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

This is Part II of a two-part series on moving from a strategic planning to strategic management process. Rob Jackson is a Senior Consultant with Community IT Innovators.

Strategic management is a logical set of connected activities that enables the organization to make its strategy work. It is a process. It is not the result of a single decision or action. It is the result of a series of integrated decisions or actions that get measured over time.

For the purposes of this discussion, strategic management includes:

• Strategic planning
• Budgeting
• Performance management
• Strategic measurement
• Evaluation

Information Technology (IT) should have a role in all of these functions, and below we explain IT’s role in the strategic management process:

Strategic Planning
While IT professionals are not strategic planners, per se, IT professionals should be members of the strategic planning team and serve as technical resources during strategy formulation. Business strategies must be translated into short term operating objectives, data must be collected and aggregated for analysis against the plan, and eventually IT will be called upon to develop the systems that will institutionalize new attitudes and automate new patterns of behavior within the organization’s information systems.

Budgeting
To realize IT value, nonprofit organization should develop an IT budget with a three to four year horizon. It should include a list of all recurring IT costs related to Personnel, Contractors, Software, Hardware, Data and Telecommunications, as well as any re-occurring costs associated with maintaining the organizations IT portfolio.

The IT budget should be developed holistically with the expected funding levels from all departments, the organization’s calendar, the sequence of projects and respective timelines, and be mapped to the organization’s operational objectives. The organization’s leadership should look for common costs, reduce unnecessary expenses and work collaboratively with the IT staff to align the IT budget with the organization’s strategy.

Performance Measurement
From an IT perspective, performance measurement systems can provide a convenient and expedient method for organizations to summarize and report on critical measures for organizational success, but it is only a piece of the strategic management process. Performance management works to:

• Manage the implementation of agreed upon strategies
• Assess the performance of those strategies
• Reconcile inconsistencies and misalignments
• Formulate new and revised strategies

Strategic Measurement
Similarly, strategic measurement systems can facilitate the collection key performance data, but it is only a piece of the strategic management process. From an IT perspective, it differs from performance management because it:

• Continuously monitors the fit between the organization and the environment
• Tracks external trends and forces that are likely to affect the organization
• Develops information flows that shape internal and external communication
• Provides a clear vision for the type of organization the organization is striving to become
• Creates strategic agendas at various levels, and in all parts of the organization to ensure they become the driving force in all other decision making
• Guides the other management processes in an integrated manner to support and enhance these strategic agendas

Evaluation
From an evaluation perspective, IT must be involved in the process that identifies inputs and codifies all of the observable and measurable targets to ensure data quality. IT can also be used to help the organization track changes in value, condition and status regardless of the type of evaluation being employed.

In conclusion, the successful management of any organization’s strategy depends on the design, use and alignment of these functions to achieve the desired result. So, coordinating workflows, transferring relevant knowledge effectively from one part of the organization to another and achieving integration so as to meet organizational objectives are all ingredients for successful strategic management that can be achieved by using IT strategically.

Are you interested in how to better manage technology projects in your nonprofit or as a consultant to nonprofits? CITI is partnering with Aspiration to host the third Nonprofit Technology Project Management event in Washington on Wednesday and Thursday, July 22nd and 23rd, 2009. The first two events in New York and Oakland were big successes and very well received by participants.

Managing Nonprofit Technology Projects DC will examine the tools and best practices that help nonprofits achieve successful technology solutions – whether web sites, packaged software implementations, or custom applications.

Interactive sessions and demos will allow participants to compare processes, tools, successes, and lessons learned. We will discuss areas such as team collaboration, project planning, software selection, migration, and project roll-out, and map out the software tools – from project management packages to collaborative communication to issue tracking and more – that support successful technology projects.

Aspiration’s skill in facilitating practitioner knowledge combined with CITI’s experience in managing nonprofit technology projects will contribute to an informal, collaborative, and information-rich event.

Complete details are at

http://www.aspirationtech.org/events/mntp-dc

and you can register directly at

http://tinyurl.com/lsf53z

What’s On the Agenda?

The agenda will be designed specifically to ensure participants interact with and learn from each other, while also providing a solid grounding in essential topics. Some of the sessions will include:

• Anatomy of a Well-Managed Technology Project: Drawing from case studies good, bad and ugly, this session will focus on key aspects of successful project management.
• What Should a Web Site Cost? Using anecdotal data and participant input, we will explore costing for different types of web sites, from simple “brochure-ware” sites to custom, database-backed applications and points in between.
• Using Wikis for Effective Collaboration: This session will map out best practices and techniques for successfully utilizing wiki technology ((see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki) for project collaboration. Also discussed will be when not to use wikis, and when more structured information sharing tools are advisable.
• Managing Consultants and Dealing with Vendors: This peer sharing workshop will invite participants to compare their processes and tactics for managing critical project relationships that fall outside of organizational boundaries.
• Software Share: Basecamp, MS Project, DreamTeam and more – Nonpprofit practitioners will provide a variety of 10-15 minute software demos to allow participants to see the packages in real-life situations and compare the strengths and weaknesses.

See the full description of the event at

http://www.aspirationtech.org/events/mntp-dc

for more sessions. Or let us know what you’d like to talk about – the agenda will be designed collaboratively up to and during the event.

Who Should Come?

This event will focus on growing the community of nonprofit technology project managers by providing support to those currently practicing as project managers, recruiting and offering support to those new to (or bewildered by) this craft, and creating a space for the “accidental project managers” to share their stories, discover their allies, and grow into more “intentional” project managers. A significant part of the event will be built around mentoring relationships; experienced individuals with knowledge and stories to share will collaborate with participants who want to learn more.

What Are They Saying?

The feedback from the first two MNTP events was quite enthusiastic. Just a few of the comments included:

• “The event was very energizing, and renewed my enthusiasm for tackling some complex issues”
• “This gathering will inform everything I do in IT from here on.”
• “I used to be super intimidated – now I feel more empowered about what I do know and how to find answers to what I don’t”
• “It was a fun, casual, open, responsive learning environment for non-techies”
• “I learned that I’m not alone, and I can learn from a rich community of people facing similar challenges”
• “I was impressed with all that happened – it was amazing”

How Do I Get Involved?

Interested in hearing more? View the full description of the event online at http://www.aspirationtech.org/events/mntp-dc.

Ready to register? The 2-day event is $195 for those from organizations with budgets under $5,000,000, $295 for those from organizations with budgets over $5,000,000. We have a limited number sliding scale and scholarship seats available as well.

You can Register Online via check or credit card at http://tinyurl.com/lsf53z

Questions? Comments? Want to be added to a low-volume email list for event reminders and key dates? Have a burning desire to be there but just can’t afford it? Contact Aspiration at mntp@aspirationtech.org.

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