Outcome Tracking Software and Web-Based Applications

Nonprofit organizations are operating in a climate that is increasingly demanding accountability for services, participant achievement, and fiscal responsibility. NPOs that embrace this trend, and work to generate outcome-based evaluation models and tangible reporting will benefit in increased program staff responsiveness, program participant successes, and program funder participation.

Results Technologies Services (RTS), in collaboration with Performance Results Incorporated (PRI), has developed Results Online^®, a browser-based application, to meet the increasingly demanding needs of non-profit organizations, agencies, and government agencies.

Results Online^® allow users to generate Evaluation Plans or Logic Models which provide a framework by which participants’ progress may be measured. These evaluation plans include sections which guide users through the essential steps of naming the program, identifying the target audience(s) and their needs or wants, articulating the program’s services and activities, describing the program purpose statement, and developing outcomes and indicators by which to measure participant progress. These tools also allow users to create surveys or data assessment tools for distribution to program participants, and a gateway to record, process, and aggregate program data. Additionally, Results Online^® allow non-profit organizations and government agencies an easy means to report aggregate program demographic and outcome data, identify program strengths and weaknesses, and determine program performance by demographic.

Following are some of Results Online’s primary attributes:

Flexibility:

Results Online^® web-based application allow users to define custom data fields at the organization or program level so that they can collect data important to their specific program as well as meet the general data collection requirements across the agency. Results Online^® can generate customized Outcome Based Evaluation Plans, create assessment tools such as demographic questionnaire and surveys informing outcomes, and reports based on each program’s specific needs. This flexibility is an important factor in the realm of non-profit organizations and government agencies, which have a number and variety of programs that vary in their needs and wants.

The Results Online^® web-based application is also flexible from a user’s perspective, allowing user’s to navigate either the Evaluation Plan section—defining the program’s purpose, outcomes, and indicators, for example—to inputting participant records and data, or generating program progress or outcome reports. Finally, the Results Online, are internet-based, which gives secure access to the system from any computer with internet access.

Centralized data management:

Organizations often use many decentralized methods of data management, with different programs having files in MS Word, Excel, Access, or even paper files. This type of decentralized data management prevents programs from tracking a participant’s activity across the organization and to understand all the services an organization is providing to their participants. This lack of information can limit a program’s understanding of the challenges a participant is facing. Results Online^® allow organizations to manage their participants’ data, making it easier for each program, division, and the entire organization to use the data and generate reports. A central data system facilitates cross-program collaboration and better communication within and across the organization.

Ease of Use:

The web-based program Results Online^® is fairly intuitive, and new user can draft their evaluation plan in their first program encounter. With the help of assistance, if necessary, from Results Technology Services, users can begin entering data at their earliest convenience. Program staff, from assistants to managers, will be able to navigate the Results Online^® interfaces. This ease of use allows new staff to quickly get up to speed and immediately begin taking advantage of this important organization resource.

Real-time reporting:

Results Online^® provide standard reports that can easily be generated by any user in areas such as demographics, outcomes, and outcomes by demographics. These reports are easy to access and provide real-time information, giving staff the possibility of monitoring the current status of their programs and helping to reinforce the value of the data as they manage their programs.

The value of tools like Results Online^® can be appreciated in the short and long term. In the short term, program managers and staff have access to real-time data about each of their participants. This information ranges from demographics to services records that document a participant’s progress in a program. Staff can review reports for the entire group of program participants, or for specific target audiences, and use this information to identify strengths and weaknesses of the program and make decisions regarding program design and services.

In the long term, program staff have easy access to historical data and reports that allow them to better know and understand their program participants and target audience. This in-depth knowledge will allow organizations to target populations that may be underserved. Users of Results Online^® can also easily document and share the successes of their program participants through tracking indicators that inform participants’ outcomes, and analyze program results. The ability of Results Online^® to capture historical data allows organizations to identify the program’s performance over a period of time and highlight both strengths and weaknesses. All of this critical information can be used to update an organization’s strategic plan or program purpose statement by comparing actual results of programs with the goals set by the plan.

An easy to use interactive data base such as those provided in Results Online^® are critical to non-profits that are working the highest quality of service to their program participants and surrounding communities. Currently, organizations such as the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and Alliance for the Family (AFF) are utilizing the tools provided by Results Technology Services (RTS). With the information garnered from these evaluation tools, these organizations continue to improve their programs and services to bring real benefits to their respective target audiences.