What is Self Service Data Collection?

Self-Service Data Collection (SSDC) enables organisations to securely collect, manage, and use their own data within the platform — turning it into insight that can be explored, shared, and acted on with confidence.

SSDC is available to organisations with a paid subscription and is designed to make data collection accessible, governed, and collaborative.

At a high level, SSDC supports five connected stages:

Collect → Store → Analyse → Visualise → Share

Collect

SSDC allows you to bring data together in one trusted place.

You can collect data by:

• Inviting Contributors — including people outside your organisation — to contribute data to one of your datasets, OR

• Creating and updating Aggregate Data tables

• Importing existing Unit Record Level data (also called microdata) that you already hold, securely and responsibly, into the platform.

This flexibility means you can work with data as it exists today, while creating space for new contributions over time.

Store

Any data contributed or imported into an SSDC dataset is received into a staging area ready for the moderator to ingest. Ingested data is securely stored. 

➝ See our article on Ingesting Data here

Once ingested, the data is structured in a way that supports:

• reliable analysis

• consistent visualisation

• controlled sharing across users and organisations.

Analyse

After ingestion, people and organisations who have been granted access by the Dataset Moderator can explore the data using the Explore Data tool.

This allows users to:

• examine patterns and trends

• ask questions of the data

• create Insights grounded in evidence

Access is always governed by the permissions set by the Dataset Moderator.

Visualise

Insights created during analysis are visual by design.

They can be added to Suitcases and Dashboards, where charts, tables, and narratives come together with text, images, and branding. This makes it easier to communicate not just what the data shows, but why it matters, in the context of your work and community.

Share

Sharing is built into every stage of the platform, supporting collaboration and shared understanding.

You can:

• Share raw dataset data with specific users or organisations, using granular access controls (for example, sharing only data related to a particular location), and

• Share Insights and Suitcases more broadly — across organisations, with individual users, or externally via public links and embeds.

This flexibility allows you to share evidence responsibly, while protecting privacy, context, and trust.

Self-Service Data Collection helps organisations move from data entry to shared insight — making it easier to understand what’s happening, learn together, and support better decisions.