Not-for-Profit Agency Innovates with MyStory Application
Sydney, Australia- 11 June, 2013 – Today, Microsoft announced that Children’s welfare agency, Barnardos Australia is using Windows Azure to streamline its operations and increase the level of help provided to its stakeholders. By moving to Microsoft’s cloud, Barnardos will be better able to track a child’s journey as they interact with multiple agencies while ensuring it correctly recognises the relevant state policies and practices.
For more than 120 years, Barnardos has been at the forefront of child welfare service provision, helping clients, 365 days of the year, and has embraced a tradition of innovation as well as an holistic approach in its quest to find solutions for children in need.
“Barnardos Australia prides itself on being available 24/7, 365 days a year. “Our network is extensive and it’s imperative that all of our systems talk to each other and are able to update information based on inputs from all the people we work with, ranging from child care workers, to government legislative officials,” said Sue Cribb, senior IT manager, Barnardos Australia.
Previously, Barnardos used a number of disparate solutions which were unable to recognise and share information between them. This made tracking a child’s journey difficult and also meant information often needed replicating across systems. The company worked with Microsoft Gold Partner, Readify, to assist in the development of its ‘MyStory’ application to simplify the user experience, improve collaboration and enable more accurate reporting.
As welfare legislation and policies differ by state, the ‘MyStory’ application was built to ensure correct practices are followed in line with varying state requirements, and can be used correctly by all the many agencies located in Australia and New Zealand.
Barnardos ‘MyStory’ application will be offered to all of its agencies via an affordable Software-as-a-Service model hosted on Windows Azure. This allows Barnardos to easily scale up the infrastructure as additional agencies join and access the application, without extensive lead times, costly provisioning work or upfront capital expenditure.
“By working with Readify and Microsoft, we knew we were going to be using a solution which was ultimately easy to use, was secure and able meet the demands of our systems. With Windows Azure, we are enabling all of our agencies, on a global scale, to input and access the system when they require,” said Cribb.
“We have a long history of working on complex, business critical solutions, and nothing is more important than child welfare,” added Readify CEO, Graeme Strange.” “We were confident in our ability to help Barnardos deliver a solution that has streamlined processes and ultimately help assist more families.”
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About Barnardos Australia Barnardos Australia is a non-government, non-denominational child welfare charity that has been helping children in crisis for over 120 years. Barnardos is one of the largest children’s charities in Australia, caring for children at risk of abuse and neglect. The work of Barnardos Australia focuses on the prevention of abuse, neglect and entry into care. Children of all backgrounds and cultural heritage are helped through a range of welfare programs including crisis care, family support, counseling and permanent foster care.
