Helping Hands Ministry - WordPress.com · Helping Hands Ministry Version: 1.2 IT Strategic Assessment Report Date: 12/5/2015 Confidential MCP Desk Service Account 2015 Page 9 Helping

Helping Hands Ministry

IT Strategic Assessment Report

12/5/2015

Helping Hands Ministry Version: 1.2

IT Strategic Assessment Report Date: 12/5/2015

Confidential MCP Desk Service Account 2015 Page 2

Revision History Date Version Description Author

11/17/2015 1.0 First Draft Spencer Kerber

12/01/2015 1.1 Draft revised Spencer Kerber

12/5/2015 1.2 Final Draft Spencer Kerber




Table of Contents

1. Executive Summary 4

2. History and Purpose 5

2.1 History of the Helping Hands Ministry 5 2.2 Purpose of the Helping Hands Ministry 6

3. Management and Business Processes 6

3.1 Practice 1 6 3.2 Practice 2 7 3.3 Practice 3 8 3.4 Practice 4 9 3.5 Practice 5 9

4. Current IT Environment 10

4.1 Hardware 10 4.2 Software 11 4.3 Staff IT Skills/Training 11 4.4 IT Budgeting and Spending 12

5. Envisioned IT Capabilities 12

5.1 Leadership’s Vision 12 5.2 Top 10 Technology Issues 14

6. Closing the Gap 19

6.1 Recommendation 1 19 6.2 Recommendation 2 20 6.3 Recommendation 3 21 6.4 Recommendation 4 21 6.5 Recommendation 5 23

7. Conclusion 24

8. Appendices 25

8.1 Basis of Analysis 25

9. Works Cited 29




1. Executive Summary

Helping Hands Ministry is a community outreach organization serving

Louisville and southern Indiana. Helping Hands Ministry was founded in 2007 as

the volunteer wing of Valley View Church in Louisville Kentucky. With the

magnanimous goal of providing help and love to those who need it, Helping

Hands Ministry has provided thousands of homeless and underprivileged with

food, clothing, and hygiene products.

Aiming to increase its exposure and expand the organization, Helping

Hands Ministry wishes to create a new system that would allow them to reach

their goals and provide a platform for the organization to grow in the future. The

key needs that need to be filled by a new system are increased visibility, a

system for online donations, a tool for volunteer management, as well as a way

for Helping Hands Ministry to better coordinate with other church and community

outreach organizations in Louisville and southern Indiana.

Analysis of the current system used by Helping Hands Ministry has shown

that best way to assist Helping Hands Ministry in reaching its goals in the design

and implementation of a dedicated organization website. A Helping Hands

Ministry website would provide Helping Hands Ministry with a platform to

increase their visibility, a system that would allow visitors to make online

monetary donations, a portal to assist in the management of volunteers, and a

program that would allow them to better coordinate with other church and

community outreach organizations in Louisville and southern Indiana.




2. History and Purpose

2.1 History of the Helping Hands Ministry

Helping Hands Ministry was started 8 years ago as a part of Valley View

Church in Louisville Kentucky. The Valley View Baptist Church was organized on

September 13, 1940, under the direction of a council composed of

representatives from Shively, Beechland, South Jefferson, Carlisle, and Highland

Park First Baptist Churches. At the time, the nearest church was over six miles

away.

On September 21, 1940 the first Valley View church building was

completed. The first business meeting was held that same day, with the pastor

from Highland Park First Baptist Church serving as moderator. Valley View was

on that day constituted as a Missionary Baptist Church with 21 charter members.

The first pastor was the Rev. R.C. Knipp, and along with three deacons, and the

first Superintendent of the Sunday School were all elected in that meeting. In this

first service, following a message preached by the pastor from Carlisle Avenue

Baptist Church, there were two salvation decisions that were soon followed by

baptism in nearby Pond Creek. Valley View has always had a passion for

Missions, Evangelism and Discipleship, that continues to this day.

