Community IT Innovators. Established 1993. Serving social mission organizations with integrated technology services you can trust.

Once upon a time Salesforce was little known in the nonprofit world.  It was primarily used as a customer relationship management tool by businesses.  Now according to the Salesforce Foundation website, “more than 14,000 nonprofit and higher educational institutions are transforming their organizations using Salesforce CRM.”  The foundation calls its “integrated philanthropic approach the 1/1/1 model, which leverages salesforce.com’s people, technology and resources to build collective knowledge and enable action to improve communities throughout the world.”

Nonprofits are eligible to receive 10 free Enterprise Edition licenses, which makes it especially attractive for small nonprofits.  The Salesforce for Nonprofits site explains how nonprofits can use it for managing relationships with constituents, team collaboration, and donation and grants management.  It’s free and easy for nonprofits to get started, but the real cost is in customization of Salesforce for the specific needs of the particular organization. That’s where we come in.

Raymond Hearn, Senior Consultant at Community IT Innovators (CITI), explains, “We specialize in helping nonprofits implement Salesforce as one aspect of a strategic relationship with their IT service provider. That relationship often encompasses comprehensive IT planning, outsourced CIO, software selection, and network infrastructure support. In the course of delivering this broad range of services we get to know our clients inside out. And when Salesforce is a good fit for their needs, we put that knowledge to work to implement a system that fits their organization’s business processes.”

One example of this type of relationship is Hearn’s work with longtime CITI client Ayuda, an organization that protects the rights of low-income immigrants in the DC metropolitan area. He helped them shift from managing their data in spreadsheets to managing their data in Salesforce.

Irfana Anwer, Ayuda’s Director of Community Legal Interpreter Bank, explains, “We had the choice of either buying a database or migrating to Salesforce. Since there is no monthly fee or annual fee, it was a cost effective way for us to go. We got the free Salesforce licenses for nonprofits. CITI helped us to migrate data we were storing in excel spreadsheets to Salesforce. They also helped us to customize Salesforce, so it feels like it was made for us. Raymond Hearn also trained our staff on how we can use Salesforce. It has also been a great resource in terms of generating reports for funders.”

If your organization is thinking about migrating to Salesforce, feel free to contact us at (202) 449-6714 or email me at rkothari[at]citidc.com to schedule a meeting to discuss how we may be able to help you.

Guest Blogger Brian Pickett works as a Senior Consultant at Jackson River. He works with nonprofit organizations on all aspects of adopting, customizing, training and supporting Salesforce.com. His past experience as Development Manager at an international humanitarian organization informs his 14+ years with CRM, Marketing and Fundraising technology to provide strategic solutions that move missions forward.
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We started Forcify.me with the goal to become a valuable resource for non-profits, providing the types of training videos that can supplement, and in some cases replace, instructor-led training which may not be focused on how nonprofits use Salesforce.

Nonprofits speak a different language. Volunteers, Donors, Appeals, Petitiions, Soft Credits are terms you won’t find in the a standard Salesforce training but are core to the Nonprofit Starter Pack (NPSP). In our experience with our clients, we noticed that they weren’t necessarily getting as much as they could out of Administrator trainings because of confusion around object naming conventions and differences in business processes.

So we created Forcify.me as a video training resource designed to help nonprofits further their mission by knowing how to customize and use Salesforce and the NPSP. So far 300 organizations have signed up for training on basic topics like “Manage Donations in Salesforce” and “Basic Salesforce Reporting for Nonprofits” as well as more advanced topics such as “Creating Formula Fields” and “Working with Custom Objects.” The videos are tailored to common Nonprofit use cases and the NPSP.

Judging by the feedback, we’re on the right track.

“Forcify.me is one of the best online training and learning tools for Salesforce I’ve found. The videos are easily searchable, and a better range of topics is offered than some other sites I’ve visited. The videos are clear, thorough, and help my organization learn more about Salesforce.”
- Jodi Elliott, Technology and Digital Media Manager, Auburn Seminary

Upcoming videos will cover household donations, managing contacts from donor organizations and new features being released as part of the Summer’12 Salesforce upgrade. Through 2012, nonprofits can register for free at www.forcify.me.

