Episode 6 - The VSA Project

Introducing our new co-host, Graham Johnston, some music and the story of how the Scottish Tech Army worked with VSA to produce an inventory  system that's making a real difference every day to that organisation.

Transcript

Kirsty McIntosh  0:00 
Hello and welcome to the Scottish Tech Army podcast. This is Episode Six. Something a bit different today because I would like to introduce you to my new co host Graham Johnston. Hello, Graham.

Graham Johnston  0:10 
Hello, how are you?

Kirsty McIntosh  0:12 
I'm fine. Thank you. Welcome aboard.

Graham Johnston  0:14 
Thanks for having me.

Kirsty McIntosh  0:15 
We decided we needed to sort of spread some of the some of the chat rather than just listening to me all the time. So Graham reached out as they say and and it's really nice to have you on board.

Graham Johnston  0:26 
Delighted to be here. Thanks for having me, Kirsty.

Kirsty McIntosh  0:28 
Today's podcast is is a great one. We are going to be talking about a project that we worked on with an organisation called VSA or Voluntary Services Aberdeen and I'm really delighted to welcome Robin Williamson and Rhona Holland. Morning guys.

Robin Williamson  0:44 
Morning

Rhona Holland  0:45 
Hi Kirsty 

Kirsty McIntosh  0:46 
Robin, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, you know, how you ended up in the STA and yeah, what the interesting connection with the VSA was with you?

Robin Williamson  0:56 
Yeah, morning Kirsty and Graham. My background is business analysis and I'm currently working as a business analyst with VSA up in Aberdeen and joined the Tech Army through quite early early on in its foundation, formation should I say and as a greater way of developing my own, my own skills and an interest in technology and how it impacts on on business etc. And having gotten involved in it spotted the opportunity for potential benefit to VSA and also in the early stages we have the COVID epidemic we were struggling with PPE, concerns etc. across VSA. We've got 18 sites and across Aberdeen, so managing PPE was was a challenge and very time, time onerous. It took up a lot of time and a lot of trying to manage across different sites, supply chain issues with trying to get the stuff and and also a lot of money. So I spotted an opportunity for seeing if the STA could help and we've hopefully got, well we have got a fantastic solution and Rhona's has played a massive big part in in delivering it as well.

Kirsty McIntosh  2:17 
Yeah, it's brilliant. What about yourself, Rhona, how did you get to the Tech Army?

Rhona Holland  2:22 
Yeah, I saw an advert for the Tech Army on LinkedIn, middle of May towards the end of May when I was furloughed from from my company, Agenor Technology. So I signed up then and was quickly assigned to the VSA project to manage the testing of the solution for the for the PPE inventory.

Kirsty McIntosh  2:41 
Wonderful. So, so the way it works at the tech army is a project is submitted, usually by the organisation it gets triaged out.  Robin did you actually encourage somebody else within VSA to submit that project and then put your hand up once it arrived? Or did you do it the other way around. 

Robin Williamson  3:01 
No, I think really it was between myself... having been involved in the ScottishTech Army I mentioned it to my boss at VSA, and she joined up as well as a volunteer. And really, through discussions really internally at VSA, we thought we could submit a project and see where it went really, there was no.. I suppose it was. It was the early stages of the of the tech army being formed and I think we weren't quite sure what we were going to get whether it was some just offer of advice or help or, or whatever, then  really through chatting to Ewan Cameron and the initial triage element. I think we were one of the first ones to sort of set the how it was going to be done. So I think we had out of that came this A3 document which is effectively detailing all our requirements were what we wanted the solution to be, what the challenges were etc. And I really I worked on that and submitted it. And again, sort of foot in both camps really being being the client and the volunteer, but we just submitted a request and hopefully through conversations with Ewan Cameron and the triage team developed an idea which was then sort of developed by by Rhona and the team.

Kirsty McIntosh  4:24 
Fantastic. So, the team's put together, we had the wonderful Andrew Rendle as project manager. Who else is on the team Rhona.

