Centre for Risk Analysis: Access, by design
The CRA produces a remarkable volume of political and economic intelligence. We moved them onto Plone 6 and Volto, and built the whole thing around one idea: access.
Some clients hand us a blank page. The Centre for Risk Analysis handed us a library, already built and managed in Plone. Our aim wasn't to start from scratch. It was to give them a better way of working.
The CRA is South Africa's leading political and economic risk intelligence partner. Risk Alerts, Client Notes, Fast Stats, the Socio-Economic Survey, Strategic Intelligence, the Macro Review: a steady stream of analysis that boards, insurers, and executives rely on before making the decisions that can't be undone.
The brief came down to one word: access. Getting the CRA's intelligence to the people who need it, in every sense of the word.
Access, by design
The CRA's analysis used to land in PDFs (hard to read on a phone, difficult to search, awkward for a screen reader), and the experts behind it weren't always a click away. Plone 6 with Volto let us fix both at once:
- Their publications are pages, not PDFs. Every Risk Alert and Client Note reads cleanly on any screen, and search can finally see inside.
- They publish the moment the analysis is ready. The CRA's own team puts a new alert live in minutes, with no typesetter in the loop.
- Their readers can still grab a PDF. A print button turns any publication into a clean download.
- They let the data speak. A graph block drops charts straight into a publication, ready for the stats-heavy work ahead.
- Their readers find what they need. Publication Search filters the whole library: Fast Stats, Risk Alert, Strategic Intelligence and the rest.
- Their analysts are now one click away. A briefing, a Client Query, or a subscription is always right there.
Access to the CRA, on your own terms
People can now subscribe to the CRA's Risk Alerts, month to month, entirely on their own. They sign up, pay, renew, download invoices, update their details, and cancel, all without emailing the CRA.
That cuts both ways. Readers get self-service that respects their time. The CRA gets a steady inflow of subscribers that runs itself, instead of admin that pulls analysts off the work only they can do.
It's powered by our Plone membership tool: no third-party CRM, no per-user fees, no member data leaving the CRA's control.
Access, all the way through
Easier to reach the publications, the data, the experts, and the subscription. One idea, running through the whole build. That's what a good migration looks like: not a fresh coat of paint, but a platform that quietly makes the real work easier to reach.
If you've got valuable work locked in formats that hold it back, that's the kind of problem we like solving. Let's talk.
