Community IT February 2017 News: Welcome February!
Thank you to everyone who attended our January webinar in what was a hectic week for many here in DC. I hope you benefitted from our panel discussion of the most pressing items on our nonprofit technology “to do list” – what to upgrade in your infrastructure, what to do yesterday to improve your security, and how to prioritize better utilization of productivity tools you probably already have, to help your organization really work efficiently. We got positive feedback on the format, and we’ll schedule more roundtables in the future.
If you missed it, you can catch the slides and recording from January and all our past webinars on our website here.
Next Webinar
February 16th from 4-4:30 EST we will have a shorter format with guests Kyle Haines and Peter Mirius from our partners Build Consulting, who will discuss the basics of Information Management followed by an extended Q&A. Join us on the 16th and be part of the discussion on effective ways to organize and utilize the large amounts of data you create and need at your organization, and learn how to change your information management mindset.
This webinar is appropriate for nonprofit executives, managers and nonprofit IT personnel.
Resources
We are publishing a series wrapping up our experience on planning and migrating to the cloud for infrastructure or file sharing. You can find the series on our blog, along with a downloadable white paper of the full series in .pdf or online format. While the challenges are real, the benefits of moving to the cloud can make up for them – as long as the project is thoughtfully undertaken and resources are dedicated to making it a success. If you are considering a move to the cloud or are having some implementation pains please get in touch, as we can probably help.
We’ve been seeing many questions in recent months about best security practices for activist organizations, given the demonstrably increased risks of hacking. We’re preparing a webinar to cover new techniques and technologies in 2017, but you can also check out our best practices and best responses to breaking security issues in our October 2016 webinar, where we discuss our methodology for continuous monitoring of changing risks.
Please let me know if you have questions or ideas for future webinar topics you’d like covered, and follow me on LinkedIn or FaceBook for all my latest posts and news.
Warm Regards,
Johan Hammerstrom, President & CEO
Recent Blog posts
Cloud Document Management Migration: Outline Your Requirements
First in a series of posts on migration and implementation of cloud document management, focused on defining your business case and outlining your requirements. Over the past 5 years, nearly every Community IT infrastructure project has included some cloud document management component. As we have helped clients plan and migrate their platform for managing documents to the cloud, several trends have started to emerge.
Cloud Document Management Migration: Set Expectations
After you have defined your business case you will also need to define the appropriate project scope: requirements, schedule, cost, system design, success criteria and deliverables. These are the foundations for a successful cloud deployment project.
Cloud Document Management Migration: Usability
A cloud based solution might address every single need presented in the business case, but still fail due to poor usability. The tool or interface may not be a good match to the work culture of your users, may be over complicated, or not robust enough, may have a steep learning curve, or may allow users to bypass it entirely without penalty.
Cloud Document Management Migration: Executive Champions and Timing
Gaining the support and engagement of senior staff is so important, we believe it requires special attention. You also should schedule the project when there won’t be other competing organizational priorities. But while there maybe be better times to implement this project, there will probably be no perfect time. Part of your planning should be an assessment of your organization needs that will determine your schedule.