First net:gain completer from Future Learning CIC

Community Service Volunteers in Bristol was delighted to win a brand new contract. But it had demanding requirements, including response times. That meant a change in the way they'd worked before!
Nick Cocking from Community Service Volunteers in Bristol is just completing the programme at Future Learning CIC. He was faced with the challenge of organising client referrals to a new service, which had stringent contractual requirements, and the CSV needed a change in their systems and procedures. For example, they needed to establish contact with referred clients within five days, in order to meet the service agreement and draw down the income.

Nick found the net:gain workshops and the Ten Step process really useful, because it identified potential technical solutions and allowed him to engage staff in the development of procedures that everyone agreed.

‘Although we are not quite ready to make a purchase, we now know what questions to ask potential suppliers about their products. We have a specification that we have worked out as a team.’ Nick says. ‘And now that we have worked through the net:gain process for a single project, we can see how to apply it to the organisation as a whole and build technology into our business planning.’

‘We found it very useful to meet other organisations working on net:gain during the workshops and we have since got together with another organisation round the corner to help each other schedule our work programmes.’

‘At the moment, we rely on the postal service to meet our 5 day deadline for clients to make contact. With Christmas around the corner, we had to do something and net:gain gave us a way of doing it quickly but gave us confidence that we had done a proper job.’