Toplevel helps promote innovation at nesta

The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) exists to find the most effective ways of encouraging talent and innovation in the UK. It uses the interest from its endowed funds of £300 million as well as other sources of funding to run a range of programmes with partners aimed at developing the skills, knowledge and attitudes of innovators, helping shape policy and identify best practice to encourage innovation, and funding innovative early-stage businesses.

A key challenge for NESTA was to simplify and streamline the way it manages applications to programmes, while improving the process from the perspective of applicants. "Most applications to programmes are reviewed by a panel of assessors," explains Ivan Salcedo, NESTA’s Head of Creative Services. "We used to send out copies of applications on paper, and often struggled to ensure everyone received and returned all the necessary documents in a timely fashion. We wanted to move to receiving applications online through our website and distributing them electronically to cut down on the amount of paper involved and speed up sharing information. At the same time, we wanted to encourage more people to take part in our programmes by making it easier and more convenient for them to apply. We also saw it as a chance to standardise the way statistics about applications - such as equal opportunities figures - are collected and reported on."

Salcedo says NESTA looked at a number of suppliers of online forms and chose Toplevel not just because of its advanced technology, but also its ability to work in close partnership with NESTA to help the organisation achieve its aims.

NESTA also liked the fact the Toplevel solution was available as a managed service which provided a low-risk option for NESTA to introduce the solution and to add new forms over time. "Not only does Toplevel host our solution, but it also builds any additional online forms for us, as and when we require them," Salcedo explains. "That frees up our internal resources and enables us to focus on our core business. Furthermore, Toplevel provides a tried and tested solution, in use at numerous clients, and has clearly demonstrated that it understands our organisation and our requirements.”

NESTA now finds it easier to support the requirement on some programmes to provide bilingual communications in Welsh and English, thanks to Toplevel’s simple and straightforward approach to publishing forms in multiple languages. It also finds it more straightforward to run programmes which are delivered through regional partners. "We can provide a single form on our website, but completed applications are automatically routed to the appropriate partner – while NESTA automatically receives aggregated data about applications and applicants," Salcedo says. He adds that, across all programmes, NESTA has "been able to greatly simplify the collection of statistics since we began using Toplevel."

NESTA is now also able to deliver a better service to applicants while keeping administrative costs to a minimum. "We’ve seen a fall in the number of enquiries relating to application forms because the Toplevel solution allows us to include more detailed context-sensitive help," Salcedo says. "In addition, we can include conditional statements that ensure forms are completed correctly and which can help ‘pre-qualify’ applications that wouldn’t meet the criteria for the programme. That stops both potential applicants and our own staff from wasting time."

Finally, using Toplevel’s online forms for applications has helped NESTA cope with unexpected demand. "TopLevel’s solutions have scaled well to help our small team of staff deal with high levels of applications," Salcedo confirms. In future, NESTA may explore how Toplevel’s OfficeProcess could be used to automate its case management of application reviews in order to make its operations even more efficient.

Salcedo is extremely satisfied with the Toplevel solution and would have no hesitation in recommending Toplevel and its solutions to other organisations. "The solutions are reliable and stable, and the company’s customer services staff are very responsive when we need support."

- Top -