In this webinar, Build Consulting expert Peter Mirus explains how to build a technology roadmap that will guide your organization to a successful future.
Peter draws on years of experience consulting with nonprofits on technology projects to give you practical steps to implement quickly.
Don’t miss this chance to learn how your organization can create a technology roadmap that is right for you.
As with all our webinars, this presentation is appropriate for an audience of varied IT experience.
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Webinar Recording and Slides
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6. Invested
Work exclusively with nonprofit
organizations; have served over 1,000.
Strategic
Help our clients make IT and IS decisions
that support mission.
Collaborative
Empower you to make informed choices.
33. DEFINE THE
CHANGE
IDENTIFY THE
IMPACTS
PREPARE FOR
IMPACTS
01 02 03
• Write it down
and be
specific
• Share and
gain
agreement
• Identify who is
impacted, in
what ways,
and how big
the impact is
• Activate
leadership
• Communicate
• Train and
support
TheBuildChangeManagementFramework
STARTIN
G
POINT
36. 36
Projectsare
launchedwithout
sufficientimpact
analysis.
Projects and Initiatives are launched with
sufficient analysis of capacity and change
readiness.
• Too many simultaneous or overlapping
operational improvement projects for
available resources
• Different initiatives that affect the same
stakeholder groups are not coordinated with
each other.
• Difficult for staff to know how prioritize
projects that compete for their time and
attention—overtaxing key resources
• As a result of the above challenges, there is
considerable change fatigue
39. 39
GoodNews
Staffareengagedinthe
processandinvestedinits
success.
• There is high rate of participation in
the budgeting and financial
management process from all levels of
staff.
• There is a clear understanding of the
need to make this process a success.
• A majority of stakeholders
communicated they understand the
benefits of making changes, and
desire to embrace what is necessary
to accomplish those changes. (Other
stakeholders are skeptical the
organization has the ability to
implement a successful change.)
40. 40
Lackoftrue
collaborationhas
inhibitedthecreation
ofefficientsystems&
processes
Siloes have deepened and voices have been muted
by lack of a collaborative approach to business
requirements and process definition.
• Lack of a collaborative approach on cross-
department initiatives
• Communications regarding policy and process
changes are sometimes lacking in clarity,
respect for the recipient’s dignity, or due
consideration of other demands being placed
on their time and/or emotional energies.
• Teams are working on rolling out new things to
the Country Offices without sufficient
coordination with other teams working on
related or overlapping efforts
57. VisionoftheFuture
We envision a future for The Client in which the organization leverages technology solutions that help staff treat
member and funder relationships as organizational assets…
With the goal of driving new and expanded relationships.
In this future, service to key consistent groups is so strong that it elevates the brand strength of The Client,
leading to greater mission fulfillment.
This future features the following characteristics.
57
1. Leadership that integrates information strategy into organizational strategy, and creates a culture of
accountability for proper business practices and information management
2. Operational resources that leverage best practices for information management, project management,
and change management to effectively deliver process, data and technology improvements
3. Business processes to support member and funder relationship management that are carefully governed,
designed, documented and understood
4. Data models that support the critical business processes and reporting needs of the organization
5. A smaller set of modern technology solutions that support the business processes necessary to serving
members, funders and other constituents at a high level
58. TheCaseforChange
Here’s why we believe The Client needs to embrace the change necessary to arrive at the future vision.
58
1. Technology adoption and effectiveness is low at The Client, compared to many other nonprofit
organizations. Organizations that spend on technology at The Client’s level typically have cultures that
understand the value of technology and have higher than average levels of technology adoption and
effectiveness. The Client is not seeing an equivalent return on investment.
2. There is considerable pain and confusion at The Client regarding the implementation of business process
within provided technology solutions. This is due to lack of process standardization, the high level of
complexity resulting from the number of solutions in use and performance challenges within those
systems, a perceived lack of communication and training regarding those solutions, and a lack of cultural
awareness and discipline in regards to good practices for data management.