Rhona Holland  4:34 
On the VSA team from testing side we had myself and Brian Jackson. Simon Ellis came on board as the solutions architect.

Graham Johnston  4:46 
Sounds like they were the main people then right.

Robin Williamson  4:50 
To be honest, we had Andrew, Brian and Simon were the main and the main bodies because that was that that was the main we had a we had a couple of mentors as well, mentees should say but it was mainly Simon was doing that was doing the technical build and Rhona and Brian testing. And Andrew was keeping the pressure good stuff.

Graham Johnston  5:14 
So, Robin, and you talked earlier about 18 sites across Aberdeen. Can you just give the listeners a little bit of an idea as to what these 18 sites actually do? And how they help people?

Robin Williamson  5:37 
Yeah, so VSA and provide support and care for the whole a whole range of people within Aberdeen and from we've got mental health facilities, we've got older people care. We have people with autistic issues, etc. We have a school for autistic kids our at Linn Moor, we have a farm for providing support and education facilities, so it's a real range of care to the people of Aberdeen and again from young from young people all the way up to to the end of life aspect of it as well. So it's a complete broad range of care and doing a very valuable job within Aberdeen and again this the different sites have to cater for different facilities etc within within the VSA family and it's is a very noble cause within within Aberdeen and it's been interesting coming and coming into coming into work in that sector because you have to take your hats off to the people who also provide... we're relatively lucky in the back office bit , we're not at the front of the facilities and these people do a wonderful job.

Graham Johnston  7:04 
Sounds amazing. And so what what did the Scottish Tech Army actually do to support you then in terms of what was the project and how did it deliver?

Robin Williamson  7:13 
Yeah, we have the early stages. Of course, there was obviously a mad rush for getting PP in and and obviously we in VSA, traditionally use obviously some PPE as normal day to day operating. But obviously there was a, there was a great increase of requirements for PPE and effectively what was happening was that each site was managing their PPE requirements, they were sending an email into the health and safety manager who was trying to collate and coordinate the all these PPE requests coming in, and then trying to manage the stock that we held. So obviously we wanted to try and build up stock levels to effectively have about three months' worth of stock in hand, and obviously that the early stages of COVID, there was an issue with the supply of PPE. And also there was a fear factor of that actually, our sites would run out of PPE which was obviously, I suppose was, was a bit of the driving force and trying to manage the issue. So, so yeah, well, what the STA have done is delivered our sort of technological solution using an off the shelf product which has then been configured to meet VSA requirements. So effectively what we've built is an online shop for all our service managers at each individual site to go on an order all the PPE etc. and which then comes into the back office, which is where the health and safety manager and we've got a lady called Maureen who's coordinating, getting all the all the various items ready and then dispatching that out to all the various sites. So at the front end, we've built an online shop, which then ties into this inventory management system at the back office. So it's a much more streamlined process, better reporting, and ultimately frees up time for service managers, at her work or their work should I say. And then also the back office, it's providing a better coordination of everything. So there's a lot of positives from the solution.

Graham Johnston  9:35 
Amazing. And when was it all completed then when when did it actually complete as a project and when was it was all up and running?

Rhona Holland  9:43 
And gone, I think 29th of July, and that's that's when we, we had a go/no go decision meeting and it was then agreed that the design was completed had been tested and we were good to go. And then I think it was a couple of weeks after that, Robin before VSA started using it in earnest and stock has been ordered on the shop front, which is great.

Graham Johnston  10:09 
Yeah, we had a couple of weeks of internal testing and then we had some...the lady who was going to be using it the health and safety manager, she was off on holiday so we had a couple of weeks and then we we got going.

Kirsty McIntosh  10:34 
So it must be making a difference already then I mean, is it just so much smoother. I mean, this is I should qualify this as an online shop that has no prices because you really are just using it as a kind of a an ordering facility, isnt it, nobody's buying anything. It's just...