About Forcify.me
Forcify.me, a Jackson River initiative, is a Salesforce video training series for nonprofits. Jackson River is a Salesforce.com, Drupal CMS and ExactTarget consulting firm that specializes in working with nonprofit organizations.

Guest Blogger Tim Forbes, Vice President of Products and Marketing at PICnet, orchestrates the ongoing development of PICnet’s web solutions and gets the word out on how they can make nonprofits more efficient and effective. In this blog post, he shares how they helped the Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington  integrate Salesforce with their website.
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Short and sweet, baby. That’s what we aim to keep this little guest post. We at PICnet are nothing if not focused on helping nonprofits be as efficient and effective as possible. We know your time is valuable. That’s why we build powerful web solutions so nonprofits can get the most out of that valuable time to meet their missions.

That was the goal when we teamed up with the good folks at the Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington – to integrate their Salesforce instance with their website to make them more efficient and effective in building an alliance of nonprofits to solve problems that no one organization can solve alone.

Let’s hit the top ten ways that the Nonprofit Roundtable’s site does that – all through integrating their Salesforce instance with our Non-Profit Soapbox content management system.

1. Receive donations with real-time Salesforce integration
Money is kind of important. Keeps the lights on. Keeps salaries paid. Keeps the mission moving. With their Non-Profit Soapbox site, the Roundtable can receive donations online without the donor ever leaving their site – and that donation information gets automatically pushed into Salesforce in real-time for easy tracking and fast reporting.

Curious to learn more? Watch how it all works for a 3 foot tall inflatable penguin nonprofit accidental techie:

Soapbox Engage: Secure online donations with real time Salesforce.com integration

2. Receive member dues with real-time Salesforce integration
As goes donations, so goes member dues. Non-profit members can swipe their credit cards online to become members or to keep their memberships current – all from the Roundtable’s site and all with the payment information automatically sent to Salesforce in real-time.

3. Event management with real-time Salesforce integration
The Roundtable offers some fantastic events for their members. With their new site, they can easily manage those events, display them in different areas of their site filtered by different audiences, show them in a calendar view, offer discounted member-only pricing, take free or paid reservations, and much more – again, with those reservations automatically posting to Salesforce in real-time.

4. Online application process
Gone is the downloadable document filled out by prospective members and sent back for manual entry by Roundtable staff. Now nonprofits provide information online and that information is automatically – you guessed it! – posted to Saleforce in real-time for easy processing. Take a moment to check out their online application form. They’ve even got a handy one for Affiliate Members from the business community that takes their information and processes payment all in one step.

5. Searchable membership directories
Integrations between Salesforce and Non-Profit Soapbox are about more than pushing data to Salesforce. Soapbox can grab data from Salesforce and display it on a website – all formatted to look like the website and in a way that allows visitors to search to their heart’s content. That suited the Roundtable down to the ground, allowing them to provide searchable directories of their members that display Salesforce data in real-time. Check out their Roundtable, Northern Virginia, Montgomery County, and Affiliate members- complete with organization logos and Twitter and Facebook links all included through the Salesforce integration tools.

6. Password-protected accounts for self-service membership management
Why update your Salesforce account when members can do that themselves, thought the Roundtable. We agreed – and setup a password-protected members area that allows nonprofits to update the information appearing in their profile – again, all in real-time.

7. Dues payment history and membership status for members
Is a member curious about when their last dues payment was made or when their membership expiration date is? They can login to their account and see it all updated in real-time through the integrations with Salesforce.

8. Searchable map of members
For the visually-inclinded among us, you might dig the map of the 300 Roundtable members that runs on Google Maps technology and populates by an easy one-two process of downloading Salesforce data and slurping it up into Soapbox through a CSV file.

