Queensland Advocacy For Inclusion

About This Case Study

Established in 1987 by a small group of passionate Queenslanders and parents of people with a disability, QAI is an independent not-for-profit advocacy organisation and specialist community legal centre for people with a disability. They are first and foremost a systems advocacy organisation focused on changing attitudes and policy to improve the lives of people experiencing vulnerability in our communities.

Having grown immensely since 1987, QAI are now an accredited community legal centre, have accredited Economic and Social Council status with the United Nations and run eight individual legal and non-legal advocacy services.
In 2021, QAI assisted 2,637 Queenslanders through 3,197 services, including:

• 203 NDIS reviews and appeals
• 715 Mental Health Review Tribunal Appearances
• 21 Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) hearings and human rights conciliations

Strategy Is Key

When ONGC was first engaged by QAI, the organisation was struggling to efficiently operate following a rapid shift to the cloud at the onset of COVID-19 lockdowns. Historically the business was largely relying on physical on-premises infrastructure which was not able to adequately facilitate the mandated work from home orders.

ONGC completed a systems assessment to evaluate the current state of play and build a strategy to move the business to a more suitable Microsoft 365 solution. QAI had a clear requirement that whatever solution was put forward needed to not only promote operational efficiency and remote working capabilities but also user adoption. Additionally, the QAI legal and support staff required a platform that provided security capabilities to not only address immediate security concerns but also provide a good foundation to build a long-term Cyber Security strategy. Key areas of the business included the following:

• Administration
• Operations
• Management
• Finance
• People & Culture
• Governance
• Community Engagement
• Services

Streamlining the Process

By nature of engagement and services performed by QAI, there is an abundance of sensitive files, libraries, policies, and procedural documents. At the onset, QAI did not have a streamlined process, data sovereignty guidance or a single place of access. Systems were disparate and users were regularly accessing information in different ways, in different location.

• Assistance with the acquisition of appropriate Microsoft 365 licensing, including leveraging Microsoft Sponsorships and Donations
• Implementation of security best practice policies for the organisation to enable a baseline security coverage.
• Implementation of security best practice policies for the organisation to enable a baseline security coverage.
• Implementation of security best practice policies for the organisation to enable a baseline security coverage.
• Single access point for QAI staff both legal and non legal, to access all information relevant to the QAI vision and mission

Building a Holistic Solution for Maximum Impact

In collaboration with the QAI team, ONGC rolled out their REACH365 platform which is built on the Microsoft 365 technology stack. The solution provided a standard operating environment that enabled all QAI users to have secure, instant access to all company resources and data on any device at any time, regardless of location. All devices across the business were included in a new management framework which enables QAI to lock or remove data from devices in the event of loss or theft.

All company resources were made available in their REACH365 landing page which also includes access to external services with a simple click of a button. Discussion and announcement boards were also integrated to promote clearer and more efficient communication between teams.

A full data review, cleanse and restructure was also completed to consolidate data that was previously stored in multiple different locations and cloud services. Co-collaboration was also introduced to enable team members to work on the same files at the same time, avoiding time wastage where emails historically were emailed back and forth to gather version updates and manual merging.

The Result

At the completion of the rollout, QAI have seen a significant increase in efficiency driven through the consolidated platform. The organisation has seen growth in excess of 70% whilst also observing an overall reduction in the number of IT support requests by over 35%. Staff onboarding has also been streamlined to ensure that when required, new staff and volunteers can hit the ground running and have all of the tools and resources they need.

Further, through their partnership with ONGC, QAI were able to optimise the sponsorship benefits made available through Microsoft’s Tech for Social Impact initiative. This included taking advantage of a portion of fully funded donation licenses and significant discounts enabling them to reallocate these potential costs into other important areas of the business.