by repeated requests for the same information, and by lengthy – often paper-based – approvals processes. GGGI wanted to decentralise more power toward their country teams, but needed more robust information flows.
It was clear GGGI needed a stronger project information management system. One that was flexible enough to meet their business needs but straightforward for staff to use. And it needed to integrate with their existing business systems, so staff could access all project data in one
place.
The project management module within their ERP system didn’t offer all the functionalities they needed. So GGGI explored other options.
The Challenge: Decentralized Data Made it Hard to Manage a Rapidly Growing Project Portfolio
The Solution: An Integrated Project Management System Streamlines Processes and Data Management
GGGI viewed demos of NGO Online and other vendors, and evaluated each system against their requirements. Rainelda Ampil, technical lead for GGGI’s corporate systems, explains: “We chose NGO Online because of its flexibility, and because it meets both our business and
technical requirements. We needed a tool that can operate across different geographic locations and support
multi-dimensional reporting.”
Precio Fishbone began designing GGGI’s customized system in May 2018. They met with GGGI’s business and technical stakeholders to agree on essential system requirements and explore options. Stephan recalls: “Precio Fishbone asked the right questions to understand the motivation behind our requirements. And that was very important in collaborating and putting together a system that met our needs but was also as simple as possible, with the minimum amount of customization needed.”
Rainelda and her colleagues appreciated Precio’s agile approach. “It meant we had opportunities to break the implementation into sprints, which helps in achieving results at agreed timelines. And Precio were always very proactive in providing options.”
GGGI’s customized version of NGO Online launched in January 2019. It provides a central place to store and access all program, project, and pipeline data. A key advantage is NGO Online’s full integration with GGGI’s existing business systems. It pulls in financial data from the ERP and partnership information from the CRM, alongside project data. So staff can monitor expenditure against budgets, review the institutional pipeline, develop plans, and generate reports – all in one place.
The system also embeds standardized processes and templates for recording, organizing, and sharing information and documents. Precio have since continued working with the GGGI team to tweak aspects of the system as GGGI’s business model evolves.
“Using NGO Online promotes strong ownership and accountability by project managers. They can look at everything in one place – performance, budget monitoring, risk management – and turn out more meaningful and timely reporting. Staff are very appreciative of how NGO Online helps them in managing projects.”
Now, NGO Online serves as a central one-stop shop for all GGGI’s project information. Because of the ERP and CRM integrations, data on projects, finances, partners, and proposals are all accessible within a single system.
Both at headquarters and country level, staff enjoy greater visibility over their programs and pipeline. Monitoring and reporting are easier and faster, and risk management is stronger.
“Using NGO Online promotes strong ownership and accountability by project managers. They can look at everything in one place – performance, budget monitoring, risk management – and turn out more meaningful and timely reporting. Staff are very appreciative of how NGO Online helps them in managing projects,” says Rainelda Ampil.
The Outcome: Stronger, Easier Project Management with Greater Transparency
NGO Online’s secure back-up and disaster recovery options give peace of mind that GGGI’s data is kept safe. And using a consistent data structure and processes has streamlined data compilation and analysis across multiple projects. “This makes central reporting much easier, as well as knowledge sharing and tracking down information,” Stephan explains. “And that’s especially important now we have so many more projects.”
“A big advantage of the new system is that it enables a continuous pipeline of project development. We now have a system where people can record their ideas for new projects or new opportunities, and, in a standardized way, get the green light to go and develop those.” “The system also enables us to record and get decisions in a much more transparent and clear way – which is very much appreciated by everyone throughout GGGI.”
Rainelda identifies three main success factors to GGGI’s smooth system implementation. Having a defined
business owner in Stephan streamlined decision making. Breaking down the implementation plan into phases
helped them set realistic timelines and scope. And crucially, Rainelda concludes:
“A major reason this system implementation was very successful from the start was because we engaged a vendor who’s very knowledgeable about our sector. Precio Fishbone really understood our business needs and how the system could be set up to address our requirements. We’re very happy with them and with NGO Online. It’s a critical system for our work – we couldn’t live without it now!”
Experience the Power of NGO Online for Your Organization
NGO Online gave GGGI a central platform for managing projects, budgets, and risks—boosting efficiency, accountability, and reporting.
See firsthand how NGO Online can help your NGO operate more efficiently. Request a Demo Today and take the first step toward a smarter, more effective project management system!
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