A global information platform for the UK government’s climate and sustainable development budget.
The client
The Climate Development Knowledge Network – CDKN – is asustainable development alliance led by the UK government’s Department for International Development and PwC, and also includes the Overseas Development Institute and LEAD International among others.
What Loft is doing
Loft has been working with the network since 2009 to develop a suite of platforms that help it to work faster and more effectively around the globe by collecting and distributing vital information about what’s going on where, and supporting a clear process for each programme and project it undertakes. Some of the key features we have designed, developed and support to date include:
- Sharing knowledge and information about activity going on in the network around the world
- Recording details of programmes, projects, stakeholders and contacts
- Guiding team members through the stages and processes that each project needs to follow, from concept through implementation to final evaluation
- Enabling accurate budgeting and monitoring of the outcome of projects to help assess the effectiveness of investment
We are fairly early in the development cycle for this project, and there is a good deal more to come. Meanwhile, some particular challenges that we have been able to resolve include:
- Enabling extremely busy people to record and share knowledge in a quick, easy, collaborative and intuitive way, using models based on Twitter and other quick-fire social media
- Cutting across organisational layers to enable information to flow intuitively up and down the organisation
- Organising data in ways that allow relationships to be described between people, projects, organisations, etc, quickly and flexibly, using a sophisticated data structure
- Creating an interface that is beautiful, interactive and a pleasure to use, yet fundamentally about the data rather than the design
The results
To date we have been able to significantly improve the quality of global communication across the network, and reduce the amount of time members at all levels spend sharing that information and administering projects. The project is still in its infancy, and we have a number of valuable plans going ahead.
“Loft has completed two projects for CDKN and the standard has been superb. From the design phase all the way to completion the Loft team have provided us with excellent products under tight deadlines without compromising on quality or value for money. In addition, the team have been a pleasure to work with: they are professional, friendly, collaborative, and accommodating.”
– Janet Southern, Project Manager
