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Building a Better Nonprofit Software Selection Process: Ask the Experts (Video, MP3) is a FREE content courtesy of Build Consulting

1 Lesson / 58 Minutes / FREE

To be successful with selecting new software at your organization, you need to start by identifying and planning for the organizational change that will occur within the future implementation. This is true no matter what type of software you want to choose: CRM, ERP, HRIS, digital engagement, program management…you name it. 

In this “Ask the Experts” webinar co-presented with Community IT Innovators, we answer your questions on ways to create a sound process for software selection, before you consider the specific technologies available to meet your organizational needs. 

Join Build Consulting co-founders Kyle Haines and David Deal as they leverage their combined 70+ years in nonprofit technology projects to answer your questions about what makes a software selection successful.

As with all our webinars, this presentation is appropriate for an audience of varied IT experience. And Build is scrupulously vendor-agnostic.

Build’s clients often tell us that our nonprofit software selection process is unlike what they have experienced before. And vendors often tell us that our clients are better prepared than any other nonprofits to approach software selection and implementation efforts. In answering registrant and attendee questions, we also talk about what makes Build’s approach different and successful.  

The untold story of successful nonprofit software selections 

If you search the Internet for how to select the right software for your organization, you’ll find plenty of articles and checklists that tell you how to go about doing it. And the basic recipe really isn’t that complicated: talk to people inside your organization to determine your needs, identify software solutions and implementation partners (consultants) that can meet those needs, engage with them through a competitive process, and pick the winning option that emerges from that process. 

The Internet is also rich with advice on how to avoid common pitfalls inherent in software selections: conduct a process that engages the people that will be using the system, don’t go with the first shiny object you see, make sure you take everything into consideration when budgeting, etc. 

Nonprofits can do better at selecting software 

Yet despite all the information available—and the fact that there are more good software solutions for nonprofits than ever before—the failure rate for software implementations is still as high as 50%. Some implementations fail immediately, before the system is even in use. Others fail soon after the software “goes live,” as users struggle to adopt (or even outright reject) the new software. Still others fail after the organization has struggled to use the software effectively for months or even years. 

Success can be achieved by applying one important principle 

Build Consulting believes that most software selection and implementation failures are avoidable. In our experience working with hundreds of nonprofit organizations across well over a thousand projects, we’ve learned there is one important thing nonprofits that experience failure don’t take into consideration: technology doesn’t come first, it comes last. If you want to have success with technology-supported change at your organization, the change must start with you, not with the technology! 

Fireside Chat: Microsoft Nonprofit Investments You Should Understand (Video, MP3) is a FREE content courtesy of Build Consulting

1 Lesson / 56 Minutes / FREE

Join guest expert Ryan Ozimek and Build Partner Kyle Haines and listen in on an informal discussion and Q&A on the ways Microsoft is expanding its offerings and presence in the nonprofit technology ecosystem, and what that means for your organization.

Ryan is an experienced independent software vendor and open-source evangelist and Kyle serves as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Lymphoma Research Foundation. They’ll share the things that they are most excited about with Microsoft’s recent announcements, what they think it means for nonprofits, and their hopes for what it means for the broader sector.

As summer turns to autumn and the weather gets a bit colder for many of us, return to a simpler time when there was civility and decorum as people debated ideas and discussed visions for the future. Hot cocoa encouraged, but not provided.

Listen to the end to hear audience Q&A after the chat, when Ryan and Kyle answered your colleagues’ real-life questions about Microsoft expansion in the nonprofit technology space.

As with all our webinars, this presentation is appropriate for an audience of varied IT experience. And Build is scrupulously vendor-agnostic—this  fireside chat explores the pros and cons of Microsoft’s growing focus on nonprofits, without taking sides.