A technology assessment provides you with a snapshot of the current computing environment in your nonprofit. It also gives you a high-level perspective on your staff skills, budget, vendor relationships, procedures and policies. A technology inventory, on the other hand, is a more specific, low-level description of what you own and where it’s located. Your inventory might include details about when and where the technology was purchased, who provides tech support, warranty information and the number of licenses you own. The assessment and the inventory are often done at the same time and often included in the same report.
Why Do a Technology Assessment and Technology Inventory?
An assessment lets you avoid duplicated effort. Perhaps someone in your IT department has been researching and testing donor management software.
An inventory prevents duplicate purchases. Did someone in another department already buy licenses for the latest version of Intuit QuickBooks? Did you buy it yourself and then forget? A thorough, up-to-date inventory helps prevent wasted time and wasted money.
A good assessment lets you know if any critical procedures or policies are missing. For instance, what steps will you take if you find out that one of your servers has been hacked? Do you have a regular backup routine in place? Do you have a disaster recovery plan?
A good assessment lets you know where to spend your technology training dollars. Are staff lacking in email skills? Word processing skills? Do they want to know more about Web 2.0 and cutting-edge technology? Also, what sorts of hard IT skills do you have on staff?
Copyright © 2009 CompuMentor. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