Robin Williamson  10:49 
internal cost. We're one of the interesting things was it was built on...the minimum viable product was relatively streamlined, and then ultimately within VSA now we're building on a bit more greater functionality to add things like the cost of products and building up reporting, reporting criteria and it is interesting having a chat with our finance director, understanding what the cost of stock that we hold, for example. So there's little elements like that, which was very difficult to get in the previous solution or a previous system, and they were able to manage that a bit better. So that those benefits in all different elements of of the VSA business not just at the individual sites, but also from a point of view of finance and operations.

Kirsty McIntosh  11:48 
So it was a it was a piece of open software called Oodoo? Odoo? Oodoo?

Robin Williamson  11:55 
Nobody, I don't think anyone knows how to pronounce it. It's like it's O D O O. Simon, Simon spoke to somebody, I think it's Oodoo.

Kirsty McIntosh  12:04 
Oodoo? Okay. Okay, we should get that right. We should get that right. And it is open source. So and it's modular as well. So you can you can add on add on extra bits as a when you identify business need is that right?

Robin Williamson  12:19 
Yeah. So effectively we... the initial solution that Simon identified was was basically the inventory model, module so, that was effectively just the back office warehouse element. And then then through testing, we changed the whole business process because that was going to have each site sort of running a separate little warehouse element, which was going to get a bit confusing so we turned it on its head in effect, we had one warehouse but everyone ordered items through it. So we developed through through that solution meant that we have VSA, now have to have the website module, the purchasing module, the invoicing module and the e- commerce module. So suddenly we went from one module to four or five modules relatively quickly, but it gives you that whole solution.

Kirsty McIntosh  13:14 
Yes, it's really clever that isn't it? I mean every every organisation is different every organisation has, you know, sort of different needs and requirements. So to be able to find something like that, that you can pull together to suit your own needs is great and of course, you know, backed up by the by the Tech Army doing all the doing all the work in the background. Did you have any major disasters with the testing Rhona? Did it all go relatively smoothly? Or can you give us a scoop on some disasters along the way?

Rhona Holland  13:44 
It did actually go go fairly smoothly. And I mean, it was obviously very fast paced. VSA needed a solution as soon as possible. And I was amazed how quickly we were able to turn it around because it was a real project and we did have to produce project documentation. We kept it lightweight, but it had to be robust enough to capture the necessary, so because we were one of the first Tech Army projects, we ended up being trailblazers for a lot of the templates like the Project Initiation Document, the A3 document that Robin mentioned, and the testing documentation. I became involved in the QA channel with Wendy Stubbs. And from that producing testing templates that other projects could, could pick up. So yeah, I mean, we did find some defects but they were sort of configurable defects that we were able to change and fix and close off. As Robin said, a lot of it was kind of exploratory testing that we were doing because we were changing the design as we went, as we went along. And then the interesting part was doing user acceptance testing. So UAT were (acted as - Ed) a site manager for VSA via Zoom which was a first for me certainly. 

Kirsty McIntosh  15:05 
That's brilliant.

Graham Johnston  15:06 
That's incredible. And you know I think I've been involved in so many different test projects and none of them go smoothly right I mean this is amazing to have like the you know, one of the first projects to go live to have such a smooth test process it's incredible. Well done. That's amazing and I'm assuming the timing of this was kind of pretty ideal because I think it's been well, well publicised that Aberdeen's and the surrounding areas been in a bit of a local lockdown recently is that... so having this in place must have been quite critical given the timing of that lockdown.

