Case Studies: Outsourcing Infrastructure

Many nonprofits choose to outsource part or all of their technology infrastructure. In these case studies, find out how outsourcing allowed two organizations to focus on their missions.

Bronx Legal Services

Bronx Legal Services (BLS) is nonprofit corporation that provides low-income residents and the elderly of Bronx County with legal representation in civil matters at no charge. With three sites and over seventy users, BLS requires a significant technology infrastructure to function, including multiple servers and a Wide Area Network (WAN).

As we migrated our software from Netware to Windows NT, our full-time system administrator was unexpectedly hospitalized. BLS had been working with a nonprofit consulting agency, Fund for the City of New York ( FCNY), to lead the software migration, and soon decided to outsource all of its technology needs to FCNY.

BLS had a wide variety of technology needs, which the consulting agency could successfully address because it employs many consultants with a broad range of skills. Even though BLS made heavy use of the consulting services, particularly in the few months immediately following the loss of its full-time administrator, over time it became clear to BLS that outsourcing had two major benefits:

1. Even with heavy use of consultants, it was still significantly less expensive than hiring a full-time employee.
2. The range of expertise available through FCNY was much broader than with a single full-time employee.

Outsourcing to a quality consulting organization committed to working with nonprofit organizations allowed BLS to take advantage of multiple consultants with expertise in a variety of areas, including desktop support, training, networking cabling, WANs, databases, and Web development. Through outsourcing, BLS was able to bring in uniquely qualified consultants for each of these projects while maintaining a high level of responsiveness to day-to-day technology needs.

NPower Seattle

Seattle Youth Involvement Network ( SYIN) creates avenues for middle- and high-school aged youth to have an active and persuasive voice in public affairs. To help accomplish this vision, its five staff members rely heavily on volunteers and on the power of technology to create communications that mobilize youth into action. They use databases, desktop publishing software, word processing, and e-mail to plan, promote and run excellent programs for youth involvement in civic affairs.

Liz Vivian became executive director in 2001 and quickly realized she didn’t have the budget to replace some of the aging Macs on her seven node peer-to-peer LAN. In early 2002, she decided to attend a class at NPower called "Technology Strategies for Nonprofit Leaders," where she learned about the total cost of technology ownership ( TCO), how to budget for technology support and upgrades, and the right questions to ask when working with a consultant.

Vivian did some calculations to see what it would take to replace the three oldest Macintosh Performa 6100s with new G4s. Four of the machines were of relatively recent vintage. She quickly realized this would take approximately $7,000 in cash for hardware and set-up assistance. That was $7,000 she didn't have. She also did a quick poll of all the problems staff had with the machines.

Although Vivian had been attempting to provide support for the machines in her spare time, she calculated that her time would be better spent writing grants and convincing the board to approve a budget for technology training and support. The board agreed with her and allocated $2500 in the new budget, which she planned to spend on three hours per month of NPower Scheduled Maintenance and two software training classes per year.

A consultant came out and performed a one-time network assessment and documented the organization's system settings, a diagram of its network wiring, a schematic of its Internet addressing and connectivity, and simple step-by-step procedures for backup. Once the consultant began regular visits, the "gripe list" disappeared after two visits. Then the consultant made sure that all systems had the same operating systems, patches, updated virus protection, backup, and system upkeep utilities running on a scheduled basis. He helped locate sources of donated software and helped identify when systems needed to be brought in for repair at the local Macintosh dealer.

Ultimately, Vivian made the decision to use her time to run the organization by managing its staff and raising funds -- not spending precious time fighting to keep her network infrastructure running well. By outsourcing her IT support she achieved two goals: she highlighted the value of the IT assets to her board and she helped the board see how her time could be spent more wisely.