3. Consequently, there are many inefficiencies in the manner in which The Client delivers services to
members and other key constituents
4. Significant opportunities to better fulfill the mission. We believe The Client can significantly enhance the
quality of service it offers to constituents by following the Path to the Future outlined on the previous slide
59. Avisionfor
improvementbased
onkeyorganizational
priorities&risks
7. Implement a Global Financial Planning Tool
3. Standardize Grant Management & Budgeting Functions
4. Define Funding Allocation Procedures
2. Establish Governance & Accountability
5. Execute Improvements to Intacct
6. Consult a Salesforce to Intacct Integration Expert
1. Quick Wins
RoadmapTracks
60. RoadmapTrackswithProjects
2.0
Establish Governance &
Accountability
7.0
Implement a Global
Planning & Analysis Tool
5.0
Execute Improvements
to Intacct
2.1 Leadership
Alignment &
Change Planning
Months 0 - 3 Months 4 - 6 Months 6 - 9 Months 9 - 12
3.0
Standardize Grant
Management & Budgeting Functions
4.0
Define Funding
Allocation Procedures
6.0
Consult a Salesforce to
Intacct Integration Expert
2.2 Define a governance
structure 2.3 Launch Committee, Train & communicate
7.1
Develop
Plan
5.1 Engage
an Intacct
Partner
5.2 Explore Enhancement
Opportunities
7.4 Configuration/
Testing
7.2 Business Requirements and
Solution Design
3.1 Review & Document
Grant Management
Policies and Procedures
3.2 Train Staff on
Policies & Procedures
5.4 Implement Changes in
Intacct
4.2 Train &
Communicate
4.1 Define Funding
Allocation Procedures
6.2
Resume
Dev
6.1 Evaluate Solution
Design for Integration
Readiness
7.6 Training7.5 Report
Development
5.3 Integrate
to Global
Planning
Tool
1.0
Quick Wins
1.2 Establish
Universal
Taxonomy &
Templates
1.3 Create
Workflow-
Supported
Budgeting Proc.
1.1 Select
a Global
Planning
System
61. 2.0 Establish Governance and Accountability
61
We feel that in order for The Client to be successful in its technology implementations, it first needs to address
inefficiencies in its operations and bridge department silos by creating a cross functional governance board. This
committee would be responsible for providing guidance and oversight on operational workflows that promote
the cultural values of The Client.
Process and Data Governance encompass the people, processes, and information technology required to create
consistent and proper execution of operational processes, handling of data and understanding of information
throughout. Building a decision-making body with representatives from each area of the organization will increase
communication, enable valuable inputs into the decision-making process, reduce confusion among staff and
reinforce accountability.
Responsibilities of this committee may include:
• Establish a quality framework of policies, processes, quality measures, information standards, and
requirements.
• Seek out program, process and technological improvements/innovations that will: foster improved data
quality and reporting, balance access to information with the need for security of data, and create consistency.
• Identify areas where existing practices require change or where new ones need to be developed to ensure
operational objectives are met.
• Drive organizational and behavioral change as it relates to policies and procedures.
• Define, develop and support the operation of an information systems management plan
62. 2.0 Establish Governance and Accountability
2.1 Leadership Alignment & Change Planning 2.2 Define a Governance Structure
Key Activities • Leadership Alignment Exercise
• Align this initiative with Organizational Values
• Define high-level organizational structure
• Map Current & Planned Initiatives and Impacts
Expected
Outcomes
• Leadership Alignment on Cultural Needs
• Leadership Alignment on Organizational
Structure and the role of the County Offices
• Unity in the timing of major change initiatives
releases (technical and non-technical)
• Change Plan
Expected Cost
Drivers
• 3rd Party Consulting support for facilitation and
documentation ~ 4 -6 hours / week for 8 weeks
Staff Involvement • Senior Leadership: 5 hours/week
• Project Team: 5 hours/week
Assumptions or
Notes
Key Activities • Create cross-functional governance committee
• Establish system and process ownership
• Monitor and maintain portfolio of active and
proposed projects
• Establish ownership and roles and responsibilities
for key systems, processes, etc.
