By: Kayleigh P. Marques
April 10th, 2024
As public and social sector organizations increasingly promote, mandate, and rely on data-driven decision-making, the need for easy-to-use performance management and data collection systems is imperative. At Clear Impact, solving this need is what we’re passionate about. We have developed two robust data collection, management, and reporting solutions: Scorecard and Compyle. While Scorecard and Compyle are powerful, we understand that communicating their value to a supervisor might be daunting.
This blog will provide some practical tips and recommendations to help make conversations with your supervisor or decision-making team painless and fruitful!
Table of Contents
1. What is Scorecard, and What Does it Do?
2. What is Compyle, and What Does it Do?
3. How to Convince Your Supervisor to Adopt New Technology: General Thoughts and Tips
B. Communicating and Reporting Performance
C. Using Data to Make Better Decisions
D. Answering, “Where Do We Get the Data?”
E. Finding Cost-Effective Solutions That Scale
F. Maintaining Competitive Advantage
1. What is Scorecard, and What Does it Do?
Want to quickly explain Scorecard to your supervisor? Feel free to copy and paste this description into an email:
Scorecard is a data organization, visualization, and improvement tool that helps you engage in precise reporting on your performance and impact. Organizations and communities worldwide use Scorecard to track programmatic success, measure funding impact, and communicate progress on their mission to funders, regulatory bodies, stakeholders, employees, and the public. Learn more >>
2. What is Compyle, and What Does it Do?
Want to quickly explain Compyle to your supervisor? Feel free to copy and paste this description into an email:
Compyle is Scorecard’s complementary data-collection tool, and it helps you collect the client-level data you need to perform case management and understand client outcomes. Organizations use Compyle to create custom forms and surveys that capture information about the individuals, families, and partner organizations they serve. Users can directly feed this captured data into the Scorecard for broader analysis, reporting, and communication. Learn more >>
3. How to Convince Your Supervisor to Adopt New Technology: General Thoughts and Tips
A few years ago, we asked our CEO to answer the question, “How could one of your employees successfully convince you to pay for a new tool, professional development experience, or company training?” In a nutshell, here was his answer:
- Tell me how it will make us better at our jobs.
- Tell me how it will create value for our organization and help us achieve our mission.
- Tell me how it solves an organizational problem or pain point.
We think this answer perfectly applies to adopting new software systems.
If you’re unsure what your organization’s specific problems (or paint points) are, there are some general pain points you can work with to start. Generally, adopting technology is crucial for maintaining any organization’s competitive edge, enhancing efficiency, and streamlining workflows. Convincing your supervisor to embrace new or unfamiliar innovations should always take these three pain points into account.
So consider, how could Scorecard or Compyle help you maintain your competitive edge (secure funding, recognition, or awards), enhance efficiency (improve your performance or impact), or streamline workflows (reduce manual data labor and facilitate communication). In working with our customers over the past 17 years, we’ve found that engaging with supervisors through informed, solution-oriented dialogue is key to persuading them to consider adopting Scorecard or Compyle.
4. Here’s a Basic To-Do List to Help You Prepare a Convincing Presentation to Your Supervisor or Decision-Making Team:
- Start by conducting thorough research to understand the tool’s benefits, specifically those tailored to your organization’s needs and challenges. This may include scheduling a demonstration, reading case studies, downloading product fact sheets, and analyzing vendor comparisons.
- Anticipate any concerns your supervisor might have, such as costs, implementation time, or training requirements, and proactively prepare responses. Our Clear Impact Journey document, Journey Map, and pricing pages may help you answer some of these questions.
- Prepare a clear, concise presentation or proposal highlighting how the tool aligns with business goals, improves productivity, or offers a return on investment.
- Offer to pilot the tool in a small, controlled environment to demonstrate its effectiveness and mitigate perceived risks.
- Invite the supervisor or decision-making team to a group demonstration of the tool. (This is where we can help you make a convincing argument by directly answering your supervisor’s questions or concerns).
5. Communicating the Benefits of Scorecard or Compyle to Your Supervisor: Mapping Features to Pain Points
Convincing your supervisor to adopt new software can be challenging, but with the right approach and information, you can make a compelling case.
One of the best things you can do is explain how Scorecard or Compyle will address a specific organizational pain point.
Here are some of the most common pain points we’ve come across in our work with social and public sector organizations worldwide. We’ve also included a brief explanation of how our software can address each pain point.
1. Pain Point: Measuring Performance
Scorecard offers a suite of features designed for data visualization, performance tracking, and reporting. Specifically, it enables organizations to create clear, visually engaging data dashboards (or Scorecards) that highlight key performance measures or indicators, making it easier to measure progress against programmatic or community-level objectives. The software facilitates the analysis of data in real-time, allowing you to monitor performance trends over time.