Robin Williamson  15:38 
Yeah, I think I just I just had a quick check there we've had we've had 39 orders since the system went live. And each each order is a number of items on different on different different lines, each order is a relatively large amount. So I think touch wood it's been it's gone relatively well and smoothly. That actually, I haven't been needed to be helping out in any shape or form because it's just the service managers are ordering their stuff in it's going through the system, and then it's getting produced. So I think I think it's, it's, the big difference is that it's, it's made the management of PPE a smooth process. And I think that's a lot of that is down to Rhona and obviously Brian doing the testing. And I suppose guiding us on that, where and again, because we were all sort of exploratory with Odoo, in terms of what it was actually doing. And a lot of the testing was finding out actually how Odoo did something and therefore it did something and therefore we had to change the business process at the back end. So it's, it was really, it was really enjoyable, actually, and obviously, I think as Rhona said, we were a bit of a trailblazer for for the STA, because we talked about like, functional requirements, for example, well, we better document them. So that became the functional requirements documentation. And then the testing became the documentation there. And I think the team worked, the team worked very well, it was it was a joy having sort of just the daily standup calls and the daily projects, and I think everyone, everyone enjoyed it. I think.

Kirsty McIntosh  17:31 
It's nice, it's nice that you're able to continue the professionalism that you that you undertake in your in your daily jobs, you know, isn't it, it's quite nice to be able to sort of continue that sort of thing. Were you tempted Robin to, to do a bit of project creep, where you begin was it quite difficult to sort of stay disciplined kind of going, Oh, gosh, now that we've got this, could we do something this? Could we do that and did you have to kind of rein it in a bit?

Robin Williamson  17:56 
I think, I think at the outset There was probably starting up the set the idea was, was sort of solve the issue. I think once we've identified what the solution was with Odoo, and I think and obviously we identified very early on that actually, we need to the scope was was quite ringfenced because of actually our VSA's internal systems, for example for purchase orders, so we weren't going to use Odoo generate a purchase order to, to manage ordering stock, for example. So it was the scope was actually quite ring-fenced by our own VSA system architecture. But I think what's what's been interesting is actually the functionality that has been delivered now. And we're seeing that now by adding on more products onto the onto the list, which is VSA driven rather than STA driven. That is that as part of a wider element within VSA and looking at other systems, looking at the finance system, so Odoodo is one of the systems under consideration because we've already got bits of it. But that's a long term project. So, but there is there's opportunity developing the system, and the functionality of the system to be expansive in terms of products and, and I think like health and safety have talked about they've got various types of, for example, beds that offer different types of movement, etc, to help people get in and out of beds, but at the moment that's requested by the site by an email so we could theoretically put them onto the system and therefore it can be requested through that way as well. So there's, there's quite a lot of interesting growth out of the system. The biggest challenge  is the change required internally to go from an old fashioned process with paper and emails for example, to an all singing all dancing, integrated approach. So that's the challenge but that's always part of it from from a technological solution that's that resistance to change is always quite key.

Kirsty McIntosh  20:21 
Yeah, it's great. It's fantastic actually to kind of hear you thinking, thinking in a broader landscape, you know, for the future because this has sort of opened up some possibilities and as you say, once you get buy in from your team, and they see how much easier it makes their their jobs and then they'll come to you with ideas as well. I mean, that's that's kind of the nature of innovation it's fab. I'm really impressed Rhona when you talk about effectively this project being the the trailblazer as you say, for for many of the foundation blocks for the Tech Army. How does that make you feel? That must be fantastic to kind of have been in with the bricks as they say.

Rhona Holland  20:59 
Yes. Yeah it has been great. And I think it's a testament that everyone is still involved in what is now ELEOS. Obviously the team has now grown. I think there's something like 20 plus members in ELEOS now. But I think everyone should be proud of what we achieved.

Kirsty McIntosh  21:16 
Brilliant. ELEOS is our new project that the that the Scottish Tech Army is, is working on.

Graham Johnston  21:23 
The thing I'm interested to find out about. You talked about how this has been a bit of a trailblazer for the Scottish Tech Army, but also, it sounds like it could be a bit of a blueprint for other similar charities, you know, using open source platform and integrating that and enabling people to order their PPE. Do you think if there are other charities similar to yourselves out there listening to this thinking? God, this sounds like something we could do with. Does it sound like this could be quite an easy implementation because you've already got a blueprint that you've designed and developed that could then be translated into another charity to help them with their PPE ordering?