Expected
Outcomes
• Increase collaboration and transparency across
disparate stakeholders
• Improved coordination of department projects
• Improve decision making on process, data and
system changes.
• Ability to receive input from a cross section of
stakeholders
Expected Cost
Drivers
• Consulting support to define the structure , its
responsibilities and members ~ 4 -6 hours / week
for 8 weeks
Staff Involvement
Level
• Steering Committee approx. 2 hours/month
• Committee members approx. 5 hours/week
Assumptions or
Notes
62
63. 2.3 Launch Committee, Train & Communicate
Key Activities • Develop & Execute Communication Plan
• Hold kick off meeting
• Organize & facilitate monthly meetings
• Receive support from leadership or consultant until
sustainment is achieved
• Train the organization
Expected Outcomes • Increased transparency into initiatives that span
multiple stakeholder groups
• Consistent reporting on status of projects
• More inclusive process of gathering business
requirements for process changes, technology
enhancements and system-generate reports
Expected Costs • Consulting support to help launch and reach
sustainment ~ 4 hours/week for 3 weeks
Staff Involvement
Level
• Executive Leaders: 2 hours/month
• Committee members: approx. 4 – 8 hours per
month
Assumptions or
Notes
• Develop & Execute Communication Plan
• Hold kick off meeting
• Organize & facilitate monthly meetings
• Receive support from leadership or consultant until
sustainment is achieved
2.0 Establish Governance and Accountability
63
64. RoadmapTrackswithProjects
2.0
Establish Governance &
Accountability
7.0
Implement a Global
Planning & Analysis Tool
5.0
Execute Improvements
to Intacct
2.1 Leadership
Alignment &
Change Planning
Months 0 - 3 Months 4 - 6 Months 6 - 9 Months 9 - 12
3.0
Standardize Grant
Management & Budgeting Functions
4.0
Define Funding
Allocation Procedures
6.0
Consult a Salesforce to
Intacct Integration Expert
2.2 Define a governance
structure 2.3 Launch Committee, Train & communicate
7.1
Develop
Plan
5.1 Engage
an Intacct
Partner
5.2 Explore Enhancement
Opportunities
7.4 Configuration/
Testing
7.2 Business Requirements and
Solution Design
3.1 Review & Document
Grant Management
Policies and Procedures
3.2 Train Staff on
Policies & Procedures
5.4 Implement Changes in
Intacct
4.2 Train &
Communicate
4.1 Define Funding
Allocation Procedures
6.2
Resume
Dev
6.1 Evaluate Solution
Design for Integration
Readiness
7.6 Training7.5 Report
Development
5.3 Integrate
to Global
Planning
Tool
1.0
Quick Wins
1.2 Establish
Universal
Taxonomy &
Templates
1.3 Create
Workflow-
Supported
Budgeting Proc.
1.1 Select
a Global
Planning
System
Welcome to the Community IT and Build Consulting webinar for February 2019 titled “Does Your Organization Need a Better Technology Roadmap?” Today I’ll be introducing some key concepts to inform your technology strategy and roadmap, focusing primarily on areas that often get overlooked, but if attended to properly dramatically increase your chances of success in seeing optimal return on your technology investments.
We had over 100 registrants for this webinar, with XX attending live, and 10 questions submitted which I will try to address in the course of this webinar – and I hope to leave a few minutes at the end for any additional questions. You’ll also have access to my personal contact information for any follow-ups you would like to send my way.
Before we get started on the webinar, here are a few housekeeping notes….
Join Steve Longenecker, Director of IT, and Johan Hammerstrom, President and CEO, for an in depth discussion on avoiding common pitfalls and getting the right level of service for your nonprofit.
My name is Peter Mirus, and I’m your presenter for this webinar.
20 years serving all manner of nonprofit organizations, ranging in size from small/local to enterprise/global, and across a wide variety of industry categories and mission orientations. Over the past 7 year, I’ve worked exclusively with nonprofit organizations.
I’ve worked with over 100 clients in both the nonprofit, government, and for-profit spaces.
I have three primary areas of expertise: marketing, constituent relationship management, and information strategy.
