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Thank you for joining this Community IT podcast, part two.
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You can find part one in your podcast feed if you subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Welcome everyone to the Community IT Innovators webinar on doing IT assessments at nonprofits with Nuradeen Aboki and Johan Hammerstrom.
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My name is Carolyn Woodard.
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I'm the outreach director for Community IT, and I'll be the moderator today.
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I'm Nuradeen Aboki, a senior consultant at Community IT.
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My name is Johan Hammerstrom.
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I'm the CEO at Community IT.
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And you said that you deliver a plan after going through this process.
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So what does that usually include?
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Yeah, so I think that plan begins with a report, a comprehensive evaluation report.
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You know, what are the findings?
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What did you guys find?
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Because that would describe what the current state is, the strengths, the gaps, the risks across the uh IT or technology environment that they have that was evaluated.
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And uh then coming out of that is the rec list of recommendations.
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Uh so you found a number of risks, gaps.
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What do you recommend we do about this?
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So this is where we put together a list.
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And typically you find it in a table form, simple, easy to digest.
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Here are the list of the risks.
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It's categorized and links to the four uh assessment areas.
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So when you're looking at infrastructure, you see which ones are related to infrastructure, which ones related to data, security, as well as governance.
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Uh,
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And that recommendation also we do an initial uh kind of prioritization of the recommendations.
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Uh, so that when you see that spreadsheet, you're not wondering where do I begin, but you are looking at it from where should what are the most important ones from a Community IT lens.
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But it doesn't stop there because we want to make sure we collaborate with you to put together a strategic uh technology plan.
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And that is where we take those recommendations and the prior initial prioritization and convert it into a practical plan for implementing the recommendations.
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So you may say, okay, out of this 30 recommendations, uh realistically, 12 of them are the ones that are relevant at this point in time in our maturity as a nonprofit organization.
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And we then are aligned with that strategic technology plan.
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And this should account for the sequencing, the ownership, early dependency, and the organizational fit.
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So after taking that strategic technology plan that we have uh developed with in collaboration with the nonprofit organization, then it actually arrives at the final product, which is the IT roadmap.
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And this is where you find that uh the execution view over time is represented in that IT roadmap with attention to the budget, for instance, the capacity, the uh risk, and then any change readiness that uh the organization needs to be aware of.
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So uh while the comprehensive uh evaluation, report, documents, findings uh, and evidence are there, I find that nonprofit leaders typically rely heavily on the recommendations, the strategic plan, as well as the IT roadmap when making decisions, uh allocating resources.
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And I think this um these sets of deliverables really highlights one of two key principles that we try to adhere to in our assessment process, and that if you're considering getting an assessment, would strongly encourage you to keep these principles in mind because I think they're key to having a successful assessment.
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And the first principle is that the assessment and the deliverables or the results of the assessment have to operate at multiple levels.
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They need to operate at the level of technical detail, they need to operate at the level of organizational management, and they need to operate at the level of strategic governance.
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So an assessment that simply gives you a list of technical recommendations is not going to be effective because the the fact that those recommendations need to get accomplished, the fact that you have technology that has things that need that need to be changed means that the the structures for managing technology and for making good IT decisions are not in place.
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And so those need to be addressed as well.
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And it also means that the audience for these deliverables is gonna be spread throughout the organization.
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So if you're only providing technical recommendations, that's gonna be meaningless to the board and potentially to the senior leadership of the organization.
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So it's really incumbent upon the assessor to translate the meaning of these technical recommendations into a form that's intelligible to the senior leadership and hopefully even the board.
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Conversely, if you're just providing, you know, a strategic plan, but it's not grounded in the reality of the technology itself, then it's just platitudes and it's just sort of sort of generic, it's unactionable.
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It's uh strategy theater, you know, as as people like to say.
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So the the the most effective assessments are simultaneously operating at all of those levels, and that's really the best way to um get value out of the assessment process.
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And then the second principle, which um I want to go back to the previous slide on the assessment approach.
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The second principle is that the assessment has to be you have to go into the assessment with an open mind.
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It has to be open-ended.
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If whoever's doing your assessment, let's say you're using Google Workspace, if whoever is doing your assessment comes in saying you have to be on Microsoft 365, then don't don't bother getting that assessment done.
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Because you you already know they don't need to do the discovery, they don't need to talk to your staff.
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You already know what they're gonna recommend.
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And so you don't need to go through an assessment process to get that recommendation.
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But how do you know that that's actually the right recommendation for your organization?
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That sort of assessment is short-circuiting the analysis that makes for a successful um assessment process.
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So whoever's doing the assessment needs to go into it with an open mind.
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The first step is discovery, and you discover something that you aren't aware of, you know, prior to learning about it.
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So it's really important that whoever's doing the assessment is they're bringing in a wealth of expertise, hopefully.
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They're bringing in an understanding of how technology can be effective at nonprofit organizations, but they should not be bringing in their biases.
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And if they if they have biases, they should state those clearly at the outset so that everybody understands what they are.
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Can you talk a little bit about what a healthy nonprofit IT environment looks like?
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Because we do see it.
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It's not that it doesn't exist.
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We know a lot of nonprofits have challenges around their IT for lots of different reasons.
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But um, can you just talk a little bit about if you're in this healthy state, what does it look like?
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Yeah, and I'll I'll say I'll let Nura answer this one, but I'll also say that um this is the kind of I you can, I don't know if I would call this a bias, but this is our philosophy.
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Like this is how we think about healthy IT at nonprofit organizations.
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So we want to be upfront, you know, with organizations before we do the assessment.
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Like this is broadly speaking, you know, sort of from an agnostic perspective, what healthy IT looks like to us.
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Yeah, thank you.
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And and you know, you could start think of it as uh healthy IT environment.
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It's not just about having the most expensive tools or the newest uh systems.
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Uh it's about where the technology environment supports or whether the technology environment supports uh the work of the organization in a reliable, secure, and manageable way.