Helping Hands Ministry first dedicated their time to feeding small groups of

homeless and underprivileged citizens around the south Louisville area. Over the

course of 8 years Helping Hands Ministry has grown into a large volunteer based

organization that provides food as well as clothes to people in need. Helping

Hands Ministry now feeds approximately 400 people every Monday and has won




the WLKY Bell award which recognizes the “good works of people who rarely, if

ever, are in the public spotlight.” During the summer of 2015 Helping Hands

Ministry started a new program aimed at feeding hungry children.

2.2 Purpose of the Helping Hands Ministry

The purpose of Helping Hands Ministry is to provide community outreach

to help all those in need. By providing those in need with food and clothing they

are able to fulfil their goals of helping those who cannot help themselves. The

vision for the future of Helping Hands Ministry is to create and organize teams of

volunteers to provide outreach to multiple different sites in Louisville and

southern Indiana.

As a member of the Louisville community, Helping Hands Ministry hopes

to good neighbors to the city in serving not only the members of Valley View

Church but also people in need from the entire Louisville and southern Indiana

area. While Helping Hands Ministry serves as part of Valley View Church, their

primary goal is not to bring the underprivileged to church or to focus on their

immediate and close by people in need. Helping Hands Ministry has the goal to

“help outward” meaning they want put their community outreach above all other

concerns.

3. Management and Business Processes.

3.1 Providing food for the homeless and economically unprivileged

A primary business process for Helping Hands Ministry is the serving of

food to homeless in the Louisville and southern Indiana areas. This process can




be broken down into food donation collection, volunteer management, and food

distribution. The ability to successfully staff multiple locations is key to the

success of Helping Hands Ministry in meeting their goals.

The food donation collection is the first portion of this process. Food is

collected through canned food drives held at Valley View Church as well as

through general donations from both church members as well as the general

public.

The second portion of this process is the complex process of organizing

volunteers to serve at multiple locations. Members of Helping Hands Ministry are

divided into teams of twenty and assigned to specific food distribution centers

throughout Louisville and southern Indiana. Volunteers are able to register for

specific dates and times on the Valley View Church website. Volunteers are also

able to contact Helping Hands Ministry Leadership in order to agree to volunteer.

The last portion of the food portion of the community outreach process is

the food preparation and distribution. As of 2015, Helping Hands Ministry has a

total of four teams, each consisting of twenty volunteers, serving eight different

food distribution centers with a goal to increase the number of distribution

centers.

3.2 Provide clothing, bedding, and hygiene products for the homeless and economically unprivileged

The collection and distribution of clothing, bedding, and hygiene donations

is a key process undertaken by Helping Hands Ministry. Donations are collected

from donations collection boxes located in the Valley View Church parking lot as




well as donation drives such as “Undy Sunday” which is a Valley View Church

fundraising event aimed at collecting underwear as well as personal hygiene

products for those in need.

The donation collection boxes are distributed around the parking lot of

Valley View church and serve as a year round donation centers that are able to

accept clothing and bedding items. These donation collection boxes are owned

by Valley View Church and are managed by volunteers affiliated with Helping

Hands Ministry.

Church fundraising events are organized by Helping Hands Ministry and

held at Valley View Church with the primary donations being made by Valley

View Church members. These events are often targeted to specific goods that

are in high demand at a given time.

3.3 Build trust among the homeless community

A key factor that Helping Hands Ministry focusses on is the process of

building relationships based on trust with members of the homeless community in

Louisville and southern Indiana. This is a pivotal issue in the success of Helping

Hands Ministry. Without a proper relationship based on trust and understanding

members of the homeless community will not interact with members of Helping

Hands Ministry’s volunteer teams.

When building a relationship based on trust, Helping Hands Ministry has

to keep consistency in mind when conducting donation distribution events with

those in need. Due to the high rates of mental illness in the homeless community,




Helping Hands Ministry must keep all events consistent and predictable in order

to convince underprivileged to interact with them. This requires Helping Hands

Ministry to follow a strict schedule of events week by week. This also requires

Helping Hands Ministry to always be able to staff their food and donation

distribution events.

