Does your website provide value?

I am working with a not for profit organization that needs to replace the software that they are using. The software was developed for this international organization many years ago and now is supported by one person on a database that has not been upgraded for many years.

As part of the assessment, the organization wants to put together a budget, so that they understand their costs before they start to spend money. As a result, they don't want to do a detailed evaluation of the software at this time, they just want to project the costs.

The approach that we have taken is to estimate the costs with as little effort as possible and as little interaction with the supplier as possible. This has meant using the website information whenever we can and only ask very specific questions which can be answered simply. This won't be a perfect projection (too many projects undertake a detailed analysis, thereby expensive) before creating a budget.

This is the first time, I have done this and it has given me a new understanding of what a website should provide. In the past, I have been frustrated by websites that lure you in with a promise of information, then require you to sign up, so that they can market to you (As an aside, most of them ask for this, but never follow up). This slows the process down and if you are not ready to talk to a salesman, gets you to look elsewhere for answers.

In this investigation, I found the following types of websites:

1. Some that provided very little information other than being a sales brochure, asking you to contact them for anything that would really tell you about functionality. Most, however, would give you technical specs.
2. Some provided a lot of functionality information, but very little in terms of education about what you need to prepare for.
3. Some that provided functionality, technical and educational information, but required you to sign up to get much of it.
4. One that provided all of the above with no request for signup. It provided a lot of information about what not for profits need to look for, why they should manage it and options for getting it. This went way beyond their software. It was a pleasure reading it and it helped us put together a better proposal.

I worked with a business coach a few years ago, who told me that I should be providing educational information, so that people could understand how I could help them. I now understand what I need to do with my website to increase the value that I provide.

Can a Not-for-profit organization afford free services?

Not-for-profit organizations are always struggling with paying for the services to manage their business operations.

They are in operation to deliver a service to the community and typically do an excellent job at this, providing essential services. When it comes to business operations, however, they often do poorly. Funding organizations will provide funding for delivery of service, for staring new initiatives, but not for office operations. So many NFPs look to get these services for free. They attempt to get skilled people to contribute their time, so that it does not cost the organization anything.

The services that they get are often hit and miss (they get what the volunteer can give) and inconsistent. Each volunteer will approach the issue differently and often any learning or documentation that is collected is lost or not made available to the next volunteer.

Business operations are no different in small business and NFPs. They need to run their business effectively. A consistent level of service is required in the office as well as to the clients. However, there is often a huge gap between the levels of service delivered. The clients get good service (that is why the organization was started and why people volunteer). The office gets second class service (not a priority for office staff or volunteers).

I see this problem in IT service on a regular basis. Computers are essential to running a business today (as well as NFPs). They can provide excellent value if they function properly. They can create tremendous stress when they don't. One of the major factors in quality of service is consistency of maintenance. If computers are not maintained consistently, they do not perform. The end result is frustration, ongoing service problems and difficulty in maintaining the level of service that the business or NFPs is in operation to provide.

Using volunteers for this type of service will cost an NFP more money that they save in the maintenance of their equipment. Their stress will go up, their productivity will go down, they will spend excessive amounts of time trying to find a good volunteer to maintain their equipment. They will suffer from the inconsistency as each volunteer solves problems a different way, and creates new ones in the process.

If you want to focus on delivering the service that your NFP is in operation to do, look at whether you can afford to get free technical support.

For some ideas on how to do that, check out my website at http://www.thevirtualcio.ca/. I don't fix computers. I help organizations to make more effective use of them.

Planning to fail

Planning is a word that brings thick binders to mind in most people. Somebody creates this magnifient document that nobody looks at until the next time we are due to update it or create a new one.

Planning needs to live…. Live in your mind, so that when you have to make a decision, you have a picture of how your decision will impact your business. As a business owner or manager, you make decisions every day. You don’t have time to look up this big planning document to see what impact your decision will have. You must see the picture, clearly and know why you are making the decision.

I see many small businesses and not-for-profits who suffer from this.

They start with a need, but place restrictions on it. They can’t afford to spend a lot of money, so they look for a solution that fits their budget. The problem is, they have not fully defined the problem and what potential solutions might be. So they limp along with short-term solutions that restrict their ability to grow or improve the service that they could provide.

I recently helped a not-for-profit to escape this dilemma. They were suffering from a lack of tools for their organization. Day-to-day problems were common and took up a lot of the Executive Director’s time. They were also at risk of losing their data because of the reliability of the equipment.

We started with an assessment of the situation: What were they trying to accomplish? How was technology helping or hindering their organization? We recommended a renewal of the technology to provide stability, but also identified opportunities for improving business operations by upgrading the software. They couldn’t afford the expenditure that would improve business operations. They couldn’t afford the base hardware upgrades to provide stability either. They went looking for ways that they could fund the upgrades. They found a funding opportunity that provided not only the minimum hardware upgrades, but the business improvement software as well. They submitted and got approval, and are well on their way.

This “opportunity” never would have been found if they had started with what they could afford. They couldn’t afford anything.

While you may say that they were lucky to find this “opportunity”, I disagree. While they had the problem and solution clearly in their minds (the plan), they looked at the “opportunity” from a very different perspective. They were open for it. Planning is just that. Know where you want to go. Know how you can get there. Then let your day-to-day decisions help you get there.

Sometimes you may not know how to create a plan. Let somebody help you. But DON’T let them do it for you. You won’t remember it!

You might say that you don't have time to plan. You are too busy running your business. But you are planning. You are planning to fail!