Digital transformation at Save the Children Norway creates a better world
Cegal provides skilled technological support for free to Save the Children Norway, enhancing the organization’s efficiency so it can dedicate more time and resources to helping children in need worldwide.
Save the Children faced challenges in accessing and sharing information and collaborating digitally, both in Oslo and with country partners. The organization uses a variety of collaboration, planning, and administration tools from multiple software providers across different departments and teams. This lack of a unified, standardized approach to digital tools created some inefficiencies. Given Save the Children's matrix structure, where employees often belong to multiple departments, the complexity of their digital setup was further amplified.
We want to use our time as effectively as possible to dedicate the most resources to helping children in need. That’s why we need skilled technological assistance to set up IT solutions that make us more efficient and enable seamless collaboration across the organization, regardless of where employees are or what devices they use.
Samuel Sanders, IT Business Partner at Save the Children Norway
Sanders continues: “With Cegal’s help, we’ve significantly increased our use of Microsoft Office 365, including Teams and SharePoint. This has enhanced cross-team collaboration, improved information sharing, and established standardized procedures. As a result, employees save a great deal of time—time and resources we can now dedicate to the children we aim to help.”
“This project has focused on IT consulting to streamline workflows. By structuring their Way of Working and optimizing the use of the Microsoft Office platform, Save the Children is saving both time and licensing costs,” says Kristina Teigland, UI/UX Designer at Cegal and project lead for the Save the Children initiative.
Working for equality, peace, and justice
Cegal’s volunteer consultants for Save the Children are organized through “Humanity at Cegal”, an internal initiative where Cegal employees work pro bono on various humanitarian projects. Pro bono refers to voluntary and unpaid professional services for the public good.
At Cegal, we want employees to feel their work is meaningful, and we’re committed to always having at least one ongoing "goosebump project", where employees can volunteer to create a better world through equality, peace, and justice.
Mario vaz Henriques, Global Business Development Manager, Cegal
In 2023, we entered into a three-year partnership with Save the Children Norway under the Humanity at Cegal initiative,” explains Mario vaz Henriques at Cegal. Henriques outlines the challenges Save the Children faced: “Many employees struggled to access and share information or collaborate digitally, whether they were in the office or the field. Different departments and teams used various collaboration, planning, and administration tools from multiple software providers. There was no unified, standardized approach to using digital tools within the organization.”
Transforming information architecture
This year’s project for Save the Children’s administration is the second IT initiative under Humanity at Cegal for the international humanitarian organization. In 2023, Cegal acted as an EdTech partner, providing technological assistance for developing a global learning platform. For 2024, Save the Children wanted a project with a broad impact across the entire Norwegian organization.
“This is a classic digital transformation. It makes the administration far more efficient, delivering significant gains and ripple effects,” says Henriques.
Cegal thoroughly analyzed Redd Barna's current solution and developed templates and architecture to implement Microsoft add-ons on existing communication platforms to meet the organization's needs. This solution streamlines collaboration and improves information management.
Henriques explains, “Save the Children used only 10% of the Microsoft tools they had already paid for. By better organizing their use of Microsoft Office and providing proper training, we were able to address most of their challenges.”
He adds that several planning and administration systems were replaced with Microsoft solutions during the project, for which Save the Children already had licenses, thereby reducing IT costs.
Digital transformation for a better world
Samuel Sanders from Save the Children Norway emphasizes: “Providing a company with IT systems and software is not enough. Training is essential, too.”
He shares that both Save the Children and Cegal initially needed some time to establish the right collaboration model: “Perhaps because Cegal was working pro bono with us, it was initially unclear where the boundaries lay and how we should work together. Once we realized that Cegal had to operate as a professional partner-client relationship, the collaboration became much more effective. Cegal excels at delivering IT services, and we excel at humanitarian work.”
The project at Save the Children demonstrates that digital transformation and proper use of IT solutions can tremendously impact organizations. A more efficient administration and aid workers with seamless access to information and systems mean we can do a better job and help more children.
Samuel Sanders, IT Business Partner at Save the Children Norway
Humanity at Cegal enjoys full support from Cegal’s leadership, both financially and operationally, as employees can dedicate pro bono hours to selected projects. The partnership with Save the Children is vital to Cegal’s sustainability strategy. In 2024, Cegal supports Save the Children with NOK 150,000 in funding and pro bono consulting hours from highly skilled technologists.
Save the Children has advocated for children’s rights for over 100 years. Last year alone, the politically and religiously neutral organization helped nearly 50 million children worldwide. Through digital transformation, supported by Cegal, Save the Children is freeing up time and resources to help even more children in the years to come.
