In the delivery of humanitarian care, speed and clarity of decisions can directly affect lives. Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) operates in more than 75 countries, providing emergency and longer-term care to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters and where people are excluded from healthcare. For MSF Australia and MSF New Zealand, donor contributions are essential as the organisation is privately funded. This ensures MSF remains independent from government or other agendas. This funding is what sends both medical and support professionals, supplies, and other aid to some of the world’s most urgent crises.
A few years ago, MSFA embarked on an organisation-wide transformation initiative and identified limitations within its legacy data management infrastructure. MSFA sought a holistic data strategy, management approach and infrastructure.
Datacom was engaged to spearhead a new data strategy, starting with an analysis of current state and a gap assessment of the people, process and technology aspects of data management. In tandem with the implementation of Salesforce, Datacom restructured legacy data into a relational model that was migrated into Salesforce. Datacom also setup a new data warehouse using Microsoft Azure services to enable data insights and AI-readiness.
A key goal of the data strategy was to improve data management and data governance processes. Datacom worked with MSFA to establish modern tools and ways of working. Automation replaced labour-intensive donor imports and improved reliability of payment processes — enabling the team to focus on providing analytics services.
Yuen Ai Lee, MSFA’s interim CIO/ Head of Data & Insights says, “When data pipelines and data products are well designed and managed, MSFA employees can minimise manual resource requirements, optimise fundraising investments and maximise donor and supporter engagement and impact.”
Tangible outcomes with human impact:
Eliminating single vendor dependency and providing MSFA with the flexibility in vendor selection
Releasing capacity spent on manual data imports by 80% to work on fundraising analytics.
While the changes have brought measurable improvements – the real story lies in how they freed up time, improved confidence and removed risk from core fundraising and international human resource operations.
“Automated data imports aren’t just about saving hours - they have allowed the MSFA team to dedicate its energy to understanding donors, supporting fundraisers and international human resource teams and uncovering new insights,” says Yuen Ai.
Fundraising analytics have opened new visibility into donation streams that were previously opaque, such as gifts in wills and philanthropic contributions – important growth areas that ae contributing 20-30% of MSFA’s annual revenue.
“These insights help us focus our efforts where they matter most and ensure funds are distributed quickly and effectively to MSF projects,” says Yuen Ai.
Automation has also reduced the risk of payment errors, bringing a sense of reassurance to both the team and donors. “This streamlining means more stability in cash flow, with a large proportion of revenue supporting frontline medical work in crisis zones.”
The solution blends Microsoft Azure SQL, Azure Data Factory, Power BI, Power Automate, and Microsoft Purview, creating a resilient and flexible platform for analytics, governance, and continued innovation. Ongoing projects include advanced fundraising modelling and enhanced data governance capabilities.
For nonprofits working on limited budgets, every improvement in efficiency amplifies their impact. MSFA’s experience shows the importance of pairing technology upgrades with investment in people and processes.
“Good data management protects donor trust,” says Yuen Ai. “It means being able to respond quickly to change, identify gaps and prevent issues before they happen.”
For organisations embarking on similar transformations, MSF’s advice is to bring in the right tech partners early, be clear about the vision and create the capacity for internal teams to grow alongside the technology.
Within the professional services industry are specialist occupations, like doctors, architects, lawyers, and accountants. Professional services is a competitive industry that's embracing digital transformation to get ahead. Moving away from manual processes is a must, and Datacom can help professional services integrate next-generation technologies to give time back to the professionals to innovate using their specialist skills and grow their business.