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Uh
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So as we look at those four assessment categories uh that we had uh mentioned, uh we want to take a look at the IT infrastructure and core IT systems.
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Are they healthy?
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That means uh reliable devices, supported networks, uh managed uh accounts, stable collaboration tools, and clear expectations for support.
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You know, as uh it's definitely vendor agnostic is just what we look for, you know, are they there or not?
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Uh
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And then when it comes to data web and digital platforms, it means the core uh systems uh fit that work.
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Uh data is findable and protected, uh reporting is useful, integrations reduce any friction uh rather than creating it.
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So we're looking at that seamless approach when it comes to finding data, that integration with web and digital platforms, you know, at the bottlenecks.
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Uh is it working or is it are we are we finding there's data integrity issues, uh our tech data reliability issues?
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Um,
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Another aspect of a healthy nonprofit IT environment uh is the security and compliance.
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Uh and there are some foundational security uh I would say approaches or standards that we expect to see uh in a healthy environment, which means like do you practice managed devices?
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Uh meaning they are they being patched, are they managed centrally?
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Um uh do they have consistent uh configuration, or are they all not uh managed or are they all unmanaged?
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Uh do you have multi-factor authentication implemented?
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You know, these are things that we find that are baseline.
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Is there any security awareness program uh in place uh for the education of your staff and awareness of your employees?
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Um do you have a backup um policy or backup?
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Uh are you how which type of backup solution are you using for your cloud applications as well as any on-premises applications that you may have or uh assets that you may have?
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Uh do you have a process for reviewing access?
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Um monitoring uh your endpoints uh properly.
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Uh are you do you have any security controls uh just to ensure that your nonprofit organization um is secure?
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Um do you have any compliance requirements that you're following?
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And how are you following those and ensuring that their compliance is enforced uh in your organization?
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And then lastly, their governance and strategy is something that uh is quite uh it's it it just helps to uh ensure that you have a good governance uh in place.
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For instance, uh it means that you have policies, uh the policy could be acceptable use policy.
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Uh do you have any incident response policy?
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Umership uh of IT at the organization, uh, is it at the management level, is it at the leadership level, or is it just ad hoc uh at your organization?
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Uh do you have any budget discipline?
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Uh do you consistently ensure that you have IT uh budgeted for uh in a year and in a year basis, especially when we find that IT these days are the spend is moving into a recurring expenditure uh rather than just one-time fixed costs that you may incur.
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So uh you want to be disciplined about that.
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So we look for that.
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And then vendor oversights.
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You do have multiple vendors most likely at your organization that you have to deal with in when it comes to technology.
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How is that oversight uh done?
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Uh leadership alignment and also lastly, then a roadmap, if you do have one that actually uh network uh that could that you could execute on.
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Uh, oftentimes uh some organizations don't have any roadmap.
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So that's where we come in to assess and then develop that roadmap uh for them.
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You've given us so much to think about today.
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Are there some key takeaways that we should leave this webinar with?
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Yes, uh so uh the first one is uh assessment connects technology to mission.
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And uh we give you uh an understanding that it should be practical.
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Uh, it's something that maybe you could find some funding for it.
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But typically a good one, an extensive one, should take you about seven to nine weeks uh process, and typically in the 20 to 30k uh thousand dollar range uh to do a thorough assessment or evaluation.
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And uh secondly, we wanted to ensure that uh you understand that we have this uh four categories, not not only as just the only categories that we look for, but these are high-level categories.
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Inside each of them, we have a standardized, rigorous process of evaluating uh each of those categories.
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So you should remember there's an infrastructure that you have to deal with, uh, which also is related to your core IT systems.
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And then you have the data and web as well as digital platforms.
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Then thirdly, you have the security and compliance aspect of it, as well as the final category, which is governance and strategy.
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Then uh the last takeaway is uh the organization should work away with a clear path forward.
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Uh so with you getting that comprehensive evaluation report, a recommendation list, which is prioritized, as well as a uh strategic technology plan, and lastly a roadmap that you could actually execute on.
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And so once you have those lovely four aspects of the report, after you've had this uh comprehensive, holistic evaluation done, what are the next steps?
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Like then what?
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Yeah, so uh this uh you know this is where you want to take what you've received as the output and talk to leadership.
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Leadership needs to then take some action.
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And this is where we uh recommending leadership should convene uh within their circles to discuss and evaluate the assessment and roadmap uh recommendations.
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Uh and our process also should be collaborative, transparent, and uh because we want to ensure that at the end of the day you have some action that you need to take that is practical for your organization.
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So you want to also revisit your goals and uh think about your IT strategy.
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Sometimes an organization may not be maybe focused on their mission, but not necessarily having an IT strategy.
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This outcome of the report as well as the uh roadmap should help you in developing that strategy if you don't already have one uh with the new information that you have learned from the assessment.
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Uh
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And then the the idea of uh what is reasonable, uh, what is realistic for your existing uh IT support, uh it's important there because if you have an IT support, you want to know do they have the capacity to implement the recommendations that are in this IT roadmap?
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Or do you need to reconsider or get another partner that could help you uh realize or implement the uh IT roadmap effectively?
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So this is where uh sometimes you have an IT support uh uh partner that actually has the capacity.
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Uh, they may also be aligned because an outside organization has done the assessment and they say, Oh, this is something we've been thinking about.
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I'm glad to see it in writing.
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It supports what we can do, and then you can negotiate on how to get those implemented.
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Uh
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But there are times when the third-party support is actually needed, you know.
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So then this is uh something that has to be discussed and evaluated depending on your organization's needs.
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Um there's one key last thing there about next steps, is about your capacity and culture for change.
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Some organizations, uh, change is difficult, especially if the roadmaps points to some key milestones of changes that need to happen uh uh for your organization to move forward.
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I just heard it referred to as change saturation.