Robin Williamson  22:03 
Yeah, I think there is no doubt about it. I think I think there's a couple of things. I think it depends on the size of the charity, and what they're wanting to potentially manage , within the inventory solution. So it's not always doesn't actually need to be PPE. PPE is probably very timely at the moment. But for example, if it was useful, that or I think the open source model was very, I suppose, the biggest driver will be as cost effective in terms of from from that point of view, and also as well, presumably, you're able to learn from a lot of other people who have who've used it in similar situations. So I think, process efficiencies, cost efficiency. And almost, I suppose if you can drive and sort of try and establish it as a sort of open source family and I suppose a sort of proud tech movement behind it within that sector, then you'll get it and Odoo seems to have that sort of developer family behind it and so that's what drives it. So I think I think there's lots of opportunity for it. But I think what's interesting also as well, from a VSA point of view is that we've learnt within the business systems team, at VSA, which is a relatively small team, but really, we've been able to sort of harness aspects of the Tech Army. So things like the, the A3 document, which is the initial thing about what your requirement is, well, that's been sort of been hijacked and used within, within us now to sort of use out to the business users in VSA and if they want  changes so that's, that's been useful to learn from our point of view as well. So I think there's that there's been a real benefit of sharing knowledge, which has been quite good, and maybe that's because we, from the point of view of I've been a foot in both camps rather than just being a true client, if that's that, but yeah, I think I think that the the open source element of Odoo, and delivering other other charities, this is a very sensible approach and very proactive approach. And I believe I think there'll be a lot of opportunities for, for for this type of product to be delivered, either through the Tech Army or through to charities themselves looking at it.

Graham Johnston  24:36 
Yeah. And just, you know, thinking about it, the requirement for this, if this had been needed, and the Scottish Tech Army wasn't around, I'm assuming trying to gather a group of people together to do this work, in order to get this type of system set up so quickly, would have been either impossible or quite expensive or very difficult to be able to pull together, right?

Robin Williamson  24:59 
Yeah. I think just again, from my point of view, when we looked at the issue, the PPE, the initial thing that we did was was look at potential solutions online. So there were a number of sort of little free inventory apps which we have done something. I mean, we actually looked at Odoo as the solution, but quickly moved on from there because actually, you were having to buy a module and having to do it yourself effectively, so, the interesting bit of the Tech Army is we actually ended up coming back to one of the solutions we looked at but with the development bit and the management of building it was where the resource was required, which we wouldn't have done or we might have appointed it but it wouldn't have been as correct as the one we've got at the moment.

Graham Johnston  25:54 
Fantastic and a final question for me. You said at the start that you know, one of the concerns was running out of PPE. Did anybody get close to running a PPE? In any of your, your the centres that you you operate?

Robin Williamson  26:10 
Well, they haven't told me but I don't. I don't I don't think so. I, I think I think we've been again touch wood, VSA has been relatively unscathed with with COVID I think that goes down to again, a lot of the effort from the people working on the front line, the care workers, etc. And again, from the management, from the service manager, so, you've got to take your hat off to them and the wider VSA, but again. I suppose you can't let your guard drop and I think that's, ultimately as we've seen by the the Aberdeen lockdown and obviously we're back down into lockdown again, here so but no, no, and I would like to say that the system has worked fully meeting all the requirements and now and we're we're able to give the management of VSA comfort and care about the level of what's needed if there is any shortfalls.

Kirsty McIntosh  27:17 
So how is the experience of the Tech Army been for your Rhona? I mean, you you talked about the fact that it's great to bring your professionalism into the into the Tech Army from your workplace. I mean, is it is it been a positive experience for you, as well as been able to kind of be busy?

