2. About Me
q 30+ year of IT experience à Data Entry Clerk to CIO
§ Programmer/Analyst
§ Project Manager/Executive
§ CIO
§ Mainframe à Minicomputer à Cloud Computing
§ Government à FBI à Army
§ IBM à Courts à Unemployment à Sports
§ Distribution à $12B à Public
§ Media à $350M à Public
§ 501cTECH Nonprofit à Technology
3. 501cTECH
q NPower nationwide network was funded by Microsoft, Meyer
Foundation, AOL Foundation and the Fannie Mae Foundation
§ Provide technology support and solutions for nonprofits
nationwide
§ Later dissolved NPower organizations and cut funding
§ Name changed to 501cTECH and continued operations
q IT department for nonprofits that serve the common good
q Services include:
§ Technology Consulting and Services
§ Assessments
§ Outsourced IT (Help Desk)
§ Cloud Computing Migrations
4. Objectives
q Provide an understanding of technology basics and
current trends
q Provide an understanding of advantages and
disadvantages to certain solutions and low/no cost options
q Review technology priorities, budget planning and
technology resources to help create a technology roadmap
6. Technology Basics
q Start with your workstation
§ Operating system
§ Applications
• Office 2010
§ Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, PowerPoint
§ Data files
q How old are your workstations?
• 3 to 5 year replacement
§ Are they up-to-date?
§ Do they have up-to-date virus protection, patches,
etc.?
§ Are your files backed up? If so, where?
7. Technology Basics
q Server
§ Operating system
§ Applications
• Email
• Quickbooks
• Constituent Relationship Management System
§ Data files
• Shared files
q How many physical and virtual servers?
§ How old are your servers?
§ Where are the servers located?
• Kitchen or data center?
§ Do they have up-to-date virus protection, patches, etc.?
q Are your files backed up? If so, where?
8. Technology Basics
q Internet connection-Bandwidth
§ Speed requirements increase with more cloud activity
§ Must have adequate bandwidth
§ Minutes to download a document
§ Size to meet the demands of your business
§ Productivity loss is expensive
§ Connection to the Cloud
q Firewall-Security
§ Must have
q Router-Directs traffic
9. Technology Basics
q Backup
§ Data loss happens
§ Backup as a Service (BaaS)
§ Local backup
§ How long will it take to restore?
§ Who is responsible for the backup?
§ What is your record retention policy?
q Disaster Recovery Plan
§ How long to restore one system or all systems?
§ Data shuttle + Restore time = Long time
§ Are you using tape?
§ Benefit of cloud computing
• Somebody else has to fix the problem
• Even they have outages
q Business Continuity
§ What will your staff do while you are bringing systems back online?
q How would you rate the stability of your infrastructure?
10. Technology Basics
q Cloud Computing
§ Network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage,
and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer
• Software as a Service, Backup as a Service, Platform as a Service,
Infrastructure as a Service
§ Eliminate the need for a local server
§ Access from anywhere
• Work at home
§ Upgrades and backups are managed by the provider
§ Customization is limited
§ Servers in huge data centers around the world
• Search-Google and Bing
• Google Apps and Office 365
§ Extensive security, backup and recovery
§ Do you have a Gmail or Yahoo email account?
12. Business Systems
q Email
§ Mission critical
§ On premise or cloud solutions
§ Microsoft Office 365 or Google for Nonprofits
• Free to qualified nonprofits
§ Recovery challenges
q Constituent Relationship Management (CRM)
• Salesforce, Salsa, Charity Engine
q Financial System
• QuickBooks and Dynamics
• On-premise or in the cloud
• Don’t have to upgrade software
• Lose some customization options
• Not likely to modify w/limited budget
q Software as a Service Option
13. Cloud Applications
q Document sharing and central repository
§ Google Doc, Dropbox, Skydrive, or SharePoint
• Pictures, videos, documents and file types
§ Work offline or in the cloud
q Shared calendar
§ Doodle
q Video chat and conferencing
§ Microsoft Lync or Google Hangouts
q Share presentations on-line
§ Webex
19. Business Process
q How efficient is your business process?
§ Do your business applications meet your needs?
q Streamline the Business Process
§ Productivity Improvement
§ Redundant data entry
§ Sharing data
§ Quality
20. Budget and Strategy
q Do you have a strategic plan?
q Does it map to your budget?
q Does your strategic plan assume growth?
q Does your technology budget support the growth?
q Who is helping you plan?
21. Internal-Technology Support
q Who is responsible for IT support?
§ Gatekeeper
• Director of IT or CIO/CTO
• Technical staff
• Help Desk
• Outsourced support
§ Do you have a backup for that person?
• What is your risk if he/she walks?
• Co-managed, monitoring, patches, etc.
• Back up internal technical resource
• No vacation
§ Can you afford to train internal resources?
22. Technology Partner
q Technology partnerships are important
§ Internal and external
q Do you have a trusted IT advisor/partner?
§ Internal resources or external partners
§ Extension of your team
§ Do they understand your mission?
§ Do they have deep technical skills?
§ Help find grants or funders to support your IT
projects?
§ Help you make technology decisions on a limited
budget
23. Technology Checklist
q Do you look for technology support in emergencies only?
q Do you have a line item in your budget for technology upgrades and
maintenance?
q Are you using technology that doesn’t quite work right simply because you
got used to it?
q Do you experience internet connectivity issues?
q Do you maintain your office files in a way that anyone could find what they
were looking for—without specialized knowledge of your organization?
q Do you back-up your data? Do you test that back-up?
q Have you ever evaluated your technology and made strategic efforts to
improve it?
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24. Action Items
q Create a short term and long term plan for IT
• Strategic Plan or Roadmap
q Budget for IT
q Internal or external IT support
q Upgrade workstations and servers
q Upgrade internet connection
q Evaluate cloud solutions
q Create or update policies and procedures
25. Nonprofit Resources
q Organizations
§ 501cTECH
§ NTEN
§ TechSoup
§ Idealware
§ Center for Nonprofit Advancement
§ Nonprofit Roundtable
§ Foundation Center
§ Network with nonprofit organizations
q Benefits
§ Share information
§ Nonprofit discounts for hardware and software
§ Free software to qualified organizations
§ Apply for technology grants with partner(s)
• Veterans programs
• Small nonprofit initiative
26. Do you have a strategy?
Technology must be part of your strategy!
Manage your technology or it will be
hard to achieve your mission!
27. Contact Information
Abigail Goliber
Manager of Outreach and Development
202-234-9670 x115
agoliber@501ctech.org
Leslie Bauer
Chief Information Officer
202-234-9670 x108
lbauer@501ctech.org
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