Tips and Tools for Technology Planning

Tips and Tools for Technology Planning #12ntcttpl

Peter Campbell Ariel Gilbert-Knight Carlos Bergfeld Karl Robillard

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Agenda

• Introducing Planning: Peter Campbell

• How Do I Actually Make a Plan: Ariel Gilbert-Knight and Carlos Bergfeld

• Tale from the Trenches: Karl Robillard

• Q&A

Slide 2 TIPS AND TOOLS FOR

TECHNOLOGY PLANNING

Organizational Planning

A Technology Plan has to integrate with and support broader organizational planning

A unified strategic plan ties together the

• Strategic plan,

• Business plans, and

• Budget

TIPS AND TOOLS FOR TECHNOLOGY PLANNING

Slide 3

Definitions

• A Strategic Plan describes the key strategies that the organization will pursue in order to accomplish the mission. These tie directly to the mission statement, goals and values.

• A Business Plan outlines the steps required to accomplish the strategies.


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Planning Frameworks

All Stakeholder Input

• Anyone who makes decisions should be at the table and all staff perspectives should be considered

Balanced Scorecards

• Strategies should tie to key organizational components (Financial, Constituent, Internal Process, Employee)


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All Stakeholder Perspective

• If only senior execs participate in planning, key perspectives will be missed. Include staff from all levels, board, constituents.

• Democratizing the planning will infuse mission awareness at all levels of organization.


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Balanced Scorecards

A balanced scorecard identifies four areas that your strategic plan should address:

• financial,

• constituent (or customer),

• internal business processes, and

• employee learning and growth.


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Balanced Scorecard

Constituent strategy: • starting a newsletter to inform and engage constituents, or Financial strategy: • program-related services, such as offering classes to job seekers or

providing counseling to abuse victims Internal business process strategy: • instituting a new purchase order process. Employee training strategy: • employee bonuses or internal training.


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Example: Supporting Criteria


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Strategy Area Objectives Measures Targets Initiatives

Increase constituent awareness

of our accomplish-ments by

distributing a monthly

email newsletter

Consti-tuents

Increase mission

awareness

Increase donations

Improve

communi-cation

eCRM analytics

Donations increases

5% increase in new

prospects

7% increase in donations

Start monthly

newsletter

Add member-

ship to web site

Publicize in NP Times

Strategic Implementation

• Technology plans aren’t laundry lists of applications and systems to be installed.

• A strategic technology plan must be well-informed by business needs and

developed in light of org-wide goals.


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Comprehensive Evaluation

• SWOT analyses

• Technical and end-user assessments of options

• Clear understanding of business needs versus software assumptions

• Creativity


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360°Participation

• Software evaluations have to be made by both the technologists and the users, and

those decisions have to be vetted from the top.

• If the users don’t know what the application will do for them, it’s not worth buying


Slide 12

Technology Planning

• You can’t budget effectively on a year-to-year basis.

• Long-term planning allows you to spread out recurring costs and space out large projects in ways that even out the expense.

• Developing a road map for major system upgrades and replacements will smooth and foster adoption.

• Large projects, such as email system upgrades or changing databases, can be planned in ways that will ease the pain for everyone involved.


Slide 13

Elements of the Plan

• Technology plans should have at least three components:

Strategy

Support

Actions


Slide 14

A plan answers these questions

How will the actions laid out in the plan support the mission and organizational strategic plan?

How will staff be resourced to use the technology?

Does the organization have a coherent strategy for application support and training?


Slide 15

Conclusion

Good planning requires that you understand who you are, what technology must do well for you, and where you can get away with it by doing things more creatively, or, perhaps, not quite as elegantly as a for-profit organization might.


Slide 16

Resources

• Peter Campbell

• [email protected]

• http://techcafeteria.com


Slide 17

mailto:[email protected]

I Know I Need A Plan…Now What?

• Take a deep breath

• Follow our step-by-step guide

flickr.com/mattiasostmar


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Mission, Mission, Mission

• Before you get started, review your organization’s mission statement and strategic plan

• Remember, technology is not a goal in and of itself - Technology is important because of what it allows people to do

• See NTEN’s “Forget the Tech, Let’s Talk Mission” for an introduction to mission-driven technology planning (bit.ly/mission-driven)


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Creating Your Tech Strategy

• Step 1: Understand where you are.

• Step 2: Understand where you want to be.

• Step 3: Identify and prioritize technology solutions.

• Step 4: Lay out a plan for funding and implementing technology changes.

• Step 5: Write up your technology strategy.


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Step 1: Understand Where You Are

• Assess current infrastructure

– Inventory

– Start having conversations

– Assess as you go

flickr.com/orangebrompton


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Inventory tools

• Do it manually: use the worksheets in the Toolkit

• Automate (some of) it: use TechAtlas for Nonprofits – get started at techatlas.org


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• Assess current infrastructure

– Remember: People are a part of your tech infrastructure.

flickr.com/justkristin


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• Don’t panic (yet)

flickr.com/lentaslagrimasnegras


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Step 2: Understand Where You Want To Be

• What is working well?

