The Croatian Red Cross has 132 local branches. Building one digital system for all of them is the hard part
With staff, volunteers, rescue teams and refugee case managers working across the country, the Croatian Red Cross needed more than new software. It needed a digital architecture that could connect a national humanitarian network without losing sight of how people work on the ground.
Digital transformation is often presented as a matter of replacing paper forms, buying new software or moving services online. For a national humanitarian organisation, however, the challenge is far more structural.
The Croatian Red Cross operates through 132 branch organisations across the country. Its network supports a wide range of activities, from volunteer coordination and rescue services to refugee assistance and work with vulnerable communities.
That scale is one of the organisation’s strengths. It is also a significant digital challenge.
Different branches must be able to share information, coordinate their work and use systems that are reliable enough for services involving people in urgent or difficult circumstances. At the same time, digital tools must respond to the needs of very different users, including employees, volunteers, rescue coordinators, refugee case managers and beneficiaries.
The Croatian Red Cross therefore needed more than a collection of individual applications. It needed a long-term digital roadmap and a common technical foundation that could support the whole network.
Through AI4Health.Cro, the organisation began developing the architecture, technical specifications and procurement framework required for that transformation.
Starting with digital maturity
The first step was not to select a technology provider or define a list of software products. Instead, AI4Health.Cro supported the Croatian Red Cross through a structured assessment using the European Union’s Digital Maturity Assessment Tool.
The evaluation provided a baseline from which the organisation could identify priority areas, understand its current digital capabilities and define where further development was most urgently needed.
This matters because digitalisation projects often begin with a proposed solution before the organisation has fully defined the problem.
For a network as large and operationally diverse as the Croatian Red Cross, that approach would carry considerable risk. A system designed around one department, one branch or one supplier could prove difficult to scale across the country.
The maturity assessment helped shift the focus from buying technology to building institutional capacity and planning for long-term interoperability.
Designing a system for a distributed organisation
The first phase of the work focused on system architecture and technical specifications.
At the centre of the proposed model is an interoperable service bus, a shared technical layer intended to allow different applications and branches to exchange information.
Rather than attempting to build one large system containing every function, the planned architecture is modular. This should allow individual applications to be developed, replaced or expanded without requiring the entire digital environment to be rebuilt.
Four core applications were identified as initial priorities: membership management, volunteer coordination, rescue services and refugee assistance.
Each addresses a different operational need, but all must be able to function within the same wider system.
Membership data, for example, may need to connect with volunteer records. Rescue coordination may require access to information managed elsewhere in the organisation. Refugee assistance systems must support case management while maintaining appropriate controls over sensitive personal data.
Without interoperability, each application risks becoming another isolated database. Over time, such fragmentation can increase administrative work, duplicate information and make national coordination more difficult.
The purpose of the shared architecture is therefore not only technical efficiency. It is to give the organisation a more coherent view of its activities across all 132 branches.
Preparing for procurement without designing for a vendor
Once the technical direction had been defined, the next phase focused on public procurement.
AI4Health.Cro supported the preparation of a procurement package covering technical requirements, vendor evaluation criteria, contractual conditions and risk management.
This stage is particularly important in public-sector digital projects, where poorly drafted specifications can shape the entire outcome of a tender.
Requirements that are too vague may result in proposals that are difficult to compare. Requirements that are too restrictive may reduce competition or unintentionally favour a particular supplier. Specifications based on a vendor’s existing product, rather than the organisation’s operational needs, can also lead to long-term dependency.
The Croatian Red Cross sought to avoid that problem by defining what the system needed to achieve before deciding who should build it.
The resulting procurement framework was intended to support a transparent and competitive process while reducing the risk of selecting technology that could not be scaled, integrated or adapted over time.
That approach also gives the organisation a stronger position when assessing bids. Suppliers can be evaluated against clearly defined functional, technical and organisational requirements rather than broad promises of digital transformation.
Staff involvement as a technical requirement
Croatian Red Cross employees participated actively in workshops and reviews throughout the process.
Their involvement was essential because a digital system can meet every technical specification and still fail if it does not reflect everyday work.
Staff understand where information is duplicated, which processes create delays, how responsibilities are divided and where local branches need flexibility. They also understand which tasks occur under pressure, when systems must be particularly simple and reliable.
By involving employees in the planning process, the organisation was able to test proposed solutions against operational reality.
The workshops also served another purpose. They helped staff develop a more detailed understanding of the organisation’s digital needs and of the decisions involved in designing a national system.
This kind of internal knowledge is often overlooked. Yet without it, institutions may become dependent on external providers not only for technology, but also for understanding how their own systems work.
A more digitally mature organisation is better able to question suppliers, evaluate proposals and make informed decisions about future development.
Reducing the risk of digital transformation
The immediate outcome of the project is not a finished platform. It is a clearer and more defensible path towards one.
The Croatian Red Cross now has a digital roadmap, a proposed modular architecture and the basis for launching a structured public procurement process.
These foundations should reduce implementation risk by identifying technical and organisational requirements before major investments are made.
They also make phased implementation possible. Instead of attempting to transform all 132 branches at once, the organisation can introduce systems gradually, evaluate how they work and expand them across the network.
For humanitarian organisations, this cautious approach is not a sign of limited ambition. It is a practical response to the consequences of failure.
A poorly designed commercial application may frustrate customers. A poorly designed humanitarian system can delay coordination, increase administrative pressure and make it harder for staff and volunteers to support people who need assistance.
The value of the Croatian Red Cross project therefore lies not only in its technical scope, but in the order in which decisions were made: assess first, define needs, design the architecture and only then procure the technology.
As the organisation moves towards implementation, the central test will be whether the planned systems can improve coordination across 132 branches without imposing unnecessary complexity on the people expected to use them.
For organisations planning similarly complex digital projects, AI4Health.Cro offers support in assessing digital maturity, defining technical priorities and preparing solutions for implementation. Public bodies, healthcare institutions and other organisations can use the programme to develop a structured digital roadmap before committing resources to technology or procurement.