3.4 Collect monetary donations

Donations play a part of Helping Hands Ministry. All current monetary

donations must be in cash or check form and must be given directly to Helping

Hands Ministry leadership in person. There is no online tool for making monetary

donations as of yet. Monetary donations are the largest portion of income that

Helping Hands Ministry receives adding up to approximately 80% of their monthly

income. Most monetary donations are made by Valley View Church members as

well as people already in contact with Helping Hands Ministry through past

experiences.

3.5 Organize community outreach programs and events

An important aspect of the success of Helping Hands Ministry is due to its

ability to organize programs, events, and drives to help the poor and

underprivileged of Louisville and southern Indiana. The organizing of their own

volunteers as well as the coordination among other church and social outreach

organizations is complex process that the leadership of Helping Hands Ministry

put a great deal of time into.

The volunteer body of Helping Hands Ministry is in constant fluctuation in




terms of number of able bodied volunteers. This creates a problem when

attempting to organize groups of volunteers to complete a desired task. Helping

Hands Ministry currently communicates with its volunteer base primarily in

person during Valley View Church events as well as over the phone. The

volunteer system currently being utilized by Helping Hands Ministry divides

volunteers into four groups consisting of twenty people. These groups are then

assigned a task by Helping Hands Ministry leadership.

Coordination among different church and community outreach programs in

the Louisville and southern Indiana area provides a challenge for the leadership

of Helping Hands Ministry. Due to their lack of online presence, Helping Hands

Ministry attempts to coordinate with other church and community outreach

groups by contacting them through phone or email. An example of this

coordination occurs when Helping Hands Ministry works with Louisville Homeless

Ministries located in downtown Louisville. Helping Hands Ministry leadership and

Louisville Homeless Ministry leadership work together to divide days of the week

for each group to volunteer in order to maximize the time each group can give to

volunteering. This also prevents inefficient events where more than the required

number of volunteers are present for a single event or drive.

4. Current IT Environment

4.1 Hardware

Valley View Church currently uses information technology and support

service contractors Advanced Business Solutions (ABS) to provide for all their




information technology hardware needs. Helping Hands Ministry hopes to solidify

itself as its own organization and not rely on the information technology

infrastructure that Valley View Church provides. Without relying on the hardware

provided by Valley View church through information technology and support

services contractor Advanced Business Solutions (ABS), Helping Hands Ministry

has no information technology hardware of its own.

4.2 Software



information technology software needs. Helping Hands Ministry hopes to solidify


infrastructure that Valley View Church provides. Without relying on the software

provided by Valley View church through information technology and support

services contractor Advanced Business Solutions (ABS), Helping Hands Ministry

has no information technology software of its own.

4.3 Staff IT Skills/Training



information technology support needs. Helping Hands Ministry hopes to solidify


infrastructure that Valley View Church provides. Without relying on the

information technology skills and support provided by Valley View church through




information technology and support services contractor Advanced Business

Solutions (ABS), Helping Hands Ministry has no information technology skills or

support of its own.

4.4 IT Budgeting and Spending



information technology needs. Helping Hands Ministry hopes to solidify itself as

its own organization and not rely on the information technology infrastructure that

Valley View Church provides. Without relying on the hardware provided by Valley

View church through information technology and support services contractor

Advanced Business Solutions (ABS), Helping Hands Ministry will have to provide

funding for its own information technology infrastructure. As of now Helping

Hands Ministry has not created an information technology budget nor does it

spend any portion of its income on building or maintaining any information

technology hardware, software, or training programs.

5. Envisioned IT Capabilities

5.1 Leadership’s Vision

The leadership of Helping Hands Ministry was an IT system that will help

their organization grow in its role in the community. Helping Hands ministry

leadership envisions a website that will allow visitors to better interact with them

as well as increase their presence in the community. Overall, Helping Hands

Ministry wants a system that provides them community exposure and serves as a




tool for them to expand their operations.