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That especially in this age of AI, there may be, you know, people are people, and there's only so much change that you can accomplish all at the same time.
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So I think that goes back to you said one of the deliverables is this roadmap of what is the priority and what's the timeline and how are you going to make the change manageable.
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That's exactly right.
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And we have some more uh resources on our site for uh anyone who is looking for more information after this webinar.
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Uh,
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We have a cybersecurity readiness for nonprofits playbook.
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Um, so if you're not a cybersecurity expert, this playbook is written in very accessible language and it kind of walks through our philosophy of how to layer cybersecurity and those kind of must-haves that you can have and maybe some nice to have's and explains a lot of what cybersecurity requires.
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We have a few other downloads.
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Those are all free on our website at community.com, and they'll be in the transcript.
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So, how do I know if an IT managed services provider is right for my nonprofit organization?
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Um, building a foundation for IT innovation, so kind of getting the foundation right first so that the basics are there and you can build on it if you want to do bigger projects, um, more complicated IT.
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And then the nonprofit guide to vetting a managed IT services provider.
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This gives you 12 questions that you can ask if you haven't used an uh MSP before, or if you're thinking about changing your MSP.
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It's this is for anyone that you might put on your short list and how to get some more information about what kind of partner they're going to be.
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Uh and then
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I think we have some time for QA.
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Um so we uh don't have a live audience today, but we have gotten some questions over the years that we've been doing assessments.
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Um, and one is on timing.
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So if you're in a situation where maybe your IT director just let you know that they're leaving, uh is that a good time to do an assessment or should you wait until you have a new person and then they've had time to settle in and they want to be part of the assessment?
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Do you guys have some advice on that timing?
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I think it it depends on um the circumstances of the departure.
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I think if you're if you think that the structure of the organization is gonna more or less stay the same, you you're pretty confident in IT management and governance, but you just don't have an understanding of what's going on with the specific systems.
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In that situation, I would wait, you know, for the new IT person, the new IT director to start so that they can be a part of the process.
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They may, you really would want their buy-in in that situation.
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And so um, the last thing you'd want to do is conduct an assessment, get all the reports, and then hire someone who's not really on board with that process or the results that came out of that process.
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Um,
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On the flip side, if you're uncertain, if the IT director leaves and it's sort of thrown all of IT into question, is this the right position?
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Do we have the right structure?
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Do we want to keep IT in-house?
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Do we want to keep IT outsourced?
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You know, if you're asking a lot of changes about uh a lot of questions about what could change, then it might make sense to get an assessment which can help shed some light on those decisions because you don't want to hire an IT director if it turns out you need a CIO, for example, which an assessment could at least give you some insight into.
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So it really depends on the circumstances and um how I think it kind of goes back to the results of the assessment and you know, how well positioned is your organization to benefit and get value from those results, given the circumstances that you're in.
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I think we have another question that might come up.
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Um, and some people listening to this might be thinking is there a size of your organization at which an assessment really makes sense and has more value?
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Or is an assessment really for everyone?
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Like if you're a two, three-person organization, um, do you need an assessment at that size?
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Like what would your advice be?
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Yeah, I think the scope should fit uh the organization size.
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So I would say everyone needs an assessment, but uh specifically if you have a smaller nonprofit organization, you know, uh then the scope should should fit your size.
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And sometimes you may find a small non-profit organization with tremendous infrastructure.
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And that infrastructure could be they are doing some research, so they have to build that infrastructure so that's a business need as part of their mission.
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Or it might have been they were large at one point in time and then they shrunk.
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Now they want to do an assessment to see how they can right-size their IT needs and environment.
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Um
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So really that's where the experience of the assessor comes into play.
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As the assessor is actually bidding for the assessment, they would have an ask this key questions about the right fit, uh, making sure it's tailored to present uh assessment results that are actionable by the organization.
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So sometimes a nonprofit that is small may not necessarily need at the same depth as a large organization.
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Uh, but uh still uh needs some uh you know reliable systems that it needs to work, it needs to have some basic security uh standards there and uh clear ownership and a plan that fits its budget.
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I feel like we do run into so many clients that you have just when they started small, they just kind of went willy-nilly in every direction with their IT.
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With a small team, you can do that.
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Like one person chooses one thing, one person chooses the other thing, and you're kind of all together working on it.
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So it doesn't, the problems don't become apparent until you grow bigger or something more complicated comes along, and then you're like, whoa, we have spaghetti here.
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We have to sort it out.
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So that might be something where an assessment uh might help you as you're preparing to grow to get those things in alignment.
00:24:37.490 --> 00:24:40.690
So I want to go over our learning objectives for today.
00:24:40.690 --> 00:24:42.930
I feel like we really hit all of them.
00:24:42.930 --> 00:24:49.650
So we wanted to learn what is an IT assessment, what does it typically include, why should you have one done?
00:24:49.650 --> 00:25:05.090
I thank you both so much for sharing with us all of your expertise and knowledge and experience in doing these over the years and um and and you know, helping us understand like this is what a holistic assessment, IT assessment is going to include.
00:25:05.090 --> 00:25:16.450
Um, we did talk a little bit about what does a healthy nonprofit IT environment look like and gave you a little checklist there of those different categories and what healthy IT looks like.
00:25:16.450 --> 00:25:24.450
And then, you know, if your assessment tells you it's time to change your IT support, we just talked about some of those typical next steps.
00:25:24.450 --> 00:25:24.850
Um,
00:25:24.850 --> 00:25:36.690
So I don't want to let people leave without inviting them back to our next webinar next month, when I will be leading our presentation with my colleague uh Erik Solce.
00:25:36.690 --> 00:26:04.130
And we're gonna talk about an ongoing project that we have using AI to build a data lake for marketing and the structure that we came up with that's really helped me manage this giant project with a little tech coaching from Erik and a lot of AI helping me manage and connect up these different channels and be able to ask some really interesting questions across this data.
