Success Stories

TechAtlas Provides Organization with a Technology Roadmap

St. James Family Center had a clear vision of how to serve Wahkiakum County as a socially responsive community center. Their vision of how technology could help them accomplish this mission wasn't as clear. 
With the help of TechAtlas and TechSurveyor, St. James Family Center created an inventory and began a technology plan that included implementing a back-up strategy, installing virus protection, and standardizing the operating systems of all the computers in the agency.

TechAtlas also provided the Center with clear recommendations for improving their Internet connectivity and a step-by-step guide for completing the upgrade.

Using TechSurveyor helped St. James evaluate their staff technology skills and develop a training plan. The plan includes Excel training for several staff members, giving them additional skills to tackle their complicated reporting needs. Additional Web training will also help staff members enhance and maintain the agency's web site. 

Potential Funder Utilizes TechAtlas to Guide Decisions

Recently the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League(NARAL) asked selected affiliates to submit grant applications. NARAL decided to require that all technology related proposals be accompanied by a comprehensive technology plan.

NARAL used TechAtlas to help nine of their affiliates create technology plans. They started by using TechAtlas to create a customized assessment and recommendation tool that addressed the specific technology that NARAL uses.
Using the recommendations provided by TechAtlas, NARAL created a draft technology plan for each affiliate and then worked with the affiliates to refine and begin implementing the plan. 
NARAL also expects to use TechAtlas' project management tools to help their affiliates schedule the implementation of projects, assign responsibilities, track real costs, and automatically remind team members of assignments and due dates via email.

Consultant Jump Starts Project Using TechAtlas

Systems Engineer, Nate Solloway was pleasantly surprised to hear that Women & Philanthropy was ready to start a project designed to improve their technology infrastructure. 

Nate, a consultant with DC based Community IT Innovators, met with Women and Philanthropy and provided them with recommendations that included upgrading and replacing several computers.

At this point the project stalled for several weeks. However one day Women & Philanthropy contacted Nate, enthusiastic about moving forward. Nate was curious about what had changed the agency's mind. The answer: TechAtlas.

It seems that in the interim after meeting with Nate, the agency had been introduced to TechAtlas. Seeing the parallels between TechAtlas' recommendations for improving their technology infrastructure and CITI's recommendations gave the agency the validation they needed to move forward.

When Nate met with the agency to begin work on the project, he went over the TechAtlas recommendations point by point. He found using TechAtlas to be a helpful collaborative tool because TechAtlas' recommendations mirrored the best practices that CITI advocates. 

With Nate's help, Women & Philanthropy have tuned up their workstations, started preparations for new PC's, and set up a plan that will allow remote access to their accounting software. Next on their agenda is implementing several new database enhancements and creating a more dynamic web presence.