How to Activate Your Susurate Feature

Susurate helps you turn application and reporting into dynamic impact reports. It takes objectives and projection and turns this into Data. Data that tells your impact story. 

For your to track Impact Indicators you can make use of Susurate's key features:

• Impact Indicator Library
• Dashboards with custom Charts
• Initiatives (to connect Organisations and Indicators for automated data collection)
• Scorecards

Here's an example of what a Susurate dashboard looks like:

In this guide, you will learn how to activate the feature, set up initiatives, add impact indicators, set up scorecards, and more.

Please note that this is a paid feature. To activate this feature, contact hello@thesocialcollective.co.

How to activate the Susurate feature

Once you request this feature and pay for it, you can let us activate it for you.

You will then know once Susurate is activated since it will show up in the left-hand sidebar as shown below:

If not, you can always activate it yourself.

First, navigate to the setup panel of your platform and make sure you're in the Modules tab under Usage and Account.

On the list of active modules, enable the Susurate feature by turning its knob to YES. Then, click the Save button.

How to add, edit, and archive an initiative

Initiatives in Susurate are the projects you want to track and have your stakeholders report on.

To add an initiative, navigate first to the Susurate feature on the left-hand sidebar and go to the Initiatives page.

Once there, click on the Add an initiative button near the top of the page.

A window will then appear where you can provide information about your initiative, including the name, date frame, and the reporting period.

The date frame refers to the beginning and expected end date of the initiative while the reporting period refers to the frequency of reporting.

After you enter the required information, click on the Add button.

You will then see the initiative you added immediately.

Now, if you want to edit the details you entered, click the initiative's name on the list first.

At the bottom of the initiative summary, you will see a button to edit the initiative. Click on it.

On the next page, you will be able to change the name, start date, and end date of the initiative. Unfortunately, you can't change the reporting frequency.

Note that changing the start and end date of your initiative may result to lost captured data. Ensure that the change is necessary — it might affect the reports already submitted.

After you make the changes, click on the Update initiative button below the page.

If your goal is to update or change the reporting period, what you can do is archive the current initiative and add a new one.

The button to archive an initiative can be found on the initiative summary, right beside the Edit initiative button.

How to link and unlink an organisation to an initiative

Organisations aren't linked to initiatives automatically. That's why you need to do it manually.

Now, there are two ways to link an organisation to an initiative. You can do it directly from the initiative list or from the initiative summary page.

To do it from the initiative list, click the add button on the organisations column of your initiative.

The number on the field represents how many organisations are currently linked to the initiative.

A new window will appear where you can select which organisations you would like to link to the initiative.

Note that only approved organisations can be linked with initiatives. Organisations that are in moderation or are inactive can't be selected (checkboxes are greyed out).

Simply click on the checkbox of the organisation you want to link with and click on the Save button at the bottom.

The stakeholders of that organisation will receive a notification via email to report on the initiative once that organisation has been linked.

The other way to do it is through the initiative summary page. Click the initiative's name on the list first.

At the bottom of the page, you will find the Initiative organisations button. Click on it.

On this page, you will find more information on the connected organisations, removed organisations, and reported data charts.

To add an organisation, click on the Add organisation(s) button.

Then, click on the field to get a dropdown list of all organisations on your portal and select the organisation you want to link with the initiative.

After that, click on the Add organisation(s) button.

The organisation will then be added to the list of those that are connected with the initiative.

Only approved and active organisations can be added to Susurate Initiatives. If you search for an organisation name to add to the initiative and they do not appear, contact your Super administrator to approve the organisation or check for the Approval and Moderation settings as well as the Deadline settings.

In the event that you want to remove or unlink a certain organisation, go back to the page where you can see all connected and removed organisations.

On each organisation's row, there is a delete button on the far-most right. Click on it to disconnect that organisation from the initiative.

How to add impact indicators

Impact indicators measure what the initiative has been able to achieve in relation to its goals, which promotes accountability.

To add an impact indicator, navigate to the Susurate feature and go to the Impact indicators page.

Then, click on the Add an indicator button near the top of the page.

Then, provide the necessary information about the new indicator.

