As I write this, it’s less than a week since the death of Steve Jobs, and it’s impossible to write an article about IT without thinking of the man who has rightly been cast as our day’s equivalent of past industrial greats like Thomas Edison and Henry Ford.

You don’t have to own an iPod or a Mac or love Toy Story to appreciate that Jobs’s vision and leadership has literally transformed whole industries – personal computers, music, films, mobile phones, and now tablets – and much has been written about his lasting impact on our modern life.

As we lament his untimely passing, it’s perhaps useful to reflect on what we can learn from his approach to technology, to see if there are lessons for us in the way that IT is planned, deployed and used in the third sector. Here are a few thoughts.

The first lesson is that specifications are meaningless.

Too often technology comes down to ‘specs’, to the technical jargon and numbers. What’s the GB, the GHz, the RAM? How many megapixels, or what slots or interfaces does it have?

Jobs was one of the few to call the bluff on this technobabble and to see it as ultimately meaningless. To him, the real spec to worry about was always user experience.

Under Jobs, Apple moved away from numerical one-upmanship and focused on the end-to-end experience of technology for an end user, and they developed an integrated approach to hardware and software that made computers as easy as possible for people to use and get on with their real work.

This is a useful principle to keep in mind as we implement IT solutions, as too often the super-duper new network goes in (with all its great specs and new features) but staff members come in and can’t print, or can’t find their documents. Technology should be nearly transparent: like a good pair of shoes, it should be so comfortable we don’t notice it at all, let alone trip over it all the time.

The second lesson is: don’t give users what they want.

At first blush, this may seem to fly in the face of the previous point about focusing on user experience. But in actual fact, users often don’t understand, certainly at the outset of a project or before the implementation of a new technology, what they really want.

Jobs liked to quote Ford’s adage that if he’d asked his customers what they wanted, they’d have asked for a faster horse.

Under Jobs, Apple never followed current market trends, or conducted focus groups, and certainly never listened to the experts and armchair pundits. Instead, they looked around the next corner and single-mindedly pursued a particular vision of what the best system or solution would be.

Whether it was a new-fangled input device called a ‘mouse’, a computer without a floppy drive, or a mobile phone without a keyboard, no focus group could have come up with the idea or indeed endorsed it.

A tablet computer? That’s been tried for ten years and has never caught on, the experts said. Nobody wants a tablet! Jobs ignored this ‘wisdom’ and forged ahead with the iPad. The rest, as they say, is history.

The message here is that a good IT strategy should be bold, visionary and forward-thinking, which is not what you get if you focus on the ways things are or have always been done.

The third lesson is that failure can be very useful.

We all fail sometimes, but most of have learned to pick ourselves up and carry on, trying to distance ourselves as quickly as possible from the failure and whatever caused it.

Steve Jobs was a serial ‘failure’ – a college drop-out, fired from the first company he founded, Apple, just as it was getting going, founder of NeXT Computers which was a commercial disaster, the list goes on.

What set him apart was that in each instance he learned from his failure and came back stronger. We can all learn from success, but it takes a special person to learn from getting things very wrong.

Getting fired from Apple, Jobs said, was the best thing that ever happened to him. After taking some time out, he invested in a tiny animation company called Pixar. He started NeXT and developed the technology that would later be the basis of Mac OS X and the iOS operating system that runs iPhones and iPads.

Like Jobs, a good IT strategy should be nimble and learn a lot from past mistakes.

The fourth lesson is that technology should embrace wider values like good design.

Apple, Jobs always said, lives at the crossroads of technology and the liberal arts, and that’s what separates it from other computer companies.

It is no secret that part of what makes using a Mac or an iPad so enjoyable is the special effort that went into crafting the devices and their software, almost as works of art.

And this aesthetic imperative reflects a deeper truth, namely that technology on its own doesn’t resonate with the values of most human beings, but when it is elegantly conceived and executed it can become a powerful delivery agent for the things that do.

