Executive brings own software which is adopted by business

Rochdale Development agency (RDA) has deployed Huddle cloud based collaboration software after a development officer started using it at work.  

The agency, which is involved in the physical regeneration of Rochdale, is using Huddle’s cloud based software to enable collaboration between stakeholders in its projects.

For example Huddle is currently being used by everyone involved in a £250m town centre redevelopment scheme.

Staff at Rochdale Development Agency and Rochdale Council, Transport for Greater Manchester, as well as the design teams for the new Transport Interchange and the proposed shopping and leisure scheme, all had to be able to work on documents at the same time.

Jonathan Hindle, senior project manager at RDA, said he has used Huddle in the past in relation to a small charity he supports. “We were looking for a system that would allow us to share information with volunteers.”

He said the charity was putting in bids for funding, which involved large documents and multiple stakeholders.

Huddle was used because of its simplicity. “We had volunteers of all ages and levels of computer literacy and they were all able to pick Huddle up and use it.”

Hindle said RDA was also attracted to Huddle because it was easy to use. But there were other benefits. These include cost and time savings, the ability for people to work remotely, the fact that all the information stays in the UK and the ability to check who has viewed documents. The fact that numerous UK public sector organisations already used Huddle was also an important factor.

The RDA originally bought a license for ten users but now has 100 people connected.