The Duke of Edinburgh Award set a target of giving 1,000,000 young people the opportunity to participate in its life-changing programme over the next five years. Achieving this vision required efficient, scalable processes that could support growth without increasing administrative overhead.
A new Dynamics 365 solution was introduced to centralise these processes, automate repetitive tasks and create a seamless experience for both employees and external stakeholders. The result was a modern digital platform capable of supporting future growth while reducing manual effort and improving service delivery.
Dynamics 365 replaced manual licensing processes with a single system that manages the entire journey from enquiry through to licence creation and ongoing communications.
Grant applications and approvals moved from disconnected Word documents and spreadsheets into a streamlined digital process with improved visibility and faster turnaround times.
Automated annual surveys and follow-up communications significantly reduced manual administration while increasing response rates from activity providers.
Several important business processes had evolved independently over time, resulting in multiple manual workarounds and duplicate data entry. This created additional effort for employees and made it difficult to gain a complete picture of activity across the organisation.
The primary objective of the project was to centralise licensing, grant management and activity supplier approval processes within Dynamics 365 while introducing automation that would improve efficiency, consistency and reporting capabilities across the organisation.
Licensing processes were managed across multiple systems and required significant manual intervention to progress applications, create documentation and communicate with licensed organisations. This increased administration and introduced the potential for delays and inconsistencies.
Grant applications were managed using Word and Excel documents with no central process or single source of truth. Employees often had limited visibility of application status, while applicants had little transparency regarding progress or expected timescales.
The annual approval process for activity providers also relied heavily on manual administration. Surveys had to be issued, monitored and chased individually, consuming valuable staff time while making it difficult to achieve high response rates and maintain supplier compliance.
We’ve implemented a new standalone D365 app to help manage DofE’s licensing process. Following this, we built a business process flow to guide employees through the process. With a two-way integration between Dynamics 365 and eDofE. The integration has no noticeable delay and works in real time as users enter data into either system.
Automation was introduced throughout the licensing journey, including licence creation, stakeholder communications.. This reduced manual administration while ensuring a consistent experience for every licensed organisation.
The solution also included a real-time two-way integration between Dynamics 365 and the organisation’s bespoke eDofE platform. Information entered into either system was immediately synchronised, eliminating duplicate data entry and ensuring users always had access to the latest information regardless of where it was captured.
By centralising licensing processes within Dynamics 365, employees gained a single source of truth for managing applications, communications and approvals. This improved visibility across the entire process and reduced reliance on manual intervention.
The automation of grant management processes reduced administrative effort and accelerated application handling. Applicants were able to track progress more effectively, while internal teams could focus more time on delivering value rather than managing paperwork.
The implementation of automated supplier approval surveys improved compliance processes and increased response rates from activity providers. Staff no longer needed to manually monitor responses or issue reminders, freeing up time for higher-value activities.
Perhaps most importantly, the organisation established a scalable digital foundation capable of supporting continued growth and helping to deliver its ambition of providing more young people with access to the programme.
As organisational priorities evolve and participation continues to grow, the Dynamics 365 platform provides the scalability needed to support additional automation, improved analytics and further process enhancements in the years ahead.
The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is one of the United Kingdom’s best-known youth development programmes, helping young people develop skills, confidence and resilience through a range of practical challenges and experiences.
Through participation in volunteering, physical activities, skill development and expeditions, young people gain experiences that support their personal development and future opportunities. The programme has had a lasting impact on millions of participants over several decades.
With an ambition to give one million young people access to the programme within five years, investing in scalable digital processes became a critical component of supporting that growth while maintaining excellent service delivery for participants, partners and stakeholders.
You can learn more about The Duke of Edinburgh by having a look at their website.
“As our charity is 100% cloud-based, predominately built around the Dynamics and Office 365 family; we had to ensure seamless integration between Dynamics CRM and our bespoke eDofE platform. FormusPro have really helped us achieve our aims and objectives at every step of the project.”
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The Little Princess Trust (LPT) identified the need for digital transformation. The system needed to be intuitive, integrate, consolidate and create a sustainable and extensible solution.
It’s been 14+ years since we first embarked on a digital transformation journey to Dynamics 365 together. With a range of implementations and solutions over the years, this transformation is constantly evolving.