First and foremost, Helping Hands Ministry wants a way for them to inform

people about who they are as well as what they do in the community. Ideally a

website would provide up to date information on the activities and programs

currently happening at Helping Hands Ministry as well as provide information

about their vision, history, and their goals for the future. Information regarding

upcoming events would be made available for interested visitors. Information

regarding outreach events as well as what types of donations are in need at the

moment would be useful for website visitors.

The leadership of Helping Hands Ministry also hopes to have a system

that would allow visitors to the website to make monetary donations toward their

ministry. Visitors to the site would be able to make donations through a selection

of preset donation amounts or by entering custom amounts for the desired

donation. Helping Hands Ministry see this as a tool to make themselves more

well known around Louisville and southern Indiana and therefore increase the

amount they currently receive from in person monetary donations.

The Leadership of Helping Hands Ministry would like their new system to

allow for event information to be available online for volunteers to view and then

register for specific events. Helping Hands Ministry’s envisioned system would

have a calendar of all the upcoming events along with information regarding

times, locations, how many volunteers are required, what donations are being

distributed, and other useful notes. Visitors to the site would then be able to

register to volunteer at a specific event using their email address. The number of




volunteers as well as the names of each volunteer would then be available for

Helping Hands Ministry to view.

An important role the new system would fill as one of coordination.

Helping Hands Ministry often works with other church and community outreach

programs in Louisville and southern Indiana. Coordination between different

church groups can be confusing and often leads to miscommunication. The

leadership of Helping Hands Ministry would like their new system to help with

coordination among church and community outreach groups. A specific problem

that this aspect of the new system is hoping to fix is the event in which multiple

church groups or community outreach programs have similar drives or events on

the same day. Instead of dividing the citizenry of Louisville and southern Indiana,

the new system would help prevent this problem and allow for multiple groups to

coordinate their events or drives.

The primary function of the system envisioned by Helping Hands Ministry

leadership is to provide exposure for Helping Hands Ministry. More exposure in

the community leads to more volunteers which assist Helping Hands Ministry

with fulfilling its goals. The new system would serve as a tool for advertising both

Helping Hands Ministry as an organization as well as upcoming events or drives

that Helping Hands Ministry is planning. The new system would also serve as a

tool to advertise the past programs, accomplishments, and awards that Helping

Hands Ministry has been a part of such as the WLKY Bell Award.

5.2 Top 10 Technology Issues

Various information technology issues face Helping Hands Ministry as they look




to expand.

1. Lack of website

A good portion of the problems facing Helping Hands Ministry is due to the

lack of an online presence in the form of an organizational website. Not

having a website prevents Helping Hands Ministry from completing some of

their organizational goals as they look to expand such as increased online

exposure and the creation of online volunteer management tools.

2. Lack of exposure

One key problem preventing Helping Hands Ministry from fulfilling its goals

is the lack of online exposure through a website or social media. Helping

Hands Ministry currently does not manage any social media accounts.

Creating social media accounts on sites like Facebook and Twitter would help

Helping Hands Ministry engage in the community more as well as increase

their recognition. A website that can be easily found through search engines

would also increase the web presence of Helping Hands Ministry.

3. Reliance of Valley View Church

Helping Hands Ministry currently relies on the information technology

infrastructure of Valley View Church provided through Advanced Business

Solutions. This reliance restricts the possibilities of what Helping Hands

Ministry can accomplish using information technology. Sharing information

technology hardware, software, and back end users with Valley View Church

prevents Helping Hands Ministry from creating their own website and

branching out as an organization. Until Helping Hands Ministry invests in their




own information technology infrastructure, they will be firmly restricted to

fighting for resources as a minor partner of Valley View Church.

4. Communication constraints

The communication processes currently used by Helping Hands Ministry

are limited to phone communication and in person conversations. Helping

Hands Ministry leadership have email addresses associated with Valley View

Church and are provided by their vvchurch.org domain. The current state of

the organization prevents mass communication between Helping Hands

Ministry and volunteers as well as communication between volunteers.