9. Multiple landing pages with eye-catching slideshows and targeted content
How do you take one organization’s website and allow it to speak to three different communities? You work with a flexible content management system like Non-Profit Soapbox that can point three different domains to three different landing pages that offer eye-catching content for those three unique audiences. Check out the main Roundtable landing page, the Northern Virginia landing page, and the Montgomery County landing page. From there, the Salesforce integration is set to filter data based on those different website sections to provide a unique experience for each community – all tied to the same underlying Salesforce data.

10. Ability to expand integration as needs evolve: Job postings
With a tool as powerful as Salesforce and integrations as flexible as Soapbox, the Roundtable has bunches and bunches of ways their site can grow and evolve over time to meet the needs of their staff and members. The latest will be to offer a job board that nonprofits can post to and visitors can seach – all powered by Salesforce and working seamlessly in their site.

Future integrations: Email marketing from Salesforce
We’re not stopping with this list of ten. We’re in the process of rolling out Soapbox Mailer for Salesforce to augment integrations with Salesforce. Email your donors, members, supporters, advocates, ex-girlfriends, future boyfriends, foreign dignitaries, the entire state of Texas, people named Bob – whomever you want – directly within Salesforce for less.

How much less? Try 10¢ for every 1,000 emails with a monthly subscription fee. All coming very soon.

For more information
Interested in integrating your website with Salesforce or learning more about Soapbox Mailer for Salesforce? Let us know! We can help you out even if you’re not looking to move off your current website with Soapbox Engage.

We may have jumped the gun a little by discussing what systems to migrate, but now we are going to ask and answer the question of How to Migrate. Migrating to a cloud based application or service is different from installing some software or server in your office. It is imperative to read and understand the legal agreement that you are signing which governs the business and service relationship you are establishing. Cloud service providers are looking out for their best interests in these agreements and you should too. Here are some typical questions that should be answered as part of evaluating a new solution:

• Who owns the data?
• How can data move into and out of this system?
• What happens to my data if we close our account?
• What format can data be retrieved in?
• How much uptime can I expect?
• Do you offer service credits if there is a problem with your service?
• What type of support is provided?

The list can go on and on. The cloud is a great resource because we don’t have to worry if the server is running out of space, or is out of warranty. Unfortunately these concerns are replaced with questions surrounding up-time, availability and data portability. Google has a great resource in their Data Liberation Project.

Once you are satisfied that you know, understand and are happy with the terms of service provided by your solution vendor, it’s time to migrate. Another benefit of the cloud is that often you can get free 30 day trials of any service. These 30 days are a great opportunity to fully test a system to see if it truly will meet all of your expectations and uncover some areas that will require changes from your current solution. During this trial period it is also key that the executive level at the organization is in support of any proposed change.

While Google Apps may be what your younger staff are clamoring for, unless the executives embrace Google’s webcentric and tag based approach to managing email, it will be difficult to fully leverage all of the features that are available. If your trial is successful the next step is to pick a date for the migration and make the jump. While it may be appealing to have a phased migration, we’ve seen that there is little to gain and much to lose from that approach. Apart from the technical challenges having staff work in multiple platforms will slow down the learning and adoption of the new.

Now that you’ve finally made the big switch to your new email/CRM/file system the hard work is over, right? Well, if it was only that simple. You’ll likely need to have some ongoing support and depending on the agreement you signed, you may be entitled to web, email or phone support. While it may be compelling to go with the lowest cost option, I’ve found that paying for support is well worth it after having spent several days trying to get a response using web based forums. As with any IT system, you’ll need an expert to help resolve the problems that inevitably arise and to use the system to its fullest. Identifying and planning for that role ahead of time will make everyone feel a lot better.

The promise of the cloud is that you don’t have to worry about servers anymore. The reality of the cloud is that you have a lot of other things to think about. Just because your data is in the cloud, doesn’t mean you don’t have to think about it anymore. You have to think differently about it. That may mean critically evaluating your IT staffing to make sure that the skills you have on-staff match up with your new requirements. Instead of needing hard computer repair skills you may need soft effective use skills. Instead of server admin skills you may need information systems management and contracting skills.

