Human Rights First
Human Rights First needed a well-rounded technology company to develop a technology plan to guide the organization into the future. Human Rights First chose Beaconfire because of our broad technology and nonprofit expertise to conduct a technology assessment to identify strategic opportunities to apply technology, evaluate their current capabilities, identify gaps, and recommend initiatives to close those gaps.
The Challenge: Human Rights First (HRF) had completed a two-year period of technology and infrastructure investment. The organization had acquired new servers and PCs, upgraded LAN and desktop software, developed new Web applications and staffed up on IT personnel. While the organization saw improvements in some areas of IT services, the senior management was not sure the organization's technology infrastructure and leadership was truly providing the level of service and the strategic guidance the organization needed. The organization needed to identify the real vs. perceived issues and develop a Strategic Technology Plan to overcome the real issues. They needed a partner who could conduct the assessment thoroughly and quickly as they needed to address critical "pain points" of failing systems and also ramp up their program efforts during an increasingly intense post-9/11 period of domestic and international debate on human rights.
The Solution: Beaconfire first performed an objective and candid audit of their opportunities and their current technology assets to articulate what was currently in place verses what they should have given the strategic vision of the organization. This audit formed the basis of the Strategic Technology Plan.
The initial assessment process addressed the following questions about their technology capacity:
- Identify considerations for the integration of future systems.
- What does the organization currently have in place … and what is really needed?
- Where are the gaps in skills, technology and process?
- What are the projects and activities the organizationshould undertake to close the gaps?
- What are the costs and benefits of these initiatives?
- Of all the things todo, what are the most important ones that must be done?
Beaconfire began the project by conducting interviews and workshops with the senior management team and staff to understand the technology opportunities and "pain points" of the organization. These workshops and interviews focused on gathering information about what the organization was experiencing and believed it needed, as well as shared industry best practices and programmatic examples of how other organizations were using technology to further their missions.
With this context, Beaconfire inventoried and assessed the organization's existing technology systems and skills and produced a Gap Analysis report that communicated where the organization needed to focus on building capacity and/or changing practices. We worked with the organization to develop priorities and establish technology initiatives to address these opportunities. The resulting recommendations document — the Strategic Technology Plan — became the organization's blueprint for transforming their technology capacity. More than a year later, the organization continues to use these recommendations to guide their technology efforts.