5. Limited use of technology

Helping Hands Ministry currently utilizes very little technology in the daily

businesses processes associated with managing the organization. By still

relying on outdated forms business processes and not utilizing more efficient

processes, such as a donor database, Helping Hands Ministry is hindering its

own growth. The lack of both formal and informal information technology

training among the leadership of Helping Hands Ministry also slows its

adoption rate of new technology which in turn slows its growth as an

organization. In order to fulfil the goals set forth by Helping Hands Ministry

leadership, Helping Hands Ministry must utilize the technology that is

available today and in use in similar organizations around Louisville and

southern Indiana.

6. Database needs

In order to fulfil its goals set forth by Helping Hands Ministry leadership,




Helping Hands Ministry needs to utilize a donor database. The current system

for monetary donations utilizes no form of information technology hardware or

software with most donations made in person. When combined with a

website, visitors would be able to make monetary donations online using

some form of online monetary transfer software such as PayPal. Helping

Hands Ministry would then be able to store that donor information and use

marketing techniques to ensure that the donor continues to make donations

over time.

7. Lack of technology experience

A key problem facing Helping Hands Ministry in terms of information

technology is the lack of experience using information technology hardware

and software. In the past Helping Hands Ministry had been able to rely on the

information technology infrastructure provided by Valley View Church through

Advanced Business Solutions. Advanced Business Solutions provided

technical support which allowed Helping Hands Ministry leadership to rely on

them rather than personally invest in information technology training. With the

desire to leave the umbrella provided by Valley View Church, Helping Hands

Ministry requires the information technology training that is required to run a

website as well as perform maintenance on that website.

8. Lack of volunteer coordination

Helping Hands Ministry’s current system of volunteer coordination is time

consuming and outdated. Volunteers only communicate through face to face

conversations and phone calls. This system provides a great deal of room for




errors to be made. Through the use of a volunteer management system

created online, Helping Hands Ministry leadership would be able to

communicate with volunteers more efficiently through email. A volunteer

management system would also allow volunteers to to view event information

as well as register to volunteer as specific events.

9. Lack of event planning/calendar

The lack of any public calendar of events prevents Helping Hands Ministry

from attracting new volunteers and people interested in community outreach

in Louisville and southern Indiana. Advertisement of all Helping Hands

Ministry is currently done during Valley View Church events through word of

mouth. An online public calendar would vastly increase the amount of people

Helping Hands Ministry could advertise their services to.

10. Lack of social media outreach

Any organization today knows that having a social media presence is

incredibly valuable as well as necessary. The current social media presence

of Helping Hands Ministry is non existent. Members of Helping Hands Ministry

are able to advertise for the organization on their personal social media

accounts but Helping Hands Ministry does not have any official social media

accounts. With the creation of social media accounts, primarily Facebook and

Twitter, Helping Hands Ministry would be able to increase their exposure as

well as target to a younger demographic.




6. Closing the Gap

6.1 Create a website dedicated to Helping Hands Ministry

In closing the gap between where Helping Hands Ministry currently is and

where the the leadership of Helping Hands Ministry hopes to be, the key factor is

the creation of a dedicated Helping Hands Ministry website. A dedicated website

would be able to fulfill the goals set forth by the leadership of Helping Hands

Ministry as well as provide a platform for organizational growth in the future.

In order to create a website Helping Hands Ministry must invest in a

domain name, web hosting, as well as website maintenance fees. When

investing in the creation of a website, the constraints of Helping Hands Ministry

must be taken into consideration. Due to its lack of information technology

training and personnel I would suggest Helping Hands Ministry focus on a

system that is kept up to date by a separate organization rather than a member

of Helping Hands Ministry managing the site. My recommendation for Helping

Hands Ministry would be to use the website builder, hosting service, and content

management system Squarespace.