00:26:04.130 --> 00:26:12.450
Um, so we're gonna share how the project evolved, some of the things that we did that were just awesome, some things that didn't go as well as we had hoped.
00:26:12.770 --> 00:26:19.890
I think this structure has a lot of potential for other nonprofit AI projects that you might have on the back burner.
00:26:19.890 --> 00:26:37.970
If you've been putting something off because you don't have the technical know-how to do it, whether it's building a data lake or analyzing program reports or something else that you want to get started on, we're gonna talk about how and where AI can be helpful and how to use it carefully and effectively.
00:26:37.970 --> 00:26:39.330
So that's at 3 p.m.
00:26:39.330 --> 00:26:42.930
Eastern Noon Pacific on Wednesday, August 19th.
00:26:42.930 --> 00:26:47.090
You can register now on our website at communityit.com.
00:26:47.410 --> 00:26:55.730
And Johan and Nura, I just want to thank you both so much for your time and experience and for sharing with us today.
00:26:55.730 --> 00:26:57.010
This was just so helpful.
00:26:57.010 --> 00:26:57.730
I learned a lot.
00:26:57.730 --> 00:27:02.530
So I hope the people who are listening uh also were able to benefit from this experience.
00:27:03.090 --> 00:27:04.770
Thank you, Carolyn, for having me.
00:27:05.090 --> 00:27:05.730
Yeah, thank you.
00:27:05.730 --> 00:27:08.930
It was a pleasure and thanks to everyone for watching.
00:27:11.490 --> 00:27:14.930
Thank you for joining this community IT podcast, part two.
00:27:14.930 --> 00:27:21.090
You can find part one in your podcast feed if you subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
00:00:23.809 --> 00:00:27.250
Thank you for joining this Community IT podcast, part two.
00:00:27.250 --> 00:00:33.409
You can find part one in your podcast feed if you subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
00:00:35.090 --> 00:00:45.570
Welcome everyone to the Community IT Innovators webinar on doing IT assessments at nonprofits with Nuradeen Aboki and Johan Hammerstrom.
00:00:45.570 --> 00:00:47.329
My name is Carolyn Woodard.
00:00:47.329 --> 00:00:51.090
I'm the outreach director for Community IT, and I'll be the moderator today.
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I'm Nuradeen Aboki, a senior consultant at Community IT.
00:00:55.569 --> 00:00:56.849
My name is Johan Hammerstrom.
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I'm the CEO at Community IT.
00:00:59.329 --> 00:01:04.769
And you said that you deliver a plan after going through this process.
00:01:04.769 --> 00:01:07.810
So what does that usually include?
00:01:08.450 --> 00:01:14.450
Yeah, so I think that plan begins with a report, a comprehensive evaluation report.
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You know, what are the findings?
00:01:15.650 --> 00:01:17.409
What did you guys find?
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Because that would describe what the current state is, the strengths, the gaps, the risks across the uh IT or technology environment that they have that was evaluated.
00:01:32.129 --> 00:01:37.089
And uh then coming out of that is the rec list of recommendations.
00:01:37.089 --> 00:01:42.369
Uh so you found a number of risks, gaps.
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What do you recommend we do about this?
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So this is where we put together a list.
00:01:46.609 --> 00:01:51.489
And typically you find it in a table form, simple, easy to digest.
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Here are the list of the risks.
00:01:53.489 --> 00:01:58.530
It's categorized and links to the four uh assessment areas.
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So when you're looking at infrastructure, you see which ones are related to infrastructure, which ones related to data, security, as well as governance.
00:02:06.609 --> 00:02:07.170
Uh,
00:02:07.170 --> 00:02:16.289
And that recommendation also we do an initial uh kind of prioritization of the recommendations.
00:02:16.289 --> 00:02:28.129
Uh, so that when you see that spreadsheet, you're not wondering where do I begin, but you are looking at it from where should what are the most important ones from a Community IT lens.
00:02:28.370 --> 00:02:37.810
But it doesn't stop there because we want to make sure we collaborate with you to put together a strategic uh technology plan.
00:02:37.810 --> 00:02:48.370
And that is where we take those recommendations and the prior initial prioritization and convert it into a practical plan for implementing the recommendations.
00:02:48.370 --> 00:03:04.289
So you may say, okay, out of this 30 recommendations, uh realistically, 12 of them are the ones that are relevant at this point in time in our maturity as a nonprofit organization.
00:03:04.289 --> 00:03:09.009
And we then are aligned with that strategic technology plan.
00:03:09.009 --> 00:03:15.650
And this should account for the sequencing, the ownership, early dependency, and the organizational fit.
00:03:16.370 --> 00:03:30.129
So after taking that strategic technology plan that we have uh developed with in collaboration with the nonprofit organization, then it actually arrives at the final product, which is the IT roadmap.
00:03:30.129 --> 00:03:46.689
And this is where you find that uh the execution view over time is represented in that IT roadmap with attention to the budget, for instance, the capacity, the uh risk, and then any change readiness that uh the organization needs to be aware of.
00:03:47.250 --> 00:04:07.889
So uh while the comprehensive uh evaluation, report, documents, findings uh, and evidence are there, I find that nonprofit leaders typically rely heavily on the recommendations, the strategic plan, as well as the IT roadmap when making decisions, uh allocating resources.
00:04:09.329 --> 00:04:31.410
And I think this um these sets of deliverables really highlights one of two key principles that we try to adhere to in our assessment process, and that if you're considering getting an assessment, would strongly encourage you to keep these principles in mind because I think they're key to having a successful assessment.
00:04:31.650 --> 00:04:40.930
And the first principle is that the assessment and the deliverables or the results of the assessment have to operate at multiple levels.
00:04:40.930 --> 00:04:51.409
They need to operate at the level of technical detail, they need to operate at the level of organizational management, and they need to operate at the level of strategic governance.
