Last Post?

I want to thank everyone for their readership and their support. I had entirely different hopes for this site when it began and it certainly has been an interesting several months. I had not expected the online community I would inevitably become a part of. I think it's wonderful that non-profit technology has its own niche on the web and that its people support each other to get through those tight budgets and impossible demands. Also nice was to see that non-profit technology isn't nearly as limited as it is perceived to be.

This experience and the birth of my children have changed my goals quite a bit. Initially I had considered finding another non-profit position. As one commenter suggested, there is a great position at NPowerNY that I had recently interviewed for. But I think I'm done with non-profit. At least for now. I'm looking at corporate - the bigger the better. I need something different, a fresh start. I'm not sure I'll find what I'm looking for in corporate but we'll see.

The interview for the position with NPowerNY was eye opening. I do consider myself to be knowledgeable, however what I had not considered was the limiting factors being tied to one small company can impose. This was never more apparent then when NPower had me teched out. I didn't get the position specifically for this reason. I don't setup domains and Exchange servers everyday, nor do I deal with multiple types of configurations regularly. I don't have a dependable test environment and sometimes, to reduce downtime and risk, I will call upon a consultant with more experience in certain matters. As a result there are holes in my knowledge much larger than I expected. While NPowerNY didn't feel I belonged in that role, they did want to try me in another. As I mentioned, after the birth of my children my mindset changed. Maybe I'm just at a very confusing point in my life but I reluctantly declined. Maybe in the future I will have the opportunity to work with them again. In the meantime, I should brush up on my skills.

The resignation was long coming but the act was spontaneous. The situation was soon to become even worse and it was not worth it for me to continue here until a job I wanted came along. The time off will give me a chance to spend some more time with my newborns with less on my mind. I've never resigned under such circumstances. I've never known such a hostile and negative work environment. What an experience.

Now I'm winding down; documenting and hoping to perform a full knowledge transfer once a replacement is hired. My anger towards Boss does not extend towards the organization. In the end, good is being done and I have no interest in penalizing the company by leaving them without an IT resource.

Again, thanks to everyone for all your support. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this site now that I think I'm done with non-profit. I'll leave it up for a while and see what happens.

Goodbye, all. Good luck and see you around.


-Former Non-Profit IT Manager

No More Steam

Writing my blog has been a struggle lately. I had hoped that with the passing of the holidays and the end of the school semester I would be better able to write about the state of non-profit technology as I see it. My friend noted that I had lost steam and its absolutely true. I was able to write when I was in the thick of it; when I was thinking critically about how to better help the company achieve its goals. Unfortunately initiative is severely frowned upon by Boss and therefore, until I leave, I have relegated myself to break/fix, protocol, and answering the occasional mid-level question. So many technology decisions have been made without my input it is baffling.

Why hire a marketing company with no web experience to create your website?
Why spend the money on making a new website on Kintera when the same amount of money could have been used to transition the company to a new CMS/CRM system that actually works, is supported, and delivers?
Why pick a PRI vendor without soliciting competitive bids?
Why pick a T1 vendor without soliciting competitive bids?
Why hire an IT Manager if you don't want that person to manage the IT?

My heart's not into it anymore. I see what I could have accomplished, I see what I didn't, and I see why. So much energy wasted on bullshit.

Restricted/Unrestricted

My use of the term "restricted/unrestricted" in the previous post actually has to do with the way money within a non-profit is allocated. Often when someone donates money or a grant is provided, the money is restricted to a certain initiative, which means it cannot go to administrative matters. For that non-profits depend on unrestricted funding, which is what often pays for computers, salaries, and other business matters.

This is one key difference between non-profits and for-profits. For-profits establish budgets for departments and projects and expenditures are generally determined internally. Also, deficits from cost overruns are compensated for differently. For-profits can either shift money around easier, push sales, etc. The point is that a for-profit may have more options to fund projects and may not need to make due as often as a non-profit might.

I certainly don't believe that for-profit IT departments have endless pockets. I've worked in for-profit and know how many administrators feel there should be a tangible cost-savings, even profitability, from the efforts of their IT departments. Some of this is unrealistic and forces IT departments to stretch money in ways that don't necessarily make sense. Still the level of control over the money within the organization, as well as the source of that funding, is vastly different between the two sectors. That's not to say that the non-profit is solely at the mercy of the donor or grantor, nor am I saying there aren't options in the face of cost overruns, but these differences are factors that impact non-profit technology decision-making.

Non-Profit Technology vs For-Profit Technology

At a recent interview someone asked me what the difference is between non-profit technology and for-profit technology. Ironically, this is a question I've struggled with for some time, despite having been in the field for several years and having worked on this site for about 6-months. It seems to be an answer I know but can't articulate well.

My answer wasn't eloquent but it satisfied the interviewer. The answer didn't satisfy me, so I took what I came up with as seed for a larger discussion. While I'm well aware that money has a nice place in every IT person's decision matrix, it's how that money impacts the decisions that is relevant. Other factors include psychology (i.e. the for-profit staff mentality is different from that of most non-profit staff). Below is a brief over-arching list of items that I find different between the two sectors.