Now, a little bit about Community IT and Build Consulting.
We both work exclusively with nonprofit organizations to help them make information technology and information system decisions that support their mission.
We have a collaborative approach, empowering our clients to make informed choices for their organizations.
All our services are designed to help clients transform themselves to better serve constituents of all types, including funders, donors, program beneficiaries, staff, volunteers, board and committee members, and the general public.
Build’s analysis of industry statistics, combined with our observations of hundreds of organizations in the nonprofit sector, indicates the success rate for nonprofit technology projects is under 50%. Summaries of the relevant studies and their findings are available in one article on our website.
Build Consulting’s experience is that most nonprofit technology projects fail because of other factors than technology. What do we mean by that? Simply that in today’s market, nonprofits have access to a broad range of quality technology solutions. There’s a good (or at the least, good enough) solution for the vast majority of needs.
The challenge is often not the technology, but the fact that organizations do not first identify and make the organizational changes necessary to successfully select and implement new technology—or make significant improvements to the existing tech.
No, the challenges are largely cultural, orienting around leadership and governance, operational capacity, business process, and data modeling—and then technology. That’s why Build Consulting formulated its Information Strategy Framework™ to help clients explore these considerations. (See also our whitepaper: Build An Information Strategy for Your Organization.)
Yes, there are technological problems to be addressed, but as one study reported, “48.5% of executives said the problem was related to the people in the [organization], while 32% blamed processes, and 19.1% pointed the finger on technology.”
When good leadership is engaged and setting the tone for an initiative, it typically goes much more smoothly. Even seemingly small information management initiatives benefit when leadership participates.
Example: over 18 months of working on a major information management initiative, progress and success related directly to leadership’s commitment to participating and making key decisions at critical junctures.
Get the right people on the bus. Be sure to have good project planning and management, particularly time management. Be sure to communicate effectively with all of the audiences that need to be involved in the process: RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted, informed).
Case story: national nonprofit made sure to have the right people involved, sound project organization, and thorough communications – resulting in a successful multi-year technology roadmap.
Designing effective processes means more than just coming up with the best way to do something. It means developing sufficient documentation of the processes, and above all, executing the processes consistently. It is one thing to agree of a standard process while “in the conference room” – another to actually put it into practice at your desk.
Case story: national volunteer organizations defined its case management processes in such a way to make a clear information management roadmap and organizational change initiative truly effective.
Data must be consistently collected, well-organized, properly maintained, and USED! Organizations must do all of these things well in order to have an effective information management environment.
Case example: Hunger-focused organization improved its data management culture and practices to provide superior insights
Technology can be viewed as the simple answer to address problems with leadership, operations, processes, and data. For the most part, technology is supportive of how organizations behave. New technology will (for the most part) make up what is lacking n the other areas.
Success story: USAID-funded economic development organization chose technology that was truly reflective of their business needs and leveraged it effectively to create new opportunities.
The last two keys are largely dependent on the first three. If you don’t have good leadership, operations, and processes, success in data and technology management will be hampered.
I’m going to briefly talk about nine different keys to success: two regarding leadership, then six related to operations, and concluding with an extremely critical key to success that encompasses process, data, and technology. Following that, we should have plenty of time for questions!
Executive sponsors should provide visible participation and regular communication.
Assist with the prioritization of resources towards the effort, providing guidance and support, and ensuring accountability.
Particularly for major projects that require extensive reallocation of staff time to complete successfully, actively engaged executive sponsors may by itself be the difference between being successful with the project, and not. We frequently see nonprofit organizations start with strong executive interaction in the project, but that attention wanes over time. There is a strong correlation between losing executive focus on the project and project performance setbacks. If you’d like to read more on executives can best support technology projects, see the extensive post in our blog written by one of our partners David Deal, a lead strategist at Build, as well as an experienced CEO, nonprofit CIO, and nonprofit board member. This post could be an effective tool for getting the right buy-in and engagement from senior execs, who are more likely to absorb this message from someone that has been at their level within an organization then they are to absorb the same message from a director, manager, or staff member at a lower organizational level.