That’s an important message for those who work with these technologies in the third sector: that IT for IT’s sake, packaged in dull beige boxes with all their fancy specifications, will always fail, but IT designed for the important things in life – whether that’s the fundraising campaign of a charity, or simply meaningful family movies or photos – is what endures.

A few years ago, when the East Belfast Partnership was setting up Espresso East, a social enterprise espresso bar, we brought in a consultant to advise us on the finer points of the coffee business.

One of his questions for us sticks with me to this day. ‘How will you know how much your staff are stealing from you?’ he asked. Not if, note, but how much.

In the retail trade, it is widely assumed that some staff members will be dishonest and there are security measures (like CCTV cameras trained on the till) and procedures (like carefully monitored end of day cash reconciliation) designed to mitigate the effects of this.

Over the years I have seen a similar diligence in third sector organisations in the way they use IT systems to guard against the potential vices of their staff: everything from user-based security permissions on folders so junior staff can’t find out what salaries managers are earning, to the blocking of social networking and other time-sapping websites, measures deployed with varying degrees of purpose and effectiveness.

But in this rush to use IT to control staff behaviour, the integrity of those implementing the systems is rarely questioned, despite the fact that as computer systems become ever more pervasive, the amount of information access and power at the fingertips of IT workers is increasing dramatically.

In many organisations it is not uncommon to find that the most important and sensitive company data is restricted to a few senior managers – and to whatever staff members happen to look after the network server.

In this article, I want to ask you, ‘Can you actually trust the people looking after your IT?’ Or coming directly back to the retail trade analogy, ‘How do you know what information your IT support people are stealing from you?’

It’s a question all too infrequently posed. IT staff are employed or support is outsourced mainly the basis of value, capacity and experience, and ethics rarely enter into the equation.

Yet an IT industry survey once revealed that a third of IT staff admitted using their administrator passwords to snoop through company systems and peek at confidential information such as salary data.

In another poll of more than 16,000 IT professionals, 62% said they had accessed another person’s computer without permission and 50% read confidential or sensitive information without a legitimate reason. In addition, 42% said they had knowingly violated a company’s privacy, security or IT policies.

And these weren’t just junior IT staff. The average experience level was more than eight years, and about 32% of respondents were at or above the manager level. Over four-fifths worked at companies with more than 5,000 full-time employees.

Of course, there’s nothing shocking in these (probably understated) statistics for anyone with a passing familiarity with human nature, but what is surprising is how we seem to give technology and technologists a ‘bye’ on moral questions.

The truth is that principles and values matter as much in IT as in the social and community spheres in which most charitable organisations operate. Indeed, the day-to-day world of IT is filled with ethical challenges and thorny moral dilemmas, and given the pace of change in technology and the rate at which tricky new questions are being raised, it’s all the more important to put ethics back on the table for frank discussion.

There’s no magic solution to ensure that the people with whom you entrust the keys to your valuable and sensitive data are inherently trustworthy, but making it an issue is an essential part of the process.

Make sure you know where your IT staff or support company stand on important issues such as those concerning privacy, security, personal property and copyright, and protection of the environment. The next time your organisation tenders for an IT-related project, ask for a statement of values alongside capability and cost, and don’t be afraid to get genuine character references not just a list of previous experience.

So much of the good work of charities and social enterprises is driven by people with deeply-held values: we shouldn’t compromise this work by ransoming our critical information systems to people who don’t share these same principles.

Information lies at the heart of most third sector organisations. Data.

Endless amounts of data, really, about everything from service delivery, end users and an organisation’s interactions with them, through funders, donors and promotional campaigns, to core business documents covering organisational strategy and operations.

In most organisations this information is completely decentralised, split across reams of spreadsheets and small database applications like Access, not to mention paper-based records.

The result is highly inefficient with much of the data being duplicated in various places and, with little or no connection between the various data ‘silos’, it becomes extremely costly and time consuming to manage the information and generate useful reports. Truth be told, reporting ends up being avoided except when strictly necessary, usually at a funder’s behest: timely ‘dashboard’ style updates for managers and staff are out of the question!