The promise and shift of data to the cloud is very exciting because now we can focus more attention on how data is being used instead of making sure that the underlying systems are available. If we’re able to understand our business processes and find better ways to use technology to support our mission we’ll all be better for it.

The cloud, the cloud, the cloud. It seems that you can’t open up a web browser or go to a conference without being inundated with advertisements and enticements for how the cloud can solve all of your IT problems. The challenge seems to be clarifying exactly what this so called cloud is and how it can help our organization operate more effectively and deliver services more efficiently. At its core the “cloud” is a scalable architecture that allows data to be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection.

Having that basic definition in mind, it’s important to recognize that the cloud, or perhaps more accurately cloud services, is just another IT resource. There are certain obvious benefits that the cloud can provide: scalability, high availability and low recurring pricing. On the other hand there are also some downsides to moving to the cloud: vendor lock in, complex terms of service and unexpected additional costs.

While it may be tempting to move to the cloud because of your free 10 Salesforce licenses or free Google Apps account, it’s critical to answer the question– Why migrate? The simple answer may be that your email server is crashing every week and you need something more reliable. The motivation may be sparked by a desire to collaborate more efficiently with partner organizations on documents or perhaps a new business continuity requirement from your organization’s Board. Once you have answered the question of Why migrate. The next step is to identify what systems to migrate.

If you have the space to plan out your IT and IS infrastructure the easiest systems to migrate to the cloud generally are in order of priority:

1. Websites
2. Test Environments
3. Email
4. Constituent Relationship Management (CRM)
5. Files/Collaboration

Our approach to moving systems to the cloud has been developed over many years of working in a wide range of network environments. Generally speaking smaller organizations can more quickly move their IT resources into the cloud than larger organizations with more developed business processes. That being said, each situation is unique and there may be specific reasons for why an IT system is setup in the manner that it is.

Websites
By this point I think that most organizations have made the decision to put their website on a server that isn’t in their office. The desire to save a few dollars/month to self-host is appealing, however the performance and reliability from a basic cloud web host are well worth the minimal investment. For those organizations with a more significant web presence, integrated web hosting from Convio, Salesforce and Google provide scalability and integration that simply aren’t available to organizations looking to do it themselves.

Test Environments
At CITI we perhaps have the unique need to create and build many test environments. While we used to do a lot of work in our own internal lab, we’ve slowly made the transition to building most of our test environments in Amazon’s Cloud. Using Amazon we have a scale that would be cost prohibitive to build on our own. Using Amazon’s Cloud we can also take advantage of prebuilt applications and appliances. Because Amazon’s Cloud is a utility model, we only pay for what we use. If we need 10 servers for 1 hour, that’s all we pay for.

Email
Moving beyond the externally facing web and test environments that are well suited to the cloud we email. Email is a great example of an application that is well suited to live in the cloud. There are a lot of tools and utilities available to move email in and out of systems which helps make a quick migration, but also helps avoid getting locked into a vendor (whether you’re paying for service or not). One of the other primary benefits gained from moving email to the cloud is the improvement in backup, and business continuity. While you’re in house mail server may have been up for the past year, you can count yourself lucky. Most cloud based email systems will give you a 99.9% uptime guarantee. You could build your own system to provide that same level of performance, but would have to spend much, much more than buying that service from Google Apps or Office 365.

Constituent Relationship Management (CRM)
CRM solutions are also prime candidates to move to the cloud. Over the past several years, improvements in these systems give end users a robust experience, often without installing any software. Implementing or migrating to a new CRM is a complex process and shouldn’t be taken lightly. These systems contain the vital information assets of your organization so deliberate planning and implementation is key. The initial price of a system may be appealing, but like an iceberg the true cost is often hidden. When evaluating systems take a 5 year look at the direct costs associated with the software purchase & maintenance, then start to add it indirect costs like internet upgrades, backup & data retention services, add-on apps, training and staffing. CRM systems can fundamentally transform how your organization works, so careful planning and ownership is critical.