Squarespace provides a domain name, web hosting, as as easy website

creation tools. The primary reason for choosing Squarespace is its award

winning 24/7 technical support. Squarespace would be able to guide Helping

Hands Ministry through the website creation creation process as well as make it

easy for them to keep their site up to date. Rather than investing in a site

manager Squarespace creates an incredibly simplified way to upkeep a site

which even someone lacking in information technology skills would be able to do.




Squarespace’s businesses website plan costs $18 per month which

includes hosting fees. Purchasing a domain through Squarespace costs $20 per

year, adding up to a yearly total cost of $236. The creation and management of a

website using Squarespace would require little in terms of hardware and

software. In order to design the site and keep it up to date, Helping Hands

Ministry would require a computer with an internet connection. A small personal

computer would suffice here due to Squarespace being a completely online tool.

I believe Squarespace would be the best option for providing a website for

Helping Hands Ministry.

6.2 Create tools to make donations online

The creation of online tools that would allow visitors to the website to

make monetary donations towards Helping Hands Ministry is key to their long

term success as an organization. This system would entail creating an easily

understandable donation system for visitors to use as well as a donor database

that stores data about past donors.

Squarespace has a premade donation system that is available for

business plan sites that would fulfill all the needs of Helping Hands Ministry.

Squarespace allows for a custom donation form to be created using suggested

donation amounts set by the user. This allows Helping Hands Ministry to easily

create a way for visitors to the site to make donations towards their causes.

Squarespace also allows the use of Stripe Payment System which allow visitors

to make donations without requiring a PayPal account.




The donation reporting system incorporated in Squarespace is incredibly

easy to use and would serve Helping Hands Ministry extremely well.

Squarespace allows users to view all recent donations online through the

Squarespace admin portal. This table view allows users to view that donation

amount, donor name, donor email, the date of the donation, and the specified

donation fund if applicable. If Helping Hands Ministry were to require offline

access to their donation database, Squarespace allows for export of the entire

history of donations in csv format.

6.3 Create tools to manage volunteers online

Managing volunteers online is a highly useful features of a Squarespace

created website. Using the native tools provided by Squarespace as well as

incorporating third party integration, Helping Hands Ministry will be able to easily

organize and manage their volunteers.

By using the third-party tool Eventbrite, Helping Hands Ministry will be

able to provide a tool for visitors to register as volunteers for specific events. This

is an invaluable tool when organizing large groups of volunteers. Using

Eventbrite, Helping Hands Ministry will be able to see how many people have

signed up to volunteer for specific events and contact users with information

regarding events.

6.4 Increase exposure using online tools

One of Helping Hands Ministry’s biggest needs is increased visibility and

recognition. The leadership of Helping Hands Ministry have shown that the most




important tool in reaching their goals is the use of social media and online

marketing through the use of an organizational website.

The challenge of increasing social media presence would be easy to

accomplish. Helping Hands Ministry leadership should create dedicated social

media accounts on Facebook as well as Twitter with possible expansion to other

forms of social media in the future. Squarespace provides tools to link a website

with social media accounts which would allow Helping Hands Ministry to post

website content on social media without having to worry about updating multiple

accounts on several different sites.

Another key tool provided by Squarespace that will aid Helping Hands

Ministry in increasing their visibility is the custom search engine optimization tool

set. Search engine optimization is the process of improving a sites ranking in

search engine results. Squarespace formats all their sites in order to maximize

the results returned by search engines such as Google and Bing. Squarespace

also provides a simplified guide as well as tips to increase your sites visibility in

search engines.

An important feature to be utilized by a Helping Hands Ministry website

will be the ability to advertise upcoming drives and events. By using a simple

online calendar incorporated into Squarespace, Helping Hands Ministry will be

able to advertise to a exponentially larger community than they are currently

advertising towards. Squarespace’s simple tools would allow Helping Hands

Ministry to keep an up to date calendar that would be easily accessible to

website visitors as well as other church and organizational groups in order to




coordinate social outreach events.