• Money
• restricted/unrestricted funding
• discount pricing
• used/donated technology
• TechSoup
• technology grants
• Social services-oriented staff and clients
• psychologies
• schedules
• Non-profit specific services and software
• fundraising
• grant management
• Microsoft
• consultants

I'm sure better minds have considered this matter with greater care but I wanted to think about it before I researched the topic. I'll go into some details in future posts and would like to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Holiday Time at Non-Profits

Holiday times must be madness for most, if not all, non-profits. It's also a time that many people are out of the office, exacerbating the madness. For IT, I find it a mixed bag. Usually when I hear that people are out of the office, I start planning for some major overhaul. I even try to take advantage of holiday parties if I can. The longer users are away from their PC, the more time I have to do network-wide projects during the day. In the past I have planned OS patching, hardware swapping, firmware upgrading, and rewiring around these golden moments of opportunity.

This time is also more harried, as fewer people need to suddenly do far more things than they ordinarily would. Different people have been assigned to check others' emails (and no one understands delegates in Outlook so forget it), perform data entry into programs not ordinarily on their workstation, or work remotely (just go on vacation, people!).

I've learned a couple of things in the last few years: 1) make staff tell you ahead of time how they plan to disburse their work when they are out. There is nothing worse then being approached on the day the person is leaving with the request to help solve their lack of availability. Threaten them if you have to but be careful. Brushing a person off as punishment for their procrastination means they'll just give someone their password. 2) Once a project is planned, don't let anything stop you from doing that project on schedule. Opportunities where most staff are away from their workstations don't come often. Yeah, I'd rather be at the holiday party but I'm a one-man IT operation and this is my chance.

Have a great Holiday Season, everyone!

Branch Office Setup Status

Limited for time, I went with the VPN setup I had originally spoken of (post) and mailed out one of the two workstations. Since we were in donated space and using someone else's network, I changed the VPN connection settings to connect with the local DNS server. This way at least it will limit how much traffic has to come over my T1.

The free version of RealVNC (info) was installed so I could have access to the computer from New York. I like to show the users stuff in their own profile and this allows me to watch what they do so I can figure out what the problems are. This type of setup has worked out great so far.

My only snag has been that Outlook can't find my mail server through the tunnel. (Okay, so that's more than just a snag.) The mail settings resolve the Exchange server's internal IP address to beta.[non-profit].org; that is, the server name on the domain. Outlook can't find the server, I'm assuming, because once resolved it is seeking the website beta.[non-profit].org. I assumed that an entry in the hosts file will solve this. Unfortunately I was not able to test this by the end of the day due to hardware difficulty...

While the workstation had been working fine for me in New York, by the time it reached the branch office one of the fans seemed to have broken. As a result the tower makes some horrible noises and apparently shuts itself down from over-heating. I'll probably have to ship out the other workstation to replace this one. It's a good thing the second employee hasn't started yet.

Mobile Device Standardization Winner

Standardizing on mobile devices required a little research. My non-profit sticks with Verizon Wireless (site) because we prefer paying more to be dictated to - it's like a bonus. Admittedly Verizon's network is one of the best. However, this limited me to a handful of devices.

The Samsung SCH-i730 (info) and the Verizon branded Audiovox XV6700 (info) were immediately ruled for simply being too much machine for my average users. My staff does need mobility but don't necessarily require high-end, high-tech immediacy. The Treo 700p (info) (my favorite) was also out because it didn't work with Exchange 2003's ActiveSync. That narrowed the choices down to the Palm Treo 700w (info), the Motorola Q (info), and the Blackberry 8703e (info).

The Motorola Q (shop) would have been my choice if not for some major shortcomings. Motorola has priced the Q perfectly, while offering what many IT staff will think is the perfect device for most non-technical mobile users. It provides a limited interface that allows for ActiveSync synchronization (albeit intermittent, not real-time), a small form, and good sound quality. Unfortunately the Q's negatives were weighty. Its battery life is very poor, the OS is prone to crashes, and the device's keyboard is horrible. My fingers are not big and still I had trouble working those keys. Motorola has a great idea with the Q. It is exactly what many companies want for their users, but it is unwise to roll out a first-generation device of such questionable quality.

The Blackberry 8703e has a great screen and a wonderful keyboard. This device would have been my choice if not for the costly implementation. Key to this decision was my requirement of centralized manageability. The Blackberry Server is a great product that provides considerable remote control. Perfect for what I want to do, however, Blackberry does not offer ANY non-profit discounts on its server products. Additionally, should there have been a non-profit discount, such a purchase would still have been tough to justify when Exchange 2003 with ActiveSync was already in production.

The Palm Treo 700w (shop) was my winner. I'm a big fan of the Treo 650 and 700p (Palm OS) models. Though now dated, the Palm OS is a simple, elegant operating system that considers the mobility aspect of mobile computing in its design. Until recently, the Windows Mobile operating system was laborious and clunky and created knots in my shoulders. But Palms rendition of the Windows Mobile OS makes me feel at home. My users will find it simple to use and the hardware is divine.