The enterprise solution to such a mess is of course the management information system (MIS), a centralised database application that is specifically tailored to meet an organisation’s unique needs.

A good MIS ensures that all information is stored in one place only and that the data is properly organised so that all meaningful relationships between the information can be reflected in useful and easy-to-generate reports and dashboards.

Traditionally, the deployment of such an MIS meant calling in a specialised database developer over the course of many months and the outlay of tens of thousands of pounds.

That’s all changed now, however, as one of the most successful areas of the new ‘cloud computing’ (online software as a service) era is specifically the provision of easily customised and affordable online management information systems.

There are plenty of options to choose from, but two of the leading solutions are Salesforce CRM and Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Salesforce is the leading cloud computing provider which has revolutionised the business application marketplace over the last decade, while Dynamics 2011 is the first version of Microsoft’s popular CRM product to be available as a hosted software solution.

In addition to bringing all the benefits of centralised information system, these online MIS systems have these advantages over their on-premise cousins:

• there is no costly hardware or software to purchase, only a monthly subscription fee per user, with the option of cancelling at any time
• they can be used on any internet connected device (PC or Mac, desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone)
• they can be used by staff outside the office, either working from home or from remote offices (such as points of service delivery, rather than the organisational HQ)
  ongoing upgrades are deployed automatically without fuss

Gone too are the expensive development fees and longterm tie-in associated with a proprietary database application project. In their place the much more affordable cost of customising and configuring the application to suit the data and workflow of a given organisation: some of this configuration work and ongoing system maintenance can even be done by any IT savvy staff, savings thousands in support costs over time.

Online providers like Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics not only offer enterprise-class customer relationship management (CRM) and service delivery solutions built into their products, but they also function as a complete development platform, allowing you to build and deploy completely customised applications to suit your needs. These new applications can be shared with other users through active ‘app exchange’ maketplaces for the respective products.

Both options are attractive to third sector organisations. Through the Salesforce Foundation, 10 enterprise-level accounts are provided free of charge to qualifying not-for-profit organisations (that’s a value in excess of £12K per year), with additional accounts heavily discounted. Microsoft also offers substantial discounts on Dynamics CRM to not-for-profit organisations as it does across the range of its business products.

With such a low cost of entry, there should be no obstacle to any not-for-profit organisation upgrading to and reaping the many benefits of an online management information system.

Avec offers cloud computing-based management information system development on the Salesforce platform through its Avec Online division.

A few weeks ago I was on a photographic assignment at a CO3 event and was chatting afterwards with the CEO of a high profile third sector organisation. We were discussing the cut backs in public funding and the fact that many organisations in the sector need to urgently find alternative, or at least supplemental sources of income. If not, they may cease to exist.

Of course it is at this time of financial hardship that our society is in even greater need of the many essential services the third sector provides.

How can the sector continue to reach the community’s increasing needs, if it can no longer afford to provide essential, life changing programmes and the staff to deliver them?

The skilful filling-in of funding applications – knowing which boxes to tick and how to steer your organisations profile to chase the funding – is no longer enough. Those who have money to support the work of the sector are now casting a critical eye on results. Now more than ever, third sector organisations need to be able to visibly demonstrate their organisations work in action and the results it achieves.

Many of Avec Photo’s clients are voluntary organisations who have already learnt the value of top quality PR photography in demonstrating and promoting the work they do.

Through highly visual fundraising campaigns which capture the vital role they play within the community, they have achieved sustainability and touched the heart of the public and the conscience of the private sector.

Avec Photo is the first social economy photography service in Northern Ireland. It is part of Avec Solutions which is owned by East Belfast Partnership. After ten years of service, Avec knows the sector and the sector knows Avec.

Having already gained a relationship of trust among our clients providing IT and Website support, many are now looking to us to provide the professional photography services which are becoming more and more important in both demonstrating and effectively documenting their work.

Why not give us a call and discover how our Avec Photo’s services can provide the solutions you need to survive in tough times.