Though the use of third party contributors incorporated into Squarespace,

Helping Hands Ministry will also be able to increase their community presence.

MailChimp is a third-party email and marketing that allows users to design and

send newsletters. With its easy to use tools incorporated directly into the

Squarespace environment, Helping Hands Ministry will be able to keep visitors

as well as online donors up to date with the latest information about drives and

events.

6.5 Create tools to communicate with other church and community outreach

organizations

The process of increasing communication between Helping Hands

Ministry and other church and community outreach organizations in the Louisville

and southern Indiana areas requires a multifaceted approach. Helping Hands

Ministry’s current lack of communication with other groups can be attributed in a

good deal to their lack of an online presence. Through the use of online and web

enabled tools, Helping Hands Ministry can increase inter group communication in

order to maximize the work all church and community outreach groups are able

to accomplish in the Louisville and southern Indiana.

Using Squarespace, Helping Hands Ministry will be able to create custom

email addresses using their Squarespace site domain. Not only would this give

all members of Helping Hands Ministry leadership a new tool for communication,

it would increase the reputability of Helping Hands Ministry as an organization.

Custom email addresses using their own domain would allow Helping Hands




Ministry to step out from the Valley View Church umbrella and solidify them as

their own organization and not just a volunteer wing of a church.

The use of an online calendar of events would also enable Helping Hands

Ministry to better coordinate with other church and community outreach

organizations. By advertising their events before hand Helping Hands Ministry

will be able to avoid instances of event overlaps with other organizations. This is

a key features in aiding Helping Hands Ministry in reaching their goals of helping

as many people as possible.

7. Conclusions

Helping Hands Ministry was started 8 years ago with a simple goal of

helping those in need. Over the course of 8 years the organization has grown

into a large volunteer based organization who regularly feeds upwards of 400

people a week. Looking to the future, Helping Hands Ministry is in need of a

system that will allow their organization to increase their visibility among the

community and provide tools to better manage their business processes.

By creating a dedicated website, Helping Hands Ministry will be able to

increase their online presence and attract new volunteers to their organization.

Tools provided by website builder and content manager Squarespace will allow

Helping Hands Ministry to streamline their business processes and create a

platform for future growth.




8. Appendices

8.1 Basis of Analysis

The basis of my analysis for this strategic assessment came from the

many theories and models that were illustrated during class this semester. The

most used model in class was the Cash model illustrated below:

In the Cash Model each block reflects a key part of an organization;

Environment, organizational structure, IT architecture, jobs, and people. An

organization is defined by each of these aspects. If a change is made in one

node, it is reflected in all the following nodes. When designing and implementing

a solution for an IT problem, each block must be analyzed.

Another key model used in my analysis of Helping Hands Ministry is

Porter’s 5 forces. This model gives a good idea of the health of an organization

based on the outside powers working on it.

8.1.1 Porters 5 Forces

8.1.1.1 Threat of New Entrants: High

The threat of new entrants for Helping Hands Ministry is high due to the

low market barriers in organizations based on volunteers.

8.1.1.2 Threat of Substitutes: High

The threat of substitutes for Helping Hands Ministry is high. There are

numerous other church and community outreach organizations in the




Louisville and southern Indiana area.

8.1.1.3 Intra-Industry Competition: Low

The intra-industry competition for Helping Hands Ministry is low due to the

nature of the industry. Community outreach organizations do not see a

competitive market and do not compete between each other.

8.1.1.4 Bargaining Power of Customers: Low

The bargaining power of customers for Helping Hands Ministry is low. The

customers of Helping Hands Ministry are the poor and underprivileged.

8.1.1.5 Bargaining Power of Suppliers: High

The bargaining power of suppliers for Helping Hands Ministry is high.

Helping Hands Ministry receives most of their income through donations

so it primarily relies on the good nature of donors in order to survive as an

organization.

