SickKids Foundation
SickKids Foundation interactive kiosk connects donors with Microsoft Expression Blend
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Company Overview
Established in 1972, SickKids Foundation inspires communities to invest in health and related scientific advances to improve the lives of children and their families in Canada and around the world. Over the past 12 months, there were 1,187 fundraising events held to raise money for Toronto’s The Hospital for Sick Children, with support from 307 schools, 550 community events and 330 workplace groups. Every year the Foundation strives to raise the bar for donations.
Business Challenge
Today the Foundation has a kiosk situated in its Donor Hall. This hall honours those individuals who have given to the Foundation. However, the kiosks’ current functionality is limited, largely enabling donors to locate their commemorative plaques. Although it supports an important part of providing personal recognition, it does not convey any sense of community involvement, nor spark an emotional response as a way of encouraging others to learn more about the incredible achievements of the hospital and how they may participate.
“What drives donations is a feeling of connection, and our old kiosk provided no sense of emotional tie – it was simply an acknowledgement of previous donors,” says Chris Woodill, director, information technology and new media, SickKids Foundation.
The growing need for donations meant the Foundation had to provide donors with a better user experience and build a stronger sense of community. As well, the Foundation wanted to express its gratitude to donors by connecting their donations to the specific discoveries they made possible and patients they helped.
“It’s about giving visitors a moment of truth, about celebrating the donations that have already occurred and giving people that positive experience. It’s just as much about stewardship of existing donors and existing community members as it is about acquiring new donors,” says Woodill.
SickKids Foundation was uncertain if such a kiosk was possible, or how it would resonate with the donor community. The Foundation needed a proof of concept for a new application that would be visually appealing, touch new visitors, recognize the charitable efforts of donors, and would show what their donations have accomplished.
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Solution
SickKids Foundation turned to a Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner, Momentum Advanced Solutions, to design a new kiosk solution.
Momentum decided to use Microsoft Expression® Blend™ design software to design and build the application. Microsoft Blend helps developers and designers collaborate more effectively and produce appealing user interfaces, interactive experiences and rich media content.
“We’ve worked with similar tools in the market, and we’re very excited about working with Expression Blend for this strategic project. It enabled us to create a highly engaging user experience and work within a rich, real-time design environment that substantially shortened the distance between idea and execution,” says Robert de Korte, vice president, business development, Momentum Advanced Solutions Inc.
Creating a seamless and efficient workflow between designer and developer has always been a challenge. Expression Blend allows them to easily share project files between Blend and Microsoft Visual Studio® development system. As well, XAML code files can be opened and edited in both Visual Studio and Expression, and iterated upon in either product without breaking compatibility or compromising the design in the process.
“We chose Microsoft Expression because it allowed us to develop the solution using all of the Foundation’s existing multimedia assets,” says de Korte. “As well, SickKids Foundation was already using an extensive range of Microsoft-based technology, which meant integration would be greatly simplified.”
The resulting kiosk application allows existing donors to see the greater community they belong to, and all visitors to read more information about patients and the hospital, and see how their donations benefit the children and their families – all in a highly compelling, rich media experience.
Business Benefits
With the help of the new Expression tools, Momentum was able to build the kiosk application quickly and easily, providing SickKids Foundation with a view into how they could better reach, engage and communicate with the donor community.
“We are very excited about how we can apply the various learnings gained from this proof of concept initiative and how it will benefit the Foundation,” says Woodill.
Increased Asset Usability
By taking advantage of Microsoft Expression, SickKids Foundation can now easily incorporate audio and video assets into the kiosk application.
“The current kiosk has no multimedia component at all, but the Foundation has a lot of multimedia assets from various radio and television campaigns. To be able to utilize these materials is something that would be really valuable,” says Woodill.
As well, the new kiosk has the potential to be reused for other foundation initiatives. This could help save time and money when creating elements for various events and presentations, and also would allow SickKids Foundation to maintain a consistent brand experience.
“SickKids Foundation hosts a number of events throughout the year and to be able to utilize the rich and compelling graphics and multimedia assets for other events would be very convenient,” says Woodill. “The kiosk can also help us approach large donors to give them a sense of what they can be part of, and would help us make a greater impact.”
Rapid Development
Due to the ease of use and integration of Microsoft Expression, SickKids Foundation was able to see the proof of concept faster than expected, and quickly understand what a difference it could make to its fundraising and stewardship efforts.
“Microsoft Expression Blend allowed better collaboration between our developers and designers, and the project took a much shorter time to develop than we anticipated,” says de Korte. “We were able to build a unique user experience application for SickKids Foundation and they were able to see the value of using cutting edge technology.”
Microsoft Solutions for the Healthcare Industry
Healthcare and life sciences organizations are under tremendous pressure to meet regulatory requirements, improve patient care, and reduce the time it takes to develop drugs and take them to market. To meet this challenge, Microsoft and its partners have developed cost-effective solutions that enable healthcare organizations to streamline and automate daily processes that improve productivity and deliver information whenever and wherever it is needed. The result is enhanced productivity, safety, and quality.
For more information about Microsoft solutions for the healthcare industry, go to:www.microsoft.com/healthcare
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:www.microsoft.com
For more information about Momentum Advanced Solutions Inc. products and services, call (800) 663-6699 or visit the Web site atwww.momentum.com
For more information about SickKids Foundation products and services, call (416) 813-1500 or visit the Web site at:www.sickkidsfoundation.com
