Does ICT Matter To You and Your Organisation?

Simon Davey, preponderate.net

"Wisdom is to recognise what can be made better and make it better, and to recognise what can only be made worse and walk away." - Glen Duncan

You may think you know what you need in terms of ICT but how realistic is it?  Can you afford that shiny new computer?  Can you afford NOT to buy that database?  And just how do all these ICT components make things better for your organisation and the people, organisations and communities you're trying to help?

How do we distinguish between something we need and something we want? Let's look at defining need from the point of view of a voluntary organisation.

ICT has two purposes

1. Doing things better
2. Doing better things

ICT enables effective record keeping and efficient handling of information and communication within an organisation (including between sites).

Frontline staff are often engaged in time consuming inefficient administration or communication that is hampered by inadequate systems, especially in relation to client records and monitoring. Freeing up this time allows more effective work with clients - and more effective records of this, for the organisation and its funders.

First steps in needs analysis

How do you work out what you need?  Let's start with five basic questions:

1. What is the purpose of your organisation
2. What activities and processes underpin that purpose
3. What information is required to carry out those activities/processes
4. What needs to be communicated, to whom and when
5. Who needs access to information, when and why
   

These questions come up a lot in 'business analysis' for database projects but apply right across ICT. You might think you know all the answers (and if there are only 2 or 3 of you in the organisation, you probably do) but if you work in a team of six or more, you almost certainly don't.

ACTION POINT: Go around your organisation and ask these questions... to everyone.

Defining need

Firstly, forget the technology.  Big grey boxes and software is great for leading you up the garden path.

Answer the questions:

• What do you want/need to do and why?
• How can you justify what you need?
• What will be the benefits?

The answers should throw up a lot of ideas.  Some may seem expensive, some may seem essential, but until you work through everything, you won't know what you need.

I need to communicate my activities

• Why?
• What am I communicating?
• Who with?
• When?
• How often?
• By what mechanism?
• Do they need/want this communication?

I need to report on my activities

• Why?
• What am I reporting?
• Who to?
• When?
• How often?
• By what mechanism?
• Do they need/want this report?

I went through this process in planning a database with a very small membership organisation.  The trustees were clear what they wanted.  Alas all the information was in the hands of a volunteer administrator who refused to use computers.  The proposed database never happened but at least it was stopped before any money had been spent.

It's all about the process

The only point of doing something is to move towards an outcome (as an organisation NOT as an ICT project).  Sometimes we're so blinded by the wonders of technology we forget what we're actually here for.

• INFORMATION is the key to supporting the process
• COMMUNICATION is fundamental
• TECHNOLOGY is part of the tools and infrastructure (the hammer you need to build the house)

ICT projects are never just ICT projects

Your ICT projects are never just ICT projects.  They're systems, processes and projects which use ICT as a supporting tool.  Bad ICT projects fail because no one ever really knew what they needed to do.

What will be the benefit?  You need to be clear about what the activity, process and need is before you start developing or planning anything (and definitely before you start spending money).

I want to...

• I want to... have a shiny new desktop computer
  • I need... a PC which performs efficiently and effectively

• I want to... have an ICT strategy
  • I need... to have the buy-in of senior managers and all staff, to have an implementable plan for how we use ICT as an effective tool, to understand our processes and activities as an organisation.

• I want to... have a database
  • I need... to know what information we need to record, in what format, by whom, and what outputs are required.

Time for action

ACTION POINT: Pick a project which reflects your organisational issue at the moment.  It could be Communication, Reporting, Managing information, Managing contacts, Storage or Scheduling.  What do you need and why... What's the benefit and how big a priority is it?

What is ICT used for?

ICT has it's fair share of benefits but it won't solve all your problems. It's very good at:

• Personal productivity (doing things better)
• Information sharing (keeping everyone in touch)
• Inter-networking and communication (external relationships)

ICT works well for:

• Automation
• One to many communication
• Communication over distance and time
• Processing results by a known method to produce a statistical (process driven) result
• Storing and manipulating information

ICT works best when kept as simple as possible.

Know what you need to do before you need to do it

Ask yourself what are you doing?

• Why? (What are the benefits?)
• Who are you doing it with?
• What are you doing? (that's not a typing error, you need to ask yourself again!)
• Are all the relevant parties on board? (There's no point doing something that people aren't interested in and won't support and it's just as likely to be your office administrator that scuppers a project as your Chief Exec)
• How will you document the process (and amendments to it)?
• Have you got a project observer? Someone who is distant, critical and engaging. Passionate enough to care but dispassionate enough not to be emotional or self-interested in the result. It's a good role for an external consultant (or a trusted local advisor) or you might get a volunteer to help (but almost certainly not one of your trustees - they've got too much interest in the result).

The big questions

Take time out to think about these:

1. What do you need to do to DO THINGS BETTER and DO BETTER THINGS?
2. What does EFFECTIVE ICT look like in your organisation?

This questionaire will help you think this through.

ACTION POINT: Download and complete the questionaire

What does Effective ICT look like anyway?

It's a good question and will vary depending on your size of organisation, your resources and what you actually do. However, this checklist will help you think through it more carefully.

How does it look for you?

And so...

What do YOU need to do things better and to do better things? Why? Where does it fit in your organisation and role?

And what are going to do this Summer that will make a difference to your organisation and your clients?

Summing up

1. Make a plan
2. Justify what you need and why
3. Organise resources to manage ICT
4. Find money to fund ICT
5. Make the commitment to make ICT work

The time is now... Go do it!

Dr Simon N Davey, Preponderate.network
www.preponderate.net - simon@preponderate.net

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