Files/Collaboration
At first glance, files may seem like an easy asset to move to the cloud. In some specific cases it is the perfect fit. Smaller organizations (say under 5) who use only office documents can benefit greatly by solutions like Box, Office 365, Google Drive, etc. Larger organizations or those with larger files (mostly Adobe) can have a frustrating experience due to challenges syncing data or applying and updating security permissions. The cloud can also present some data management challenges as staff have yet another place to put their information. Instead of checking their desktop, the file server and a thumb drive you now have to add another or multiple cloud solutions that can store and manage data.

I and many other eager listeners attended the session at the recent Nonprofit Technology Conference in San Francisco where Blackbaud Senior VP of Products and Marketing, Jana Eggers, addressed questions about the likely acquisition of Convio by Blackbaud, pending the Department of Justice Review. It was an interesting dance, as she could only address certain questions  because of the ongoing due diligence by DOJ.

I was observing the session from the perspective of someone who runs a company that helps nonprofits select donor databases and other software, among other services. Many of our clients use Blackbaud and Convio products and are watching the potential merger with trepidation. Here are the most interesting things I observed at the session.

1. Rumors about an “exodus” of Convio staff

Jana quickly quashed this comment by saying that from the numbers she sees regularly there is no exodus. Two observations to the contrary, though:

• This interesting comment in an email from Gene Austin, CEO of Convio, sent on April 11: “There have been some changes in personnel that you would expect in any transition such as this, but I am happy to report that the new employees that have joined us are outstanding and ramping quickly. In the unfortunate instance where someone on your account team has left Convio, we have done our best to respond immediately and assign replacements so your level of support is uncompromised.”
• Two large associations that use Convio products indicated that more than one member of their Convio support teams had left in recent months.

2. Questions about the impact on Convio’s products

Jana said that Blackbaud supports something like 19 platforms, several of which have been acquisitions, and so they’re experienced at integrating new platforms into their suite of offerings.  She said they have always continued to provide support to customers using products, even if they don’t continue developing additional versions of the products. To be clear, I heard no indication that they would stop developing the Convio suite of products.

3. Plans and contingency plans

So what happens if Convio support staff are leaving and continue to leave?  Jana implied that select Blackbaud staff could be assigned to provide additional support and would ramp up quickly. While she said Blackbaud can’t publish detailed integration and contingency plans until after the DOJ review is complete, she said they will do so as soon as they can.  Still, it begs the question…

4. What impact might this have on Blackbaud’s support for existing products?

If top Blackbaud staff are reassigned to augment a Convio support team in transition, what happens to the quality of support for other Blackbaud products?  There’s just no great way one could respond to that. The only question in my mind is how much it would be noticed by existing Blackbaud customers – a little or a lot?

5. New Blackbaud openness?

Blackbaud has historically had the reputation for making it difficult for third-party vendors to work on their products, and charging a lot to nonprofits simply to gain access to the API for products like Raiser’s Edge.  This doesn’t play well in an increasingly cloud-based world that values openness and interoperability.  Jana indicated that Blackbaud has struck a new strategy/attitude about this in the past year.  Convio’s products have taken a more “open and accessible” approach, especially those using the Salesforce.com platform (note: CITI is a Salesforce.com partner). It will be interesting to see whether this acquisition indicates further movement toward a new openness by Blackbaud, or whether it will ultimately result in a clash of cultures and strategies.

We recently received an email from one of our nonprofit clients asking for suggestions for finding funding for their technology projects.  They said, “We’ve put together a comprehensive technology upgrade plan, including Google Apps, SalesForce, a new website, and hopefully new hardware. I thought I’d check to see if you knew of any funders out there that would potentially be interested in paying for this kind of work. We have a proposal pretty much ready to go, but we’d be able to move on it a lot faster if we could get funding for it.”

