Unlocking the Value of Data for Charities and Other Voluntary groups. Free event. 26 March 2014 @3pm London - venue tbc.

The OR Society - OR In the Third Sector

Unlocking the Value of Data for Charities and Other Voluntary groups

With the advent of fast computers and the internet, the total amount of world data is forecast to grow 50-fold in the next decade, yet only 1% of this data is currently used productively.
This event will explore how charities and voluntary groups can use data to improve their impact and make better decisions.
Our speakers will describe their real life experiences of using data and demonstrate the benefits that effective data analysis has brought to their organisations. The list of speakers includes:
Mat Ilic is the Policy and Research Director of Only Connect. Mat will talk about how to use data analysis to produce useful evidence in charities
Colin Stewart is a consultant Analyst at Caversham Analytics. Using maps of data and analysis to support local decision making using quantum GIS and Microsoft Excel.
Tracey Gyateng is the Project Manager for NPC’s "Data for Impact" stream of work. Tracey will talk about increasing access to government administrative datasets to measure the impact of the voluntary and community sector.
Date: 26th March 2014
Time: Start time 15:00 hrs
Venue: NPC, 185 Park Street, London, SE1 9BL
Price: Entry is free of charge
To book your place please e-mail John Holt at jholt@danielholt1992.com

How to make bolder decisions with less gut feelings

No matter what size or at what stage your organisation is, no matter what kind of decision, problem, or opportunity you face, there's probably a way for Pro Bono Operational Research (O.R.) to help.

O.R. consistently delivers significant value – strategic to tactical, top-line to bottom-line – to the organisations and executives who use it.   Benefits from O.R. include:

• Business insight: Providing quantitative and business insight into complex problems.
• Business performance: Improving business performance by embedding model-driven intelligence into an organisation’s information systems to improve decision making.
• Cost reduction: Finding new opportunities to decrease cost or investment.
• Decision making: Assessing the likely outcomes of decision alternatives and uncovering better alternatives.
• Forecasting: Providing a better basis for more accurate forecasting and planning.
• Improved scheduling: Efficiently scheduling staff, equipment, events, and more.
• Planning: Applying quantitative techniques to support operations, tactical planning, and strategic planning.
• Pricing: Dynamically pricing products and services.
• Productivity: Helping organisations find ways to make processes and people more productive.
• Profits: Increasing revenue or return on investment; increasing market share.
• Quality: Improving quality as well as quantifying and balancing qualitative considerations.
• Recovery: Gaining greater control and achieving turn-around.
• Resources: Gaining greater utilisation from limited equipment, facilities, money, and personnel.
• Risk: Measuring risk quantitatively and uncovering factors critical to managing and reducing risk.
• Throughput: Increasing speed or throughput and decreasing delays.

Here is what a few of the organisations who’ve received Pro Bono support had to say:

Crimestoppers: ‘We’ve benefited hugely from your work and support in all areas of the project, and from an organisational perspective you’ve enabled us to take a highly professional approach to increasing the efficiency of our charity.’ (Performance Manager)

 Participle: ‘I have just started to digest the work you did for us and wanted to say a huge thank you.  This will be so critical to our growth and I am very grateful indeed for your time and expertise.  The team have described you as "a joy to work with”.’ (Principle Partner)

 The Cardinal Hume Centre “We valued the opportunity to work collaboratively and without doubt benefited from the analyst’s expertise and commitment to the project.” (Operations Director)

 We currently have three projects underway with the RSPCA, Work for Us and Harrogate & Ripon Centres for Voluntary Service and a further project about to commence.  We have 60 volunteers across the UK who are currently available to work on projects.  This puts us in a great position to offer Pro Bono O.R. the third sector organisations across the UK.

For more information please see my webpage, blog, twitter or LinkedIn page.

Webpage: http://www.theorsociety.com/Pages/Probono/Probono.aspx

Blog: http://probonoor.blogspot.co.uk/

@FMcLeister

   Felicity McLeister

Tweet chat about Pro Bono O.R. (Operational Research)

Third sector? Find out how Pro Bono O.R. can help. Just interested to find out more? Join me for a tweet chat from 2-3pm on Mon 13th January #chator. Please share this information.

Operational Research (O.R.) is the discipline of applying appropriate analytical methods.  By using techniques such as problem structuring methods and mathematical modelling to analyse complex situations, operational research gives executives the power to make more effective decisions and build more productive systems based on:

• More complete data
• Consideration of all available options
• Careful predictions of outcomes and estimates of risk
• The latest decision tools and techniques

Organisations may seek a very wide range of operational improvements - for example, greater efficiency, better customer service, higher quality or lower cost. Whatever the business engineering aim, O.R. can offer the flexibility and adaptability to provide objective help.

Most of the problems O.R. tackles are messy and complex, often entailing considerable uncertainty. O.R. can use advanced quantitative methods, modelling, problem structuring, simulation and other analytical techniques to examine assumptions, facilitate an in -depth understanding and decide on practical action.

The potential of big data in the charity sector

http://www.statslife.org.uk/opinion/1101-the-potential-of-big-data-in-the-charity-sector#.Uq72Vde4MCA.twitter

Great article written by Dan Cory (CEO NPC).

The article highlights how many charities do not have the capability or capacity to make the most of big data to measure their impact.  This is where Pro Bono O.R. could help.  Please do get in touch to discuss how we could help.

Please have a look at the website for more information: http://www.theorsociety.com/Pages/Probono/Probono.aspx

Tweet Chat

Third sector? Want to know how Pro Bono O.R. can help? Just interested to find out more? Join me a 2pm today on twitter for a tweet chat #chator @FMcLeister

Check out this great video which explains what O.R. is and how it operates in the world around us!

https://plus.google.com/112218914209196485797/posts/WhNe35xbeYm

New Pro Bono O.R. webpage

The new Pro Bono O.R. webpage has now been launched.  To find out how to receive Pro Bono support, become a volunteer or to simply find out more, please visit http://www.theorsociety.com/Pages/Probono/Probono.aspx