In the last few months, STOCKHOLM users have grown to 281, from 119 agencies across 53 countries. Considering their feedback and requests, ESUPS and a team of developers at Tonkin & Taylor have been focusing on enhancing users experience and access to STOCKHOLM platform.
Here is an overview of the latest improvements and features since the end of 2022.
REGISTRATION
- On the main login/registration page, added explanation on who can access STOCKHOLM platform, how to register and an email contact to ask for support.
- A document was prepared on safety, authentication and approval of STOCKHOLM. This is intended to support IT departments in allowing access to the platform, in case this is blocked by default (this sometimes happens as per organisation IT policy on the use of applications). The document is available here and is also sent to a user in the email they receive to confirm their registration.
PERSONAL DASHBOARDS
- Overall improvements to data displayed for different roles.
STOCK MAPPING
- Improvements on the filters to search stock on the map: users can now filter the map based on country, organisation, agency, facility, cluster and item group. Options under each filter are sorted in alphabetical order. The filters are inter-connected, so if selecting Nepal as a country, only agencies or item groups present in Nepal will appear as options in the related drop-down menus. Similarly, if selecting Shelter as cluster, the remaining filters will automatically adjust to display countries and organisations that reported having Shelter items in their stocks.
Please note that only countries where stock is present will appear in the dropdown menu.
- When downloading a stock report, it is now possible to include two additional columns: “date created” and “last updated”. These indicate when an item was created and when it was last updated. To include the column in the report, users need to add “item” and “facility” as visible columns in the stock report. This is also explained when clicking on the text “Help: How to see date of creation and date of last update for an item?”.
- Improvement to visualisation of stock report on the platform as well as to downloadable version, now in .xlsx format with the export date appearing in the name of the file.
- Expired stock is no longer visible in the map view nor in the downloadable stock report.
NATIONAL DISASTER ANALYSIS
- Overall improvements to graphs and data displayed on the dashboard.
- Added “rectangle selection” feature in the map, to select multiple countries more easily and display related data in the dashboard. This is available on the top right corner of the map. Alternatively, it is possible to select countries using the filters on the right-hand side.
- Possibility to switch between the locations of the disasters and the locations of existing facilities in the map, allowing a visualisation of potential gaps. This can be done by clicking on the “SEE FACILITIES/SEE DISASTERS” button on the top left, above the map.
The facilities and disasters maps are synched at global and country level, but not at subnational level. This means that, when displaying disasters in Atsimo-Andrefana region in Madagascar, if the Facilities map is activated it will display Facilities in the entire country. - Added a drill down/drill up function on map and top right graph: disaster data are initially displayed at country level; by drilling down, the lower administrative level is displayed (for example provinces within a country). Similarly on the map, it is now possible to right click on the pie charts to drill down and visualise how disasters are distributed within a country. Note that it is not possible to drill down/up across multiple countries.
NATIONAL STOCK ANALYSIS
- Overall improvements to graphs and data displayed on the dashboard.
- The “analysis per item/cluster and location” dashboard now includes the option to generate pre-positioning recommendations based on the percentage of disasters to be covered starting from 50% (instead of 75% previously).
- Information buttons added to parts of the dashboards, with details on what is displayed.
- Below the percentile of disasters displayed in the national level overview, added the average number of people affected that number represents.
GEOGRAPHICAL AREAS
- Improved polygon function to create Geographical Areas.
- Improved filters and settings to create Geographical Areas.
- It is now possible to move a country from a parent Geographical Area to another one, and to insert a new Geographical Area between two existing ones. For example, you can create the Geographical Area Asia and, inside Asia, create Tajikistan. If later you need to organise your Geographical Areas differently, you can create a new Geographical Area called Central Asia as part of Asia, and assign Tajikistan to Central Asia.
USERS
- Added “invite user” button. This allows users with certain roles to invite colleagues that they manage. More details on this feature are available in this guide.
- Possibility to filter users by role, organisaiton or agency, and status of their invitation or registration process (more information on this can be found here).
- Possibility to export list of users.
- Added ESUPS contact at the bottom of the Users section in case a user needs to be deleted.
ITEMS and FACILITIES
- Possibility to bulk update stock quantities. This has been one of the most-requested features to include in the platform. For now, it can be done by downloading an Excel file with stock quantities in a chosen facility, under the “Facilities” section. In the Excel output file, there is a column called “updated quantity” where users can enter the quantities for items they want to update. Once done, the file can be uploaded back to STOCKHOLM and all new quantities will be updated.
- Improvement to the stock validation feature: for every facility, Admin GAs will see a “validate stock” box. If ticking the box, they choose to validate stock items entered by Facility Managers in the Geographical Areas for which they are responsible. If not selected, the information entered by the facility managers will be instantly live.
- Added information on what each item group contains, to be consulted when creating a new item. A link is available once a user clicks on “Add” a new item in the “Item List” section.
OVERALL LOGIC AND DESIGN
- To prevent accidental deletions, users now receive a validation message in the platform when deleting stock items or facilities.
- Prevention of duplicate items in clusters, organisations, item groups, agencies, facilities and item lists. The mechanism recognises spaces, hyphens, upper and lower case and any combination of them.
- Added help button, marked with a “?” on the bottom right corner of all sections of the platform. When clicking on it, it redirects to the available how-to guides for the section you are on. STOCKHOLM how-to guides are also available here.
The help button also redirects to ESUPS contact for support and a feedback form, to report bugs, ideas or suggestions. - Implementation of notification system.
Notifications are sent based on the chosen frequency and method, which can be set under Personal Information > Personal details.
Depending on their role (see Roles in STOCKHOLM), users receive notifications in the following cases:
- New user registration requests: sent to Admin GA whenever a new user within the Geographical Area that they manage requests to register.
- Inactivity: sent to an Admin GA every 6 months if there has been inactivity in more than 80% of the facilities within their GA.
- Stock summary: sent to Facility Manager and Admin GA giving them an update of minimum stock level, stock updates and expiry dates.
- Separation between Agencies and Organisations: Agencies can be associated with a larger Organisation family; for example, the Organisation Red Cross/Crescent contains all the national Red Cross/Crescent societies, as well as ICRC and IFRC.
WHAT’S NEXT?
We are currently preparing for the next batch of feature deployments. These will include tweaking of existing features and new additions that emerged from the feedback shared by users so far. We always welcome such feedback, so if you have any suggestion on what you would like to see on STOCKHOLM do not hesitate to reach out to us or use the form available on the platform (under the “?” button).
In addition, a re-design of the interface is planned for the coming months. Some of the visual elements you are used to in STOCKHOLM will change but rest assured: the platform will still run as usual, and we will guide you through the new interface once the work is completed. Until then, we encourage you to sign up to STOCKHOM if you haven’t already and follow the dedicated STOCKHOLM guides to get started with the platform. In particular, we recommend this summary of the first 5 steps in STOCKHOLM.
ESUPS Team remains at your disposal for support and to answer any questions you might have.