David Deal, CEO of Community IT Innovators, explains, “We believe organizations need to think about IT not as an extra one-time expense, but as an integral part of ongoing operating expenses to be included in every grant application (except with those funders who still have archaic requirements that exclude technology).”

This idea is reinforced in the article Tips for Funding Technology by TechSoup’s Bennett Grassano, who asks, “Technology plans are great, but how are you going to pay for all the new equipment, training, and staffing costs your plan requires?” Grassano provides the following ten tips to implement and sustain a technology strategy.

1. Build Strong Relationships with Funders
2. Incorporate Technology into Your Annual Strategic Plan
3. Focus on Your Mission and Your Programs, Not Technology for Technology’s Sake
4. Budget Technology Expenses as Shared Costs, Not Overhead
5. Target Technology Funders
6. Maximize Existing Resources
7. Use Local Community Technology Resources
8. Partner with Others for Joint Grant Proposals
9. Generate Unrestricted Revenue Where Possible
10. Spend Less on Software and Equipment

In addition to Grassano’s tips, I did some research and also shared the question with the NTEN & Progressive Exchange communities.  One person suggested doing research at the Foundation Center for foundations that fund technology projects.  I went on their website and asked about technology funding resources through their live online support. They said, “This database lets nonprofits search our comprehensive list of grantmakers, and you can limit the results by using terms that describe their programs. The database is available for a monthly fee used from home or from work, but it is free to use at any of our libraries.” This may be a good option for researching foundations that can fund specific technology projects. Sometimes grants for capacity building can be used for technology projects.

For Salesforce projects, Taproot Foundation offers a Salesforce Database Grant, which delivers a new or upgraded Salesforce database to serve as a crm (constituent relationship management) system to support the work with donors and partners.  According to their website, they talk to internal stakeholders to do a needs assessment, design a customized database on the Salesforce platform, migrate the data into the database, and train the organization’s staff to use it effectively.  The Salesforce Foundation also offers pro-bono services. Their website says, “Salesforce.com employees, customers and other champions are committed to applying their skills to help nonprofits deepen their use of Salesforce.com. Once you have been approved for the license donation program and have a live instance of Salesforce (not a trial), to secure a volunteer that is the best fit for your organization please fill out this project scoping questionnaire.”

Depending on what issues your organization focuses on, here are a few other foundations that might be worth checking out–Verizon Foundation, Cisco Grants and Michael & Susan Dell Foundation.

For website related grants, you can look into Elevation Web’s 1 for 1 match for nonprofits. “For each dollar your non-profit spends on web design, programming, or other media related work, we will match that dollar with a dollar of our own. In 2011 Elevation allocated approximately $450,000 worth of assistance to 125 non-profit organizations. Our clients received the highest quality web design, programming, and other media solutions (some of which they would not have been able to attain without the match). In 2012 Elevation will match dollar for dollar up to $500,000.  Funds will be allocated on a first come, first served basis,” according to their website.

These resources may provide some leads in creating a technology funding plan that integrates with your overall fundraising strategy.  However, the key to realizing your organization’s tech dreams is shifting from thinking about technology as its own silo that needs to be funded separately to technology as an essential component in every project.  The person handling IT in your organization needs to be at the table when project proposals are being developed.  The challenge is effectively budgeting for your IT needs and integrating them in project proposals.
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Share your story.  How has your organization turned your technology dreams into reality?  What are some of the challenges you faced?

Panel Plenary on Innovation

“A rock star panel that eats innovation for breakfast.” I’m not sure what that actually means exactly…we’ll see.

We shouldn’t confuse innovation with iteration. What example could we use…oh, how about Apple? I hadn’t thought of that before. Change will not always be innovation. Just look at the Nano.

Lack of innovation is due to lack funders who are willing to support innovation, and the aversion to failure in the sector.  That makes a lot of sense to me…we shouldn’t keep blaming non-profits for limitations imposed by funders.

NPOs need to start aligning your revenue with the service you deliver.

