Using IT systems to store and analyse outcomes data

What IT can do for you

Taking an outcomes approach means measuring the change your service users achieve. The way in which you measure this change will depend on which tool or tools you use, but all tools have in common that they will provide you with data about change that you need to manage and use.

Outcomes data can be used to evidence the impact that your organisation makes. This evidence can be used to:

• produce reports for funders on what works and what you’ve achieved
• to evidence a need to support fundraising for new or existing work
• to learn what works in a service and what needs improvement
• to support internal planning and development
• to review individual client progress for use in key-working sessions.

Accessing and analysing outcomes data quickly and effectively can be difficult without an IT based system or package. Keeping paper based records is time and space consuming, and means all analysis must be done manually.

Good IT systems allow you to store outcomes data quickly and securely, to access this data at the touch of a button and some systems enable you to analyse and report on the data automatically.

Using effective IT and information management systems, reports can be tailored to enable you to select specific clients (eg within a certain project or a particular time-frame) or types of client (eg by age, gender or ethnic origin).

When to think about using IT for outcomes

If your organisation is taking an outcomes approach and generating data (figures, charts, progress reports) you will need to think about how you are keeping this information and what you will do with it. In order to develop an IT system, or adapt your existing system, to report on your clients’ outcomes, your organisation needs to consider:

• what outcomes it wants to report on
• how it is going to gather this information from clients, staff or others
• what resources you have available - strategic IT plans and overall IT infrastructure and
• the IT skills and confidence of the system’s users.

What are the options?

The choice of how to proceed with computerising the process will be influenced by a number of factors, for instance:

• the way you have chosen to gather your outcomes data
• your existing information management system - whether this can be adapted, whether you want to invest in it further or whether you want to start afresh
• your resources and support available
• your capacity as an organisation to adapt to and develop new systems and processes
• how your organisation currently manages and resources IT.

Organisations looking to develop their IT for outcomes can consider five different routes:

1. Tweaking your existing system
2. Taking the DIY approach and building your own system
3. Buying in an off-the-shelf system which is ready to use
4. Buying in expertise to develop your own system
5. Buying an off-the-shelf system that is customised to your own needs.

Each of these options has advantages and disadvantages and different solutions will be appropriate for different organisations. For further information on these issues and how to move forward with developing IT to support your outcomes management, see 'Putting outcomes into practice: A guide to developing IT-based outcome data management'*.

*Please note that this guide was published in 2005; although some of the detail is now out of date the guide continues to provide a good overview of issues to consider. 

Existing systems

• The Outcomes Star System

• Other off-the-shelf systems

Our research has identified a number of off-the-shelf systems that homelessness organisations are using – or could consider using – to manage their outcomes. The following list is by no means comprehensive as new systems are being developed all the time. But it is the result of extensive research and consultation across both the homelessness sector and other related sectors.

In addition, the fact that systems have been listed here does not constitute a recommendation from Homeless Link. Anyone considering acquiring one of these systems will need to undertake their own investigations into the suitability of the system for their particular organisation.

Click on the name of the system to download more detailed information.

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