BC HYDRO

BC HYDRO

Introduction

At any stage of the life of an organization, whether it is large, small, nonprofit, or for profit, employees spend hours each day completing generic business-driven tasks that are required. Although the specifics may vary, employees frequently trade Microsoft Word or Excel files; manually create annual program and donation reports documented in separate spreadsheets per reporting period; and communicate with organizational contacts, i.e., donors, volunteers, customers, vendors, etc., through Microsoft Outlook. Centralizing and relating this information where appropriate, so it is easily accessible to anyone who needs it, seems like a natural way to better manage the data and improve organizational productivity. Managing single copies of documents to allow real-time collaboration rather than manual versioning, automating the recalculation and graphic representation of key metrics every financial period, and sharing a single contact database across the whole organization could actually accelerate administrative business tasks and free time for mission-focused or business-growth oriented work. This is especially relevant for organizations with staff, volunteers, or both working in multiple locations.

Discussion

Unfortunately, many nonprofits and small businesses have a limited budget to support an adequate IT personnel and systems infrastructure. An organization's leaders may lack the time and other resources needed to learn about or invest in even a very simple data management service as they focus on growing the nonprofit or business. Worse still, the time and cost required to set up a system is often prohibitive.II. Cloud Computing and Nonprofits Perhaps in response to this apparent need, many cloud computing providers have developed customized product packages specifically for small businesses and nonprofits. Salesforce.com, a cloud service provider, has created the Nonprofit Starter Pack (NPSP) that is prebuilt with tools for a nonprofit to manage donations, volunteers, and report on core activities and results. Blackbaud offers similar tools specific to nonprofits looking to streamline their fundraising processes and centralize managing other aspects of their business. Both solutions, merely two among many others, seek to level the playing field for nonprofits and technology. Along with product packages, cloud providers actively seek to educate the nonprofit community through free resources, including white papers, webinars, and even user-driven discussion boards. A key lesson within these resources is that a data management tool is only as good as its users, and end-user education is just as critical as choosing the right tool. Fortunately, as more tailored products emerge for this market of cloud service participants, other aspects of cloud computing are similarly democratized. There are often free or low-cost professional services available to further reduce the burden on an organization that simply does not have the resources for a full-time IT employee or team to manage a computer system, even if its initial cost was affordable.[ 20] This means that a nonprofit organization with a small, minimally staffed IT team could leverage low-cost experts from cloud computing companies to actually set up access to the cloud service selected by an organization and even train employees on how to use ...