Understanding Your

Nonprofit Technology Needs

Leslie Bauer Chief Information Officer

501cTECH November 5, 2013

About Me

q  30+ year of IT experience à Data Entry Clerk to CIO

§  Programmer/Analyst §  Project Manager/Executive §  CIO

§  Mainframe à Minicomputer à Cloud Computing

§  Government à FBI à Army §  IBM à Courts à Unemployment à Sports §  Distribution à $12B à Public §  Media à $350M à Public §  501cTECH Nonprofit à Technology

501cTECH

q NPower nationwide network was funded by Microsoft, Meyer Foundation, AOL Foundation and the Fannie Mae Foundation §  Provide technology support and solutions for nonprofits

nationwide §  Later dissolved NPower organizations and cut funding §  Name changed to 501cTECH and continued operations

q  IT department for nonprofits that serve the common good

q  Services include: §  Technology Consulting and Services §  Assessments §  Outsourced IT (Help Desk) §  Cloud Computing Migrations

Objectives

q Provide an understanding of technology basics and current trends

q Provide an understanding of advantages and disadvantages to certain solutions and low/no cost options

q Review technology priorities, budget planning and technology resources to help create a technology roadmap

Let’s Break it Down

Technology Basics

q Start with your workstation §  Operating system §  Applications

•  Office 2010 §  Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, PowerPoint

§  Data files

q How old are your workstations? •  3 to 5 year replacement

§  Are they up-to-date? §  Do they have up-to-date virus protection, patches,

etc.? §  Are your files backed up? If so, where?

Technology Basics

q  Server §  Operating system §  Applications

•  Email •  Quickbooks •  Constituent Relationship Management System

§  Data files •  Shared files

q How many physical and virtual servers?

§  How old are your servers? §  Where are the servers located?

•  Kitchen or data center? §  Do they have up-to-date virus protection, patches, etc.?

q Are your files backed up? If so, where?

Technology Basics

q  Internet connection-Bandwidth §  Speed requirements increase with more cloud activity §  Must have adequate bandwidth §  Minutes to download a document §  Size to meet the demands of your business §  Productivity loss is expensive §  Connection to the Cloud

q  Firewall-Security

§  Must have

q Router-Directs traffic

Technology Basics

q  Backup

§  Data loss happens §  Backup as a Service (BaaS) §  Local backup §  How long will it take to restore? §  Who is responsible for the backup? §  What is your record retention policy?

q  Disaster Recovery Plan

§  How long to restore one system or all systems? §  Data shuttle + Restore time = Long time §  Are you using tape? §  Benefit of cloud computing

•  Somebody else has to fix the problem •  Even they have outages

q  Business Continuity

§  What will your staff do while you are bringing systems back online?

q  How would you rate the stability of your infrastructure?

Technology Basics

q  Cloud Computing

§  Network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer

•  Software as a Service, Backup as a Service, Platform as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service

§  Eliminate the need for a local server §  Access from anywhere

•  Work at home §  Upgrades and backups are managed by the provider §  Customization is limited §  Servers in huge data centers around the world

•  Search-Google and Bing •  Google Apps and Office 365

§  Extensive security, backup and recovery

§  Do you have a Gmail or Yahoo email account?

Cloud Computing

11

Business Systems

q  Email §  Mission critical §  On premise or cloud solutions §  Microsoft Office 365 or Google for Nonprofits

•  Free to qualified nonprofits §  Recovery challenges

q Constituent Relationship Management (CRM)

•  Salesforce, Salsa, Charity Engine

q  Financial System •  QuickBooks and Dynamics •  On-premise or in the cloud •  Don’t have to upgrade software •  Lose some customization options •  Not likely to modify w/limited budget

q  Software as a Service Option

Cloud Applications

q Document sharing and central repository §  Google Doc, Dropbox, Skydrive, or SharePoint

•  Pictures, videos, documents and file types §  Work offline or in the cloud

q  Shared calendar §  Doodle

q Video chat and conferencing

§  Microsoft Lync or Google Hangouts

q  Share presentations on-line §  Webex

Google Cloud Connect

14

Google Docs

15

Doodle

Doodle

Doodle

18

Business Process

q How efficient is your business process? §  Do your business applications meet your needs?

q Streamline the Business Process

§  Productivity Improvement §  Redundant data entry §  Sharing data §  Quality

Budget and Strategy

q Do you have a strategic plan?

q Does it map to your budget?

q Does your strategic plan assume growth?

q Does your technology budget support the growth?

q Who is helping you plan?

Internal-Technology Support

q Who is responsible for IT support? §  Gatekeeper

•  Director of IT or CIO/CTO •  Technical staff •  Help Desk •  Outsourced support

§  Do you have a backup for that person?

•  What is your risk if he/she walks? •  Co-managed, monitoring, patches, etc. •  Back up internal technical resource •  No vacation

§  Can you afford to train internal resources?

Technology Partner

q Technology partnerships are important §  Internal and external

q Do you have a trusted IT advisor/partner?

§  Internal resources or external partners §  Extension of your team §  Do they understand your mission? §  Do they have deep technical skills? §  Help find grants or funders to support your IT

projects? §  Help you make technology decisions on a limited

budget

Technology Checklist

q  Do you look for technology support in emergencies only?

q  Do you have a line item in your budget for technology upgrades and maintenance?

q  Are you using technology that doesn’t quite work right simply because you got used to it?

q  Do you experience internet connectivity issues?

q  Do you maintain your office files in a way that anyone could find what they were looking for—without specialized knowledge of your organization?

q  Do you back-up your data? Do you test that back-up?

q  Have you ever evaluated your technology and made strategic efforts to improve it?

23

Action Items

q Create a short term and long term plan for IT •  Strategic Plan or Roadmap

q Budget for IT q Internal or external IT support q Upgrade workstations and servers q Upgrade internet connection q Evaluate cloud solutions q Create or update policies and procedures

Nonprofit Resources

q Organizations §  501cTECH §  NTEN §  TechSoup §  Idealware §  Center for Nonprofit Advancement §  Nonprofit Roundtable §  Foundation Center §  Network with nonprofit organizations

q Benefits §  Share information §  Nonprofit discounts for hardware and software §  Free software to qualified organizations §  Apply for technology grants with partner(s)

•  Veterans programs •  Small nonprofit initiative

Do you have a strategy?

Technology must be part of your strategy!

Manage your technology or it will be hard to achieve your mission!

Contact Information

Abigail Goliber Manager of Outreach and Development 202-234-9670 x115 agoliber@501ctech.org Leslie Bauer Chief Information Officer 202-234-9670 x108

lbauer@501ctech.org

27

Thank You

Thank you for joining us today!

28