Copyright American Society of Association Executives Nov 2004| [Headnote] |
| Ten ways to make better use of technology. |
ONE OF THE GREAT STRENGTHS OF A small nonprofit organization is the agility that it can exercise. Often such enterprises are more nimble and less bureaucratic, and they are supported by members who actively appreciate the efforts of the organization. Add to that the advent of the Internet and ever decreasing costs of personal computers, software, and services, and you have small-staff organizations that can now compete effectively with larger organizations on a global scale. As technology becomes more accessible, those of us who work on smaller staffs can offer more exciting and innovative services for our members and explore new revenue sources while reducing our operational expenses.
Many organizations, however, struggle to keep up with this technology. Balancing the implementation of new capabilities and the maintenance of existing systems is a challenge for any organization, and particularly so for smaller organizations without dedicated information technology (IT) staff resources. At the same time, smaller groups sometimes have advantages over larger ones. For example:
* Because small-staff associations often have to plan more effectively, they usually evaluate all expenditures thoroughly and implement approved projects with care.
* In the more collaborative work environment typical of a smaller staff association, the focus is usually more results-oriented. As such, it is easier to implement change than in a larger, more process-oriented culture.
Regardless of these advantages, many small organizations are disadvantaged by their lack of dedicated IT resources and their inability to hire multiple people who are specialists. In light of that, here are 10 actions that small-staff associations can take to more effectively manage and use technology within their organizations.
1. Share the wealth. If your organization is located in the same building with other small companies or associations, determine whether their management teams are interested in sharing IT staff or other resources. Perhaps the organizations can join together to contract with a support vendor that could assign a full-time technology professional to the building to provide support for all of the participating organizations. In this type of arrangement, groups must carefully manage the use of this resource so that one organization doesn't dominate the person's time to the exclusion of others. Some organizations use a set-schedule approach to avoid this problem, with the support person working for certain organizations on designated days while being available to the others for technology emergencies.
Similarly, by working together, multiple small organizations can share otherwise prohibitively expensive resources, such as a dedicated T-1 Internet connection and firewall or a corporate-quality e-mail system. By sharing the expenses, all organizations can often upgrade their capabilities.
2. Share space. Another option that some organizations consider is allowing a small or start-up technical support company to co-locate in the association's offices. You may he able to negotiate an arrangement in which a technician supports your organization for a fraction of the clay or week but works from your office to support other clients that are in the neighborhood. Existing support companies can benefit, too, by being able to market that they have a satellite office near other prospects. As with any business arrangement, document the terms of the agreement. And outline the working relationship, the distribution of costs, and any service-level agreements.
3. Get in front of the eight ball. Many organizations-regardless of size-spend an inordinate amount of time putting out fires rather than addressing the source of the problem. Ongoing problems associated with viruses and hackers provide a good example of this. If an organization keeps the workstations up to date with security patches and has a good firewall, appropriate backup process, and a good antivirus system, most of these issues can be avoided. However, setting up these measures takes time and expertise that many small nonprofit organizations feel that they cannot afford. Keep in mind, however, that recovering from one malicious virus or having your Web site compromised will cost your association far more than protective strategies would. Consider these preventive measures:
* Review established systems periodically. Don't take existing systems and measures for granted. Small failures can be catastrophic and difficult to recover from. As a result of a virus, for instance, many organizations find out too late that their backup processes are incomplete or do not work altogether, which complicates the recovery process significantly. The best technical support company can do little to help you recover from a virus or hacking attack if you don't have good backups.
* Invest in a comprehensive system review and implement reasonable measures to address these issues. Many of these systems can be implemented incrementally, and fortunately the costs of these preventive measures are generally not excessive. The costs to recover from problems that arise usually are.
* Develop a clear policy on appropriate use of your computer resources. Most viruses and hacking exploits are unintentionally initiated by a staff person downloading or installing software as the result of pop-ups from Web sites, file-sharing systems, or infected e-mails that they receive and open. Consequently, restrictions and guidelines relating to these potential hazards need to be outlined and repeatedly communicated so that staff realizes the risks and potential costs to the system. For some examples of computer-use policies that you can modify and adopt for your organization, go to the Techno Prophet Web site at www.technoprophet.org.
4. Get real. One of the biggest contributors to poorly implemented projects and excessive expenditures is the tendency to be overly ambitious with your requirements. We often select systems based on what we might want to do one day, not what we need to do today. It is easy to get distracted by what's possible to the detriment of what's required. These extra blue-sky requirements will often exclude other solutions that may be better fits for the organization and generally drive up initial costs. For example, at the International Life Sciences Institute, Washington, D.C., we recently implemented a complete off-the-shelf association management system for less than we paid for the data conversion of our last system. We were able to do this by sticking to the basic functionality that we required and not adding expensive customizations that we may or may not need.