00:04:51.409 --> 00:05:19.250
So an assessment that simply gives you a list of technical recommendations is not going to be effective because the the fact that those recommendations need to get accomplished, the fact that you have technology that has things that need that need to be changed means that the the structures for managing technology and for making good IT decisions are not in place.
00:05:19.250 --> 00:05:22.529
And so those need to be addressed as well.
00:05:22.769 --> 00:05:30.209
And it also means that the audience for these deliverables is gonna be spread throughout the organization.
00:05:30.209 --> 00:05:42.050
So if you're only providing technical recommendations, that's gonna be meaningless to the board and potentially to the senior leadership of the organization.
00:05:42.050 --> 00:05:56.529
So it's really incumbent upon the assessor to translate the meaning of these technical recommendations into a form that's intelligible to the senior leadership and hopefully even the board.
00:05:56.769 --> 00:06:11.250
Conversely, if you're just providing, you know, a strategic plan, but it's not grounded in the reality of the technology itself, then it's just platitudes and it's just sort of sort of generic, it's unactionable.
00:06:11.250 --> 00:06:15.409
It's uh strategy theater, you know, as as people like to say.
00:06:15.730 --> 00:06:29.649
So the the the most effective assessments are simultaneously operating at all of those levels, and that's really the best way to um get value out of the assessment process.
00:06:31.329 --> 00:06:37.969
And then the second principle, which um I want to go back to the previous slide on the assessment approach.
00:06:37.969 --> 00:06:44.930
The second principle is that the assessment has to be you have to go into the assessment with an open mind.
00:06:44.930 --> 00:06:46.850
It has to be open-ended.
00:06:47.009 --> 00:07:00.449
If whoever's doing your assessment, let's say you're using Google Workspace, if whoever is doing your assessment comes in saying you have to be on Microsoft 365, then don't don't bother getting that assessment done.
00:07:00.449 --> 00:07:05.409
Because you you already know they don't need to do the discovery, they don't need to talk to your staff.
00:07:05.409 --> 00:07:07.969
You already know what they're gonna recommend.
00:07:07.969 --> 00:07:13.250
And so you don't need to go through an assessment process to get that recommendation.
00:07:13.490 --> 00:07:18.370
But how do you know that that's actually the right recommendation for your organization?
00:07:18.370 --> 00:07:28.129
That sort of assessment is short-circuiting the analysis that makes for a successful um assessment process.
00:07:28.370 --> 00:07:33.569
So whoever's doing the assessment needs to go into it with an open mind.
00:07:33.569 --> 00:07:42.370
The first step is discovery, and you discover something that you aren't aware of, you know, prior to learning about it.
00:07:42.370 --> 00:07:48.370
So it's really important that whoever's doing the assessment is they're bringing in a wealth of expertise, hopefully.
00:07:48.370 --> 00:07:57.089
They're bringing in an understanding of how technology can be effective at nonprofit organizations, but they should not be bringing in their biases.
00:07:57.329 --> 00:08:05.569
And if they if they have biases, they should state those clearly at the outset so that everybody understands what they are.
00:08:06.129 --> 00:08:12.209
Can you talk a little bit about what a healthy nonprofit IT environment looks like?
00:08:12.209 --> 00:08:14.290
Because we do see it.
00:08:14.290 --> 00:08:16.449
It's not that it doesn't exist.
00:08:16.449 --> 00:08:22.769
We know a lot of nonprofits have challenges around their IT for lots of different reasons.
00:08:22.769 --> 00:08:28.610
But um, can you just talk a little bit about if you're in this healthy state, what does it look like?
00:08:29.089 --> 00:08:40.850
Yeah, and I'll I'll say I'll let Nura answer this one, but I'll also say that um this is the kind of I you can, I don't know if I would call this a bias, but this is our philosophy.
00:08:40.850 --> 00:08:45.889
Like this is how we think about healthy IT at nonprofit organizations.
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So we want to be upfront, you know, with organizations before we do the assessment.
00:08:50.690 --> 00:08:59.330
Like this is broadly speaking, you know, sort of from an agnostic perspective, what healthy IT looks like to us.
00:09:00.210 --> 00:09:01.009
Yeah, thank you.
00:09:01.009 --> 00:09:06.529
And and you know, you could start think of it as uh healthy IT environment.
00:09:06.610 --> 00:09:12.129
It's not just about having the most expensive tools or the newest uh systems.
00:09:12.129 --> 00:09:24.289
Uh it's about where the technology environment supports or whether the technology environment supports uh the work of the organization in a reliable, secure, and manageable way.
00:09:24.289 --> 00:09:25.250
Uh
00:09:25.250 --> 00:09:38.210
So as we look at those four assessment categories uh that we had uh mentioned, uh we want to take a look at the IT infrastructure and core IT systems.
00:09:38.210 --> 00:09:40.049
Are they healthy?
00:09:40.049 --> 00:09:50.689
That means uh reliable devices, supported networks, uh managed uh accounts, stable collaboration tools, and clear expectations for support.
00:09:50.689 --> 00:09:57.889
You know, as uh it's definitely vendor agnostic is just what we look for, you know, are they there or not?
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Uh
00:09:58.529 --> 00:10:06.769
And then when it comes to data web and digital platforms, it means the core uh systems uh fit that work.
00:10:06.769 --> 00:10:16.450
Uh data is findable and protected, uh reporting is useful, integrations reduce any friction uh rather than creating it.
00:10:16.450 --> 00:10:26.610
So we're looking at that seamless approach when it comes to finding data, that integration with web and digital platforms, you know, at the bottlenecks.
00:10:26.610 --> 00:10:35.570
Uh is it working or is it are we are we finding there's data integrity issues, uh our tech data reliability issues?
00:10:35.570 --> 00:10:36.210
Um,
00:10:36.210 --> 00:10:42.210
Another aspect of a healthy nonprofit IT environment uh is the security and compliance.