While it’s not been that long since computers were still viewed as ‘luxuries’ and IT budgets were among the first casualties of belt-tightening measures, computer systems are now at the core of most organisations, an inextricable foundation of all business communications, operational processes and data management.

Nevertheless, the high level of dependency on computer systems shouldn’t make IT spending sacrosanct, and in an era of restricted funding and budgets, we still need to carefully assess and rethink all aspects of IT expenditure and investment in order to make best use of available resources.

Here are a few strategies for managing your IT budget in the new ‘age of austerity’.

Start with thorough auditing

Before making any decisions, it’s always best to gather as much information about your current computer systems setup and needs as possible. To do this, make sure you take up the offer of any audits included in your current IT support contract. If your current service contract doesn’t allow for a review, it may well be worth a few hours’ investment of support time to get one carried out.

In addition, many IT support companies will offer an initial audit free of charge if they sense an opportunity to win your business. Take advantage of this opportunity to get a fresh perspective on your systems: the more information and different ideas you are able to gather, the better it will be when it comes to selecting cost-saving solutions for the future.

Key areas to focus on in any review include:

• whether your current IT expenditure is being directed towards short-term expediency or longer term benefits;
• whether your IT systems and plans are fully aligned with organisational strategy;
• whether purchasing is being driven by price alone or an assessment of total cost of ownership (TCO); and
• whether new technologies have emerged that can help achieve organisational goals as well as save money.

Switch to the cloud and software as a service

In planning and developing their IT infrastructure, most third sector organisations are still reflexing today in terms of having a local network built around an onsite server. The procurement, installation and maintenance of onsite servers are far and away the biggest computer expense for these organisations, so it’s not surprising that one of the main ways of saving money on IT costs these days is to eliminate the local server and migrate to ‘cloud services’, hosted software as a service applications.

Instead of installing and maintaining an Exchange server for your organisation’s mail and groupware needs, consider switching to a hosted service like Google Apps, which offers all the same email and collaboration functionality but at a fraction of the cost and with increased flexibility, including better compatibility with mobile devices and the needs of remote workers.

Project management and constituent or customer resource management (CRM) systems are also ideal candidates for switching online and there are a variety of options available, including several specifically tailored to third sector organisations.

Even file storage, the core knowledge base of your organisation, can be securely hosted online, not only saving money but also simplifying backups, remote document access and collaborative working with partner organisations.

Does everyone need a PC?

The ‘standard model’ for IT deployment not only envisages a central onsite network server, but also issues every employee with their own PC or laptop. But consider how the average work week unfolds and how much time is actually spent by each person at a desk-based computer generating new documents, and you soon realise that most people these days are far more mobile, reading emails and documents out of the office, in meetings or otherwise on the go.

Some organisations have recognised that it makes more sense to deploy a smaller number of shared use workspaces with PCs for the ‘heavy lifting’ of content creation while equipping most staff with mobile or tablet devices like iPads for communication and content consumption. Such a flexible arrangement can also save money on office costs as it frees people up to work remotely and on the move, and no longer requires allocating expensive office space for every member of staff.

Using IT investment to lower overall costs

In reviewing your organisation’s budget, consider that there may be an argument for actually increasing IT spending in some areas to make overall savings.

An example of this could be investing in a new IP-based phone system that integrates into your network, simplifying communications workflow and reporting. Or using the opportunity afforded by investing in a new hosted CRM system to do a comprehensive review of all business processes and streamlining them for increased quality and efficiency.

Another way of ‘spending to save’ involves building capacity and lowering dependency on external support, such as investing in a modern content-managed website that allows your staff to update it themselves, as well as tying in with new social networking and other communications tools that could save your organisation money on print and other traditional marketing communications methods.

Whatever your strategy and IT needs, the key thing is not to view the changes imposed by the economic climate as a threat, but rather as an opportunity for reviewing existing systems and using new technologies to further your overall strategy as well as wisely managing limited budgets.