Tackling domestic abuse with innovation

The Employers’ Initiative on Domestic Abuse (EIDA) supports a rapidly expanding network of more than 1,000 employers who are helping to take action on domestic abuse. It raises awareness of an issue affecting one in four women and one in six men. It also provides access to best practice advice and guidance, as well as providing resources for employers to put in place policies and procedures to support employees facing abuse, and for perpetrators to help them to stop.

The statistics on domestic abuse in the UK are shocking. An estimated 2.3 million adults are on the receiving end every year, while 7% of children aged 10-15 live with an adult experiencing domestic abuse. The impacts are far reaching and often hidden, affecting individuals, their families, friends and the workplace.

During COVID-19 lockdowns, the National Domestic Abuse Helpline reported a 120% increase in call volumes in one 24-hour period. While the workplace is often a sanctuary, there’s a clear link between domestic abuse and absence, as well as other difficulties for employees trying to work normally in challenging circumstances.

Recognising the vital role employers can play in helping to tackle domestic abuse, EIDA campaigns for all employers to play their part by joining its growing network of like-minded organisations, and accessing best practice advice and guidance, services, tools and training to shape their responses. “Working with as many employers as possible enables us to raise awareness at the scale we need, and therefore make a significant impact on domestic abuse at a much earlier stage,” explains Lucy Horitz, CEO at EIDA.

“Employers don’t need to become experts on domestic abuse. It’s about them
acknowledging that it might be occurring amongst their workforce and knowing how
to signpost and refer their people to services that are available to them. That is where we come in.”

As a membership organisation, EIDA knew that digital technologies would unlock its ability to grow at speed, manage relationships and partnerships more effectively, share information and create a vibrant community united in a common cause.

As a Beacon member of EIDA, Fujitsu is a long-standing supporter of its mission. There is close alignment between EIDA’s work and Fujitsu’s support for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, its social value commitments and the purpose of Fujitsu’s new Uvance global brand – ’to make the world more sustainable by building trust in society through innovation’.

To support EIDA’s long-term ambitions, Fujitsu funded a three-month digital
transformation programme. By utilising agile methodologies, the Fujitsu team were
able to replace time-consuming, manual, error-prone and disconnected processes and provide EIDA with the tools it needs for a rapid expansion of its activities.

Fujitsu delivered four systems including Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Content Management System (CMS), Customer Insights and Analytics (CIA) and a Customer Information System (CIS). These systems provide EIDA with extendable technology to take proactive advantage of opportunities and an agile IT architecture, capable of integrating with multiple external systems. EIDA also now has a Microsoft Power BI reactive map to geo-localise members and a data model and taxonomy, for clarity and productivity.

Fujitsu’s Novo innovation team worked closely with EIDA to understand its needs, and those of its members and partners too. The result is a fully integrated digital platform featuring a customer relationship and information management system, as well as a modern, accessible and intuitive website, with extensive, easy-to-use content management, data harvesting and analytics capabilities.

“We’re a tiny team, the timetable was very tight and we were new to agile working,” says Horitz. “The Fujitsu team was incredibly flexible and skillful, asking all the right questions, guiding us through the process, overcoming challenges and keeping us on track.”

While EIDA had done well to build an organisation of a thousand members, a well-
functioning CRM is vital for any membership organisation. “It brings everything together, all of our activities, communications and events, and crucially accurate data, in one place,” explains Horitz.

Data segmentation, by industry, by location and by organisation size, now enables EIDA to tailor communication, resources and signpost appropriate content for the needs of each member. Among the many innovations built into the solution design by Fujitsu, is the ability for the EIDA team to map the geographical location of its membership.

Says Horitz: “Systems and resources like these provide the fundamentals we need to get to every employer out there, to encourage them to become members, to make them aware of their responsibilities and take meaningful action in support of their employees.

“The new CRM will enable us to measure success, by seeing how inputs turn into outputs, how outputs turn into outcomes and how outcomes turn into impacts. With everything integrated, changes made in one area are automatically applied elsewhere.

“Fujitsu added a huge amount of value on the website, focusing on making it very easy for members and visitors to use and navigate, as well as to capture data within the CRM at every available opportunity. To deliver all aspects of the project on time and within three months was remarkable,” adds Horitz.

The CRM and website provide a perfect springboard for EIDA to begin its growth
strategy. Now, it can establish baselines, set priorities for the next stage of development and track the progress of its members.

“Fujitsu’s involvement has been completely transformational and sets us up for the next five years. We’ve got ambitious plans and I’m certain that Fujitsu, whose contribution to action against domestic abuse has been acknowledged by the Home Secretary, will have an important role to play in helping us to maximise the value of the technology as we grow and develop our services,” concludes Horitz.