The first part is about entering the:

• Name: A short name for the indicator
  
• Description: A description of what is measured or reported on
• Unit: The unit of measurement of the indicator (leave blank for plain numbers)

The second part is about the following:

• Reported values combination: Refers to whether you want to show the total of the indicators or only the average over the initiative period
• Other options: To enable or disable setting up estimates and targets
• Visibility: Specify if you want everyone (public), all types of admins (private), or only super admins to see the indicator

Setting up targets help outline the goal of the programs and what it tries to achieve within a certain timeframe. You can learn more about Susurate targets from this article.

After that, click on the Create indicator button.

By the way, if you want a unique count, your program needs to support a unique count. You can't produce a unique count from data that doesn't contain the information needed for a unique count.

You can get a unique count by counting only the new members (non-repeat) every month and summing them up. Ensure your indicators are named to reflect this.

Maintain the identities of every member so the system can count how many unique ones there are over the year by using the opportunities/sessions visualization feature.

In addition, make sure all indicators used in the initiative have the same setting.

Indicator settings affect how the initiative is viewed and notifications sent out for users to complete the initiative report.

For example, if the initiative uses indicators meant only for super admins, then public indicators shouldn't be used on that initiative.

You will see some prompts like the one below depending on your indicator settings.

How to edit impact indicators

In case you need to, you can edit any impact indicators and change their information.

To do so, navigate to the Susurate feature and go to the Impact indicators page.

Once here, find the impact indicator you want to change.

Then, go to its most-right column and click on its Edit button.

You can then make the changes and change any information.

Once you're done, click on the Update indicator button at the bottom.

How to link an indicator to an initiative

After creating your own unique indicators, you can then add them to initiatives.

There are two ways to link an indicator to an initiative. You can do it directly from the initiative list or from the initiative summary page.

For the first method, go to the Initiatives page first. Then, click on the add button on the Indicators column of the initiative where you want to add certain indicators.

The number on the field represents how many indicators are currently linked to the initiative.

A new window will then appear.

Click on the field provided and select the indicator you want to link with the initiative.

Then, hit the Save button.

The other way to do it is through the initiative summary page. Click the initiative's name on the list first.

Click the checkbox to show the indicators as a table. Then, click on the Add an indicator button at the bottom of the table.

On the next page, all you got to do is click on the field provided and select which indicators you want to add.

After that, click on the Add indicator(s) button.

You will then be redirected to the earlier page and see all the indicators added.

On that table, you will see some icons on the left-most column that would enable you to reorder (arrow icon) or delete (trash icon) an indicator.

 If you reorder the indicators, it will reflect on the data exports as well.

How to create a scorecard

You can use a scorecard to track projects, stakeholder compliance, or any compliance reporting your company might need.

To create a scorecard, navigate to the Susurate feature and go to the Score cards page.

Then, click on the Add a score card button.

On the next page, fill out the following first:

• Title: A short name for the scorecard
• Description: A subtitle or a description for the scorecard

Once you're done, click on the Add question button to proceed.

Then, provide the details of your question:

• Label/Title: State the question here
• Note (Optional): To help the stakeholder answer the question
• Options/Choices: Indicate what option the stakeholder can choose and how much score each option carries

Feel free to add more options as you need. You can also add more questions to the scorecard by repeating the process above.

At the bottom, indicate whether or not you want to allow estimates or targets to be set. You can also set the visibility to public, private, or super admins only.

Click the Create score card button once you're done.

How to link a scorecard to an initiative

Linking a scorecard to an initiative is a little tricky since you can't do that directly.

You need to follow these steps:

1. Create an impact indicator (see the section above that talks about this) and make its name the same as the scorecard's name
2. Link that impact indicator (the one with the same name as the scorecard) to the initiative

That's it. You can check the scorecard page and see whether or not the scorecard of interest is linked to an initiative (under the Initiatives column).

How to complete a scorecard

Completing a scorecard follows the same steps when completing a target or initiative report. The only difference is that the scorecard runs calculations based on the answer of the stakeholder.

Here are the steps:

1. Visit the organisation profile where you want to complete a report.
2. Find the initiative you want to report on and click on the Report now button.
3. Find the scorecard and select an option.

If you're interested in reading more on how to complete a target or initiative report for an organisation, kindly read this guide.