Next we examine the generic strategy of Helping Hands Ministry. The generic

strategy of Helping Hands Ministry is differentiation. Helping Hands Ministry attempts to

stand out from other church and community outreach organizations by its diversity of

services that it provides for those in need. Not only does Helping Hands Ministry donate

food and distribute food to the poor, they also provide clothing, blankets, and hygiene

products.

When we look at the organizational structure of Helping Hands Ministry we can




see that they follow the functional organizational modal with a vertical chain of

command and a centralized decision making process.

The last 3 blocks of the chain include IT architecture, jobs, and people. With

Helping Hands Ministry being a small organization, their IT architecture is not yet

existing. This hampers analysis of the jobs and people blocks in the model chain. Due

to Helping Hands Ministry being in a time of change, we can predict that their model will

change to reflect their future growth.

A key model used during my analysis of Helping Hands Ministry was the internet

enabled business model. We can break that internet enabled business model down into

10 parts; profit site, customer value, scope, pricing, revenue, connected activities,

implementation, build capabilities, sustainability, and cost structure.

The profit site determined based on an organizations standing with Porters 5

forces which we analyzed previously. It also focusses on what Helping Hands Ministry

does better than its competitors which would be the diversification of products and

services it offers to the homeless and underprivileged.

Customer value is determined by how well an organization meets a customer’s

needs. In terms of Helping Hands Ministry, they do all they can to help those in need but

there will always be a struggle to help support the homeless and underprivileged.

The scope of an organizations business model is usually bounded

geographically. Helping Hands Ministry is currently limited to Louisville and southern

Indiana but hopes to expand its services.

The pricing aspect of the internet enabled business model does not reflect a non

profit organization such as Helping Hands Ministry. It can be taken into account as




Helping Hands Ministry attempts to lower its organizational costs by converting

previously offline tasks into online tasks that cost less.

The revenue sources of Helping Hands Ministry are reliant on donations and

support from Valley View Church. A possible new revenue source made available by

the internet would be to sell donor data such as email addresses as well as sell

advertising space on the website.

When we look at the connected activities of a legacy organization like Helping

Hands Ministry we can see numerous areas for improvement. Helping Hands Ministries

still requires pen and paper for the vast majority of its business processes.

Implementation of a new system for Helping Hands Ministry would serve as a

difficult process. The current lack of IT experience among employees would create a

populace that resents any changes made in the name of progress.

The build capabilities for Helping Hands Ministry are fairly low. Being a non profit

organization leaves little revenue that can be used to create a new system. Support

from Valley View Church would be required in order to expand the organization.

There are three ways to sustain an internet enabled business model: run, team

up, or block. A sustainability strategy is chosen based on an organizations imitability

and complementary assets. In the case of Helping Hands Ministry, the imitability or a

volunteer based organization is high meaning it is easy to imitate. The complementary

assets held by Helping Hands Ministry are virtually non existent so the complementary

asset factor is free. This leads to a strategy of run which requires Helping Hands

Ministry to constantly be updating and expanding their organization. This is a difficult

strategy but due to the low competition nature of the volunteer organization market it will




be easily accomplished. With a desire to expand Helping Hands Ministry will be able to

be a large and successfully community outreach organization.

9. Works Cited

Afuah, Allan, and Christopher L. Tucci. Internet Business Models and Strategies: Text and Cases. 2nd ed. Boston: Irwin/McGraw-Hill, 2001. Print. Cash, J. (1994). Building the information-age organization: Structure, control, and information technologies (3rd ed.). Burr Ridge, Ill.: Irwin. Goldratt, Eliyahu M., and Jeff Cox. The Goal. N.p.: Gower, 1989. Print. Kalakota, Ravi, Marcia Robinson, and Ravi Kalakota. E-business 2.0: Roadmap for Success. Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley, 2001. Print. Morgan, Gareth. Images of Organization. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1986. Print. Zwass, Vladimir. "Electronic Commerce: Structures and Issues." International Journal of Electronic Commerce Fall 1.1 (1996): 3-23. Print.

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