2. Pain Point: Communicating and Reporting Performance
Scorecard’s reporting capabilities support the generation of detailed PDF reports or web-based dashboards that can easily be shared internally or externally. Many of our customers embed their Scorecards directly on their website or share links in email or social media. These sharing features are designed to help you to enhance communication regarding organizational performance. Scorecard’s clean, intuitive user interface, along with reporting capabilities, ensures you can effectively measure your progress and communicate your results in a straightforward, accessible manner.
3. Pain Point: Using Data to Make Better Decisions
Both Clear Impact Scorecard and Compyle empower your team to pivot from gut-feel decisions to a more analytical approach, significantly increasing the likelihood of achieving your desired outcomes.
Scorecard doesn’t just help you analyze your data — it helps you use your data to make better decisions. Our built-in “Turn the Curve” decision-making tool offers a simple step-by-step process to help you get from talk to action on your data measures. This tool, along with our included free training videos, will help you outline the “Story Behind the Data,” identify “Partners With a Role to Play,” identify “What Works” to improve the data, and create a custom “Action Plan.”
You can learn more about the Turn the Curve process here >>
4. Pain Point: Answering the Question, “Where Do We Get the Data?”
Compyle revolutionizes how data is collected, stored, and accessed, by providing a centralized platform for all your data needs. This not only eliminates the hassle of dealing with disparate data sources but also ensures data integrity and reliability, which are essential for effective analysis and reporting. Plus, it feeds your data directly into Scorecard for further analysis and reporting.
With Compyle, you can collect virtually any type of data you need from your employees, program participants, partner organizations, community members, or other stakeholders. It does this through custom form and survey creation tools that utilize “Form Logic.” Compyle Form Logic allows you to create dynamic forms that change with data entry. Dynamic forms are crucial for enhancing data accuracy and respondent engagement. Why? They change based on user input so that you can ask the right questions of the right people. This allows you to get the right data at the right time.
Learn more about Compyle Form Logic in our upgrade webinar here >>
5. Pain Point: Finding Cost-Effective Solutions That Scale With Your Needs
One of the greatest strengths of Clear Impact’s software is its scalability. Regardless of your organization’s size or the complexity of your operations, these tools are designed to grow with you.
One of the main ways we accomplish scalability is by offering usage-based pricing. For Scorecard, we calculate pricing based on the number of “Measures” your organization wants to track. For Compyle, pricing is based on the number of “Participants” you collect data about. If you need to keep your costs low, simply select the lowest number of Measures or Participants you need in order to do your job effectively.
Usage-based pricing offers significant advantages by aligning costs directly with the functionality you need, ensuring a fair and transparent pricing structure. This approach offers more flexibility and scalability than traditional pricing structures since you’re only required to pay for what you actually use or achieve. This leads to cost savings and improved budget management.
We also offer a number of package deals to help you get the most out of your budget.
6. Pain Point: Maintaining Competitive Advantage
Adopting Clear Impact software not only enhances internal operations but also positions your organization as a leader in innovation. This can be a key differentiator in the competitive funding landscape.
Clear Impact Scorecard and Clear Impact Compyle help organizations maintain their competitive advantage in the funding landscape by enhancing their ability to effectively manage, report, and demonstrate outcomes. The Scorecard tool allows for the visualization of progress against goals with real-time data, making it easier to showcase achievements and impact to funders. Compyle streamlines the data collection process, ensuring that organizations have accurate and comprehensive information to support funding applications and reports. Together, these tools enable organizations to clearly communicate their value and effectiveness, making a compelling case to current and potential funders that they are a worthwhile investment, thereby securing and sustaining funding in a competitive environment.
Many of our clients use Clear Impact software products to secure more funding, maintain a positive public perception, and support accreditation and award endeavors. Here are a few you may want to check out:
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- Vermont Department of Health (Scorecard Case Study)
- Vermont Department of Health (Social Sector Hero Spotlight)
- Macomb County, Michigan Health Department (Scorecard Case Study)
- SisterWeb (Social Sector Hero Spotlight)
6. Need More Convincing? Invite Your Supervisor or Decision-Making Team to a Group Software Demonstration!
If your supervisor is still on the fence about the Clear Impact software, arranging a group demonstration could be the boost you need to get from talk to action. A live demo allows them to see the software in action, understand its ease of use, and ask any questions.
It also provides an opportunity for your team to weigh in, offering a broader perspective on how these tools could benefit various aspects of your organization. Demonstrations can be powerful in dispelling doubts and showcasing the practical utility of the software in real-world scenarios.
6. Closing Thoughts
Explaining the benefits of Clear Impact Software to your supervisor involves more than just listing its features. It’s about painting a picture of a more efficient, data-driven, and agile organization. By focusing on specific outcomes and long-term gains, backed by examples of successful implementations, you can make a compelling case for why these tools represent a strategic investment in your organization’s future.
We are here to support you in your pursuit of measurable impact! If you need more information or would like to discuss the contents of this article in more detail, please feel free to email us at info@clearimpact.com, and we will be happy to help.
Clear Impact has the tools you need to maintain funding, enhance efficiency, and streamline your workflows. Learn more about our complete solution for case management and performance reporting for governments and nonprofits.
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