The Treo 700w costs much more than I would like to spend and is probably not within reach of non-profits seeking larger rollouts. Yet, for the five to seven units that will eventually be in operation in my organization, the Treo is well worth the savings in frustration. However, when the second-generation Q comes out, you better believe I will be taking a close look at it.

First Thoughts on Standardizing on Mobility

My organization is opening a new branch office with two people. It's a small endeavor in a donated space. I'm building the computers now in the New York office to ship over while I come up with a smartphone/PDA solution for the director. For now the land line phone and internet will be shared with the donor organization until we move, so a dedicated phone number for our organization will take the form of a mobile device. Plus, the need for the director to be on the go means email needs to be readily available. Multiple problems arise out of my requirement for streamlined efficiency.

I feel now is the time for me to standardize on a smartphone/PDA solution. Since I prefer central management as much as possible, I don't want to purchase cellphones that require a desktop client. We already have such setups in the New York office for both Blackberry and Treo. Both work fine but I don't see this as a solution when dealing with remote site users. Since we have Exchange 2003, we have ActiveSync. Using a Windows Mobile device, like a Treo 700w, email and contacts can readily flow to the device. With no desktop client to install, there would be less hassles when something does go wrong with the workstation or PDA. A Blackberry server option winds up being an additional expense that, while far more useful for centrally managing mobile devices, is difficult to justify when we already own something that satisfies the general requirement. Still, Blackberry is not out of the equation yet.

There is a problem on the network side. Because it is easy, I was intending these users to be set up on POP3, which means while I can set up their Outlook to leave the mail on the server for a duration of time thereby syncing with the handheld device, their contacts will forever be on their desktop. Alternatively a VPN for Exchange would create constant synchronization and give me a chance to use ActiveSync. Currently a VPN is what we use for two west coast users, though the rest use POP3. VPN is currently handled between server and desktop instead of between firewalls. I fear over time this setup could eat up bandwidth and resources. I might not want to think that long-term though, since a growing organization is a changing one, and just setup a protocol that really works through the immediate future.

Revisiting Computer Equipment Rentals

In a previous post I spoke naively about computer equipment rental (post) for events held offsite, often in hotels. It's a great idea to look for the bargain, but after speaking today with the event planners I realized that the roadblocks set up by money hungry hotels actually makes it more cost effective to rent directly from them. Hmm, convenient, ey?

Things I didn't understand included the fact that many venues charge a fee for bringing outside equipment. According to my event planners it seems that one can get away with bringing in one's own laptops but other equipment, especially projectors, is best rented from the hotel. Michael Stein pointed out that support is a lot quicker to obtain if you're working with the hotel's equipment (post).

Still, there are some ways save a few bucks but it all depends on the frequency and needs of your events. My company is probably going to buy a half dozen laptops and a shipping case. We're estimating a savings of several thousand over the life of the laptops, which I estimate to be 3 years (usually the life of the warranty). Additional presentation remotes and lavalieres will also be purchased for a little more savings. I figure the presentation remotes and lavalieres will pay for themselves within a handful of events and the we'll keep a spare laptop on hand if any one breaks. These items should require minimal onsite support and some venues are willing to look at your machine to figure out why your equipment won't function with theirs.

Computer equipment rentals is certainly not as clear-cut as I had initially thought. There is some merit to renting directly from the venues, even if it is by their own design. But I still wouldn't buy a bag of peanuts from a hotel!

Documentation Matters

IT management requires one laborious task at its heart for the sake of organization and consistency: documentation. Creating documentation is tedious but not altogether horrible. It is the maintenance of those documents to reflect current conditions that requires monk-like discipline. Too often, once the document is drafted it lies buried on a server, growing outdated month after month until it is useless and only the template is worthy of salvage. Then the "next guy" has to start from scratch.

The dereliction of this duty comes easier the fewer people there are in a department. One-person IT department personnel are notorious for keeping everything in their head. When sharing isn't a requirement, the importance of documentation falls to the side. For non-profits with small IT departments, this appears to be a routine problem. For those dependent on consultants, often non-technical administrators don't request documents, or if they do, the material isn't stored well enough for future reference. Often I have asked for a specific piece of historical information and been handed an unwieldy folder with "everything about the network."

Document every month like it is your last month at the job. This is especially so for inventory and "Network Binders." Documentation should be limited to as few pieces of material as possible. The tome that is my Network Binder is really an anthology, but it is physically one document and digitally one folder on the server. When edits are made, diligently swap out the loose-leaf pages of the physical volume with the updated ones. And do keep as few copies of the physical and digital versions as possible - for consistency and security.

Non-technical administrators should always ask for documentation after any major work or regular maintenance has been conducted. Material on work performed should be kept separate from invoices and manuals. Additionally, keep the work documentation in chronological order. Being able to quickly review the work history of a network will reduce the learning curve for any future network admin.

Managing such a disciplined approached to documentation isn't easy, especially if you're a one-person operation. Certainly I'm guilty of ignoring my own guidelines. I consider this an ideal to strive for until reality interferes. Everyone needs dreams.