00:10:42.210 --> 00:10:55.570
Uh and there are some foundational security uh I would say approaches or standards that we expect to see uh in a healthy environment, which means like do you practice managed devices?
00:10:55.570 --> 00:11:00.210
Uh meaning they are they being patched, are they managed centrally?
00:11:00.210 --> 00:11:09.730
Um uh do they have consistent uh configuration, or are they all not uh managed or are they all unmanaged?
00:11:09.730 --> 00:11:13.250
Uh do you have multi-factor authentication implemented?
00:11:13.409 --> 00:11:16.129
You know, these are things that we find that are baseline.
00:11:16.129 --> 00:11:24.610
Is there any security awareness program uh in place uh for the education of your staff and awareness of your employees?
00:11:24.610 --> 00:11:28.610
Um do you have a backup um policy or backup?
00:11:28.610 --> 00:11:39.809
Uh are you how which type of backup solution are you using for your cloud applications as well as any on-premises applications that you may have or uh assets that you may have?
00:11:39.809 --> 00:11:42.929
Uh do you have a process for reviewing access?
00:11:42.929 --> 00:11:47.409
Um monitoring uh your endpoints uh properly.
00:11:47.409 --> 00:11:56.610
Uh are you do you have any security controls uh just to ensure that your nonprofit organization um is secure?
00:11:56.610 --> 00:11:59.970
Um do you have any compliance requirements that you're following?
00:11:59.970 --> 00:12:06.769
And how are you following those and ensuring that their compliance is enforced uh in your organization?
00:12:07.090 --> 00:12:18.769
And then lastly, their governance and strategy is something that uh is quite uh it's it it just helps to uh ensure that you have a good governance uh in place.
00:12:18.769 --> 00:12:26.129
For instance, uh it means that you have policies, uh the policy could be acceptable use policy.
00:12:26.129 --> 00:12:29.889
Uh do you have any incident response policy?
00:12:29.889 --> 00:12:42.289
Umership uh of IT at the organization, uh, is it at the management level, is it at the leadership level, or is it just ad hoc uh at your organization?
00:12:42.289 --> 00:12:44.769
Uh do you have any budget discipline?
00:12:44.769 --> 00:13:04.850
Uh do you consistently ensure that you have IT uh budgeted for uh in a year and in a year basis, especially when we find that IT these days are the spend is moving into a recurring expenditure uh rather than just one-time fixed costs that you may incur.
00:13:04.850 --> 00:13:07.409
So uh you want to be disciplined about that.
00:13:07.409 --> 00:13:08.689
So we look for that.
00:13:08.769 --> 00:13:10.769
And then vendor oversights.
00:13:10.769 --> 00:13:16.450
You do have multiple vendors most likely at your organization that you have to deal with in when it comes to technology.
00:13:16.450 --> 00:13:18.769
How is that oversight uh done?
00:13:18.769 --> 00:13:28.610
Uh leadership alignment and also lastly, then a roadmap, if you do have one that actually uh network uh that could that you could execute on.
00:13:28.610 --> 00:13:32.929
Uh, oftentimes uh some organizations don't have any roadmap.
00:13:33.169 --> 00:13:38.450
So that's where we come in to assess and then develop that roadmap uh for them.
00:13:41.090 --> 00:13:43.330
You've given us so much to think about today.
00:13:43.330 --> 00:13:48.529
Are there some key takeaways that we should leave this webinar with?
00:13:49.730 --> 00:13:54.610
Yes, uh so uh the first one is uh assessment connects technology to mission.
00:13:54.610 --> 00:13:59.409
And uh we give you uh an understanding that it should be practical.
00:13:59.409 --> 00:14:02.769
Uh, it's something that maybe you could find some funding for it.
00:14:02.769 --> 00:14:17.330
But typically a good one, an extensive one, should take you about seven to nine weeks uh process, and typically in the 20 to 30k uh thousand dollar range uh to do a thorough assessment or evaluation.
00:14:17.649 --> 00:14:29.490
And uh secondly, we wanted to ensure that uh you understand that we have this uh four categories, not not only as just the only categories that we look for, but these are high-level categories.
00:14:29.490 --> 00:14:37.570
Inside each of them, we have a standardized, rigorous process of evaluating uh each of those categories.
00:14:37.570 --> 00:14:44.769
So you should remember there's an infrastructure that you have to deal with, uh, which also is related to your core IT systems.
00:14:44.769 --> 00:14:49.570
And then you have the data and web as well as digital platforms.
00:14:49.570 --> 00:14:57.570
Then thirdly, you have the security and compliance aspect of it, as well as the final category, which is governance and strategy.
00:14:57.970 --> 00:15:04.049
Then uh the last takeaway is uh the organization should work away with a clear path forward.
00:15:04.049 --> 00:15:21.009
Uh so with you getting that comprehensive evaluation report, a recommendation list, which is prioritized, as well as a uh strategic technology plan, and lastly a roadmap that you could actually execute on.
00:15:21.809 --> 00:15:33.090
And so once you have those lovely four aspects of the report, after you've had this uh comprehensive, holistic evaluation done, what are the next steps?
00:15:33.090 --> 00:15:34.450
Like then what?
00:15:35.009 --> 00:15:42.689
Yeah, so uh this uh you know this is where you want to take what you've received as the output and talk to leadership.
00:15:42.689 --> 00:15:45.330
Leadership needs to then take some action.
00:15:45.490 --> 00:15:56.129
And this is where we uh recommending leadership should convene uh within their circles to discuss and evaluate the assessment and roadmap uh recommendations.
00:15:56.129 --> 00:16:10.289
Uh and our process also should be collaborative, transparent, and uh because we want to ensure that at the end of the day you have some action that you need to take that is practical for your organization.
00:16:10.529 --> 00:16:15.809
So you want to also revisit your goals and uh think about your IT strategy.
00:16:15.809 --> 00:16:21.490
Sometimes an organization may not be maybe focused on their mission, but not necessarily having an IT strategy.
