This year had ups and downs for us at Aam Digital but we have worked our way through and will release some major milestones in the next months. And we are proud of what we have already achieved over the course of 2023:
New features
- Redesigned Import Module: This allows users to upload spreadsheets, clean up data and convert it to case records in Aam Digital.
- Configurable design: Allowing to “white-label” the platform in custom colors.
- New “Anonymization Feature”: This allows users to meet data protection requirements while still keeping an anonymized archived record for statistical reports and indicators.
- Reports with aggregated statistics can now also be accessed by users who are not allowed to see individual, personal information. This way, advisors or managers can keep an overview without the need to meet special data protection requirements.
- New user login system: Building upon the open source Keycloak project, we now offer 2-Factor-Auth and other advanced authentication methods on Aam Digital.
- And as always: Countless small improvements and features to make Aam Digital more easy to use, e.g. uploading participant photos, better data exports, additional filters and calculations in the user interface, …
- Our priorities include work on the software quality in the background. We have repeatedly received feedback from partners that our code is well maintained but we keep working on this. In 2023 for example by doing both an internal and external security audit and restructuring parts of the code to allow flexible plugin extensions.
Growing user base
- In collaboration with ATMA accelerator in India, two NGOs working in education adopted Aam Digital’s case management platform.
- Further NGOs working in Uganda, Nepal and Germany reached out to us for our special experience combining social field work and technology and started using the Aam Digital platform.
- With the official launch of the “codo” mentoring management platform (www.codo-mentoring.org) built with Aam Digital, we can hopefully continue our partnership with the foundations behind this initiative and support more German NGOs with that solution.
- We did not manage to grow our users and impact as quickly as we intended. One of our biggest challenges remains how to reach NGOs that are looking for case management software. (If you come across projects that might benefit from our work – using our platform, leveraging our open source tech or learning from our experience – please put us in touch!). With the upcoming features around self-signup we hope that we can extend our efforts and reach users differently.
Expansion of our work
We have looked a bit beyond our core software this year, participating in an AI exploration for the German social sector by Bertelsmann Foundation (insights in this blog post) and conducted various webinars on topics around tech for NGOs. Together with more blog and LinkedIn posts sharing learnings, case studies and general resources for social projects, we have tried to support social initiatives more broadly. (Please let us know what you find useful!)
Being awarded a spot in the “Social Tides” accelerator for social enterprises, we have also revisited our processes and strategies. The workshops – and the funding – set Aam Digital up for further growth in 2024!
Outlook
It seems, opportunities indeed only come with luck and persistence. We have struggled through a phase this year where failing to reach new users has made us question whether Aam Digital can continue in its current form. But just at that moment, we then came to new projects and opportunities through grants like Social Tides and our partners at TolaData. Together with TolaData we are about to start implementation for Aam Digital’s largest project and client by far. You can look forward to new features and integrations coming to the platform soon.
We are currently implementing features to make Aam Digital more easy and flexible to configure by users themselves. This moves our platform towards a complete self-signup and self-setup, offering users more power over their systems. Based on this, we want to make 2024 about many more partnerships to reach and support NGOs around the globe with an affordable, world-class digital solution. Please help us connect to possible partners to together empower the social sector!
