Umphakati

The system our team developed is a web application for the company Hubble Studios.

The project name Umphakati, pronounced "Um-pa-kati" is a Zulu word for "community".

Hubble Studios partners with institutions, to deliver their mission-based projects across the globe. Many institutions that fund mission-based projects are faced with the challenge of seeking out initiatives they believe are best aligned to their programmes' objectives and have the highest likelihood of success. This is often done electronically but asynchronously over documents collaborated on over email. As such, there's little traceability of the rich information that a well-designed software solution would afford these large, often well-funded institutions.

The aim of Umphakati is to improve communication and collaboration within the organisational community. Umphakati allows institutions to create inclusive project ideation, design, and execution processes to develop well-rounded project proposals and encourage organisational participation. Any employee can propose a project for consideration, if it aligns with the organisation's selected outreach themes for the year. The proposals posted will be available for viewing by all members of the organisation, and they may add contributions in the form of comments or likes. The Ideator (creator) of the proposal will utilise these comments to edit and improve the proposal. All project proposals will be submitted to the selection committee who reviews these proposals and selects projects for execution.

This solution provides the desired transparency necessary for organisations to leverage the knowledge of employees to create proposals that will be successful, it also creates organisation and traceability necessary for good communication between the organisation who selects and funds the project and its employees who ideate.