THE CHALLENGE

A Busy Non-Profit Needed Digitized Overhaul Of An Outdated Auditing System 

The Greater Chicago Food Depository is Cook County’s local food bank. They provide food for hungry people by partnering with over 700 different agencies and programs, including food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters.

The Food Depository is also required to comply with audit requirements of partner agencies and programs to ensure that food is being stored, handled, and distributed in a safe, equitable manner.

This has traditionally meant that one to two auditors from The Food Depository will manually record the answers to over 150 questions on paper as they audit each of these 700+ locations. After the audit, all follow-up processes were completely manual. As a result, almost no data was available to be leveraged to easily detect trends, measure performance, or plan for the future.

The Food Depository approached Ntiva to design and build a technical solution to replace their manual auditing process. They needed a digital platform that would enable an auditor to easily capture audit results during the visit, leverage partner agency information that exists in their ERP, generate reports, and provide greater insight at the management level. The solution must also work well in areas with limited or no connection to the Internet, and must be able to be used on Apple iPad tablets.

THE SOLUTION

Design And Build A Simplified Mobile Platform For Capturing and Sharing Data

Ntiva designed a high-fidelity, interactive prototype to help The Food Depository imagine what the audit workflow would look like on their devices. This process allowed the team to come to a quick consensus of exactly how the proposed solution should look and feel, as well as drive out the kind of data that would be exchanged in order for this to work as desired. 

After the prototyping phase was completed, Ntiva provided and executed a design that included building a native iOS application that uses an “offline first” approach, which meant that the audits could be conducted at any location, regardless of Internet connection. The application utilizes familiar app interactions and ensures that the app is extremely easy to use and is intuitive for virtually all users.

Creation of Mobile Application Increases Productivity and Reduces Human Error

Digitizing a laborious manual auditing process for GCFD has reduced human error and increased productivity, helping the organization meet its financial and human resource goals. Employees working in the field can now quickly and accurately complete their regular audits, and reduce hours of unnecessary manpower and effort. 

The Greater Chicago Food Depository is now an IT managed services client with Ntiva.