Diagnostic toolkit
The Collaborate diagnostic toolkit | ICT
This section explains how to access the ICT-based diagnostic tools on this website, and how to enter data and print out the results. For details of how to make use of the information they produce, see Worksheets 3 (Finding The Focus) and 4 (Developing The Workplan).
Using the Excel-based tools
There are two types of diagnostic tools: Excel-based surveys, and Word files. The three Excel-based tools are:
The About Your Organisation – People Resources survey. This collates information on the total number of staff and volunteers which each of the member organisations has, and how many of them work in specialist infrastructure functions. It produces a one-page summary of the information from all of the cluster’s members.
The Priority Areas For Capacity Building survey. This asks members of the cluster to score a number of areas of their internal infrastructure according to how strong (or weak) they are, and how much of a priority the issue is for them. It produces a summary report which enables groups to see which issues are most important for each organisation, and which areas they might have in common.
The Collaborate Purchasing Survey produces summary information on how much each member spends on purchases in a number of key areas (such as professional services, phones and utilities and supplies), who their suppliers are, how much they spend each year, and how satisfied they are with their current arrangements.
how to use the excel-based tools
In each case, you use them in the same way:
- Each organisation in your cluster needs to enter their name in one of the cells provided on the first sheet of the workbook. Click on the tab marked “Guidance”, and enter your organisation’s name in the first blank cell in the column headed “Organisation name”.
- Entering this information will automatically earmark one of the worksheets tabbed as “Org 1”, “Org 2” etc for your organisation’s data, and will print it out under this name in the summary report.
- Now go to your organisation’s worksheet to enter data into the survey. To do this, either click on the cell to the left of your organisation’s name in the “Guidance” sheet (i.e. in the “Index” column), or click on the tab which corresponds to the organisation’s number in the Index column.
- This should take you to your organisation’s page in the survey. Enter the data requested.
- To view the summary report, either click on the “Summary” tab or – from the “Guidance” sheet click on the button marked “Print preview summary”; if you do the latter, you will need to click on the button marked “Close” on the bar at the top of the page to exit Print Preview and get back to the main workbook
- To print the summary report, either click on the button marked “Print” if you have used the Print Preview” button, or click your printer icon (at the top left of the page) if you have got to the Summary worksheet by clicking on its tab.
Using the Word-based files
There are two Word-based surveys:
About Your Organisation – Key Facts & Figures: this is a simple one page document that ensures all members of the cluster have the same basic information about each other.
The Collaborate Training Questionnaire: this enables all of the members of the cluster to share information about training activities which they are taking part in or running in-house, and to compile a list of training providers offering good quality cheap or free courses.
They are used in slightly different ways. For the About Your Organisation survey, create a sub-folder in your cluster’s Dropbox headed About Your Organisation. Each member should fill in a copy and save it in this sub-folder where everyone will be able to access it – there will be one file for each organisation. It’s as simple as that!
The Training Questionnaire uses one shared file for the entire cluster, so that information can easily be compiled and compared, and so that gaps in provision are easy to spot. To use it, follow the steps below:
Only one member of the cluster needs to carry out the first two steps, in order to set up the file initially. Once they have done this, it is ready for the group to use.
- Set up a sub-folder in the cluster’s Dropbox headed “Purchasing Survey”; save a blank copy of the questionnaire in it.
- Open the file and switch on the “Track Changes” function. On the reviewing toolbar click on “Show” then “Options”, and ensure that the boxes next to “Insertions” and “Deletions” are set to “By author”.
The file is now ready for everyone to use.
- Each member of the group should fill in the Provider column for any courses which they know of, and put any comments in the Comments column and your initials in the Entered by column.
- If you don’t have any comments write none – that way the numbers will all match up.
- When you’ve finished, simply click the Save icon and Dropbox will automatically ensure that everyone’s Dropbox is updated with the latest version of the file, including the information you have just entered.