I know of several Not for Profits who have chosen a traditional, bottom-up approach to procuring CRMs and other systems, only to find that the effort resulted in vendor proposals outside their budget – a Rolls Royce CRM.
Right now, a lot of Not for Profits are reviewing their current strategic plans or in the planning stages of creating their next one. Yet despite their dependency on technology to run their operations, few actually have an IT strategy to support it.
In today’s episode of IT in Plain English, Tammy Ven Dange answers, “What is the #1 Mistake with Digital Transformations by Not for Profits?”
In today’s episode of IT in Plain English, Tammy Ven Dange answers, “What if your Not for Profit cannot afford to upgrade your IT systems?”
Ultimately, a business case should be written with the decision makers in mind – usually a Board, as in the case of Not for Profits. Understanding what their motivations are make it easier to frame the reasoning in your document.
Not for Profits often come to me to help them replace a system that no longer meets their needs or what I call a “broken system.” Unfortunately, some organisations cannot afford to replace the entire system despite its issues. And for them, they need to find alternative strategies to mitigate the pain points in the shorter term.
While most IT vendors are as professional as you would expect, I’m constantly surprised to see some behave badly during a procurement process. And unfortunately, it happens a lot more than people realise.
While it may not appear as debt on the balance sheet, technical debt will eventually show itself as a major capital expenditure or expense.
Why out-of-the box Commercial CRMs don’t work for Not for Profits regardless of their price tag or general popularity,
I regularly help NFPs choose a new CRM for their organisation. And too often, I find the greatest CRM can still fail to meet their needs.