Obviously, the implementation of more complex projects is usually more complicated, and many organizations never end up using some, if not most, of the additional features. Vendors will rarely say, "I don't think you will need that," so it's up to you to consider these issues carefully.
5. Consider the amazing one-man band. When looking to replace or buy new printers, scanners, or fax machines, consider purchasing or leasing a multifunction device that does all of the above. These machines generally cost a little more than a single function device but less than the total price of all the individual items.
Also consider your usage carefully-you may discover that it's more economical to buy two or three home-office quality devices instead of one more expensive high-volume unit. As an example, if your office has only a couple of staff people, you may discover that it is actually cheaper to buy basic personal printers for each person than a network-ready, high-volume printer.
6. Find less-sophisticated alternatives. Due to integration problems, many organizations struggle with making online resources available to their members. Ideally, an e-commerce application such as an online bookstore will represent inventory as it is maintained in your association management system or customer relationship management system. Orders are then transmitted to the AMS for processing and fulfillment. However, depending on your system, this integration can be expensive or require technical resources that are unavailable. As a result, many organizations choose not to provide these capabilities at all.
Instead of limiting member benefits or creating new selling opportunities, you would be wise to consider other nonintegrated, third-party resources. Many scrvice-bureau-style companies now provide services such as online registration, product order and fulfillment, exhibit management, membership directory, and so forth. These services usually offer both the ability to export the transactions easily and (airly sophisticated reporting capabilities that you can use to manage these activities. Most provide easy data-import capabilities or services to get the initial system populated, and then, depending on your volume, you can maintain the systems in parallel by clearly documenting your update processes to include these systems. Again, in an ideal world the systems would be integrated, and as your volume increases, you may find you can later afford this-but it's usually better to have a nonintegrated system than no service at all.
The International Life Sciences Institute is doing this with our online registration process. We process the event registrations and use the system to run all of the reports necessary to manage our meetings. After a particular meeting is concluded, we will import the basic information about the registrants into the system, saving us time and money-and capturing this useful information.
7. Identify and develop staff experts. Helpdesk and application support are two areas in which smaller organizations specifically suffer by not having dedicated IT staffing. One solution that some associations employ is to identify staff that can be trained to be experts at the various applications in use. Each staff person volunteers for or is assigned an application to learn. One person becomes the Word expert, another Excel, someone else masters your AMS, and so forth. This might also include areas such as your Web site, telephone system, and any other technology solution that is used by most of the staff. When other staff members have questions about that particular program, they know who to ask. Not only does this provide broader support, but it also helps ensure that one technically savvy person doesn't spend all of his or her time helping other staff members with questions that they have on all the organization's equipment-a situation that would lead to the exclusion of the person's own work.
Additionally, take the time to find external resources that ran be used when the organization has a problem. The ASAE Technology section list-server is a perfect example. Hundreds of list members-association executives and associate members from technology and consulting firms-routinely post questions and answers relating to almost any application that you may be using. If you are concerned about the volume of e-mail that you may receive, consider subscribing temporarily: Post a question to the list, get responses, and then unsubscribe. Another option is to subscribe and then set up a rule in your e-mail to automatically move messages from the list to a separate folder. It's like having your own private help desk, and for ASAE members, there's no charge. (For more information on listservers, go to www.asaenet.org, and click on "Networking Opportunities.")
8. Get what you deserve. Many mainstream technology vendors offer discounts for nonprofit organizations, and specifically for 501(c)(3) organizations. These discounts can be significant, but the vendors do not always promote these discounts well. In particular, software resellers are not always aware of them, or in some cases are not authorized to offer them. For obvious reasons, they are not likely to suggest that you buy your items elsewhere to take advantage of vendor discounts. If you're dealing with smaller software vendors, try calling them and inquiring about the discount; they'll sometimes agree to an ad hoc discount of 10-20 percent.
9. Take baby steps. Many organizations make the mistake of trying to do too much at one time or tying too many pieces together into one project. When at all possible, try the following:
* Break your initiatives into separate independent projects and identify the ones that are prerequisites to others. It may make sense to then divvy up the work among different staff members or vendors, a system that can help productivity and performance. At minimum, if managed properly, this can reduce your risk and allow you to change your plans or cancel parts of your plan altogether without having the entire project fail.
* Make sure that you understand your timeline motivations and that others do as well. Typically, organizations ereate event-driven timelines, which can be dangerous. You decide, for example, that you want to implement a registration system and then work backwards from the date of your next meeting. Any delays in implementation generally will result in a compression of the necessary work closer and closer to the delivery date, often resulting in significant cost overruns or a less-than-ideal product. While you clearly need to be ready for future events, it's better to start early, give yourself ample time to do the necessary work, and then apply it to the next appropriate event.