00:16:21.490 --> 00:16:33.809
This outcome of the report as well as the uh roadmap should help you in developing that strategy if you don't already have one uh with the new information that you have learned from the assessment.
00:16:33.809 --> 00:16:34.769
Uh
00:16:34.769 --> 00:16:54.289
And then the the idea of uh what is reasonable, uh, what is realistic for your existing uh IT support, uh it's important there because if you have an IT support, you want to know do they have the capacity to implement the recommendations that are in this IT roadmap?
00:16:54.289 --> 00:17:03.809
Or do you need to reconsider or get another partner that could help you uh realize or implement the uh IT roadmap effectively?
00:17:03.809 --> 00:17:10.930
So this is where uh sometimes you have an IT support uh uh partner that actually has the capacity.
00:17:10.930 --> 00:17:18.210
Uh, they may also be aligned because an outside organization has done the assessment and they say, Oh, this is something we've been thinking about.
00:17:18.210 --> 00:17:20.130
I'm glad to see it in writing.
00:17:20.130 --> 00:17:25.090
It supports what we can do, and then you can negotiate on how to get those implemented.
00:17:25.090 --> 00:17:26.130
Uh
00:17:26.130 --> 00:17:31.170
But there are times when the third-party support is actually needed, you know.
00:17:31.170 --> 00:17:39.730
So then this is uh something that has to be discussed and evaluated depending on your organization's needs.
00:17:39.730 --> 00:17:46.370
Um there's one key last thing there about next steps, is about your capacity and culture for change.
00:17:46.370 --> 00:17:58.050
Some organizations, uh, change is difficult, especially if the roadmaps points to some key milestones of changes that need to happen uh uh for your organization to move forward.
00:17:58.690 --> 00:18:02.450
I just heard it referred to as change saturation.
00:18:02.450 --> 00:18:15.170
That especially in this age of AI, there may be, you know, people are people, and there's only so much change that you can accomplish all at the same time.
00:18:15.170 --> 00:18:26.450
So I think that goes back to you said one of the deliverables is this roadmap of what is the priority and what's the timeline and how are you going to make the change manageable.
00:18:26.770 --> 00:18:28.450
That's exactly right.
00:18:29.090 --> 00:18:36.370
And we have some more uh resources on our site for uh anyone who is looking for more information after this webinar.
00:18:36.370 --> 00:18:36.770
Uh,
00:18:36.770 --> 00:18:40.770
We have a cybersecurity readiness for nonprofits playbook.
00:18:40.770 --> 00:18:59.250
Um, so if you're not a cybersecurity expert, this playbook is written in very accessible language and it kind of walks through our philosophy of how to layer cybersecurity and those kind of must-haves that you can have and maybe some nice to have's and explains a lot of what cybersecurity requires.
00:18:59.570 --> 00:19:01.090
We have a few other downloads.
00:19:01.090 --> 00:19:06.690
Those are all free on our website at community.com, and they'll be in the transcript.
00:19:06.690 --> 00:19:12.450
So, how do I know if an IT managed services provider is right for my nonprofit organization?
00:19:12.450 --> 00:19:26.930
Um, building a foundation for IT innovation, so kind of getting the foundation right first so that the basics are there and you can build on it if you want to do bigger projects, um, more complicated IT.
00:19:26.930 --> 00:19:31.090
And then the nonprofit guide to vetting a managed IT services provider.
00:19:31.090 --> 00:19:39.490
This gives you 12 questions that you can ask if you haven't used an uh MSP before, or if you're thinking about changing your MSP.
00:19:39.490 --> 00:19:48.850
It's this is for anyone that you might put on your short list and how to get some more information about what kind of partner they're going to be.
00:19:48.850 --> 00:19:49.890
Uh and then
00:19:49.890 --> 00:19:52.050
I think we have some time for QA.
00:19:52.050 --> 00:20:00.930
Um so we uh don't have a live audience today, but we have gotten some questions over the years that we've been doing assessments.
00:20:00.930 --> 00:20:03.010
Um, and one is on timing.
00:20:03.330 --> 00:20:19.170
So if you're in a situation where maybe your IT director just let you know that they're leaving, uh is that a good time to do an assessment or should you wait until you have a new person and then they've had time to settle in and they want to be part of the assessment?
00:20:19.170 --> 00:20:22.210
Do you guys have some advice on that timing?
00:20:23.970 --> 00:20:30.290
I think it it depends on um the circumstances of the departure.
00:20:30.290 --> 00:20:44.850
I think if you're if you think that the structure of the organization is gonna more or less stay the same, you you're pretty confident in IT management and governance, but you just don't have an understanding of what's going on with the specific systems.
00:20:44.850 --> 00:20:55.490
In that situation, I would wait, you know, for the new IT person, the new IT director to start so that they can be a part of the process.
00:20:55.490 --> 00:20:59.810
They may, you really would want their buy-in in that situation.
00:20:59.810 --> 00:21:14.050
And so um, the last thing you'd want to do is conduct an assessment, get all the reports, and then hire someone who's not really on board with that process or the results that came out of that process.
00:21:14.050 --> 00:21:15.170
Um,
00:21:15.170 --> 00:21:25.170
On the flip side, if you're uncertain, if the IT director leaves and it's sort of thrown all of IT into question, is this the right position?
00:21:25.170 --> 00:21:26.530
Do we have the right structure?
00:21:26.530 --> 00:21:30.130
Do we want to keep IT in-house?
00:21:30.130 --> 00:21:32.290
Do we want to keep IT outsourced?
00:21:32.290 --> 00:21:52.770
You know, if you're asking a lot of changes about uh a lot of questions about what could change, then it might make sense to get an assessment which can help shed some light on those decisions because you don't want to hire an IT director if it turns out you need a CIO, for example, which an assessment could at least give you some insight into.