- Should be done as a collective effort, including all necessary stakeholders
Agree what purposeful actions during implementation will ensure benefits are realized and sustained once the project ends.
Develop clear structures and models for performance measurement
An example of a business benefit would be to achieve a 10% increase in sustaining members. Technology can help support this, particularly if it predicts which donors will become sustainers and helps automate the outreach campaign process. But technology alone will not address the issue. Purposeful actions during the implementation might include effective training of staff on how to use the features, and documenting new business processes to make sure they can be sustainably performed over time, including surviving potential employee turnover.
Experience is key: choose someone to lead the project that has already successfully performed a similar project in a similar situation (organization/environment).
Empowerment is critical: it is very difficult being an unempowered project director or manager, who stakeholders can feel free to ignore of disregard.
One of the primary challenges of successful time management at nonprofit orgs is that employee time is often not budgeted or tracked for other projects, resulting in the behavior that all staff time is considered infinitely flexible. As a consequence of this, staff are often given new responsibilities associated with the technology project, and managers do not take anything off their staff’s plates so they have the time available to commit to the effort. This results in many projects underperforming or failing outright, as well as morale problems and increased turnover during lengthy projects.
- Technology change always requires some sort of behavioral change. The practice of change management helps define the change that is coming, assesses its impact on the various roles within the organization, and help prepare those roles for the impact. Build Consulting has an change impact analysis “how to” tool and template in the Resources section of our website.
Effective change management, incorporates leadership alignment, communications, training, and support.
I’m currently working on a Salesforce Community-based client case management system that is being rolled to 10,000 volunteer mentors across over 300 chapters nationwide. In that scenario, leadership alignment includes not only the leadership at the national office, but also the regional vice presidents, district directors, and chapter leadership. Making sure those in leadership, at every level, are aligned to the business goals and performance metrics for the new system is critical. Communicating the phased timing of the roll-out as well as value propositions for the new system across the entire volunteership is critical. Training all expected users in the new system is of course highly important, as is planning for and delivering help desk support to all of the users. These things—leadership alignment, communications, training, and support--need to be taken into consideration for all technology projects from the early stages regardless of project size, but of course the level of change management capacity needs to be scaled to the size of the effort and will be at its greatest scale for the largest and most complex projects.
So this is the framework. Now we are going to....
Risk assessments are particularly necessary for large or complex projects.
A good risk assessment assesses all of the potential challenges or “risks” for a project, including each one’s source, probability of occurring, and potential impact on project cost, schedule, or performance. It also introduces a mitigation or response plan for each risk. A risk assessment is not a “one and done proposition” – it must be revisited and updated to track the status of existing risks and to add new risks as they enter the picture.
One example of a typical risk is lack of stakeholder availability to participate based on conflicting priorities or events. Depending on the degree, this risk could have a high impact on project cost, schedule, and performance. A good example of how to mitigate such a risk would be to take steps to make sure team members are freed from responsibilities that conflict with progress on the project.
"Too many projects, not enough capacity for them."
"We need to be sitting down together to plan and coordinate introducing new functions."
Studies show that organizations that take an open and collaborative approach, focused in incremental design and implementation processes, show greater potential for success.
This is most commonly referred to as an “Agile” process. This style helps to keep all of the key stakeholders engaged throughout all the many critical decision and review/approval processes throughout a technology project, from the start of requirements discovery all the way through post-implementation phases. It also helps break down project complexities into bite-sized chunks.
One warning is appropriate here: it is important that when an vendor is selected to help implement a software system—and that vendor uses an Agile approach—that the vendor has the ability to be flexible when working with an organization that has never (or never successfully) been through a true Agile process. Introducing an Agile approach to an organization unused to working in that style can be a major culture clash that can cause projects to get bogged down or collapse entirely. For Agile projects, for example, it is very important that stakeholders are frequently available to participate in design reviews and user testing—sometimes on a weekly basis. This also means committing the necessary time to make business decisions within accelerated timeframes, compared to what the organization is accustomed to. So applying Agile principles in a way that will truly work for each organization is very important.
