Health in Color, Inc., is an intervention research company focused on communities of color based in Hampton, Virginia, which creates digital learning and communications tools to support cumulative and sustained health and wealth.
Founded and led Dr. Laverne Morrow Carter, the company has constructed three learning games that were successfully beta tested with hundreds of real-world adolescent users of color in school and after-school settings.
The Challenge
Health In Color was working on a large project for St. Louis Public Schools, to revamp and restructure their entire school system. There are more than 78 stakeholders across the country involved in the project, from developers to school officials with varying levels of comfort in digital tools.
Initially, Health In Color used a Listserv to manage the project and communicate with the stakeholders. This generated an overwhelming amount of emails which were difficult to track, and some school officials experienced firewall issues that blocked the project update emails. Dr. Carter said, “It was a nightmare.”
It was clear they needed a newer, easy-to-use system to manage and track project tasks, and be configured to eliminate the firewall problems.
The TechArk Solution
TechArk recommended that Health In Color implement Basecamp, a web-based project management software that we actually use ourselves. From experience, we knew that Basecamp’s easy-to-use and intuitive features could help the team foster collaboration and keep projects on track.
TechArk implemented a Basecamp solution that invited all 78 Health In Color stakeholders to participate in the St. Louis Schools project. We facilitated live training sessions and supported users with a series of seven training videos that were available 24/7 within the team project area. TechArk also offered onboarding support for several weeks after the Basecamp implementation.
It wasn’t long before Health in Color saw dramatic results: “By using Basecamp, we cut the number of emails we sent by half, and now we can effectively develop, manage and evaluate the progress of our project,” Dr. Carter shared. “Additionally, our users who had firewall issues with the Listserv have no problem using Basecamp.”
Client Feedback
Dr. Carter also shared her appreciation for the personal service she received from TechArk, telling us that the experience was “excellence at all levels.” In her career as a government contractor and entrepreneur, she’d worked with many technology companies and had long-term relationships with a few. “In all that time,” she said, “I never met the president, until I worked with TechArk.”