00:21:53.170 --> 00:22:12.930
So it really depends on the circumstances and um how I think it kind of goes back to the results of the assessment and you know, how well positioned is your organization to benefit and get value from those results, given the circumstances that you're in.
00:22:13.810 --> 00:22:16.850
I think we have another question that might come up.
00:22:16.850 --> 00:22:27.330
Um, and some people listening to this might be thinking is there a size of your organization at which an assessment really makes sense and has more value?
00:22:27.330 --> 00:22:29.730
Or is an assessment really for everyone?
00:22:29.730 --> 00:22:36.610
Like if you're a two, three-person organization, um, do you need an assessment at that size?
00:22:36.610 --> 00:22:38.610
Like what would your advice be?
00:22:39.090 --> 00:22:42.610
Yeah, I think the scope should fit uh the organization size.
00:22:42.610 --> 00:22:55.730
So I would say everyone needs an assessment, but uh specifically if you have a smaller nonprofit organization, you know, uh then the scope should should fit your size.
00:22:55.890 --> 00:23:01.330
And sometimes you may find a small non-profit organization with tremendous infrastructure.
00:23:01.330 --> 00:23:09.650
And that infrastructure could be they are doing some research, so they have to build that infrastructure so that's a business need as part of their mission.
00:23:09.650 --> 00:23:14.210
Or it might have been they were large at one point in time and then they shrunk.
00:23:14.210 --> 00:23:20.290
Now they want to do an assessment to see how they can right-size their IT needs and environment.
00:23:20.290 --> 00:23:21.170
Um
00:23:21.170 --> 00:23:26.210
So really that's where the experience of the assessor comes into play.
00:23:26.210 --> 00:23:41.090
As the assessor is actually bidding for the assessment, they would have an ask this key questions about the right fit, uh, making sure it's tailored to present uh assessment results that are actionable by the organization.
00:23:41.330 --> 00:23:47.730
So sometimes a nonprofit that is small may not necessarily need at the same depth as a large organization.
00:23:47.730 --> 00:24:00.930
Uh, but uh still uh needs some uh you know reliable systems that it needs to work, it needs to have some basic security uh standards there and uh clear ownership and a plan that fits its budget.
00:24:01.410 --> 00:24:10.610
I feel like we do run into so many clients that you have just when they started small, they just kind of went willy-nilly in every direction with their IT.
00:24:10.610 --> 00:24:12.370
With a small team, you can do that.
00:24:12.370 --> 00:24:18.290
Like one person chooses one thing, one person chooses the other thing, and you're kind of all together working on it.
00:24:18.290 --> 00:24:27.970
So it doesn't, the problems don't become apparent until you grow bigger or something more complicated comes along, and then you're like, whoa, we have spaghetti here.
00:24:27.970 --> 00:24:29.490
We have to sort it out.
00:24:29.490 --> 00:24:37.250
So that might be something where an assessment uh might help you as you're preparing to grow to get those things in alignment.
00:24:37.490 --> 00:24:40.690
So I want to go over our learning objectives for today.
00:24:40.690 --> 00:24:42.930
I feel like we really hit all of them.
00:24:42.930 --> 00:24:49.650
So we wanted to learn what is an IT assessment, what does it typically include, why should you have one done?
00:24:49.650 --> 00:25:05.090
I thank you both so much for sharing with us all of your expertise and knowledge and experience in doing these over the years and um and and you know, helping us understand like this is what a holistic assessment, IT assessment is going to include.
00:25:05.090 --> 00:25:16.450
Um, we did talk a little bit about what does a healthy nonprofit IT environment look like and gave you a little checklist there of those different categories and what healthy IT looks like.
00:25:16.450 --> 00:25:24.450
And then, you know, if your assessment tells you it's time to change your IT support, we just talked about some of those typical next steps.
00:25:24.450 --> 00:25:24.850
Um,
00:25:24.850 --> 00:25:36.690
So I don't want to let people leave without inviting them back to our next webinar next month, when I will be leading our presentation with my colleague uh Erik Solce.
00:25:36.690 --> 00:26:04.130
And we're gonna talk about an ongoing project that we have using AI to build a data lake for marketing and the structure that we came up with that's really helped me manage this giant project with a little tech coaching from Erik and a lot of AI helping me manage and connect up these different channels and be able to ask some really interesting questions across this data.
00:26:04.130 --> 00:26:12.450
Um, so we're gonna share how the project evolved, some of the things that we did that were just awesome, some things that didn't go as well as we had hoped.
00:26:12.770 --> 00:26:19.890
I think this structure has a lot of potential for other nonprofit AI projects that you might have on the back burner.
00:26:19.890 --> 00:26:37.970
If you've been putting something off because you don't have the technical know-how to do it, whether it's building a data lake or analyzing program reports or something else that you want to get started on, we're gonna talk about how and where AI can be helpful and how to use it carefully and effectively.
00:26:37.970 --> 00:26:39.330
So that's at 3 p.m.
00:26:39.330 --> 00:26:42.930
Eastern Noon Pacific on Wednesday, August 19th.
00:26:42.930 --> 00:26:47.090
You can register now on our website at communityit.com.
00:26:47.410 --> 00:26:55.730
And Johan and Nura, I just want to thank you both so much for your time and experience and for sharing with us today.
00:26:55.730 --> 00:26:57.010
This was just so helpful.
00:26:57.010 --> 00:26:57.730
I learned a lot.
00:26:57.730 --> 00:27:02.530
So I hope the people who are listening uh also were able to benefit from this experience.
00:27:03.090 --> 00:27:04.770
Thank you, Carolyn, for having me.
00:27:05.090 --> 00:27:05.730
Yeah, thank you.
00:27:05.730 --> 00:27:08.930
It was a pleasure and thanks to everyone for watching.
00:27:11.490 --> 00:27:14.930
Thank you for joining this community IT podcast, part two.
00:27:14.930 --> 00:27:21.090
You can find part one in your podcast feed if you subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
