AND it’s about much more than just tech - Rachel Walker

AND Digital is about much more than tech. It’s a company that takes social impact seriously and is always looking to enhance the fabric of the communities it works in through the tech it develops.

Rachel Walker is an Associate Product Analyst at AND Digital

That’s why it was a real honour to take part in a series of ‘innovation days’ recently which saw myself, and fellow ANDi’s – the collective name AND gives to its people – working with Sustainable Fashion Scotland.

The innovation day is a popular initiative which has been rolled-out here at AND Digital providing all ANDi’s the opportunity to work on projects that matter to them.

These specific days are a chance for each of us, from the boardroom right through to junior coders, to actively engage in impactful work, benefitting a local project, charity, and/or community we work within. What’s more, they’re a great way for ANDi’s like myself to upskill while helping to create wider social impact through our work.

The innovation day is a popular initiative.

Earlier this year myself and colleagues, Barbara Safsy and Taliah Horner, used our ‘innovation days’ to embark on a project with Sustainable Fashion Scotland, a charity that is working to both encourage consumers to shop sustainably and support independent designers to bring their work to the market in Scotland. A cause we’re fully in support of.

The company's brief to us was to help increase its digital presence and expand the reach of its community. Although it had been communicating through social media, it didn’t yet have a central digital hub from which to share information about its regular sustainable activities.

Kicking off on the project, we did a consultation with the charity’s team to really get under the bonnet of the brief and what its present and future needs were. The process was very much a collaborative effort which resulted in a new vision and overall look for the organisation’s digital real estate – the company’s website being a high priority for both teams.

Mock ups of the new look and feel of the website were created which were also complemented by extensive product analysis. We also scoped out a number of technologies that the organisation could use to boost engagement through its website.

As well as supporting Sustainable Fashion Scotland in switching more people on to issues of sustainability in fashion, we also gained a huge amount of experience in working with senior analysts in our Edinburgh team, particularly when it came to selecting the right technologies to drive the biggest social impact.

The innovation day collaboration has also meant that Sustainable Fashion Scotland now has clarity on the changes it needs to make to its website to suit its stakeholder audience, and is looking to relaunch the new and improved version very soon thanks to the AND team’s efforts.

With AND’s presence going from strength-to-strength in Scotland, there are lots of opportunities for talented technologists to support us in making meaningful impacts for our clients as well as in the communities we work.

Rachel Walker is an Associate Product Analyst at AND Digital, a tech company which supports Scottish companies and the public sector to enhance their digital capabilities from its Edinburgh and Glasgow clubs