Rhona Holland  27:35 
Oh, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And just, you know, I've met so many, so many people that - haven't actually met them, but there's a few that we intend to meet up when we can. And as I say, we had the post project party via Zoom at the end of VSA, and you feel that you've really made colleagues and friends along the way. Yeah, it's been it's been great in terms of finding out what's fun for from being involved in, excuse me, the the user testing and which is the customer experience platform, which can we have been given free access to so we've been looking at producing surveys for some of the other projects in the Tech Army So again, that's been really beneficial.

Kirsty McIntosh  28:27 
fantastic. What about yourself, Robin? You obviously learned a few new tricks here.

Robin Williamson  28:32 
I think I think from a personal point of view, it's it's great I had,I came back into being a business analyst after running a signage firm for 40 odd years. And actually going back to being a business analyst with the Tech Army has been fantastic just to refresh skills and look at how the IT world has changed and as Rhona said, meeting so many different people, who you almost feel you know,  it's like it feels like work colleagues you've worked with for ages. And I think the interesting thing from a Tech Army point of view is you can dip into anything. And then once you sort of overcome the various Slack channels, but there's a wealth of knowledge in the Tech Army. ,it seems to me there'a a real 'can do' culture, it's always positive it's never it's never there's never an issue it doesn't seem - I'm sure there are but you don't get that impression. It's always positive. There's lots of people talking about things and and if you're interested in something you can get involved and put your hand up and be active and it's fantastic from,  as a learning and just refreshing skills and terminology and I don't think I've ever heard so many acronyms. So,

Kirsty McIntosh  29:55 
I know, acronyms

Robin Williamson  29:57 
Andrew Rendle seems to have an acronym for every single word.

Graham Johnston  30:03 
(Laughter) There needs to be a dictionary.

Kirsty McIntosh  30:08 
We do have a glossary somewhere in the Book of Knowledge, actually. But we should probably have a special section for Andrew Rendle's Acronyms ARAs (laugher) ARAs.  Listen this that's absolutely wonderful listening to you both. Thank you very much indeed. for your time today. I'm sure we'll come back and catch up on the VSA project, especially if it if it moves on to yet more modules and Rhona I''m sure we'll be back talking to you about about testing. I think that's another topic that we should be, we should be spending a bit more time on in the future. So thank you both very much for now. 

Graham Johnston  30:40 
Thank you.

Rhona Holland  30:41 
Thank you.

Kirsty McIntosh  30:42 
How did you enjoy that Graham?

Graham Johnston  30:44 
Yeah, loved it. It was great to, great to speak to them both and hear their amazing stories. And I think I genuinely blueprint for such charities moving forward. But you know, great to hear the impact that the Scottish Tech Army has been able to have on the charity and, and also the way of working throughout  it's, it's phenomenal because you know, I've been involved in STA since week one, but I've been very much on the periphery due to my own job being more than full time. But you know, getting involved with ease, and a few water cooler chats, you really get to understand just the value and the commitment that's been brought into the Scottish Tech Army from a whole range of different places, resources and backgrounds and experience and it's just incredible.

Yeah, long may it continue. It's um, it's fab. It's been a fantastic personal experience for me too. And as you say, you kind of getting to meet new people, especially through the virtual water cooler. I think I met Robin on the virtual water cooler kind of call originally and Robin had the gall to refer to myself as a sort of ba which made him practically choke on his tea. So yes, it's a, it's a it's a lovely place. And I and I probably shouldn't say this, but I will that it's amazing what happens when money and politics aren't involved. It's amazing what you can do.

Totally.

Kirsty McIntosh  32:09 
So yeah, so that's so it's great. So we will see you again. Hopefully this time next week. Graham, you'll come back for another dose.

Graham Johnston  32:16 
Yeah, definitely. Looking forward to next week's podcast as well as some really good stuff lined up and yeah, if you'll have me back that is.

Kirsty McIntosh  32:25 
Of course I will. That's great. Okay, folks, that's us for now. We will see you again in a week. Bye for now.

Graham Johnston  32:31 
Goodbye.