• What could be working better?

• What is broken?

flickr.com/timsnell


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Step 2: Understand Where You Want To Be

• Identify the problem first

– Don’t think “What do we want to buy”

– Think “What do we want to do”

flickr.com/arjin Slide 32


Step 2: Understand Where You Want to Be

Fundraising Manager

flickr.com/arjin

Volunteer Manager


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Where You Want to Be: Examples

Example 1:

We are an organization that provides comprehensive services to homeless persons in the Bay Area. We require a secure central database to manage and track client information. Having one database will save time that is now wasted in multiple entries of the same data and will create one accurate source for all client information.

Example 2:

We are a domestic violence support organization located in an area with an increasingly high percentage of Spanish-speaking residents. To address this population's needs, we plan to update our website to provide information and resources in Spanish as well as English.


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Now It’s Your Turn…

Exercise:

• Write down a few technology goals for your organization

• Evaluate each one:

– Can you clearly articulate the benefits the technology will provide?

– Would implementing this technology help your organization better meet its mission? How so?

• Try to rewrite the goal so that it: is not focused on a particular technology, but is instead focused on what the technology will allow you to do (and why what it allows you to do is important for your organization)

flickr.com/photosteve101


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Step 3: Identify and Prioritize Technology Solutions

This is where you start talking about specific technologies

• How secure is your technology set-up? Are there any gaps that should be addressed?

• Are there better data storage and collaboration solutions available?

• Will upgrading to more recent hardware or software help?

• Is there a tool out there that will fill in a gap in your toolset?

• Would it help if your staff were trained (or retrained) in how to use your technology?


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Budgeting

• Include all costs associated with implementation (30/70 rule)

• Time is a budget item

flickr.com/aidanmorgan


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Budgeting

• Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

– Staff support

– Vendor fees

– Staff training

– Bandwidth costs

– Hardware costs

– Infrastructure costs

– Technology replacement

– Additional supplies

flickr.com/eric731


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The Three P’s of Implementation

hased schedule

ublicize changes

lease, please, please train your staff

flickr.com/lwr


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More Implementation Tips

• Know who you need to talk to

• Designate a point person

• Break projects into tasks

• Assign responsibilities

• Establish a timeline

• Evaluate your success


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• Step 5: Write your technology strategy.


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Step 5: Write Your Tech Strategy


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Your Tech Strategy

bit.ly/ncvsdara


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Your Tech Strategy



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Your Tech Strategy

Step 2: Understand Where You Want to Be


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Your Tech Strategy

Step 3: Identify and Prioritize Solutions

Your Tech Strategy

Step 4: Plan for funding and implementing changes


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Your Tech Strategy

Step 5: Write Up Your Tech Strategy


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Acknowledgments

Ariel and Carlos would like to thank

• The Blue Shield of California Foundation for their generous grant support for developing these materials

• Elliot Harmon, Tierney Smith, and Jane Zhang for their content contributions


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Contact Us

Ariel: [email protected]

Carlos: [email protected]


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Tale from the Trenches

Karl Robillard has planned…

and lived to tell the tale


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Communications and Outreach Senior Manager

The Story of St. Anthony’s


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A Direct Appeal


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Tale from the Trenches


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The Technology Plan Trifecta

1) Mission

2) Values

3) Goals

…then what?


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Example: Supporting Criteria


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Strategy Area Objectives Measures Targets Initiatives

Recharge the St. Anthony base and appeal to a new generation of donors.

Constituents

Educate about St. A’s

History

Build awareness around the need for

addressing issues of poverty

Raise funds for a New

Dining Room

Coherent and

consistent Comm. strategy

Improved website

information architecture

Clearly

defined ‘ask’ for

constituents

Increase Mobile

Community = 250+ mobile

donations

Raise $5 million

Add to

donor base by 20%

PR Events

Text-to-Donate

Improve

website user interface

Social Media

Strategy

Linking Internal

Constituents

Channels of Communication

Traditional Media

Social Media

General Supporters

Staff,

Volunteers,

Guests

Road Map for FY 2011 - 2012


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Veterans Day

Holidays

Public Phase of the Capital Campaign

Communications Timeline

• Facebook ‘LIKE’ Campaign

• February – Facing Facebook

Completed by February 1st

• Facebook updates

• Blog updates

• Tweets

• Eblasts

Ongoing through public

phase

• Text to Donate

• Giants PSAS

• Penny Pitch: Home game on June 12th against Astros

April/May/June

Duck and Cover

1. BUY-IN

2. Facing Facebook

3. Technical obstacles (seen and unforseen)

4. Tales from the city


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Questions


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Evaluate This Session! Each entry is a chance to win an NTEN engraved iPad!

or Online at www.nten.org/ntc/eval

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