Varsity Technologies Blog

It's that time of year when many of our clients are finalizing budgets for the next academic year. For those readers who are not involved in the budgeting process (and even if you are), here is some information on how it typically works.

• Assign an internal champion to keep the process moving forward
• Assign an internal manager (could be the same as the champion)
• Develop a group or committee to discuss organizational-wide needs
• Network with your peers for ideas, recommendations, and experience (it's invaluable!)
• Engage product vendors as collaborators, not as sales people (if they’re good, they should really understand the business and the requirements)
• Demo first, run more detailed evaluations later
• Make sure vendors invest the time to understand your model and your work
• Get budget numbers, but don't eliminate solutions based on price alone (think long-term rather than short-term solutions, which may appear more affordable but could actually be more costly over time).

Contact us if you have questions or recommendations on how to tackle this selection process. We would love to hear good and bad experiences alike.

Salesforce Non-Profit Starter Pack: Common Mistakes
Over the past several years many of the non-profits Varsity has worked with have either considered Salesforce for their organization or have adopted it. Generally, I am impressed with Salesforce as a SaaS application, but what’s surprising is the number of organizations that express disappointment with its implementation. In this article I'll tackle some of the reasons as to why this is happening. 

How Is It Used?

If you missed the first three parts of this series, here is a quick synopsis: In part 1, I covered some myths and problems to consider before starting the planning process. There are some good points to remember if you haven't done this before. In part 2, I discussed the need to understand the context of your audience by learning their language, and understanding areas they focus on and care about to do their job. In part 3, I focused on developing organizational goals independent of technology. 

About 10 years ago I worked on my first construction project for a brand new school. The school was a client and they asked me to be involved in developing a technology plan, and then develop the requirements and specifications that would go into the construction of the school. During the entire course of that engagement I struggled to work with the architects, the general contractor, and all of the trades. The project wasn't complicated, but it seemed that every decision involved three times as much discussion as was necessary. The project got done but not without me shaking my head and wondering, would I ever do this again?

In just the past few months, Microsoft has released special charity pricing for non-profits and education. I’ve been following the product release and feedback and it has been very positive.

Varsity recently had the privilege of volunteering at GLIDE, a wonderful San Francisco based non-profit with a mission to alleviate suffering and break the cycles of poverty and marginalization. GLIDE offers wellness programs, support groups and services, health care, meal services, housing assistance, church services and religious activities, and leadership programs aimed at getting people off the streets and back on track. These are just a few of the ways GLIDE is making a profound difference in the community. If you haven't yet gone for a visit, I highly recommend it!

For the past six years Varsity has been selling and using cloud applications. The scope of our cloud applications has been driven by need rather than a shift in strategy. So when I hear that a non-profit organization is thinking of moving everything to the cloud, I'm surprised. Not so much that there is something inherently wrong with a move to the cloud, but that it is done so suddenly. It just wouldn't have occurred to me (3 years ago), to stop what we were doing and do it completely differently; for us it was more of an evolutionary process, which has given us comprehensive insight into the importance understanding where the need exists.