The solution

Northern Village undertook a thorough review of the existing management system for the Free to Grow program. This included:

• Review the current Free to Play Application in detail
• Analyze the current data structure to ensure all information will be included in the new application, and ensure it can be ported over when the new application is done.
• Develop priority of components for application creation.
• Ensure that clients are able to access the system and upload documents using cell phonse.
• Track the amounts for each child separately, keeping track of the money that can be accessed.
• Manage the approval process, including handling clients who change their mind.
• Coordinate bulk payments to service providers.
• Report on clients of various status within the system, and download reports via CSV.
• Manage end of year rollover, including resetting funding fields.
• Test after each component is complete.
• Update as required.
• Train staff on how to use of the software and how to train clients to use the software.
• Start testing while running the new system in parallel.

Northern Village programmed the software in Ruby on Rails, ensuring that all aspects are available through a web browser, and it works of all screens and accessiblity devices.