Archive

Each year, Community IT Innovators helps a variety of non-profits assess their business needs and select information systems to support those needs. We frequently find that though clients give a good deal of attention to what the software selection process will entail, they give very little attention (by comparison) to what the software implementation process will entail.
Orchestrating a successful software implementation requires developing and managing a number of moving parts and organizational qualities. In this post I focus on three fundamental aspects of a successful implementation: talent, time, and tenacity.

Community IT’s leadership team established a set of team and company Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) a few years ago. Pulling the data was tedious and time consuming. Managers had to run canned reports from our PSA (Professional Services Automation) system, or create complicated pivot tables from CSV exports or direct SQL connections. In addition to being time consuming, the end results were inaccurate and inconsistent.

Although SharePoint has been around for over a decade, it remains a mystery for many organizations. This may be due partly to its complexity, and partly to its varying reputation. As Office 365 continues to be heavily adopted as a hosted email solution, many nonprofits are starting to take a closer look at SharePoint as a collaboration tool and cloud-based file sharing solution. In this webinar Community IT CTO Matthew Eshlemen and Project Manager Steve Longenecker provide a basic introduction to SharePoint as a component of Office 365 and how it can be used by nonprofits.

Many nonprofits struggle to make their IT budget meet the requirements of their organization. We are able to help them do just that. InterConnection is a nonprofit and we help more than 120 other nonprofits get access to affordable laptops and desktops every month.

My last post reviewed options, migration steps, and requirements for moving to the cloud. In this post, I wanted to get a little more granular. While Google and Microsoft fiercely compete to provide the best cloud options to their clients and to nonprofits, there are some other elements to consider when you think it’s time for your organization to move to the cloud. We’ll look at some of the solutions offered with different platforms and develop an approach around migrating.

With the Surface Pro 3 coming out later this month and Microsoft’s claims that it’s “the tablet that can replace your laptop,” it’s worth giving the Surface another look. The Surface is a compelling option for your next laptop purchase – if you don’t mind a few compromises.

Cloud computing has fundamentally transformed the technology landscape, enabling nonprofits to gain access to powerful and robust systems that were previously out of reach. Although this topic can seem daunting, it’s worth the investment time and attention for anyone looking to advance the technical scope of their organization through improved IT systems and the best tools available in the market today. This guide will review cloud options, migration steps, and requirements for moving to the cloud.

At the Salesforce1 + Innovation Force event last week in Washington, D.C., Salesforce announced a major enhancement to its nonprofit offering. The enhancement is called Salesforce1 for Nonprofits, and brings program management, community engagement, marketing communications, and “fundraising” capabilities into its core offering for nonprofits. To understand the significance of this, we need to look back at the recent history of the Salesforce platform.

Community IT President Johan Hammerstrom will share best practices for creating an effective BYOD strategy in your organization. He will review examples and discuss their strengths and weaknesses in a FREE webinar June 26th from 4-5pm EST.
This will be a hands-on, practical session for nonprofit managers (tech or otherwise) who are interested in developing an effective BYOD (bring your own device) strategy for their organization. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to BYOD, and each attendee will walk away with a starting point for building their own.

I’d like to tell you about a Community IT client I have worked with for almost as long as I have worked at Community IT. Once or twice a week, for almost ten years, I have made four hour site visits to this downtown Silver Spring office to: – check-in with end users – solve computer problems – discuss IT budget and planning with the Executive Director – monitor server free disk space – monitor the network’s antivirus management console – and much, much more