10. Expand your support network. One of the keys to successfully managing technology is to know when to go from doing things on your own to understanding what other tools and resources are available to you. Regardless of your organization's size, you have no better resource than your peers in the association community. If in doubt, reach out via one of the ASAE listservers to see if there are others who have a similar challenge, know the answer to your questions, or would be interested in partnering with you on a technology venture. If you're the CEO or operations chief of a small shop, you may want to consider other forms of networking with technology specialists-join a users groups (composed of staff who have implemented a particular technology and benefit from swapping information and helping one another to learn applications), attend technology workshops and conferences, or simply read some of the many technology publications available in print or online.
Also, you will find lots of tips and tricks, sample policy and procedure documents, and general technology information for nonprofits on Techno Prophet at www.technopophet.org, a dynamic repository for information and news related to technology for nonprofit organizations and the people who work for them. The Web site is completely noncommercial and is maintained by association executives. Use it as a resource for the kinds of tools and information that will continue to help you streamline and leverage your technology for today and tomorrow.
Want more information on this topic? Check out the "Outtakes and Exclusives" and "Link to Learn" areas at www.amonline.org.
| [Sidebar] |
| It's easy to get distracted by what's possible to the detriment of what's required. |
| [Sidebar] |
| Checklist for the Tech-Challenged CEO |
| A friend of mine recently became the CEO of a nonprofit organization. She's a person who appreciates technology but is not a technologist, so the question came up as to what she-and other CEOs in similar circumstances-might need to know about information technology. For example, would you know what to do if your IT person had to take an unplanned leave of absence? Or if the technology company to which you outsource your technology support went belly up? |
| Based on these questions and others, I developed (with the help of ASAE Technology section listserver participants) a checklist of things that my friend could use to develop an understanding of the key elements of her organization's technology systems-and how she could hold things together during an emergency, while coming up with the necessary technology support to maintain the systems for the longer term. Learning the following details about your organization's technology will help you face an unexpected technology crisis with confidence and clarity. |
| * Accessing the system. Establish procedures for accessing administrative passwords. Many organizations document this information on paper, floppy disk, or CD-ROM and then secure the data in a locked cabinet in case of emergency. Access is extremely limited. An updated log of key personnel with administrative rights to the applications should be reviewed periodically, specifically when staff changes occur. Make sure records include access information for servers and applications such as accounting, human resources, association management, online training, Web management, and backup systems. |
| * Maintaining backup procedures. Ask yourself these questions: What are the association's backup procedures? What activity is backed up, how often, and how far back are archives kept? How often has the organization had to restore files, and what has been the success rate? Are tapes stored off site, and if so, how do you retrieve them if needed? |
| * Understanding minimum requirements. Be aware of the routine data- or system-maintenance procedures that must run to avoid system or application problems. Include such details as log-file deletion, database reindexing, and so forth. Know also the reports or statistics that are run on a regular basis and the staff people to whom they are delivered. Does the association provide any data to third parties from its database, and if so, how frequently, and under what circumstances? |
| * Gathering contact information. Document the contract numbers and contact phone numbers for all maintenance programs. Verify that contact names and numbers are on file for noncontracted support vendors for other hardware or services. Also document all of the renewal dates and contacts for key subscriptions or services (such as Internet connectivity, domain name renewal, or maintenance programs that automatically renew). |
| * Securing the systems. Answer the following questions: Do we have clearly documented rules regarding monitoring staff e-mails and other communication? How often has IT been asked to access staff information? Do we have protection against viruses and hackers? How are these maintained and updated? Do we have any remote access capabilities? If so, who has access and how confident are we that these methods are secure? Do we have a documented process for handling terminated employees or adding new employees? Do we have an inventory of all hardware and software, and if so, is it kept up to date? |
| * Establishing maintenance and purchasing responsibility. Know who is responsible for handling the various technology-related elements of your operation. For example, in some associations, the office manager is in charge of setting up new users in the phone system, but the IT staff is responsible for troubleshooting the problems that users may have with the phones. Understand the purchasing- approval procedures for new hardware, software, and so forth, as well as the purchasing cycles (how often equipment is replaced, and what's coming due for replacement in the next several months or years). |
| A particularly problematic area can be ergonomics. For example, if a staff person needs a keyboard wrist rest, people may think that the IT department is supposed to buy it, when it may actually be treated as an office supply or human resources issue. While this generally would not fall in the category of emergency-related IT needs, it is still something to clarify when reviewing your entire IT strategy. |
| By reviewing these details early in your tenure at an organization, you can avoid the sense of panic and confusion in the event of a sudden loss of technology support. |
| [Author Affiliation] |
| BY GEORGE BREEDEN, CAE |
| [Author Affiliation] |
| George Breeden, CAE, is director of management information services, International Life Sciences Institute, Washington, D.C. E-mail: gbreeden@ilsi.org. |
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