Is the 501c3 model dead? Maybe…the panelist who actually works in a non profit really pointed the finger at funders, and also identified barriers to scaling as a problem.

“One person cannot change the world alone. A strong team is always more powerful than a strong individual.”

Managing Mobile Devices #12NTCManMobile

Salon format with open discussion. Fairly even distribution of 40 staff between BYOD and Org provided.

Only a handful of attendees have started to investigate MDM solutions, much less use them.

Policy
Not many people have a full fledged mobile device policy. It’s more complicated than you think. What are some elements?

• Remote wipe authorization (can wipe SD card)
• Social media use
• App approval and reimbursement
• Accessories, are they covered?
• Upgrade frequency
• IRS regulations on personal calls
• Wifi access

MDM Tools

• Good
• Sybase
• AirWatch
• MobileIron
• Tangoe
• BES
• MaaS 360 by FiberLink

Other Mobile-Like Risks

• Dropbox
• Email yourself documents
• VPN

Tidbits :
One admin has put in a web filter to block outbound and inbound SSN and CC #s for PCI compliance
New Google Apps MDM tool supports both Android and iOS.
Blackberry Mobile Fusion is a new MDM that is supposed to leverage RIM’s MDM strengths for all devices.

Technology Governance #12NTCTechGov

Session posted at www.citidc.com/ntc2012.  Feedback from discussion:

• Strategic Alignment needs to be 360 throughout the organization, not just between leadership and IT.
• Define and focus on the IT Director position as a critical element of the organizational structure

Overall it was a great conference!  Had a great time.

Dan Roam Plenary

We can solve our problems with picures. That was the basic message from “that guy who draws pictures on the back of napkins.” There honestly wasn’t much more to it than that. You can watch the recording if you are interested in hearing more.

Disaster Planning #12ntcdp

TechSoup has a resource at www.techsoup.org/toolkits/disasterplan

Increasingly disperse workforce means there is more to lose.

Broke into small groups and discussed DR planning. It is all over the place. Some orgs are in great shape. Quite a few are still using tape.

Zen and the Art of Workflow Development #12NTCZenwk

Data is fine, but where does it come from? You need to understand how it is collected and that’s where workflows come in.

Important to make a picture to see if understanding of the process is shared and aligned throughout the organization.

Protocols are important so that work is done consistently and in a streamlined and efficient manner.

Start with the concrete and build up. Starting with the 3 year strategic plan can be confusing and abstract. Start with what they know. Or maybe start with goals, said the next slide. Goals need to be kept in mind. Stay focused on the actual work that people are doing.

Tips for developing workflow diagrams

1. Doing “back of the napkin”, hand drawn workflow diagrams can be more approachable and engaging than a formalized Vision or Powerpoint diagrams.
2. Keep it simple and straightforward.
3. Stop thinking about the database and focus on the information and how it enters and flows through the organization.
4. Check out @LucidChart www.lucidchart.com
5. It must be a participatory process to have any value

IT Governance for Not-for-Profits #12NTCITGov

Business Strategy is the primary driver and, with compliance, guides IT Governance -> IT Strategy -> IT Projects -> Infrastructure <- Risk Management

Be careful not to overdo it when bringing in IT Governance concepts from the corporate world, it could be overkill. But RACI planning is important.

Is IT a priority for the organization? If so, are they willing to put their money where their mouth is. It really boils down to the investment.

Who is responsible for achieving alignment? Everyone. Ultimately the ED/CEO, but its on IT to educate and emphasize.

Define IT Performance by

• Availability (SLA, measure against performance) – when I need it
• Accessibility – where I need it
• Functionality: comprised of Accuracy, Integrity, Usability & Responsiveness
• Security (compliance, SOC, SSAE-16)

“As IT evolves the key differentiator for a good IT Dept will be helping staff use the technology better.”

Tidbit: Google Apps 99.999 includes maintenance windows, Office 365 excludes it.

100% real time blogging straight from the Kindle Fire.