BUSHkids 2016-17 Annual Report

ICT

ICT update This year has brought with it a swathe of new ICT infrastructure, BUSHbase updates and miscellaneous improvements to help BUSHkids continue to move forward technologically. Ken Lewis has again co-ordinated this area this year and, with the help of various external providers, continues to improve BUSHkids’ ICT systems.

BUSHbase BUSHbase has undergone numerous updates and enhancements throughout the year to support our clinical and admin staff. Gerard D’Rozario of Bootstrap IT and Ken Lewis have continued their hard work, and through feedback from clinical staff have made dramatic improvements to assist in productivity and implement various new features to replace existing systems. Below are a few key features which were released this year: Fundraising module A major update that now enables

ICT infrastructure The various infrastructure projects which were set to be rolled out this year have all been successfully completed. These updates have seen vast improvements in the way our clinical teams collaborate and communicate, and will reduce ongoing costs. Freshmethod Business Solutions has been the cornerstone of the rollout of the various ICT infrastructure projects. Particular mention should be made of Dennis Siebrecht for his unwavering support, professionalism and guidance on these and other proposed projects. Freshmethod has completed the following projects for BUSHkids this year: Upgrading all centres’ WAN connection speeds Decommissioning onsite servers and migrating data held within to a privately-hosted cloud Rollout of Office 365 New ADSL lines in Kingaroy and Inglewood, with Stanthorpe currently in the works New email signature management system Establishment of our new Bundaberg NDIS site

BUSHbase to process and report on all donors and donation-based information Numerous calendar improvements to assist usability and readability Ability to minimise various clinical windows to allow simultaneous access to other areas within the application Release of acceptance (intake) letter module

Website Our new BUSHkids website was commissioned for development this year with the help of Gavin Grubb from Smart Multimedia. The new website looks to completely refresh our current web presence whilst also providing a host of new online forms which aim to streamline the referral and feedback process. The site is scheduled for release late 2017. Special thanks must also be given to Council member Julian Martin for his continued support and guidance within BUSHkids’ ICT areas.

BUSHkids Social Media In September 2016, we started to investigate ways to reinvigorate BUSHkids’ social media presence. A small team of staff and volunteers worked with UQ students to develop a plan to increase BUSHkids’ social media presence as part of UQ’s Community Engagement Program which provides students within the Faculty of Business, Economic and Law (BEL) the chance to work on real life projects in the community with not-for-profit organisations. The BEL plan detailed a number of ways BUSHkids could develop its social media channels for minimal cost, and we began implementing a number of these ideas in March this year. Posts are now more regular with a greater variety of content, but with the same overarching aim of keeping people informed about BUSHkids’ work. The result has been a much higher level of engagement with our social media, with Facebook likes at the start of September exceeding 800 — an increase of over 25% across the year — and we now have more than 170 followers on Twitter and more than 50 on Instagram. In fact, in just four months we have added more followers on Facebook than during the whole of the previous year. Over the next 12 months we are planning to produce more short videos to post on social media and provide more posts for families, with tips on how they can support their kids’ development and how BUSHkids can help. We also want to develop our other social media channels, including YouTube and LinkedIn. Our target is to reach 1,000 Facebook likes, 200 followers on Twitter and 100 followers on Instagram by July next year. So, if you are on social media, follow us, like us, and share our pages, and if you’re not on social media, why not get an account so you can keep in touch with BUSHkids – it will help increase the awareness of BUSHkids and our work.

Social media has become a must-have promotional tool for every organisation, whether a commercial business, government agency or not-for-profit organisation like BUSHkids. It’s a great low-cost way of keeping people informed about what you are doing and an easy way for them to follow and engage with the organisation.

33 33