Nonprofit organizations face many challenges when it comes to technology including restricted budgets and limited in-house IT resources. This makes it difficult to own, implement, manage and leverage mission-critical technology.
Gartner Group reports that businesses spend an average of 2.3% of annual revenues on IT. Regardless of whether your tech budget is higher or lower than 2.3%, it’s important to have a strategy and invest in IT systems, apps and support services that move your organization forward.
A comprehensive IT strategy helps nonprofits:
- Increase earned revenues
- Track donors more reliably
- Use volunteers more efficiently
- Better meet the needs of constituents
- Discover new opportunities
- Deliver new services
At Multi IT, we collaborate with your nonprofit to identify technology solutions that address your unique needs. With Multi IT, nonprofits can leverage technology to better serve constituents and cultivate donors while still keeping costs down. Multi IT has a history of supporting nonprofits and experience with programs specifically designed for nonprofit organizations.
Reliable, current technology is possible on a limited budget
Multi IT consults with nonprofit clients to identify current objectives and your vision for the future. With that insight, we help you create a strategic direction for your technology environment that complements your short, medium and long-term goals.
Typically, a plan is laid out prioritizing items of concern and scheduling replacements and
upgrades over the course of the year. By working with a professional managed IT provider, your nonprofit can put plans and budgets into place to routinely replace equipment. This rotation not only saves money but keeps systems working efficiently and securely, including donated workstations which may be at the end of their usefulness even at the time they’re donated.
With donated hardware or even new consumer/professional or “prosumer” equipment, workstations can be flimsy and won’t integrate seamlessly with other parts of your environment. Prosumer devices can also
create security problems, make it more difficult to access key line of business applications, and cause bottlenecks with higher-speed internet services. For instance, you might upgrade to a 100Mb internet connection only to find your current firewall only has enough throughput to handle a 50Mb connection. Now you’re paying for a service you can’t even use. You should be operating with business-grade technology which Multi IT has the resources and expertise to deliver.
With the advice of IT professionals, nonprofits can benefit from IT standards, have less downtime and enjoy a much higher quality of service than they’d get with on-call, break-fix technology support.
Break-fix doesn’t make sense in the long run
It may seem like a good idea to only retain professional IT assistance when something isn’t working, but in the long run, this approach costs more and damages the overall performance of your organization.
Downtime is expensive. If your system goes down, you need the issue addressed quickly.
You don’t want your IT person to be learning as they troubleshoot your problem. To make matters worse, many break-fix companies only look at the immediate issue, not the big picture. This sets you up for a merry-go-round of break, fix, repeat. This means more visits from your IT provider and more expenses for you.
Cost management is almost impossible in a break-fix IT set up. Systems aren’t routinely monitored and managed so breakdowns are unpredictable. Break-fix support costs are uncertain and risky.
Multi IT has first-hand experience working closely with nonprofits and brings a wealth of expertise to implement useful, reliable and cost-effective technology. Be proactive about your technology today – contact Multi IT
online or at 011 435 0450.