“As an organization, we have made it far too complex and easy to make errors.”
“[There is] obstructionism by certain staff members who hold too much information.”
Successful projects most frequently create a digital project collaboration environment that manages and socializes critical information related to the project. We prefer Teamwork Projects to tools like Basecamp, Asana, or MS Project.
But the key is to have a functional space that is universally adopted by all the key project participants, and in which folks can be on the same page in regards to milestones, tasks, agendas and notes, files, risks, links, and critical conversations – any information the project requires to be successful. The best way to make sure a tool like this remains in active use—with up-to-date information--throughout the entire project is to use the information in the system as a live point of reference within team meetings, and to drive performance reporting to stakeholders.
Technology projects, particularly large and complex projects, often require team members inside the organization to step into roles for which they are not fully equipped. The most successful projects take this into consideration and take steps to make sure the team members are provided with the professional skills development they require to be successful in those roles. Special emphasis should be given to planning, communication, teamwork, time management, and change/adaptation skills.
For one major project in which I am currently engaged, I have weekly professional development meetings with the Acting VP of Technology and the project coordinator, and ad hoc meetings towards the same purpose with other team members. The VP of Marketing and Strategy, who is the executive sponsor for the project, holds regular professional development meetings with other key project stakeholders. In this way, we collaborate to ensure that all team members have their heads-up when it comes to broadening their individual visions and equipping themselves with the perspective and skills they need to thrive in their project roles.
Both business and technical requirements.
Business requirement example: Ability to transfer a case record from one counselor to another within the same agency
Technical requirement example: Full data encryption, both in transit and at rest, for all counselor, client, and case data
Business and technical requirements should be carefully documented and prioritized. If the organization has a poor understanding of its current business processes and data, or processes are performed inconsistently, or data quality has been poorly managed, thorough business requirements can be very difficult to develop. Poor business requirements are one of the leading contributors to projects running over budget and over schedule, and are a leading cause of the wrong system being selected and implemented.
One of the reasons Build Consulting prefers to get involved with client technology projects during the early assessment and roadmap phase is because when we first get involved at the implementation phase, it often becomes apparent that the organization will need to back up and do requirements definition in a more deep or thorough manner before they can have a successful implementation. And when a vendor is engaged and the implementation is already moving, it can be very difficult and costly for the organization to push the pause button.
Software vendors frequently tell Build that our clients are better prepared to have successful software selections and implementations than any of their other nonprofit customers. It is common for us to hear feedback like “I’ve been working in this space for 15 years, and this is the best RFP we’ve ever received.” This is because our clients have already anticipated, wrestled with, and made important requirements decisions ahead of going into the selection and implementation efforts. This results in selecting software that matches the needs of the organization, and a much better mutual understanding between the nonprofit and the vendor about what it will take to successfully complete the projects – including a much more accurate projection of total cost.
No, the challenges are largely cultural, orienting around leadership and governance, operational capacity, business process, and data modeling—and then technology. That’s why Build Consulting formulated its Information Strategy Framework™ to help clients explore these considerations. (See also our whitepaper: Build An Information Strategy for Your Organization.)
Yes, there are technological problems to be addressed, but as one study reported, “48.5% of executives said the problem was related to the people in the [organization], while 32% blamed processes, and 19.1% pointed the finger on technology.”
The Roadmap in Year 1 is a combination of fixing well-known challenges to build greater staff confidence in the solutions and making investments in changing the way the organization collaborates and delivers on technology.
when this project originally started, it assumed Build would end and go away. But, we have now integrated you into project management for at least a transition period of time. When you refer to what Build will do in the later slides, we may want to distinguish what you would do in your PM role vs what we would buy new?
The Roadmap in Year 1 is a combination of fixing well-known challenges to build greater staff confidence in the solutions and making investments in changing the way the organization collaborates and delivers on technology.
when this project originally started, it assumed Build would end and go away. But, we have now integrated you into project management for at least a transition period of time. When you refer to what Build will do in the later slides, we may want to distinguish what you would do in your PM role vs what we would buy new?